2011 Cody Johnson Sings ‘Pray for Rain’ in Empty Bar [DISTANT REPLAY]

Last month Cody Johnson played in front of over 73,000 people inside NRG Stadium for Rodeo Houston. The East Texas native headlined Friday night, sandwiched between Chris Stapleton on Thursday and Brad Paisley on Saturday. He played just two nights before George Strait.

Come August, New England will get a big ol' helping of The CoJo Nation as George Strait, Blake Shelton, Cody Johnson, and Caitlyn Smith will play the home of the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium.

Back in January, Cody Johnson landed the No. 1 Country album when Ain't Nothin' To It debuted. The Texas native moved 34,500 total units, including 23,000 copies in pure album sales his first week. That along with 12 million songs streams took Johnson to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, and landed him No. 1 on the all-genre Digital Album Sales chart -- this means he sold more complete-album downloads than any other act. Additionally, Johnson landed at No. 2 on the all-genre Album Sales Chart.

The new Brooks & Dunn album, Reboot, out on April 5, will contain a reimagining of their hit "Red Dirt Road" featuring Johnson. Which we can't wait to hear.

We share all that to say, everyone has got to start somewhere. Check out this video of 2011 Johnson singing inside a sparsely filled bar in Katy, Texas. He is absolutely belting his future hit "Pray for Rain" to, for all intents and purposes, a bunch of bar stools -- with a little help from James Lann.

Shout out to YouTuber Doug Johnson for this one.