Australian country star James Johnston has rapidly emerged as one of the most successful homegrown artists in modern Australian country music, blending Nashville-inspired production with unmistakably Australian storytelling. His debut album ‘Raised Like That’ went on to become the highest-selling Australian country album in years, producing a string of chart-topping singles and establishing Johnston as a leading voice in the genre’s new wave.
Known for pairing arena-ready hooks with heartfelt lyrics rooted in family, resilience and rural life, Johnston has built a reputation as a powerful live performer capable of bridging contemporary country and crossover appeal. Now turning his attention internationally, the singer is making his first extended visit to the UK as he looks to connect directly with British audiences and expand his growing global fanbase. With an appearance confirmed at the Country Calling festival this August, Johnston arrives in London at a pivotal moment in his career, eager to introduce his music to new listeners while laying the groundwork for future UK touring.
Thanks for your time today, James, it’s an absolute pleasure to have you in the UK right now.
Thank you very much, it’s good to be here. We’ve been quite blessed with the weather for this time of year, apparently. It’s been such fun so far.
The good news is that you are coming back in August to play the Country Calling festival. The weather might be the same in August as it is now in February, I’ll just give you a heads up on that!
(laughing) I’ve been told that. I feel like a Country show is arguably better in the rain anyway – it’s a great leveller! The guys will all have their new boots and jeans on and the girls have got the hair and make up but when it rains nobody cares about all that and they all just have a great time! (laughing) Some of my favourite shows have been in the pouring rain.
Will you be playing some of your own shows around the festival in August too?
I’m going to be announcing a few shows in the coming weeks. It’s kinda one of the reasons I’m here right now. I’ve been putting that all together this week.
When you released ‘Raised Like That’ five years ago did you have any sense of just how life changing that song would be for you?
No! Not at all. I’d always dreamt of this, of myself ‘doing this,’ right? From a very young age I wanted to be in Nashville and I wanted to be Garth Brooks or Keith Urban. That’s always been my goal. To truly have a sense of the power of what a song can do……….? A great song can change your life and I was very lucky to have that with ‘Raised Like That.’
It was funny because I wrote so many songs that year – I probably wrote about 250 songs – and there were times where I thought I had ‘THE’ song, you know? It became a drive but also very infuriating at the same time but I had a great team of people around me who were telling me ‘it’s good, but not great, keep writing!’
There’s timing and there’s luck at play too. Sometimes I’m sure great songs can be there but for one reason or another they just don’t catch on. I’m so lucky that ‘Raised Like That’ did. A great song is always in the eye of the beholder isn’t it but this song did absolutely change my life and to watch it take off first in Australia and then all over the world has been a blessing. The line dance community were big agents in the growth of it – I have huge gratitude to the line dancing bars all over the world that took it and ran with it.
You finished third on Australian Idol back in 2009 – what did you learn about yourself after having been on that show?
I learned a lot. It was trial by fire a little bit because I went from being a small town kid to being on national TV. I got all this exposure but the one thing I learned, and it took me a little bit of time to realise it, was that I finished the show and then six months later I was playing bars to nobody. I went from third on the show to playing to no-one. I realised that I hadn’t built up any identity on the show at all – I was just a singer of songs not an artist and if they told me to jump I’d jump! If they said this week I was singing a rock song then I would sing a rock song!
I toured the country and did a thousand shows playing covers in little bars and around about the age of 30 I knew that if something didn’t change then nothing would ever happen. I knew that if I had to do this I needed to be unapologetically me and tell my story. Idol taught me that you needed to stand for something and know who you are – the people that have success going on those type of shows are often the people that come eighth rather than win it. They don’t play the game as much and they stick to their lane and tank on week seven because it’s big band week and they are the rock guy but they have created a fan base which means they can tour afterwards and people will know who they are.
People always say that Nashville is a ten year town and it feels like, to me, that that gap between coming off Idol in 2009 and you releasing ‘Raised Like That’ is your ten year town.
Right! Yeah. (laughing) I was lucky that when that song really began to take off I was absolutely ready for it. I’d done a thousand shows up to that point and we were ready for the big stages.
‘Raised Like That,’ the album, goes onto to become Australia’s biggest debut Country album. How did that make you feel?
Incredible. To go from nothing to living the dream and having crowds show up was phenomenal. Those first few years were crazy, insane. To add to that now I’m excited to be here in the UK and be adding to that next chapter. Australia has been incredible to me and I’m proud Australian boy, it will always be my home but I have a dream to take my music to the world which means coming to the UK and moving to Nashville. I wanna give it a crack on the big stage. It’s always been the dream – if you want to do Country music on a big scale you have to be in Nashville.
Out there people like Kenny Chesney looks after all the Knoxville artists like Kelsea Ballerini – they have a Whatsapp group and meet up every now and then. Have you reached out to any Aussie ex-pats like Morgan Evans in terms of them helping you out?
There is a good Australian community over there, Morgan and I are good buddies. We grew up together, I’ve known him since I was 12 years old and he was about 16 and like a big brother to me. Our stories have intertwined a lot over the years. With that being said, I think it’s important to write your own path rather than just go over and write and work with Australians. I do have connections over there but I want to find my own path and do it a little bit differently.
It’s been a crazy few years for Morgan and I think there’s something to be said for what he is doing now. He’s leaned into his heritage and home in the last couple of years. Australia is his safe place and he’s leaned into that recently.
You’ve got all these bangers like ‘Keepin’ It Country, ‘One More’ and ‘Same Songs’ but you’ve also got songs like ‘This Land is Killing Me’ which, despite the fact I’m not a farmer, I really love, because the struggle you portray in that song is relatable to people struggling in other walks of life.
If you look at my Spotify my top ten songs will probably all be what you called ‘bangers.’ Big, high energy singalong songs. That’s what the data tells me people want from me. At the same time some of my favourite songs on the record are not always the most streamed ones and ‘This Land is Killing Me’ is a good example of that, it’s probably one of the least streamed songs on the album! (laughing)
That came from a conversation with a farmer buddy of mine and I took his story and turned it into a song. It’s a song about the struggle of the land and the ups and downs of farmers who are praying for rain and then it rains too much, right? On my new record there’s a song called ‘Can I Keep Talking to You’ and that’s a song I never thought would be on the album but I wrote it from the heart, it was like therapy writing that. I do like putting those type of songs on my record – they may not be the biggest festival songs or bangers that people sing along too but they are important to me as an artist. I love songwriting and I love performing and sometimes they need to be seen as somewhat separate things in a way. I’m glad my career has been built towards anthemic live singlongs, it’s been of my own doing, I love being a performer – I’m not the kind of performer that you will come and sit and listen to, some of my favourite artists are exactly that, like Chris Stapleton but you don’t go to a Stapleton concert to dance, you go to sit and listen to his artistry. My show is not like that, i’m more like a Garth Brooks or Cody Johnson show where you come to sing, dance and lose yourself in the moment of the show.
You’ve toured with Morgan and Kip Moore. You’ve shared stages with Darius Rucker and Zac Brown. What lessons have you learned from playing with these international acts?
Each artist teaches you something different. One of the coolest guys was Kip Moore. He was touring Australia and playing some incredible shows and there was something he did which I didn’t know you could do. He was playing these big rooms and huge 10,000 spaces and there is a theatre element to what you have to do when you play shows that big but he would suddenly turn to his band and say, ‘Let’s just play this song’ because it felt right in the room at that moment. I spent years and thousands of shows playing in pubs where the entire set was that, it was a skill but to watch Kip do that infront of 10,000 people was somewhat liberating because he taught me that you can be spontaneous in bigger shows and it will still work, you don’t have to stick to the set and the plan night after night after night.
Kip’s ethos is also great. You get to understand what a person is like by touring with them and spending time with their team. His team and people are some of the best we’ve ever worked with, we’ve never felt more welcomed on tour when we were out with him.
He’s also proof that you don’t always have to do what Nashville says you do………..
We were out in South Africa about a year ago and watching him play a stadium there was a big spark for why I am out here in the UK this week – he’s a big inspiration to me for that reason. What he has managed to do in building his career organically from the fans up is a real lesson to an artist like me. He’s having success all around the world in a way that is different to most other artists.
He’s testament to the fact that, whilst we have radio stations over here, they don’t hold the influence or sway that they do in the USA. Careers are built on live shows in Europe – people will be incredibly loyal to artists they’ve seen live who have entertained or moved them and will go back and see them again and again because of that.
I love that. That for me, excites me, because, at my core, that is what I am all about, my live show. It is a show! If you come to my show I can promise you you will leave with a smile on your face.
I’m sort of vaguely annoyed now that I have to wait till August to see you live now!
I hope I’ve not over-hyped it now but come to Country Calling in August and you’ll see what I mean! (laughing)
Grab your tickets to see James at the Country Calling festival right here.
