ACM entertainer Cody Johnson has a big admission — and a warning: ‘This is just the start’

After Cody Johnson won male artist of the year at Sunday’s ACM Awards, he decided it meant he didn’t have a shot at the trophy he wanted most. 

“To be honest, when they called it for male artist of the year, I thought, ‘Well, that’s it. You know, that’s the one I got,’ because I feel like guys like me that have kinda been the underdog in a lot of situations, like that was the thing that I was handed,'” he reveals. “It was like a consolation prize, which is crazy to think about from a kid from Sebastopol, Texas, thinking that male artist of the year is a freaking consolation prize. It’s not.”

“I’ve always chased that entertainer [award],” he continues, “so, once I won male, there was this kind of a soberness that hit me of like, ‘That’s the award you get,’ you know? And I really had three or four other people picked for many reasons for entertainer.”

But Cody was wrong — and also caught completely off guard.

“I didn’t have any emotion. I didn’t have any nerves going into the entertainer of the year,” he says. “I just thought, ‘I’ll stand up out of my seat. I’ll clap and I’ll honor whoever that is.’ And when I heard the [makes ‘C’ sound] on Cody, man, it was surreal.”

So where does the reigning ACM entertainer of the year land on the topic? 

“All I can tell you is that God is good and hard work pays off. If I never win another award musically for the rest of my life, I truly feel like that I’ve accomplished what I’ve wanted to accomplish, I’ve done what I wanted to do — but this is just the start,” he teases.