Cody Johnson Shares the Unique Way He Found Out He Won CMA Music Video of the Year

Most of the winners at the 2022 CMA Awards found out they won their categories when their names were called and they were invited up onstage to give an acceptance speech. But a couple of the winners were named early, ahead of the awards show: And one of those winners was Cody Johnson, who earned the Music Video of the Year trophy for his "'Til You Can't."

But winning the award ahead of the show allowed Johnson to react to winning his first-ever CMA trophy in private — and that was a good thing, he explained backstage at the awards show.

He learned he'd won the award at about 8 o'clock in the morning — but his alarm wasn't set to go off until 9:30.

"And my wife was shaking me awake," he recounts, saying he was initially a little confused by the unusual wakeup call.

"[And] we'd won Video of the Year. I'm glad that I got to share that with Brandi, in a hotel room, where I got to act how I wanted to," Johnson explains, pointing out that he typically tries to keep his outward emotions pretty reserved when he's in public.

But it was the best of both worlds for Johnson at the awards show on Wednesday night (Nov. 9): He found out he'd won one trophy ahead of the show, and he earned another — for Single of the Year — in real time, when his name was called during the broadcast.

Johnson says he was particularly excited about the latter trophy — "because it's a team victory," he concluded, pointing out that he gets to share it with all the people who helped him bring his chart-topping hit to life.