Jamey Johnson releases “More Of What Matters,” a powerful and poetic reminder of what’s truly important in life, today, Jan. 30. Listen to “More Of What Matters” below.
Produced by The Kent Hardly Playboys, Johnson co-wrote the song in 2007 with Keith Follese and Jon Stone and had been saving it for just the right moment. That moment is now, and Johnson’s vocal delivery reflects his fresh insights from maturity, life experience and wisdom.
“Back then, I wrote that from the perspective of somebody who needed to find more things that matter,” Johnson says. “Looking back on a perspective of 20 years down the road, that guy was naive and didn’t know the gravity of what he was writing. At this age, it hits home. It’s time.
“(The Mavericks’) Raul Malo was a dear friend and passed away at 60,” he says. “There’s a clock ticking on my life too, and I don’t know when it will be over. I’ve got to reset my priorities and do what is important to me or I will be a life unlived. I don’t want to be too busy and distracted on the road to forget the things that really matter.”
“At that time, it was an awareness of what happens in our business,” Johnson says. “Those lines came to me, Keith and Jon in that writing room in a very honest way. That was exactly where I was at the time, looking around and recognizing, man, you can chase that star forever and never catch anything that was worth a dime.”
This is a message Johnson now heeds in his own life. He spent the last two decades of his life on tour, taking him away from his home and family much of the year. He married attorney Brittney Eakins in 2025 and remains determined to keep his priorities in check.
“Now there’s a big part of me that wants to come home and focus on that for a while. I’m still going to tour, but I’m not going to do it so much, and not let it take me as much from home.”
Johnson originally recorded the song in 2007 and intended on including it on his critically acclaimed 2008 album called That Lonesome Song, which was certified 2x-platinum.
“I’m not really sure why I didn’t, but I’m glad now that I didn’t so that I still have it to release today,” says Johnson, who re-recorded a new version of the song for this release. “But I guess at the time I was focusing on something else.
“Lonesome Song and Guitar Song both did really well. I’m not sure that song would’ve fit either album at the time, as far as its content and message. It really fits now for sure.”
This marks the start of a new year full of new music from Johnson, who joins Kris Kristofferson as the only two writers to have won both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music Association Song of the Year Award twice in the same year, with Johnson winning for “In Color” and “Give It Away.”
This continues his collaboration with Warner Records Nashville and his own Big Gassed Records, which began with Midnight Gasoline in 2024. That album, his first new album of solo material in 14 years, was ranked No. 4 on Billboard’s list of Top Country Albums of 2024.
Since releasing Midnight Gasoline, Johnson has written and recorded more than 50 songs at the Cash Cabin studios in Hendersonville, Tenn. While he has performed a few of these new songs during his tour, he will release many recorded versions throughout this year.
“I’ve been hearing people say for the longest time, ‘I wish you’d put out new music,’” he says. “Well, here goes!”
