NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jamey Johnson releases “More Of What Matters,” a powerful and poetic reminder of what’s truly important in life, today, January 30. Listen here.
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.
“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.”
The lyrics include:
Well, I woke up one morning with everything I own around me
I had a pocket full of money and a cold and empty heart.
I spent a lifetime chasing rainbows, watching life go by through windows
And I bet a rich man’s fortune on this worthless house and cars.
I need more of what matters every moment that I have it
‘Cause it’s all that you take with you when you go.
This marks the start of a new year full of new music from Johnson. Since releasing Midnight Gasoline, Johnson has written and recorded more than 50 songs at the Cash Cabin studios in Hendersonville, Tenn.
“I’ve been hearing people say for the longest time, ‘I wish you’d put out new music,’” he says. “Well, here goes!”
He also 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.”
