Human

"Human" is a heart-on-your-sleeve song where a vulnerable Cody Johnson reflects on the temptations in the musician's life. He apologizes to his wife Brandi for spending too much time on the road, drinking too much whiskey, and neglecting her. "The biggest job is keeping under control, making sure that you're not gonna turn into 'that person,'" Johnson commented to Billboard. "The more fame and the more money – you watch people and you watch their careers, where they change and they turn into different people. And then you see their lives fall apart, their careers fall apart, and it's like they were a detriment under themselves. Keeping that at bay is really the job, and realizing that there are other things that are more important, I think, is the big takeaway."

Travis Meadows (Jake Owen's "What We Ain't Got," Dierks Bentley's "Riser") and Tony Lane (Lady A's "Hello World," Cody Johnson's "On My Way to You") wrote "Human" at the Firehall in Nashville on January 16, 2014. Starting with a couple of phrases ("All the headlights, All the midnights") that Lane had sketched out, they came up with a song about a cowboy-turned-musician who apologizes to his romantic partner for getting "careless with your heart." "I call 'em left-handed love songs," Lane told Billboard. "They're kind of the imperfect cowboy, the broken guy, but it's still a love song."

Meadows and Lane recorded a spare guitar/vocal demo, which bounced around Music Row for the next seven years. Nobody expressed an interest in recording their tune until producer Trent Willmon played it for Johnson. The singer saw "Human" as an ideal representation of his life and his relationship with his wife. "'Human' sounded almost like a 'Dear Rodeo,' part two," Johnson told Billboard. "When you're in an industry where you hear that people like Tony Lane can't get songs cut because they are too country, or they're not fitting into the niche of the newly-appointed, ex-hip-hop program director and what he or she wants, I'm like, 'Bring them to me.' I'm not being cocky when I say this, but I have the gumption to cut them."