Jamey Johnson was arrested on Sunday, November 17, and reportedly charged with possession of drugs and speeding. He was released on a $5,000 bail, according to several sources. His arrest comes weeks after Johnson released Midnight Gasoline, his latest album. It includes the song Sober, with Johnson singing about his struggle with addiction.
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The Tennesse Highway Patrol confirmed the arrest by issuing a statement, according to News Channel 5. The specific details of his arrest have not been officially confirmed, but several reports do say that he was arrested for drug possession. He was released on Monday, November 18 on a $5,000 bail.
Ten days before his jail release, on November 8, Johnson released Midnight Gasoline, his latest 12-track album. Even before that, Johnson released two singles from said album. Among them is Sober, a song Johnson talked about given its personal connection with the topic of sobriety.
"Sober is about how hard it is to stay sober in a town that glorifies drinking and other kinds of debauchery — not just glorifies it, but it is in just about every song in country music one way or the other," Johnson said. "I am 13 years sober now. I haven't had a drop of alcohol since 2011, and I know that could end this afternoon."
Jamey Johnson's Struggle With Addiction
The lyrics to the song exemplify Johnson's struggle with sobriety. The first verse reads: "I've been mad, I've been drunk / I've been so high I can't tell up from down / But lately I've been working on / Trying to get my feet back on the ground." The song later continues with the following lines: "If the body is a temple / I worked hard to keep that steeple spinning round / Then one day I heard the preacher say / Lord, it's hard staying sober in this town."
Jamey Johnson also talked about his alcoholism in previous interviews. According to him, alcohol was an "incendiary way" that Johnson used to destroy himself. He claims he barely survived his addiction. "Everything just went up in flames and you couldn't put the fire out, you just had to wait for it to all come to ashes and then try to rebuild when you get done," Johnson told Billboard. And it seemed to me like I owed myself a better way to live than that."
According to Johnson, he quit alcohol in September 2011. He would also quit smoking marijuana in 2015. No further details surrounding his arrest are known at the moment, but we all hope that Johnson bounces back and gets on his feet like he has done before.
