Some songs are more than music—they are confessions. “Dear Rodeo,” first released by Cody Johnson and later reimagined as a powerful duet with Reba McEntire, is one of those rare pieces that feels like pages torn from a personal diary. It’s not just a song about rodeo—it’s about chasing dreams, facing heartbreak, and learning to let go of something you love when it no longer belongs to you.
For Cody Johnson, rodeo wasn’t just a theme—it was his life. Before country music, he was a real cowboy, chasing eight seconds of glory on the back of a bull. He lived for the adrenaline, the danger, and the brotherhood that came with the rodeo arena. But with time, injuries, and hard truths, Cody was forced to walk away from the life he thought would define him forever. “Dear Rodeo” became his farewell letter—not bitter, but full of gratitude, love, and pain for the dream that had shaped him.
When Reba McEntire joined the song, it became even more powerful. Reba understood that story all too well. Before becoming a superstar, she too had grown up in the rodeo world, competing as a barrel racer and carrying the same kind of love for the arena that Cody had. Her voice brought a woman’s perspective, adding layers of wisdom, grace, and shared heartbreak. Together, their duet sounded like two old friends speaking to a past they both knew intimately—two voices acknowledging the beauty and the cost of chasing a dream.
The song’s lyrics—“Dear Rodeo, I’d like to say that I took the reins and rode away, no regrets, no left-unsaids, just turn the page…”—carry a universal truth. It may be rodeo for Cody and Reba, but for listeners, it could be anything: a career that didn’t work out, a relationship that ended, a dream that never fully came true. “Dear Rodeo” gives permission to grieve those losses, but also to honor them as part of who we are.
Musically, the song is stripped back and raw, letting their voices and the emotion of the story shine. You can hear the catch in Cody’s voice, the strength in Reba’s, and together they remind us that letting go doesn’t mean forgetting—it means finding peace.
That’s why “Dear Rodeo” resonates so deeply with fans. It’s not just a country song—it’s a love letter to the dreams that shape us, the heartbreaks that define us, and the resilience that carries us forward. Through their voices, Cody Johnson and Reba McEntire turned one man’s story into everyone’s story.
