Paige King Johnson pays tribute in I Get Old Too
By Alan Shipston for Country Music News International Magazine
On February 20th, Paige King Johnson will release an affectionate country ballad, I Get Old Too, that reminisces about a tender relationship the singer had with her grandfather. The idea that we all get old is played out with Paige’s smooth country infused twang summoning up lines like, “I hope someday I get to tell my grandkids” all the crazy things she got to do in her life. Acoustic guitar immersed in a bed of pedal steel chords rising out of an arrangement with spartan tremolo electric guitar taking the fills, soon opens with Paige singing,
I still hear the stories he always told me
About the days when he used to be younger
Raised on the Bible, outside of Pikeville
White Lightning, Carolina thunder
While he was stuck reminiscing
I found myself wishing
Written by Johnson, Todd Pachey and Mason Douglas, Paige explains, “The inspiration for I Get Old Too, came from a conversation I was having with my sweet Grandaddy one day. He was telling me a story I was pretty sure I heard before and as he was talking, my mind started drifting to a place of gratitude.” Interestingly, with honor and respect, the song ends with a recorded phone message of her grandfather’s voice asking for a return call.
In a quiet North Carolina town 22 miles south of Raleigh, a young nine-year-old girl, Paige King Johnson spent her days imitating the styles of Loretta, Patsy, Waylon and Merle. Having a grandpa as her biggest fan also meant receiving the gift of her first guitar, a baby Taylor. After her grandpa passed, the bright-eyed dreamer carried on his memory by taking her newfound discovery to local fairs, festivals and any other stage she was allowed to stand on. As she grew older and more experienced, Johnson began opening for chart topping artists like Kane Brown, Joe Nichols, Clint Black, Diamond Rio, Tracy Byrd, Lonestar, Neal McCoy and more. “I started finding my own voice through writing, becoming more confident and owning the fact that my personal feelings and experiences were worth talking about, singing about and putting on paper,” Paige reflects.
Johnson has built a career on timeless songwriting and lived-in storytelling with reflective restraint, grounded in the kind of honesty that connects quickly and lingers. As a seven-time Carolina Country Music Award winner, her career momentum includes an onstage Grand Ole Opry appearance alongside Pam Tillis as well as a host of magazine interviews and chart traction. She first turned heads with, Water Down The Whiskey and sustained momentum with her album Honky Tonk Heart and a steady run of regional sellouts.
For this Nashville transplant, I Get Old Too will certainly open new doors and continue her arc of success. “My main goal with music is to keep it authentically me and authentically country. As long as I continue to achieve those two things, I will remain satisfied and happy on this journey, no matter where it takes me.”