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\n\tWhen Jamey Johnson<\/a> released his latest album, Midnight Gasoline<\/a><\/em>, last year, it marked his first LP of new material in 14 years. Country fans were perplexed as to why Johnson, revered for his commitment to traditional country, had gone mostly dark in the studio during that time. In a new interview with Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s Nashville Now<\/a><\/em> podcast, the Alabama native offers some insight: The dry spell mostly stemmed from a devastating fall and head injury that Johnson suffered outside the studio on Nashville\u2019s Music Row a decade and a half ago.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cEverything was moving right along until about 2010,\u201d Johnson tells Nashville Now<\/em>. \u201cIt was a concussion I got slipping on some ice in the parking lot at the studio. That kind of turned everything upstairs into fight or flight. And it was stuck there for the longest time.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tJohnson says the concussion affected his ability to concentrate and even altered his personality that year, which dovetailed with the release of his 2010 double album, The Guitar Song<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cEverything in me was fight or flight\u2026 It felt like a lot of anger. A lot of frustration. I went from being able to process information at a pretty good pace to getting confused,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\tJohnson says he didn\u2019t stop writing songs completely, but that his output was diminished. \u201cI just didn\u2019t write enough that would warrant an album,\u201d he says, explaining that what songs he did come up with, he\u2019d offer to friends. \u201cI\u2019d send [them] to Willie, or George Strait, or Merle.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to Johnson, who\u2019s now sober from alcohol, he was also drinking heavily after the fall. \u201cThat\u2019s right about the time I started [to get] blackout drunk. And it took me a while to heal up. Finally, in 2011, I quit drinking,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\tIn hindsight, Johnson says the fall was more severe than he first believed. \u201cThat thing did a lot more damage than I thought it had done at the time,\u201d he says. \u201cLooking back, it\u2019s so evident to me now, that\u2019s the point where the rock hit the water \u2014\u00a0the asphalt hit my head.\u201d<\/p>\n