Roper Chadwick Johnson finds happiness on horse and as pop singer

You wouldn't know it from his name, or from the songs he sings, or from the way he styles his hair that Chadwick Johnson is a singing cowboy.

Singing cowboys are supposed to have names such as Gene or Roy or Tex. They should sing about pushing cattle across prairies and other things of a country and western persuasion. They're supposed to sit around campfires and strum guitars and dine on cans of beans you open with a knife.

Recently when I met him for lunch, Chadwick Johnson ordered a Cobb salad minus the bleu cheese crumbles.

He's originally from Milwaukee, or just outside of it. He considers himself a jazz singer, a pop singer, a singer of standards. He writes a lot of his own music. He said he would sing songs about pushing cattle across prairies, but he doesn't have the voice for it.

On weekends, he's a team roper on the rodeo circuit.

When I met him for lunch, I never would have guessed it. That's probably why he wore a giant belt buckle, so I might recognize him in the lobby.

Johnson does not compete in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, because those are guys who rope and ride for a living — they're always on the road, and sometimes they have to sleep in the back of station wagons or whatever. You want to rope for the big money, you've got to make it to the National Finals right here in Las Vegas.

It doesn't leave time for singing gigs at Suncoast or Aria.

Chadwick Johnson jokes that he has the nicest hair on the team roping circuit. But he's also a pretty good cowboy. He competes in lucrative team roping meets that pay big money, sort of like those high roller events for amateur bowlers.

Two weeks ago, at the United States Team Roping Championships in Oklahoma City, he won fifth place in his division and another belt buckle and split $26,000 with partner Price Blaylock. Two days later, they won another $7,000. Which is more, I think, than they pay Johnson at Suncoast or Aria or even at the Italian-American Club for singing Roy Orbison and Joni Mitchell covers during limited engagements.

On Chadwick Johnson's official Facebook page are links to Adele and Bruno Mars. But when I mentioned the names of Jake Barnes and Clay O'Brien Cooper, Johnson filled in the blanks. Barnes and Cooper once were the Simon and Garfunkel of team roping, winning multiple world championship belt buckles. They're in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.

I'll bet they never sang "Crying" or "Both Sides Now" with saddlebags of soul and emotion.

Johnson said he moved from the Milwaukee outskirts to Los Angeles several years ago to pursue a singing contract. But there are weasels in the music business out there. It was easier to get gigs in Las Vegas, where there are slightly fewer weasels.

Plus, Las Vegas, if you know where to go, still can be a dusty cow town. There's a place to put your horse and on certain weekends, you can rope for big money and not have to leave town. There's a roping meet at South Point coming up in December in conjunction with the NFR that pays real big, Johnson said.

"Living in L.A., I thought that was where you had to go (to be discovered)," he said. "I heard about some gigs (in Las Vegas) and I went back and forth a little bit. Then I learned you could get back to horses here — this is the home of the NFR."

Our show business weasels are a lot friendlier than the ones on the Sunset Strip, Johnson says.

He was performing on the barge/stage at Lake Las Vegas when a stranger approached, handed him a card and said he really enjoyed his set. It was Norm Johnson, who used to be Robert Goulet's publicist.

"The thing that is kind of wild is I don't do any country music, really," the singing and roping Johnson said as the Cobb salad minus the bleu cheese crumbles arrived at Bahama Breeze. "I do everything from jazz to pop. I write my own music. I would say I'm a singer-songwriter. I make my living with my voice."

Johnson said when the other ropers find out he's originally from Milwaukee and covers Roy Orbison and Joni Mitchell tunes — or that two days before he left for the big team roping bonanza in Okie City he was doing a Christmas show at the Smith Center for the Yamaha piano people — they don't believe it.

He said he has a roping pal who did a double take when he saw a billboard advertising one of Johnson's showroom gigs.

"He said 'What the — dude, I saw you on a billboard. I had to turn my rig around and see if there was a wanted sign on it.' "

Johnson recently sang the national anthem before one of the bigger races at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring. He's available for corporate gigs and limited engagements. And if you need cattle pushed across a prairie, he can probably fake it better than Milli Vanilli.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski