Cody Johnson, Riley Green, & More Country Stars Land In People’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ Readers’ Choice Poll

David Higgs

Letting the readers decide.

Each year, People Magazine names one man as the Sexiest Man Alive. With the date for the 2025 Sexiest Man Alive quickly approaching, People fans and their readers are starting to share their opinions on who they think should succeed last year’s winner, John Krasinski.

In fact, men have already started advocating for themselves to be selected as the Sexiest Man Alive, as seen with Stephen Colbert at the Emmys earlier this month. Don’t hold your breath Steve…

Each year, however, it appears that the public wants more say in who the Sexiest Man Alive is, which has led People to create the Reader’s Choice poll, where readers can vote on a variety of men, sharing their opinion on who they think is one of the sexiest guys of the year.

This year, the Reader’s Choice poll is divided into various categories, including “Who is the Sexiest 40-Year-Old,” in honor of the Sexiest Man Alive issue turning 40 this year, “Who is the Sexiest Cat Dad,” “Who has the Sexiest Tattoos,” and more. While there are fourteen categories in total that People readers can cast votes in, the one that caught our eye was the country music category.

This is not the first year that country music has had a moment in the Sexiest Man Alive issue. Last year, People named the sexiest man at every age, curating a list of men who were sexy from age 20 to 41. Some of the men who made the list include Warren Zeiders at age 25, Noah Kahan at age 27, Hunter Hayes at age 33, and Michael Che at age 41; however, the crown jewel is Luke Combs, who took home gold at age 34.

While we saw Combs being on the list as a win for all the regular dudes out there, Combs was more than surprised to see his name next to Warren Zeiders. If you recall, Luke opened up about his regular, average Joe appearance during his Joe Rogan episode:

“I mean realistically, I thought to myself, especially at the time I moved to town is like, dude,  everybody that was doing music when I moved to town was hot, dude. 6’5”, abs, I mean… I didn’t have a chance, bro. I didn’t have a chance.”

He can eat those words now, as he did not give himself enough credit for his looks. During interviews before last year’s CMA Awards, Luke Combs talked about his shock at seeing his name on the Sexy at Every Age list with AudacyMusic’s Katie Neal.

“I was very, heavily surprised. Heavily, heavily surprised. I thought it was maybe like most cheeseburgers ate this year or something, and I was like, ‘Oh, well, that could make sense.’ 

Maybe we are redefining sexy. That’s going to be my next album title, ‘Redefining Sexy.’ And it’s going to be like guys’ shirts don’t fit that good, and like they’re falling asleep on the couch watching football. If that’s sexy, I’m your guy. I’m YOUR guy. I’m your candidate.”

But where is Luke Combs on this year’s list of country music stars that are deemed sexy? This year, People selected four men for their readers to vote on, and they are… drum roll, please… Riley Green, Cody Johnson, Shaboozey, and Warren Zeiders.

It’s no shock to see Warren Zeiders on this list, given that he made the Sexy at Every Age list last year and is a heartthrob among young country fans. Although his rugged look is not my cup of tea, he’s not the worst-looking guy.

Riley Green is also not a shocking name to see on this list, given that ladies drool over him and often throw bras and panties (and the occasional sticky bra) on stage toward the “Don’t Mind If I Do” singer. Anyone want to take bets that the “Worst Way” music video had anything to do with his name landing on this list?

Shaboozey and Cody Johnson were the two on the list that I was slightly surprised to see. Not that either man is not attractive, but because they are not names often thrown in the pot of men that ladies are swooning over in the country music space. Cody Johnson is a family man, but he is also the epitome of a classic cowboy who has experienced a massive surge in popularity following the Rip Wheeler effect from Yellowstone. The man also knows how to write a love song, so I could see women letting their minds envision a cowboy serenading them with an acoustic guitar.

As for Shaboozey, he’s got the modeling thing down pat and was spotted out and about multiple times with famed model Emily Ratajkowski earlier this year, so he must be suave to pull a woman of that status.

You’ve got a little bit of everything on this list of country stars to vote on, and I am very interested to see who is voted the Sexiest Country Singer. (My bet’s on Riley Green.)