As middle schoolers, Audri Johnson and her cousin Arian would spend their days in Grenada, Mississippi, recording covers and remixes of their favorite songs on the radio using Arian’s computer and microphone. Johnson was an avid Chris Brown fan, often taking his songs and reframing them into spiritual and gospel anthems. Even as an adolescent, Audri wanted her songs to have the commercial sound she heard on the radio.
“At this time, I didn’t even know that I was engineering. I was just recording. I didn’t really know it was engineering until I got into college,” Johnson, whose career has led her to receive three Grammy Award nominations, told the Mississippi Free Press.
She won her first Grammy in 2023 and is presently preparing for the 2026 Grammy Awards held on Sunday, Feb. 1, for which she is in the running for Best Gospel Performance/Song and Best Gospel Album thanks to the programming she did on gospel singer Yolanda Adams’ “Sunny Days” album.
As a music engineer, Johnson’s job is to record, edit, mix and reproduce sound. This process includes setting up equipment, adjusting levels and using effects to achieve a professional product that satisfies all involved.
“The producer’s job is to tell the engineer, ‘Turn this up right here’ or ‘Add more reverb to this part,’” Johnson explained. “The producer is pretty much responsible for how the song sounds in its entirety. The engineer’s job is pretty much to push (the right) buttons.”
‘A Slap in Your Face’
The 31-year-old comes from a musically inclined family. Her parents both sing, with her mother serving as choir director for a time at the church in Grenada that her grandfather owns. Despite her reverence for music, however, she followed in the footsteps of her mother and other family members by pursuing nursing after graduating from Grenada High School in 2012.
She spent about two years at Delta State University studying nursing, but during her sophomore year, she lost some of her scholarships, transferring to Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia for one semester and then to Holmes Community College in Grenada the next. Through all of these changes, Johnson was still creating music on the side and honing her engineering skills.
“I had a friend named Titus McClain. He had this mini Mac, and it had a recording program on it. It was a little more advanced than what I had. He sold it to me, and it had all these plugins,” she said. “At the time, I didn’t know anything about plugins, so I started diving into engineering and doing covers.”
From time to time, Johnson thought she wanted to quit music altogether, and she would give it up for months. Eventually, though, she would return to her music and hear her own growth, which would inspire her to continue unlocking new levels within herself as an engineer. During her junior year, while at Holmes, she came to a crossroads and had to have a conversation with God, she said.
“I can do so many things musically. I played the trumpet. I dib and dabble into playing piano, bass guitar, lead guitar and drums. It would be a slap in your face if I do something else or if I don’t make the music work,” she prayed. After that spiritual communion, Johnson re-enrolled at DSU as a music major, having gotten into the Delta Music Institute program.
‘Risk It All’
As a student, Johnson didn’t take proper advantage of the institute’s high quality studio until she became the studio manager, she admitted. The job allowed her to always be in the studio, giving tours, doing inventory, or being behind the computer and soundboard. She was able to experiment with different plugins, which ultimately made her a better engineer, she credited.
“It made me faster. I started understanding mixing a lot better, and it also gave me an opportunity to figure out what plugins I would like to personally use before actually buying them for myself,” Johnson said. “At the school, you pretty much have the advantage of using the equipment without paying money, (but) most students don’t take advantage of it.”
In 2018, Johnson graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business and moved to Memphis to teach for a year. A visit home prompted her to move back to Grenada, where she accepted a job as an administrative assistant at DMI before transitioning into the studio manager position. By the next year, a new opportunity presented itself, forcing Johnson to make another life-altering decision.
While she was still working for DMI, Johnson attended an event held at the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in Atlanta. Various gospel artists were in attendance to record a music video for the Black national anthem, but no one else present was available to record and edit sound. Johnson, hearing the need, volunteered her services, grabbed Tymple’s laptop, went to the soundboard and pressed play.
Impressed by her work, Tymple CEO Sir the Baptist invited Johnson to engineer the album he was producing on behalf of Tennessee State University’s marching band, the Aristocrat of Bands. While visiting campus one day, the songwriter watched TSU’s band perform, inspiring him to create an album that utilized those musicians’ talents. The album, titled “The Urban Hymnal,” was slated to feature guest appearances from notable gospel artists like Fred Hammond, John P. Kee and Kierra Sheard.
“ That interaction is what opened that door for him to trust me enough to be able to work for him—because I wasn’t trying to be in the forefront,” Johnson said.
Ultimately, she chose to take the leap of faith and take on this job that involved traveling back and forth between Gulfport and Nashville every week to work on the album.
“I feel like it’s a God thing. Whenever I get that feeling on the inside and I feel like something is pulling me, it’s like ‘OK, this is the time to jump. This is the time to go and risk it all,’” Johnson said.
Sometimes, she would travel by herself to Detroit to work with Kierra Sheard at her home studio. This time of her life was filled with 12-hour shifts with little rest, only taking breaks to eat, shower and sleep for a few hours at most.
“ It was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears,” Johnson recalled. “… We were working on a lot of things all at once. We also had meetings with different execs and different artists. We would have meetings, and I’m always falling asleep behind the laptops. It got to a point where I didn’t know what day it was.”
All of that effort blossomed into an album that, in November 2022, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Roots Gospel Album. When she learned of the nomination, Johnson ran around the house in excitement and disbelief, she told the Mississippi Free Press.
“Something in my soul just felt like we were going to get it,” Johnson prophesied.
‘What I’m Called to Do’
In February 2023, “The Urban Hymnal” won a Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album. The first thing that Johnson, who was attending the ceremony in Los Angeles, did after winning was call her family on FaceTime, crying and thanking them for their support. While working on the album in 2021, she didn’t have a traditional full-time job, and her family would sometimes provide financial assistance when she needed it.
“When I got nominated, I was working at Walmart in Louisiana,” Johnson said. “I was living in Gulfport, but I would take a bus to Louisiana and work at Walmart until it was time for us to go out of town again (to work on the album).”
Life hasn’t changed much since she’s won the highest award in music honors. She recently moved back home to Grenada to help her father with his ministry and works a regular job at a factory. However, she noted that certain people began treating her differently after her win, leading her to feel less human and more like a trophy, she said.
“I hated that I won a Grammy sometimes,” Johnson lamented. “Some people were acting entitled, and that would put me in a couple of uncomfortable positions. That was the aspect of it that I didn’t like, and I think part of that is the reason why I really couldn’t enjoy the moment. People expected certain things of me that I just couldn’t do.”
Now, with this year’s Grammy Awards only two days away, Johnson awaits to see whether the guitar programming she did for gospel singer Yolanda Adams’ song “Church Doors” will earn her another Grammy or two. This track from the Grammy-nominated album is the product of a late-night phone call from Sir the Baptist.
“It was probably two, three o’clock in the morning, and Sir was like ‘Hey, I need you to do this on here,’” Johnson recalled. “I’m kind of half asleep, but I’m used to working like that, so I just did some guitar programming and gave it back to him. That was the (Grammy-nominated) single.”
If the single or album wins a Grammy, Johnson will only receive a certificate this time around because she did less than 51% of the work on Adams’ album, in comparison to “The Urban Hymnal.” Johnson keeps her 2023 Grammy on top of a speaker at her parent’s house, finally unpacking it after getting over the trauma of people treating her differently.
“ I think this year is the first time I was thinking about the Grammy, and that’s when it started really dawning on me, like, ‘You have a Grammy.’ This is the biggest award you can get for music in the universe. It’s like, ‘You should embrace that,’ you know? Embrace the good and the bad and just be grateful. Don’t get overwhelmed,” Johnson said during her 2025 interview with the Mississippi Free Press.
These days, Audri Johnson is enjoying her time in Grenada, where she gets to spend time with her niece and nephew, who are twins. Under the name Lady Audri, she has begun creating her own gospel music. She has released three songs: “Amen,” God Sent” and “Move.”
“I’m definitely sticking to gospel; it’s a part of my bloodline,” Johnson said. “That’s what God called me to do. … Whether I win a trophy or not, this is what I’m called to do.”
“I’m not doing it just for a Grammy,” she added. “I’m doing it so that I can be a part of changing the world, and I believe God honored that.”
Lady Audri’s three singles can be found on Spotify, Apple Music and other music streaming platforms. She has two collaborations with gospel musician Vic Lucas, “Thank You, God”and “Holy Ghost,”as well as a song with gospel singer C Duffle titled “All I Need.”
Know a Mississippian you believe deserves some public recognition? Nominate them for a potential Person of the Day article at mfp.ms/pod.