At this month’s CMT Music Awards, the least likely nominee was the night’s biggest story.
In a room full of country music royalty, artists jelly roll — The 38-year-old former addict and drug dealer with a tattooed face started selling his hip-hop mixtapes from his car — Defeating superstars like Morgan Warren, Kane Brown, and Luke Combs , took home the most trophies. The crowd rose to their feet when he played his new single. “I need a favor” His gravelly voice in a studded leather jacket is backed by a full gospel choir.
In a phone interview the following week, Jelly Roll excitedly recounted his backstage conversation with Shania. Twain and Slash. “I spent my entire childhood feeling like I didn’t belong. I felt like an obnoxious fat kid in every situation. It was a graduation ceremony that I had never seen on TV.”
On June 2nd, Jelly Roll’s debut country album, Whitsitt Chapel, will be released, which is far from his first release. Since 2011, he has released over 20 of his albums, EPs and mixtapes, many of which are independently released collaborations with other Southern His White rappers such as Lil’ Wyte and Haystak. doing. His music has often dealt with his criminal record and journey to sobriety. He calls it “real music for real people with real problems”.
Jelly Roll (real name Jason Deford) grew up in Antioch, a culturally diverse working-class suburb south of downtown Nashville. His father was a meat salesman who had a side job as a bookmaker, while his mother struggled with mental health and addiction. He was first arrested when he was 14, and spent the next decade in and out of juvenile halls and prisons on charges including aggravated robbery and possession with intent to sell.
Inspired by Southern rappers such as Three 6 Mafia, UGK, 8ball & MJG, Jelly Roll began writing his own rhymes and became serious about pursuing music after finding out he had a now 15-year-old daughter. became. Millions of streams with virtually no mainstream visibility.
In recent years, however, he’s leaned more toward a hearty country soul/Southern rock style. “Music started to evolve like man,” he said. “As he’s gotten older, he’s found more love for his voice and instruments.”
Jelly Roll has had some gold-certified singles in the past, but the real acceleration came with his song in 2020. “help” A bluesy ballad sung on a finger-plucked acoustic guitar. Emotional and desperate (“I’m irrevocably hurt / Life has shattered my hopes and dreams”), it was written on Sunday, recorded and filmed on Monday, and released on YouTube on Tuesday. It exploded as soon as it was posted on , and has 165 million views so far. He re-edited the song as a duet with rising star Rainie Wilson on his new album.
His song was bruised and blurry last year “Dead Man Walking” A mid-tempo song that hit No. 1 on rock radio “Son of a Sinner” Topping the country radio charts, Jelly Roll stayed at number one on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart for 25 consecutive weeks. In his December, about a year after headlining Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, he sold out about 17,000 seats in his Bridgestone arena there. Bridgestone’s show is documented in a new documentary, Jelly Roll: Save Me, which premieres May 30 on Hulu.
“Some fans of traditional country music may be scratching their heads over his image and style of music,” said Storme Warren, host of SiriusXM’s The Highway channel, electronically. I am writing by email. It’s the truth.
“In my opinion, he’s more redneck than any other artist,” Warren continued. “His stories are real and relatable. He’s living proof that anything is possible.”
As Jelly Roll grows in popularity, it doesn’t let up on its non-stop work habits. (“Drug dealers never take a day off,” he said in 2021, “and I wanted to apply that willingness to music. A show with country bannerman Eric Church. Miranda Lambert. Several Nashville celebrities have written with him for “Whitsitt Chapel,” including Whitsitt Chapel.
“I knew right away that we would soon become friends,” Lambert wrote in an email. It’s very strong, and I respect that a lot.”
Jelly Roll, who says he’s “trying to build fans even when I’m at the gas station,” has long studied the careers of country legends and what he can learn from their relationships with fans. “They have stayed true to themselves,” he said. “You know who they are, and they know who they are and who they’re singing for.”
He wrote over 80 songs for ‘Whitsitt Chapel’ before embarking on the album’s predominantly spiritual themes. “Everything was great, but it didn’t feel like it had a purpose,” he said. “We always look at why and what the purpose is.
Then one night he came up with ‘Dancing With the Devil’ and ‘Hungover in a Church Pew’, which became the final track on the record and gave us a direction for the project. “These two songs were talking to each other, dealing with the same story,” he said. “I was thinking about the choices I made, the horrible decisions I made. My music is a constant cry for help and growth — it’s a story of change and I was never ready for something like this.” bottom.
He admitted he went drinking after the CMT awards show (he announced those plans from the stage), but said, “I’m quite a few years away from doing the drugs that would kill me.” “Drinking looks different,” he explained.
His focus is on the “therapeutic” role his music can play for people with addictions and his work for at-risk youth in Nashville. We donated all proceeds from the Bridgestone show and worked with local nonprofit Impact Youth Outreach to build a recording studio inside the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center.
“It didn’t just scratch the surface of my plan,” said Jelly Roll. “I’m going to build halfway homes and transition centers. That’s my true heart.”
“I will never forget who I am,” he continued. “Adolescence was so formative that it was such a shock to miss it. I didn’t get a car for my 16th birthday. I didn’t get my GED until I was in prison when I was 23. I missed a lot of my life, so I want to be remembered as the guy who did something for the kids in this town.
After 12 years of training and finally being recognized as a “new artist”, Jelly Roll is now officially unsettled. “Music is like human nature,” he said. “Evolve or die. An artist should always push the boundaries of what is offensive, and I intend to do so for the rest of my career. That’s what I was thinking when I left CMT. Here I am. Now I deserve to stay.”
