Yahoo Lifestyle Jelly Roll on Doing What It Takes to Be a Changemaker: ‘I Know My Story Helps People — I’m Trying to Be a Good Steward’
As Jelly Roll gets on the phone with Variety to discuss being honored as the Changemaker of the Year, he is preparing to have one of his biggest nights of the year: a late November homecoming show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena that will include a slew of guest stars, capping a year-long headlining arena tour. But the sold-out show is not the only thing on his agenda on this particular day.
“I’m staring at the juvenile justice center that I was incarcerated in as a youth,” he says. “I’m pulling in the parking lot now, going in to feed a little Thanksgiving dinner to the kids before the show. Just want you to know that I’m still making change, even after y’all gave me the award.”
More from Variety
On and off the record, on and off tour, the rapper-turned-country-superstar is devoted to sending positive messages to people whose lives are as messed up as his once was. Or even a little less screwed up than that; even if you’re just having a bad day and not a bad life, Jelly Roll has a therapeutic song for you.
In reviewing his new album, “Beautifully Broken,” Variety called Jelly Roll “America’s Counselor-in-Chief” and “America’s Sponsor.” He says the year and a half he spent making the album was largely about getting the inspirational lyrics right, knowing “there’s a thin line between being able to really touch the human heart and just being a little cringe.”
You recently said, “Philanthropy is the legacy I hope to leave with the music.” You get therapeutic with the music and all, but you like to get involved and connect with people IRL, too. Has there been any highlight for the year, in that regard?
I don’t know, man, it probably starts as early as January. Getting to testify in front of the United States Senate about the fentanyl epidemic in America was just a surreal moment to me. And on tour we link up with a lot of grassroots kind of companies, like small community centers and stuff like that. There’s a community center in Knoxville we went to, and I’ve probably thought about it 10 times (since then), and the work they’re doing in that community. I love those small, hands-on, real grassroots kind of things too. But… have you been to one of my shows on this tour? It’s important for me to walk out into the crowd at first, because it kind of goes back to philanthropy. I think it’s more than just cutting a check. It’s about touching people.
Was there a specific audience you were trying to reach with your “Beautifully Broken” album this year — not so much genre-wise, but in terms of where they’re at in their lives? Of course you’ve talked about wanting to reach people who have been or are dealing with substance abuse or incarceration or some of those heavy things that have kind of been causes of yours. But a lot of the songs really deal with basic self-esteem issues. Do you have people who are having trouble with that in mind, or is your primary focus more the people who are more in life-and-death crises?
No, no, no, man, my music’s for everybody — all in-between, all-encompassing. Somebody once told me that 100% of stress is 100% of stress, no matter how big the thermometer is. And that always stuck with me. So whether it’s a bad day, whether it’s a bad week, whether you’ve had a hard life, I try to think about the people that nobody’s thinking about when I’m writing songs. And this came from being a music fan over the years of consuming music that really touched on the core of some of my personal issues.
Can you describe what some of your writing sessions for this album were like, where you were addressing things that were important to you? There’s that kind of sweet spot where you’re dealing with serious issues, but there’s a cleverness to it where certain lines lodge in your brain, and you get a message across in a way that is more entertaining in that way than it is preachy. How do you set out to achieve that balance in a session?
Yeah, man, “I Am Not Okay” is a great example of that. I had the idea for “I am not okay, but it’s all gonna be all right,” and we tried to write that song probably four different times. I just could not land the plane on it. It either became almost too painful or, the other side of it was, it became too cheeky. It is trying to find that balance where the words come together in a way that make you feel something without cringing. And there’s a thin line then between being able to really touch the human heart and just being a little cringe, right?
The lyrics are probably what I’m the most proud of on this album. I fight for lyrics in writers’ rooms. It is something I stand on. I’m huge on what the storytelling actually is and, you know, thank you, man. Having this album at least be noticed for that part of it makes me feel like I didn’t waste 18 months being a stickler over some of these songs in vain.
Putting out “I Am Not Okay” as the first single from the album seems like it might have been kind of a bold choice in some ways. If it was, it certainly paid off because it was a multi-week No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Songs chart, and looking at the Hot 100 as we speak, it’s still in the top 20 after being out 22 weeks. So that really resonated with people. But it’s a stark song. So was everybody on board that, yes, this is the first single, or was there discussion about how to present this album first?
Inside baseball — I’ve never told this story. People were skeptical, including myself a little bit. We knew it was probably the biggest song we had. And I always felt like it was a song I wanted to show people when they get in the car, when I had my phone out, in demo mode. But man, you know, you start getting them little voices that don’t matter in your ear. They’re like, “What about tempo? Shouldn’t we have a tempo single?” All that kind of jazz. And I had already sung “Liar” at the ACMs, and we were getting ready to go on “The Voice” when it looked like “Liar” was gonna be the single — which it is now (as the follow-up). And right before we went on, I called and I was like, “Can we not do ‘I Am Not Okay’ on ‘The Voice’?” And they were like, “Yeah, why not?” And the cool story about this is, “I Am Not Okay” picked itself as a single. I woke up that next morning after “The Voice” and I think 12,000 people had used the sound on TikTok. At that moment, I called my manager and was like, “Man, I tell you what, the people have spoken, this is our first.”
You did “I Am Not Okay” on the Emmys for an In Memoriam segment. You’ve already established a comfort zone by now, knowing how you’re gonna go over with certain audiences and command an arena. But is there any place where you felt like you challenged yourself this year, in terms of where you went?
Oh yeah. Great question. The Emmys was one. Going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (ceremony to salute) Ozzy (Osbourne) was another big one… I’ve done this a few years now, enough to know that the moments where you’re going to end up in front of an audience you haven’t ended up in front of yet is always nerve wracking. Because there’s so many people in the world. You know, it sounds crazy — like, who doesn’t know Jelly Roll? It’s like, fuck, 200 million Americans, probably! You know what I mean? It’s a ton. So you’re finding them all the time.
And there’s always a little bit of blowback that comes with that. Like, this morbidly obese man with face tattoos that you never heard of just popped up on your screen. Those are the ones I love — out-of-comfort-zone stuff.
I got to open for Morgan (Wallen) a couple of times this year. I’m looking forward to opening up for Post (Malone). I still love opening up for people, because you’re going into a room that’s not your room, so you’ve gotta convince people you’re cool. I love that from a performance perspective; I love being in those situations. I came up the underdog, bubba, so you gotta remember, anytime you accidentally put me back in a situation where I feel like the underdog, I am fucking on fire.
Since you mentioned the tour next year, it’s interesting that you have a lot of choices of what you could do with touring. You’ve already headlined arenas and could just come back and do those all over again next year, or you could open for Post Malone and have this different kind of experience, which is what you chose.
I don’t have no ego. I love Post Malone. I think he’s one of the greatest artists of our generation. And I want to get my message in front of people that might not know they need it. And once you get a little money, it’s bigger than that — it’s not about money anymore. This is truly about impact. I know this music helps people. I know my story helps people. My testimony helps people. I know that I’m trying to be a good steward of the money and the stuff that God’s given me in this process. So these are the moments where I get to go stand in front of some kids who might not know how bad they needed “I Am Not Okay,” because they just hadn’t been introduced to Jelly Roll yet.
If you got down to the core of your message, is it possible to identify like what you most want to impact people with? Looking at the lyrics of your album, you have the word “ashamed” in the opening song, and “shame” pops up again. That is such a deep issue for many people, and not that many artists in music are really addressing what it feels like believing you’re really fucked up in life and not knowing how they are going to get past it. It is almost surprising how how many few people write about that.
And I think a lot of people don’t understand it — and maybe I’m trying to get people to see it — because they haven’t associated some of their feelings as shame. And if they did, they would realize that more often than not, most of us are just in a shame spiral. Something has happened to us in our life that we’ve done something that has kept us in this circle, this shame spiral as they call it, and it’s really hard to get out of. It’s been probably what I’ve done the work the most on.
But I was thinking about it when you were asking the question. If I could describe my entire message in one word, it would simply be hope. That’s it, man. I’m just giving people hope, dude. I’m giving people the reality that things can change, if you are willing to change it.
That’s a good summary.
And listen, I’m fixing to do it again. Not even on music. This time, I’m fixing to do it with health. You know, I’m fixing to once again back that shit up that I talk. You know, I’m not successful because of my weight. I’m successful in spite of it. And I’m fixing to show the world that.
So you’re not done working on your weight, which you’ve already done a lot of work on. You’re still making that part of your personal mission going forward?
I hope I get invited to y’all’s brunch again next year, just so we can see the before and after pictures.
Finally, just to ask about your transparency, which is part of what people find so refreshing about you… And your wife is so good at that too, and it almost seems like if one of you is not saying something, the other will, and so maybe you almost sort of keep yourself accountable… It feels like you have the attitude that if you’re gonna tell people they need to be real in their lives, then you can’t like be covering stuff up as a celebrity and leave amyone with the feeling that you’re not practicing what you preach in terms of candor and honesty. Is that always easy for you, as a natural instinct, or do you have to kind of remind yourself that you need to be real with people at all times?
Well, I’m always real with people at all times, but a lot of that goes back to shame. I used to be so ashamed of who I was and how I thought, and my actions, that I lied nonstop. I didn’t even think twice. You know what I mean? I just couldn’t admit the truth about anything, to myself, let alone other people. So right or wrong. I came to the realization that if I can be 100% true to who I am in that moment all the time, then I might look back and be a little embarrassed of who I was in that moment, but at least I’ll always know I was being true to who I was in that moment.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
