If there’s one thing you can count on from Audacy Launch artist, Jelly Roll, it’s vulnerability. Whether he’s on or off stage, the 38-year-old is always open and honest with his fans — one of the reasons he believes he’s found a place on Pop radio.
Listen to Launch: New Pop to hear the rising stars of Pop and the songs that are sure to be everywhere soon
“I think that I fit into Pop music by just bringing the kind of music that you can relate to,” the Nashville-native shared. “The coolest thing about what’s happening in America right now is it’s popular to be vulnerable and honest and I absolutely fill that space.”
The proof is undeniable as fans have clung to Jelly’s next-level vulnerability supporting songs like “Save Me,” “Son Of A Sinner,” and “Need A Favor,” which is now playing on Pop radio after hitting #1 on Rock and Country charts.
All three of those songs can be found on Jelly Roll’s most-recent album, Whitsitt Chapel, a project appropriately named after his childhood church as it’s filled with stories of his personal testimony.
“My new album, Whitsitt Chapel, is about my childhood church, the church I got baptized in when I was fourteen years old,” Jelly said of the project. “We started writing different songs and I just felt like everything I was writing wasn't telling the right story. Then we wrote a song called ‘Hungover In A Church Pew’ and then a song called ‘Church’ and I knew then that I was gonna write a concept album around my childhood church.”
The album shares the same truth the 38-year-old recently displayed for the world to see with the release of his Hulu documentary, Jelly Roll: Save Me, now streaming.
“It is the most intimate, personal thing I could have showed the world,” he told Audacy’s Katie Neal. “It’s my daughter, my wife, my real life, my struggles, my mother, my family… They [the film crew] were with me for hours and hours, thousands of hours.”
LISTEN NOW: Jelly Roll opens up about his new documentary
The documentary shares the title of one of Jelly’s most impactful songs to date, “Save Me,” which he upgraded for the album by adding the vocals of fellow Country music star, Lainey Wilson.
“’Save Me’ [is a] song that changed my whole life,” the Tennessee native shared. “I felt like this song has helped millions and millions of people and I believed in my heart that it could help millions and millions more and that's why I wanted to get Lainey Wilson on it and hope that we could touch some more people with this message.”
He continued, “If you've heard it, check it out and listen to it fully produced with Lainey Wilson, it's a different experience. If you've never heard it, I wanna introduce you to your new favorite song.”
Hear “Save Me feat. Lainey Wilson,” and 12 other of your new favorite songs on Jelly Roll’s Whitsitt Chapel, available now.