Jelly Roll chats with Rolling Stone's Ilana Woldenberg about his Best New Artist nomination, where he finds his vocal inspiration, and the importance of humanizing addiction.
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00:02 - That was the moment you found out, now you're here.
00:04 - It was unreal, I mean the moment we landed
00:06 and started leaving Nashville, I was feeling it.
00:07 Then we landed, I was like, this is crazy.
00:09 And then I spent my first night out here
00:11 for my first real Grammy week.
00:12 And I felt a little overwhelmed this morning, to be honest.
00:14 I kind of had a moment where I was like,
00:16 am I really having second thoughts?
00:17 Like, do I really belong here?
00:18 I mean, I'm a long way from Nashville, you know,
00:20 I'm not that far from Kansas now, Toto.
00:21 I'm pretty far away from home out here,
00:24 unknown territories, you know,
00:25 but it's been really welcoming.
00:27 But I wondered if I would ever be seen, you know,
00:29 like outside of the people that meet at the Mulek.
00:32 You know, when you're on an island by yourself,
00:33 how it was for so long.
00:35 And then you see that you're, you're like, they see you.
00:38 That's what it was, like validation.
00:39 It was like a big warm hug that morning.
00:41 It's like, okay, it's real.
00:43 - Talk to me about what was going through your mind
00:45 and what kind of that thought process was
00:47 with getting in that room and making your voice heard.
00:50 - Thanks, Britta.
00:51 That was probably one of the single most impactful moments
00:54 of my life, was having the opportunity to go speak
00:57 in front of the people that frankly, I think,
00:59 are dropping the ball and go in there
01:01 and try to rally support behind a cause
01:03 that I think shouldn't be as overshadowed as it is.
01:06 And to speak for a slice of America
01:07 that's not often spoken for in a positive way.
01:10 You know, nobody humanizes addiction.
01:14 And I think that's a real important topic
01:16 that needs to be touched on more.
01:17 And I also think that it's just fentanyl
01:19 is getting deeper than just drug addiction now, right?
01:21 Now I'm hearing stories ever since I spoke, you know,
01:23 of children, you know, kids, you know,
01:27 getting vape pens at school that had fentanyl in it,
01:30 or two guys took their first ever ecstasy pill one night
01:34 and they split it in half and they were 16 years old.
01:36 It's nothing, I didn't do it at 16.
01:37 It killed them both, they were twin brothers.
01:39 I mean, it's just sad story after sad story.
01:41 My only goal in that was to hopefully bring attention to it.
01:44 And I think I did.
01:44 Believe it or not, I've got a call
01:46 from about every Senator in America.
01:47 - No way.
01:48 - I have, it's been really cool.
01:49 They've all called and just want my opinion
01:51 on what I can do.
01:52 And they want to try to get down a bunch of boards
01:53 to talk about it.
01:54 It's been really cool.
01:55 And I'm glad that we got, that's what I wanted to do.
01:56 I was talking to Dwayne Johnson
01:58 and I seen John Cena the other day and I told them both,
02:01 I kind of anchored my career after those two guys
02:04 in their benevolent spirit, right?
02:07 'Cause you watch guys doing celebrity wrong all the time.
02:10 You see the stories, abuse or the things that, you know,
02:12 like all these things,
02:14 and you don't often see celebrities that do it right anymore.
02:17 And I look at guys like that and I look up to them
02:19 and I was like, that's the,
02:20 if God ever gave me a platform,
02:21 that's who I want to be like.
02:22 So that's all we want to do is just give.
02:24 We weren't supposed to make it this far.
02:25 So now we just want to bring as many motherfuckers
02:27 with us as we can.
02:28 You know what I'm saying?
02:29 I've been a loser my whole life.
02:30 And in the bottom of the ninth, God made me a winner.
02:33 I'm working on my new album now too.
02:34 And I just wrote a song and I played it for my wife.
02:37 I didn't play it for my wife.
02:38 This is my trick, my wife.
02:39 Now I have a trick.
02:40 I just let songs play when she's in the kitchen cooking
02:42 and I'll see what she reacts to.
02:44 And she turned around halfway through the first verse
02:46 and she's like, that's the best song you've ever wrote.
02:48 You know?
02:48 And I thought about it.
02:49 I was like, it's funny that I've been writing
02:51 this same style of song my whole career.
02:54 It's all I've ever done.
02:55 So for it to finally start to flourish
02:57 and get recognition is the cool part.
02:59 And it's also a part of the 10,000 hour theory, right?
03:02 Like I had to write 999 really shitty songs
03:05 for "Save Me to Be So Great."
03:07 Then I had to put out 27 albums that wasn't successful
03:09 for Whitsitt Chapel to actually be a body of art
03:12 that stood the test of time.
03:13 I think it's going to be my first platinum album.
03:14 It's a big deal for me, dude.
03:15 I'll just hand them things out no more, dude.
03:17 Not this year, not as many streams as it takes
03:19 to get recognized as an album sale.
03:21 You know?
03:21 So it's a really big deal, man.
03:23 That album was a really big part of me,
03:24 but we're already moving into the new chapter.
03:26 - Wow.
03:27 I can't wait to hear it.
03:28 - Yeah, I'm coming real soon.
03:29 Jelly come soon.
03:30 - Jelly.
03:31 - For the first time I've said this,
03:32 it's gonna be jelly season.
03:33 - Wow, it's jelly season.
03:34 I'm there.
03:35 - Yeah, it's really close.
03:36 - So I wanna, you talked about the 10,000 hour theory.
03:39 You seem like a person who's very intentional.
03:42 And I think your voice is just beautiful.
03:46 And I wanna know what your vocal kind of inspiration is.
03:50 And if you have any like vocal giants that you look up to,
03:53 because you also, I feel like we watched you evolve
03:56 into vocalists.
03:57 - Right, for sure.
03:58 And I pray that y'all stick with me and be patient
04:00 and watch me keep evolving.
04:02 Because I don't know anything about it, right?
04:04 I just sing from a place of pain and honesty.
04:06 I don't understand the theory of music.
04:08 I played just enough guitar to trick a bunch
04:10 of eighth graders if I had to, you know what I mean?
04:12 But I understand the feeling of music
04:14 and how music makes people feel.
04:15 And I'd probably say if I had to pick one single person,
04:18 I've wanted to sound like Bob Seger my whole life.
04:20 Now God gave him that voice.
04:21 That's one of one.
04:22 But his style of just singing from the soul.
04:25 He had an interview one time in the 70s.
04:27 And they said, "Where did you find your voice?"
04:29 And he said, "I just started searching for songs
04:31 to sing with conviction."
04:32 And that quote is in every studio I've ever had.
04:34 But I'm learning about music now.
04:36 I'm getting into the theory.
04:36 My daughter knows way more about it than me.
04:38 So she teaches me when she can.
04:39 But if I ever find a harmony, it was an accident.
04:41 - And I'm like, look at your social media.
04:43 You're shouting them out left and right.
04:44 Like you have a community that seems like loves you
04:47 and you love them back so hard.
04:48 So tell me about how you made sure
04:51 that that continues to be a priority.
04:53 - Well, it's a big part of me just anchoring myself down.
04:55 It's my foundational support.
04:57 I built my entire life on this platform
05:01 of my wife and daughter and around that.
05:03 It's deeper than that.
05:04 Like my niece lives with me.
05:05 She's been with us.
05:06 She's a Howell's bug, 24, 25.
05:08 She's been with us since she got out of college.
05:10 And I just said, "Hey, will you come help me with Bailey
05:12 instead of going to get a real job?"
05:13 And she came and now she's got a husband to be
05:16 that lives with us too.
05:17 So I got a nephew-in-law, I guess.
05:18 And my brothers and them come by the house all the time.
05:21 When it's family, we have it on call ahead policy.
05:23 So we're just a really tight family, man.
05:25 At any given time, I'll wake up
05:26 and have a cousin on my couch.
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05:37 [SNAP]