Jelly Roll chats with Katie Neal about his mental health, new music, touring, and more!
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Well, his numbers have doubled since the last time we sat down. He's now four-time Grammy
00:04Award-winning jelly roll.
00:06Grammy-nominated.
00:07Grammy-nominated. Oh, my God.
00:08Yes, God, I wish.
00:09Soon to be. That was me projecting what's going to happen.
00:12Just give me one of them, please.
00:14Yeah, but still. Super excited. How are you?
00:16Excited, man. Really, really. I'm actually doing good.
00:19Yeah.
00:20I came home and got some rest that I needed in the holiday season and been back at it
00:24now feeling good.
00:25Yeah, that's great. I always joke on the show because I feel like there's two people that
00:29I'm constantly like, there's such good headlines, I'm literally talking about them every day,
00:33and it's you and Dolly Parton. I'm like, I need to start a bit like, what have Jelly
00:36and Dolly done this week?
00:37Yes.
00:38Because it's so many good things.
00:39I'm going to do Dolly more.
00:40Yeah, no, that's great. Can we take a second and talk about your wellness journey right
00:44now?
00:45Yes, please.
00:46Because you look amazing.
00:47I feel great.
00:48Like, you just feel lighter.
00:49Yes.
00:50Like, I can see a light in your eyes.
00:53Talk about this a little bit.
00:54It feels good. I was looking at a picture today of me on the CMA red carpet, I guess
00:59it was three years ago. And I thought somebody had distressed my face. That's how wide my
01:05face was. And it's kind of like, you know, we always get deep, Katie.
01:09Oh, yeah, we're doing it.
01:10It's kind of like when you're in your drug addiction, or if you've ever known somebody
01:13in their drug addiction, where you look at them at one point and want to be like, yo,
01:17man, if sober, you could see you right now for two seconds, you'd be like, you change
01:22this, you do whatever it took to go back to that person. Like, you know what I mean? Like,
01:27because they don't see it. The addict don't see it when they're in the middle of it.
01:30They're so the drugs have them so often. Then later, they always look back at themselves
01:34like, why did nobody tell me we're like, we were all like, that was me. I look back now.
01:40I was like, I was 550 pounds. Like, whoa, you know what I mean? Like, how did I and
01:44I knew it, I could feel it, but I didn't see it. I didn't see it. So now when you see it,
01:51you're like, whoo, you know what I mean? Like, man, of course, my face is glowing. I was
01:57near a heart attack. Then, of course, I feel better now. It's crazy how dramatically different
02:02I feel about everything, Katie.
02:04I'm sure you're seeing a lot of things in a whole new way.
02:07100%. And here's I was, I was talking about it. This is how fat I was. I was so fat. Right?
02:14That we're celebrating me just being fat. You know what I'm saying? And like, I lost
02:20weight.
02:23We are celebrating the fact that we could take the word morbidly off of my obesity.
02:32I do want to say that, like, outside of the physical transformation, amazing. But I feel
02:37like for me, in every video I've seen, in every interview you've done the last few months
02:41for me, it's like the mental transformation. Like you truly like you seem so much lighter.
02:48Like I see a light in your eyes, a clarity.
02:51Yes, I'm so clear. It was getting rid of the phone and losing the weight, Katie.
02:54Getting rid of the phone, getting off social media, just not caring.
02:57Like, even about people getting in contact with me.
03:01Like, if me not, if you not having a way to contact me hurts your feelings, then
03:05it shows me what our relationship was to you.
03:08Exactly. I know you threw the phone in the river.
03:10For sure. The phone's been in the river.
03:12So you still don't have one.
03:13Still don't have a phone.
03:14Oh my God.
03:15True story.
03:16Good for you.
03:18I'm emailing people like 98.
03:19That's so nice though.
03:21I wish I had dial up.
03:22Right.
03:23I wish I could take it even a step further and hear the old modem before I send somebody an email.
03:27Oh my God.
03:28It's helped me though, Katie, because you know how much I've struggled with my mental stuff.
03:31It's like, and I think I thought finding success would just solve all those and cannibalize all my problems.
03:37Oh man.
03:38And then I found success and I was like, why is it not helping?
03:41And then everything's just like tenfold.
03:43Then you just have resources to do the stuff that was killing you.
03:46You know what I mean?
03:47So it's like, I just had to have a complete switch in the way I think about everything.
03:51Yeah.
03:52Well, and I think the stuff that you've been doing with Miles is amazing also.
03:55Listen, anything with onsite has been real therapy.
04:00He has a program called Milestones up there that's 30 days of intense trauma treatment.
04:06If I ever get 30 days, most people only go there in a crisis mode.
04:11If I ever get 30 days, I'm going to go.
04:13You know what I mean?
04:15At the end of my six days there was like, is there any way that I could just like pop down and stay a little longer?
04:20Yeah, for sure.
04:21Yeah.
04:22Can I come and say hi?
04:23You know, it's one of those things like working with true therapeutics has helped me understand me so much.
04:28And it's how I address my, so I started with calling Miles last March and going, hey man,
04:33I'm just now starting to be honest enough to realize that maybe my food addiction is a food addiction.
04:39You know what I mean?
04:40Like it sounds so corny to say food addiction.
04:43I didn't feel bad whenever I said I had a cocaine addiction.
04:45No.
04:46You know what I mean?
04:47I had no shame in that, but I felt this shame of saying I had a food addiction.
04:49You know what I mean?
04:50Which is so crazy.
04:51But let me tell you what I realized, Katie.
04:52How I did anything is how I did everything.
04:55Oh, that's a good one.
04:56You see what I'm saying?
04:57Put that in the song, please.
04:58Right?
04:59You get it?
05:00So like how I did anything is how I do everything.
05:02So when I look at it, oh yeah, I was celebrating getting off cocaine, but I was getting heavier.
05:09You know what I mean?
05:10And I look back at my life, I've always addiction swapped.
05:12I've never actually, it's always been a, yeah, you know, and then celebrate the thing you got over.
05:17But I ran out of mountains to climb.
05:20I kept, every one I'd climb a different mountain and it all kept leading to this Everest of my weight.
05:25And I finally took a serious, Katie, and I got it done.
05:27I'm excited.
05:28I'm getting it done.
05:29That's the best part.
05:30I'm proud of you.
05:31This is a journey.
05:32A year from now, God willing, a year from now, we're talking about my ninth or 10th number one.
05:36God willing.
05:37And we're down another hundred pounds.
05:40Then it's going to be a story to tell.
05:42Right now it's a story.
05:43It's going to be a movie by next year.
05:46Speaking of number ones, let's talk about this song.
05:49I would sit here and talk to you about mental health all day.
05:52You know that, but we have to talk about the music.
05:54The good news is my music is mental health driven.
05:56Liar is a mental health song.
05:58Liar is me addressing that voice in my head that would tell me I couldn't get better.
06:03It was going to be too hard.
06:05You've gotten too far behind.
06:07You know what I mean?
06:09It's going to tell you that you can't climb Everest.
06:10That's it.
06:11The voice that told me I couldn't climb Everest.
06:12The voice that told me that there's too much, I'm too far behind.
06:16It's just too much to do.
06:18Then it starts giving you the reason.
06:19You don't have time.
06:20You don't have the schedule.
06:21You don't have this.
06:22You can't live this way and do that at the same time.
06:25You can't serve both those masters.
06:26The only way you're going to lose this weight is if you don't do anything else.
06:29You know what I mean?
06:30I don't have time not to do anything else.
06:31What's more important then?
06:32Leaving something behind for your family and dying young?
06:35I was having these kind of thoughts.
06:38I'd rather go make a bunch of money and die at 52 than focus on my health right now and
06:44lose the chance of the momentum.
06:46This was the devil all playing tricks on me.
06:48This was all that enemy voice in my ear that I was believing for years and years and years.
06:53The same one that told me I could never do country music.
06:56I had proven I could beat that voice a thousand times.
06:59We're all always in a battle against that voice.
07:02You don't never get over it.
07:05You wake up and go to war with that.
07:06It's a new thing.
07:07I realized that in my faith, I'm not called to hide from the devil.
07:15I'm not called to be timid around him.
07:18I'm called to call him out.
07:19I'm called to tell him.
07:20You know what I'm saying?
07:21I'm called to look him in the eye and go, no, you're a liar.
07:24There's power in that.
07:26I hope people know when you're singing this song, you're bringing power to yourself.
07:30You're out loud professing to that voice, you are a liar.
07:35You have no place in my life.
07:36You know what I mean?
07:37That's what liar was for me.
07:39It was also the less timid side of mental health for me.
07:42I've always wrote from the perspective of my sadness.
07:45You know what I mean?
07:46But never mind.
07:47At one point, this is still very mental health driven, but it's standing up for yourself.
07:52Yeah.
07:53Against yourself.
07:54Yeah.
07:55Exactly.
07:56It's so empowering.
07:57From the second that you sang it at the ACM Awards last year, it has been such a moment.
08:01I'm so happy to see it doing the things that it's doing.
08:04I do want to ask, is this going to be last single from Beautifully Broken?
08:07Or are we going to see another one?
08:09You know what I love about you?
08:10I've done this many radio interviews today and you're the first person to ask.
08:13Really?
08:14I swear.
08:15I usually ask the team before I come in and they usually tell me that there's going to
08:17be another one or there's not.
08:18But I want to ask you about new music, but also this just came out in October.
08:21Yeah.
08:22I got so many songs on here.
08:23I'm not sure.
08:24I can tell you what's probably going to get me in trouble.
08:28My heart right now is hard fought, hallelujah.
08:33I just feel like to not do everything I can to get that song in front of as many people
08:38as it can possibly be heard by is the wrong thing to do right now, even if I have to sacrifice
08:43my own single.
08:44Talk about the story behind that song.
08:46Brandon Lake, I heard the song on TikTok literally the week before I threw my phone out.
08:50So I guess somewhere in the middle of November he started teasing it.
08:54And then because I didn't have a phone, I just kept getting on a laptop and looking
08:58up this song.
09:02This is the truth.
09:03I thought he was the same guy that did.
09:05You've seen the fires you started.
09:08He's got this really cool song.
09:11It's like, anyways, it was a TikTok song, too.
09:13So I thought they felt similar.
09:15I didn't know this was a Christian artist.
09:16I knew nothing about it.
09:17Yeah.
09:18So I'm just looking for this hard fought hallelujah song every day.
09:20And meanwhile, if you know, once every few days, man is FaceTiming me, Zooming me on
09:25a laptop and they're going, hey, man, this Christian artist is really blowing us up.
09:29He just wants to talk to you and be friends.
09:31You know, they might want to talk about you doing, but he just really wants to speak to
09:34you.
09:35And I was like, is this a dude that has a song called hard fought?
09:38Hallelujah.
09:39And my manager goes, yes.
09:40And I go, I need to talk to him right now.
09:43And we got right on a Zoom call FaceTime or whatever.
09:46And we spent hours just talking about God and life and family.
09:50And then finally it was like, can I do the song?
09:54You know what I mean?
09:55He was like, what?
09:56I was going to ask you to get on the song.
09:57And I'm asking him, like, can I get on the song?
09:59So I don't know, man.
10:01I mean, I hope we pick another single for beautifully broken, but if there's any way
10:04it's going to get in the way of what hard fought, hallelujah and God's doing with that
10:07song right now and what I think country radio could do with that song.
10:10And I'm going to vote towards hard fought.
10:12Hallelujah.
10:13Trust me, that's not necessarily the economically smart decision, but you know, but the right
10:18decision is the right decision.
10:20So hopefully we can serve two masters there.
10:22Yeah.
10:23But my heart and the label knows this.
10:24I've been very public about it and I'm public on radio about it right now.
10:27I think hard fought hallelujah should be my next single.
10:29That's amazing.
10:31We can get behind that.
10:32I think right now we're calling it a Brandon Lake single and I think it'd feel a little
10:35different radio if we call it a Jelly Roll and Brandon Lake single.
10:37Yes, I totally agree with that.
10:39I don't know how to say that without sounding weird, but it's the truth.
10:41No, but it's the truth.
10:42Yeah, it's the truth.
10:43That's the economics of this and how that works.
10:45Something fun that I want to talk to you about.
10:48You are going on this world tour with Post.
10:50Yes.
10:51And I literally.
10:52Big ass stadium tour.
10:53What a well thought out name, Post.
10:54I literally sat on the air the other day.
10:56I was like, what I wouldn't give to just see like Jelly Roll and Post on the streets of Paris.
10:59We're going to shut down a bar in Paris and play nothing but country music like we're
11:03in America.
11:04It's going to be awesome.
11:05Because that's what we do every time we get around each other.
11:07I hang out with Post all the time.
11:08We're always somewhere cornered off listening to country music.
11:11I love this.
11:12What place are you like most excited to go, most excited to see, explore?
11:15I know there's not a ton of time to explore on tour, but like where are you most excited
11:19to kind of like.
11:20I got some days off in Italy and Spain.
11:23My father's favorite food was Italian.
11:26Like literally his favorite food.
11:29And I think he went to Italy later in life.
11:31So I'm going to go eat a bunch of Italian food for him.
11:33But I'm just excited to go abroad.
11:35I'm excited to go places where they can't understand me.
11:38Like, you know what I mean?
11:39Because the few countries I've been to, they still understood me.
11:41I want to go somewhere where people are like, fucking what?
11:44You know what I'm saying?
11:45They're going to love you.
11:47It's going to be amazing.
11:49One of the other things, last time we were together, you guys were like finalizing the
11:52process of buying the farm, which you've since done.
11:54And now we're acquiring all these animals.
11:57Every time I get on TikTok, Bunny's like, here's another donkey.
11:59What do you think?
12:00Listen, at least you get to see it on TikTok.
12:02I get phone calls after the world's seen it, or people tell me that in the streets.
12:06People are like, I heard about the pigs.
12:08And I'm like, what pigs?
12:09They're like, we love the pigs.
12:11So I call my wife and go, do we buy pigs?
12:13You know what I'm saying?
12:14She's like, oh yeah.
12:15I meant to tell you, we got some pigs.
12:16I was like, you meant to tell me we got pigs?
12:18We got three pigs, Bunny?
12:21On the Amazon version of livestock.
12:23No, this is Bunny.
12:24She's just like, listen.
12:26It is so fun.
12:27And she is so invested.
12:28She's such a nurturer anyways.
12:31That's why I call her Mama Bear.
12:33And she's such a nurturer.
12:35But she connects with, her dog she has, Chachi, does not leave her side.
12:40It is like one of those dogs you see dudes have that are hunters.
12:44You know what I'm saying?
12:45It looks like Chase Rice, how his dog never leaves him.
12:47It's like Bunny's dog never leaves her side.
12:49She's created that connection with the cow.
12:52There's a cow named Crunch that's in our field right by our house.
12:56And she screams out the bedroom window, hey Crunchy!
13:00And the cow moves back.
13:02This is a true story.
13:03This cow moves.
13:04It moves at her in the morning through the bedroom.
13:06And then she goes and feeds it.
13:08They all rust before she gets to the fence because she brings animal crackers.
13:11It's insane kind of.
13:12Oh my God.
13:13Yeah.
13:14I've really been enjoying her and Bailey's adventures.
13:16You probably don't know this, but she posted one the other day about how she was introducing
13:18Bailey to sex in the city.
13:21You're in the background just like grinning ear to ear watching sex in the city.
13:23No.
13:24We're on Sex in the City and on TV?
13:26Yes.
13:27I mean on TikTok right now?
13:28Yes.
13:29God.
13:30Bunny films all day.
13:31So I never know what's going on.
13:32I didn't know she posted the donkey thing.
13:34Yeah.
13:35Until I was in the streets and everybody was asking me about this damn donkey.
13:38Right.
13:39And I was finally like, yo, did you post the donkey?
13:41She was like, it got 30 million views.
13:42I was like, I can tell.
13:44Everywhere I go, I'm talking about a donkey.
13:46Is everyone asking you also about Bailey's first date?
13:48Because she posted about that?
13:49Of course.
13:51And she was so open about it.
13:52But I'm curious like how you dad felt about Bailey's first date.
13:55I was happy for him.
13:56I think he's a great kid.
13:57I don't know.
13:58I'll let Bunny tell all these stories.
13:59I know my stories are terrible.
14:00I met the family already.
14:01They're great.
14:02That's great.
14:03They came by Grand Ole Opry that night.
14:04I feel bad for that guy though.
14:05Like you got to go on a date with Jelly Roll's daughter.
14:06Like that's a little bit scary.
14:07Yeah, for sure.
14:08But he was super cool.
14:09Him and his whole family came to see me at the Grand Ole Opry because I wanted to meet
14:10them because they're going to hang out.
14:11We need to meet the parents.
14:12But I didn't want to do it in a weird way.
14:13So I was like, okay.
14:14I was like, why don't you bring them by the Opry?
14:15I was like, it's a really cool neutral ground for us to hang out.
14:16You know what I mean?
14:17The Opry's neutral ground.
14:18Yeah.
14:19It's my ground obviously.
14:20But it's not as like meeting in the living room.
14:21You know the most awkward pair.
14:22You don't have teenagers, right?
14:23So you don't have kids.
14:24Do you have kids?
14:25No, I don't have kids yet.
14:26No.
14:27But my dad would always be like, when you bring a boy home, I'm going to be like cleaning
14:28my shop.
14:29You know what I mean?
14:30Like that vibe is very different.
14:31Yeah.
14:32It's like that idea of like meeting in this living room.
14:33Yeah.
14:34Yeah.
14:35Yeah.
14:36Yeah.
14:37Yeah.
14:38Yeah.
14:39Yeah.
14:45I don't know.
14:46I just felt weirded out by it.
14:47I was like, I don't want to get stuck in there.
14:48They're stuck in my living room or stuck in there.
14:50It's like, at least there's music and a bailout here.
14:52You know what I'm saying?
14:53You know, it's like speed dating this way.
14:55Right.
14:56We're not committed.
14:57There's been a bunch of good news obviously for everyone at your record label.
14:59Have you had the chance to talk to Lainey since her big announcement?
15:02Oh, of course, dude.
15:03Duck, more important, I got to talk to Duck.
15:05Okay.
15:06Duck, me and my wife, as recently as last night, Katie, we're talking about how happy
15:11for Lainey and Duck we are.
15:14I know Lainey.
15:15That's like my sister.
15:16And I know Duck.
15:17And when you see Lainey around Duck, she is so comfortable.
15:22They are so comfortable in each other.
15:24And that little life they have when it's just the two of them, you can tell is really cool.
15:29And I think that's what you can tell with me and Bunny is that what you're seeing on
15:32TikTok or in the world is a glimpse of what's happening with us when it's just us.
15:37Duck and Lainey are head over heels in love with each other.
15:39I'm going to be playing basketball with Duck tonight, by the way.
15:42Are you really?
15:43Tell him good job on that rock, my God.
15:45Listen, man.
15:46Duck does good, man.
15:47Duck did good, dude.
15:48Go, Duck, go.
15:49Everybody's happy for Lainey.
15:51I'm happy for Duck.
15:52No, truly.
15:53Truly.
15:54Wait, you mentioned you and Bunny and your relationship.
15:57And something I've always wondered is her legal name is Alyssa, yours is Jason.
16:02What do you guys call each other at home?
16:04Is it Jelly and Bunny?
16:05Or does she call you Jay sometimes?
16:06Is that what I'm hearing?
16:07She calls me Jay or some endearing term.
16:11I normally just call her Bear or Mama Bear.
16:13I just always call her that.
16:16But if I do address her, I call her Bunny.
16:18I also know that she don't really like being called Alyssa.
16:21One of her best friends that hangs around with us all the time, her name's Tasha Llama,
16:25and Llama calls her Lyss because that's what they called her back in high school was Lyss.
16:29And I think that's kind of cool.
16:31But even then, I think that's their thing.
16:33I'm also weird about my name.
16:35I don't like being called Jason if you're not a direct family member of mine.
16:40You know what I mean?
16:41If you call me Jason at some point in our life, it rubs me just a little weird.
16:44And I know it's the opposite of most artists.
16:46I got a lot of friends with nicknames that prefer to be called their government name.
16:49I prefer to be called Jelly.
16:51So Bunny knows that too, I think.
16:52But I like Jay.
16:53I think if you really know me and you call me Jay, that's respectful.
16:55That's very sweet.
16:57Last question as we start to wrap up, which I feel like we might talk about for a second
17:00here.
17:01I want to talk about all the amazing things that are happening for you, which the bar
17:05also, which you didn't get to.
17:06Congratulations on that opening.
17:08What are we manifesting next?
17:10You know, you always talk to me about big and dreaming bigger.
17:13Oh, dreaming bigger, Katie.
17:14Call me to the floor.
17:15I want to act.
17:16Okay.
17:17I want to act bad.
17:18I mean, I'm doing something in fire country, but like, I want to really do television.
17:22Like I'm doing Artists in Residence with American Idol.
17:24Yes.
17:25Super exciting.
17:26But I'm hoping these are all things that, like all my commercials, every time I've done
17:29one, I'm just silently praying that it's all building towards one day having an actual
17:33role.
17:34Oh my God.
17:35I'd love to do it.
17:36I love to tell stories.
17:37I'd love to do film.
17:38I'm getting comfortable.
17:39I've always been comfortable with my personality, but I'm getting comfortable with my skin.
17:42Yeah.
17:43And I think when those two things finally meet in the middle, where I'm confident in
17:46how I look and how I feel, man, I think that's good.
17:49That's a recipe for me maybe to get into TV.
17:51And I think it'll be fun too for people to see you be somebody else.
17:54Yes, man.
17:55You know what I mean?
17:56Like, and for you to step into somebody else, like that to me is always like the coolest
17:59thing.
18:00Yeah.
18:01I just, I love it, man.
18:02I'd love to do a role that just like something left field or produce a show.
18:04Even like be, even if I'm behind the scenes, I just like to invest my time in telling a
18:08story that way for a while.
18:09Can I tell you what I'm manifesting for you?
18:11Yes.
18:12I said this after the game this year, but I was like, mark my words, Jelly Roll's going
18:15to headline the Super Bowl three to five years.
18:17Oh God, I would cry, man.
18:19You know what my dream is for the Super Bowl?
18:21My dream is when it comes here in the next five years after we build our stadium, that
18:26they do a country music Super Bowl.
18:28I think it's coming.
18:29It has to be, right?
18:30And that it's like Garth Brooks does a couple of songs and then Dolly Parton does nine to
18:34five and then me and Laney do Save Me and then Morgan comes out and does two of them
18:39monster hits he's got and it's like, it becomes like this very country music Nashville kind
18:45of thing and it's happening at Nissan Stadium and kind of how they did the West Coast when
18:49they went to LA and Dre didn't just make it about Dre, he made it about all of the West
18:53Coast.
18:54Yeah.
18:55I hope that happens here in Nashville.
18:56I think it's going to.
18:57It feels like we're like primed and ready for that moment.
18:59Like you and I talk about this all the time.
19:01Country music doesn't feel like it's been this big in my lifetime.
19:05We talked about how country was bigger than it's ever been since the 90s the last time
19:08we were doing this show and the time before that and the time before that and I can tell
19:11you four years after our three years after our first time doing this show, it's gotten
19:15bigger.
19:16Yeah.
19:17It's only gotten bigger.
19:18Like Luke just sold out stadiums in Australia.
19:21Stadiums in Australia.
19:22You know what I mean?
19:23Morgan's going to do stadiums in the UK.
19:25You're talking like this is globally the biggest genre in the world right now.
19:31I know.
19:32I mean it's been the biggest genre in America for four years.
19:34It's the biggest genre in the world right now.
19:37It's unreal what's happening in country music.
19:39I said to Hardy, I was like, I feel so lucky to be alive and involved in country music
19:43at this moment in time.
19:44It's how people that reported in the 90s had to feel.
19:47Or the 70s.
19:48Right.
19:49You know what I mean?
19:51It's got that kind of a feeling around it.
19:53For sure.
19:54I always love talking to you.
19:55I'd sit here and talk to you all day.
19:56Thank you so much for the time.
19:58I'm so happy to see the song doing so well.
19:59Yay.
20:00So happy for you.
20:01Seventh number one.
20:02Seventh number one, baby.
20:03Here we go.
20:04Who would've thought?