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Jelly Roll Is Living In The Moment And Giving Back

Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group

Jelly Roll has been “living in the moment” after setting his phone aside a few weeks ago to concentrate on life and his family. He even stayed away from his phone during last week’s CMA Awards to live in the moment.

I asked him how he was taking care of himself lately backstage after he won the CMA’s New Artist of the Year award. He told me, “Oh dude, I’m doing better than I have ever done. I’m eating better, losing weight, drinking water, and not drinking as much, but when I drink, I still drink a lot. Tonight (11/8) will be one of those nights.”

He continued, “I’m feeling great, and you know, the cool thing is I was telling my wife just a second ago I haven’t touched my phone tonight at all. I have lived this moment, dude. I got to sit next to Zac Brown and my wife and Lainey Wilson and Post Malone. I soaked it all in. I don’t know what the phone said; I’m hearing good things. I hope it’s true.”

RELATED: Jelly Roll on GRAMMY Nods: ‘I Haven’t Cried Like This Since My Daddy Died’

Jelly hasn’t just been hearing good things; he has also been doing good things, giving back to his hometown of Antioch, a suburb of Nashville, where he recently performed at a Walmart parking lot for a toy drive.

He explained, “I’m from Nashville, Tennessee. I grew up here, and I really take a lot of pride in that; it means a lot to me. I’ve watched this town grow so much; it’s been so incredible, and my spirit is always to give back. Who would I be if I was so blessed and not turn around and try to be a blessing?”

Jelly added, “So we chose the toy drive this year; it was kind of my daughter’s dream; she started doing it at a real small local level with her aunt, who owns a bar in White House, Tennessee, for the last four or five years and called it Buddy’s Toy Drive after my late father.”

Jelly posted about the toy drive to Instagram earlier this month (11/1). Walmart stores in the Nashville area are still taking donations at various stores.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzJhH7xOY1a/

Jelly Roll: Five Of His Friends In Country Music

  • Lainey Wilson

    Lainey and Jelly have been friends for a while now and are currently nominated for a CMA together for Musical Event of the Year for their collaboration of “Save Me.” They are on the same record label and are both having massive success. Wilson said in an interview earlier this year that she was an extra in his music video in 2013. She said it was the one Jelly did with Uncle Kracker, admitting she played “a drunk girl, passed out on the ground.” While that was her first interaction with him, they have since become good friends, and he considers her to be a sister.

  • Ashley McBryde

    Ashley recently opened shows for Jelly Roll. When I interviewed her recently, she told me about the man. Ashley shared about her friend, “He’s so loving and so inviting. I love being on the road with him. The culture he has created with his band, crew, and everything about that is really welcoming.” She added, “He told me my first day, ‘You’ll never feel more at home on any tour than you will on this tour.’ And I thought at first, ‘Aw, I don’t know, I’ve toured with some really amazing tours.’ He told me, ‘You’ll never feel more at home with any fanbase than you are with mine,’ and he’s right. His fan base is so diverse, and at first, when you look at a snapshot of it, you go, ‘These people don’t all belong under the same canopy right now,’ but they do. And that feeling while you’re watching a show is amazing.”

  • Cody Johnson

    Cody Johns in s red shirt and hat and Jelly Roll in a ball cap and denim jacket
    Jason Kempin x2/Getty Images

    Cody told us of Jelly in June, “Jelly’s one of my favorite people to hang out with. You may not look at me and know this, but I have a pretty jaded past as well.” He added, “I’ve always said there was a time in my life when I had to make a decision, and that decision was to chase this dream professionally with a good mindset. There are a few mistakes I’ve made in my life and decisions in my life where I could have wound up here, or I very well could have wound up in jail.” He concluded, “It’s almost like a blessing and a curse because we put so much on ourselves. And I relate to him, and he relates to me, and we’re so opposite; you’ve got the cowboy hat and the face tattoos… I think it’s a very opposite attraction kind of thing. The respect is mutual and real recognizes real.”

  • Miranda Lambert

    Miranda revealed that she and Jelly Roll were writing songs together in January. Lambert posted a couple of photos to her Instagram, one with her, Jelly Roll, and a songwriter named Telenitry. She wrote, “Made a new friend this week! Jesse was right when he said we go together like biscuits and gravy! Loved writing a tune with @jellyroll615 and @telemitry.”

  • Riley Green

    Green recently announced he is releasing a new album, Ain’t My Last Rodeo, on October 13 on BMLG Records. The 12-track project is named after a song on the album, “My Last Rodeo,” which the singer wrote solo following one of the final conversations he had with his late Grandaddy Buford while in the hospital. Riley has a song with Jelly Roll called “Copenhagen In A Cadillac” that he co-wrote on the project and a cover of Tim McGraw’s “Damn Country Music.” Green has sung on stage with Jelly many times and considers the Nashville area native a good friend.

    @rileyduckman

    Congrats @Jelly Roll #weouthere #countrymusic #nashville #anothersundaymornin #jellyroll #jellyrollconcert 🎥 @Austin Screws

    ♬ original sound - Riley Green

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.

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Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group
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