Jelly Roll Talks GRAMMY Nomination at Spotify Best New Artist Party | The Green Room - video Dailymotion

Rolling Stone

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.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

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.

05:27 (upbeat music)

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05:37 [SNAP]

Jelly Roll Talks GRAMMY Nomination at Spotify Best New Artist Party | The Green Room

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