The election may be just a few weeks away, but dont askJelly Rollfor voting advice.
People go, Why dont you tell people to vote for somebody?
he says during a break in rehearsals for his headlining arena tour.
You want me to tell people to vote for a system that wont let me vote?
Theres a lot of people that need to hear that in life, Jelly says.
Everybody is coming off a loss, baby.
The opposite happened.Man made plans, and God laughs.
I had got to a fork in the road.
I dropped Save Me, and as its going extremely viral, I started fielding record deals.
Im sitting in a room with a guy thats going, Man, I think youre a pop artist.
Youre country or Southern, but you have critical mass appeal.
But I thought Save Me was a country song.
So I chose to go with the Nashville label [Stoney Creek Records] instead of the pop side.
Who was the guy I met in 2014 compared to now?I was so fucking closethen.
Its crazy that it took another decade to get to where we are right now.
I was already kind of singing choruses, but this was when I was starting to first sing verses.
Its right around the time I started really picking up the guitar and learning how to play.
It was the beginning of this whole era for me.
You have your best friends names tattooed on your arms.
Are you all still tight?Im looking down on my right wrist right now and it says Rell.
Rell is coming on this tour to work with my wife.
I see Mondo, God rest his soul, he passed away.
He just got married.
Were still dear friends.
These are all my Antioch guys.
I see Hylyte on my left arm, who was my original DJ.
We started together 17 years ago, right when I got out of jail.
Hes with me now DJing the whole tour.
What do your old Antioch friends think about your success?They are so understanding of where Im at.
These guys will see me every four months at a show.
Now, there are obviously people where Im from that dont feel that way.
Everybody has an opinion of how you should be when you are successful.
You went to barber college.
I love cutting hair, but I didnt realize it was such a stationary job.
When youre doing it in jail, everything is stationary, right?
But I braided my daughters hair in the last year.
I knew how to do that my whole life, when I was a teenager in juvenile.
I can do under braids, over braids, French style.
How did you fit in there?I felt like white trash on Wall Street.
I felt really good out there!
I walked in and somebody came back going, Howard wants to holler at Jelly.
So I come out and Im like, I know you dont hug.
Howards like, I hug Jelly!
These were the feelings that seemed to surround what we were writing.
I took a lot of pride in the top line of this album, every lyric I fought for.
It took me 18 months to write this album.
I got a lot of music, man.
I wrote a lot of songs.
You know whats important about [my] song?
This was a glimpse of me getting to write what Im doingright now.
We wrote that at sunrise at a Pilot station.
Its got that old truck stop feeling.
MGK features on Time of Day.
Howd that come to be?And Yelawolf is doing the harmony Ooohs!
I had the chorus from a session I had with Ilsey, and we just couldnt land it.
When Yela walks in, MGK is like, Yo, give me a melody on here.
And we had Yela be a part of the record.
It was a cool rock & roll behind-the-scenes moment, like how Waylon and Willie used to do!
Thats the shit we were on, like, Waylon and Willie.
Wiz Khalifa is also on the LP on Higher Than Heaven.I love Wiz.
I love the culture that Wiz has always represented, his longevity, the staying power hes had.
I just love everything about him as a human too, how he parents.
We connect as friends.
So I hit him one night.
It was like, Yo, man.
I got a weed country song.
Its got a really cool vibe and I think you could spit on it.
He was like, Send it over right now.
So I hit him… and what I love about rappers is, that motherfucker was back that night!
He sent it right back.
You play a character at an AA meeting in the song Winning Streak, but youre not sober.
How did you get into that head space?I got a really unique relationship with sobriety.
I would get nervous when the police were behind me.
Now, when the cops are behind me, I almost want to wave at them and say hi.
Do you ever?I go out of my way to greet em.
They love it, man, because they know how hard it is [to go straight].
This is my redemption chain.
