Jelly Roll is breaking history with “Need A Favor.”
As of this week, he became the first artist to ever have the same song simultaneously be in the Top 10 of both the Country Airplay chart and Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, after it cracked the Top 10 at country radio over the weekend, coming in at #8 on the Mediabase chart (one of two labels use to officially track their songs performance):
The song is currently sitting at #3 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart as well, according to Billboard.
It was of course included on Jelly’s recent debut country album Whitsitt Chapel, and was written by Jelly Roll along with Rob Ragosta, Joe Ragosta and Austin Nivarel.
Last year, Jelly scored a Top 10 on both charts with two different songs, “Dead Man Walking” and his first #1 hit at country radio, “Son of a Sinner,” becoming just the eight act to ever do so.
Other artists to have appeared in the Top 10 of both charts (albeit not simultaneously) include Bon Jovi, Zac Brown Band, Brantley Gilbert, Kid Rock, Dave Matthews, Sting and Travis Tritt and Hardy as of last year with “Jack.”
And who knows, at his current rate skyrocketing up the charts, he might just become the first artist to ever have one song at the #1 spot simultaneously on the two aforementioned charts.
“Need A Favor”
He also recently released a duet version of “Need A Favor” with Lainey Wilson:
Jelly Roll Honors George Jones With Cover Of “Bartender Blues” At “Still Playin’ Possum” Tribute
The show was titled Still Playin’ Possum: Music & Memories of George Jones and was graced with an all-star country music lineup. Who all played there you ask? The better question is who didn’t.
The George Jones tribute had a jam-packed lineup consisting of Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, Jamey Johnson, Justin Moore, Lorrie Morgan, Mark Chesnutt, Michael Ray, Sam Moore, Tanya Tucker, Tracy Lawrence, Trace Adkins, Tracy Byrd, Travis Tritt, Wynonna Judd, Aaron Lewis, Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke, Dillon Carmichael, Gretchen Wilson, Joe Nichols, Randy Travis, and Sara Evans.
Jelly Roll, Riley Green, The Oak Ridge Boys, Janie Fricke, Uncle Kracker, and The Isaacs were late additions to the show, but good thing Jelly Roll joined up because he absolutely killed his cover of the 1978 classic “Bartender Blues.”
Written by James Taylor, it was first released on his 1977 album JT, and then released by Jones the following year on his album of the same name.
Upon it’s original release, the song charted as high as number six on the country charts and remained on the Billboard list for fourteen weeks.
Jelly Roll has burst onto the music scene in recent years, being categorized as a multitalented singer, songwriter, musician, and rapper. The artist is most prominently known in the country music industry for his song “Son Of A Sinner,” for which he won three CMT Music Awards earlier this year.
Jelly Roll stepped onto the stage at Still Playin’ Possum and delivered a solid performance of one of Jones’ greatest hits. The crowd joins in the iconic chorus of “Bartender Blues:”
“But I got four walls around me, to hold my life
To keep me from going astray
And a honky tonk angel, to hold me tight
To keep me from slipping away
Well I can light up your smokes
I can laugh at your jokes
I can watch you fall down on your knees
I can close down this bar
Oh and gas up my car
And I can pack up and mail in my keys…”
Check it out:
Jelly Roll Talks Mother’s Mental Health Struggles On Joe Rogan
Jelly Roll has quite a story to tell.
The rapper-turned-country artist has a new album called Whitsitt Chapel due out everywhere soon on June 2nd, and today, he appeared on the massive Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
They talked about everything from his growing up in Nashville, to him going in and out of prison from a young age, being a rapper, and of course, his forthcoming country project.
Jelly, whose real name is Jason DeFord, has a pretty incredible personal comeback story, spending much of his early life in Music City in and out of the prison system.
He first entered the juvenile system at the age of 14, and spent his late teens and early 20s in and out of jail on charges like aggravated robbery and drug possession with intent to deliver.
And he told host Joe Rogan that he’s always made music to help himself and others get through hard times, specifically inspired by his mother, who struggled with severe mental health issues when he was a child.
Jelly says that she would rarely even leave her room, and when she did, it was to go put on a record in the kitchen. He understandably got really choked up telling story, wiping away a tear as he explained:
“I want to help people, Joe. My music has always been therapeutic. My music has always been for people. What got me into music was my mother.
So my mother was a woman who struggled with extreme mental health issues and drug addiction, and she would never come out of her room, Joe. And she would come downstairs and she’d throw a record on, and she’d light a cigarette at the table.
And dude, I would watch the house change. Brothers, sisters, cousins coming from across the street, we lived in a real tight neighborhood. Poor people, you know? Neighbors coming over, her friends start flooding the house.”
He continued, saying that she would tell stories about the songs she played, and they all just believed whatever she said, because they didn’t have Google back then:
“And she held court, Joe, I would watch our kitchen turn into a nightclub. And she’d start tellin’ stories, and listen, we didn’t have Google, we had to believe the bitch back then, you know what I’m sayin’?
So she would be like, ‘James Taylor wrote this about his drug addicted mother’ or something and play ‘Fire and Rain.’ Or she’d be like like, Bette Midler wrote ‘The Rose’ about… and we’re just all captivated.
And then she’d play ‘The Rose’ and we’re all cryin’ in the kitchen together. And I didn’t understand, ‘cuz I’m a kid, right? But something changed in her when the record went on, is how I looked at it.”
Jelly noted that there was obviously a lot more going on with her that he was unaware of because he was a child, but he did realize that the only time she’d leave her room was because of the music.
He added that he spent his “whole life writing songs for her,” not realizing for a while that he was writing it for many people who were also “addicted and broken”:
“I didn’t know anything about drug addiction, anything about schizophrenia or bipolar or any of the stuff she was dealing with, her manic depression back then, what they call it, I didn’t know any of this.
I just knew that this lady never fuckin’ leaves that room, and when she does, it seems like the music does it. So I spent my whole life writing songs for her. I indirectly was writing these songs for the addicted and the broken, you know what I mean? Because that’s what I was seeing.
I found purpose in the music. And like I tell people, if I was gonna do it for money, like any sane fuckin’ comedian or musician, I’d have quit 10 years ago, ‘cuz fuck, I didn’t make any for 15 years…
I just knew that it was always helping people, because I had seen how it helped my mother and I knew the power of music.”
I mean, I don’t know know how you can’t love everything about Jelly Roll and his story.
He comes across as such a down to earth, authentic, and humble person who really does care deeply about his music and the people who listen to it with no other motives or intentions.
You can watch the full clip below, it’s well-worth your time to do so:
Jelly Roll also recently debuted a song from the album with Lainey Wilson at the ACM Awards called “Save Me”:
“Need A Favor”
