JELLY ROLL'S: OUTLAW GOSPEL

There was a moment at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium during the Country Music Association’s CMA Fest where the middle of the field seemed to be moving. A crush of people pressed forward. Those in attendance assumed it was a superstar being rushed to the stage.

Morgan Wallen? Shania Twain? Taylor Swift?

No, the object of the foment was Nashville rap/rock sensation and now Country-radio chart-topper Jelly Roll. With his face tattoos, gold teeth, felon status and Broken Bow debut, Whitsitt Chapel, he’s the unlikeliest savior classic country could imagine. But like Merle Haggard and Johnny Paycheck, who both served time, the man born Jason DeFord explores the rough side of life, including devastation from poverty and addiction, on the way to seeking redemption―and inspiring others to seek it, too.

“Son of a Sinner” topped the Country radio charts. “Need a Favor” hit #1 on the Active Rock charts and entering the country Top 5. “Save Me,” featuring Lainey Wilson, was a surprise highlight of the Academy of Country Music Awards. Then there’s the Hulu doc Jelly Roll: Save Me, produced by ABC News, which has forced people to see how trailer life in Antioch can steer a kid to drug-dealing, juvie can put him to the mat and music can, in this case, save.

After rapping with friends Struggle Jennings and Yelawolf, Jelly Roll is now writing with Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde and Grammy-winning producer Zach Crowell. Like Kris Kristofferson, he’s found poetry and hope in the cast-off part of life most people don’t want to see. And with Whitsitt Chapel, he emerges as a full-on, old-school country artist; mournful in places, smooth in others. The album bears witness to anyone trying to figure how to survive the worst they can endure.

How did that feel at Nissan, rushing through the crowd?

I imagined being a professional fighter, being taken to the ring. All the people putting their hands on my shoulders. And I had nerves like I was gonna get up and get punched. That adrenaline was pumping.

When I went out to do soundcheck, during the walk to the stage, all I could do was think, There’s gonna be 60,000 people here. And then I was up there. The way all those spotlights shot up from the stage, it felt like all that light was just raining down. It was like the heavens opened up to spotlight me at the biggest night in country music.

You spoke from the stage to the kids at the juvenile detention center where you were incarcerated.

That was the biggest part of that performance for me―it was for those kids. The building is right next to the stadium; it shares a parking lot. So when they’d have Titans games, we could hear every play being called. Can you imagine being a juvenile and hearing the biggest country-music party going on? They’re bouncing off the walls, taking it in. I bet those kids didn’t sleep ’til 2, 3am. I’m going there to talk to them tomorrow.

You’re living proof you can turn it around.

You don’t see it when it happens slowly, but you look back and realize, I’m not who I was five years ago, or even a year ago. It’s pretty simple: Who we were isn’t who we are, and who we are isn’t who we can be.

All those rap albums, the collaborations with Struggle and Yelawolf―you’re established in that world. But instead of country leaning hip-hop, which we’ve seen, you did the Nashville reverse: hip-hop to country.

I’m like the prodigal son come home. People look at me and think, Hmm. But I’ve always told the truth in my music―and country music has always been on the front line of that. All the music I’ve made was really just country but through other genres. Now I’m back to the root of all of it.

It seems like your mother has a lot to do with your sense of old-school, classic country.

My mom struggled with mental-health issues. She hardly ever came out of her room, but when she did, she’d throw on a record―and our whole kitchen would come alive. To see music have that power was not lost on me. It’s why I’m old-school, why albums mean something to me.

“She” was inspired in part by your mom, right?

And my child’s mother, the way drugs can get ahold of someone so special and take all that away. It really hit me when my daughter was calling, asking how to make dinner―and she wasn’t four years old.

I didn’t give the person in the song a name because we all have someone who gets trapped. In some ways I wrote it for the person who has a “She” in their life. It was important to put that out there for the person living with and watching it. And I get hundreds of DMs from people getting sober or trying to cope with losing people.

“Son of a Sinner” is a vulnerable, confessional song that embraces your struggle. “Need a Favor” has maybe struck an even deeper nerve.

This has been by far the most energetic reaction I’ve ever had to any song. I see it everywhere. I did the “Darius [Rucker] and Friends” benefit concert a few nights ago as a surprise guest, and it took the show to a whole other level. My music’s been fire and brimstone, sad and lonely and haunted for so long, but “Favor” is the uplifting part of the sermon. People need that too.

You’re definitely connecting.

Music speaks to people on so many levels, but this song reaches right to the core. I had a 60-year-old lady come up to me at the grocery store. She’d seen us do it on the final of American Idol and started researching my music. Used to be someone like that might’ve stepped out of the way―now she’s listening to my songs.

You’re kind of creating church for non-churchgoers.

I think the Church is getting more accepting as its numbers fall off. They’re realizing that loving people and helping is what Jesus wanted, not judging and taking away from the people who need that love the most.

You’re creating a gospel for the cast-offs.

It’s unreal. I’ve never thought about putting up a big first-week number, you know? That’s not what my music does. Then Whitsitt Chapel dropped, and here we are.

I’m extremely focused on keeping the record growing, keeping the streaming numbers up and people building their own playlists with these songs. I’m out there calling radio and doing what I can, because I think there’s a message here for people, hopefully a message that will help them when they need it or when someone they know needs it.