Jelly Roll has already fulfilled a lot of dreams on his bucket list, thanks to his record-breaking year in country music, but there’s still something else he wants to accomplish. The Nashville native reveals he wants to be an actor, following in the footsteps of musician and actor Machine Gun Kelly.
“I want to act, really bad,” Jelly Roll tells Audacy. “I know it sounds weird. I never thought I would act, but I’ve been really inspired by what Machine Gun Kelly has done with his career the last three years. I’m one of the old-school guys, and this is weird, but if I see somebody do something, whatever in me, since I was a kid, instantly goes, ‘Oh, that’s doable.'”
Even at his worst days, Jelly Roll has always held onto the belief that if somebody else accomplished something, then he also could, even if it seemed impossible.
“If I knew somebody personally that did something, I was like, ‘Oh, this is achievable,” the “Save Me” singer reveals. “Even if it was some third cousin’s uncle played at the Grand Ole Opry, I was like, ‘Whoa, we might be able to play at the Grand Ole Opry. I know somebody’s third cousin uncle that played there.’ And watching MGK do all these independent films has really inspired me.”
Jelly Roll’s time in and out of prisons is now a well-documented part of his success story in country music. It’s an ironic twist on how differently his life could have turned out, with the 38-year-old maintaining that it was actually country music that saved him in the first place.
“I’ve realized in life, of all the emotions that one can feel, the worst two are probably helplessness and hopelessness,” Jelly Roll tells Good Morning America. “And there was a time in my life I felt both. To be able to turn that around and find myself, and be able to figure my life out and chase my dream and my passion …Music helped save my life long before I wrote a song.
“That’s what got me into songwriting was just how passionate I was about the music, and how much it could affect,” he adds. “Music was like a sense of therapy. It was an outlet; it was a way to express myself … I would be dead or in prison if it wasn’t for music, beyond the shadow of any doubt. I have no other qualifications.”
Jelly Roll’s Save Me documentary is streaming now on Hulu. He will begin his Backroad Baptism Tour on July 28, joined by a rotating list of opening acts, including Ashley McBryde, Chase Rice, Struggle Jennings, Caitlynne Curtis, Elle King, Merkules, Three 6 Mafia, Yelawolf and Josh Adam Meyers. Find Whitsitt Chapel and all of Jelly Roll’s music and upcoming shows at JellyRoll615.com
