Jelly Roll discusses Grammy noms, CMA Awards and feeling 'seen, accepted and respected'

24 hours after being overcome by winning the Country Music Association's award for Best New Artist, Nashville-native country and rock star Jelly Roll received an even wilder notification:

He's been nominated for two awards at Feb. 4, 2024's Grammy Awards emanating from Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena.

Overwhelmed with emotion and after what he revealed to The Tennessean were 90 minutes of crying, the 39-year-old artist born Jason DeFord made the following statement in an Instagram post prompted by his wife, Bunnie, who believed that "honesty and rawness" have allowed him to reach the success he's achieving.

The video took him seven tries to record.

"The greatest honor an artist can ever hear is that they've been nominated for a Grammy -- and I got to hear that this morning. I haven't cried like this since my daddy died. I love [my fans] so...much," stated the performer nominated both for his Lainey Wilson collaboration "Save Me," as well as for Best New Artist alongside Coco Jones, Gracie Abrams, Fred Again.., Ice Spice, Noah Kahan, Victoria Monét and fellow Nashville favorites The War and Treaty.

"It's unreal. There's no greater award or honor than the Grammies -- either being nominated for or winning one is the dream of all dreams," stated the artist to The Tennessean.

Regarding "Save Me"'s success, Jelly Roll was incredibly proud of the song's life cycle being inclusive of his time before signing a distribution deal with BMG Nashville, including the song's re-release with recent CMA Entertainer of the Year award-winner Lainey Wilson and now a part of what he feels is a "larger Nashville moment" in popular culture.

"A song that's now healed and helped millions of people is being acclaimed on the largest platform possible. Sometimes, you do so much work and think people believe you're crazy. Similar to so many in Nashville right now -- like the War and Treaty, who I'm nominated alongside for Best New Artist -- we're being represented in greater numbers on larger platforms. This is an exciting moment for community and celebration [for Nashville overall]."

Moreover, Jelly Roll -- after pausing to laugh at how much success has altered the trajectory of his career and life in the past two days -- reflected on the viral social media moment surrounding his CMA Awards Best New Artist acceptance speech.

With under a minute left in his allotted time to accept the award, the performer raised his voice and exclaimed the following:

"There is something poetic about a 39-year-old man winning New Artist of the Year. I don't know where you're at in your life or what you're going through, but I wanna tell you to keep going, baby. I wanna tell you that success is on the other side [of what you're going through]. I wanna tell you that it's gonna be okay. I want to tell you that the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason -- because what's in front of you is so much more important than what's behind you. Let's party Nashville!"

Regarding the viral moment that speech is having, Jelly Roll added, "Social media uniting over me while I'm having a moment of critical acclaim is beautiful because it doesn't always happen that way."

Pausing again to allow the moment's gravity to settle even deeper, Jelly Roll added a final statement.

"I've spent my whole life being a large man but feeling unseen. In the past two days, I've never felt more seen, accepted and respected."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jelly Roll talks Grammy nominations, 'Save Me', CMA Awards 2023