Jelly Roll's stardom shines, hometown crowd at Bridgestone Arena in awe
Jelly Roll's sold-out appearance at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena was a memorable moment in country and rock music's re-ascendance in creating mainstream pop superstars.
Once upon a time, being a long-haired son of a sinner who needed saving from themselves could guarantee mainstream music superstardom.
Seven decades have elapsed since guys filling that description were often slick jelly-roll pompadour hairdo-sporting hillbillies who quickly blurred the edges between soul and gospel, pop and rock by using vernacular familiar to those with marginalized social and cultural backgrounds.
When heavily face-tattooed and rotund veteran singer-songwriter Jelly Roll -- aka Jason DeFord, a 37-year-old native of Nashville's Antioch suburbs -- took the stage on Lower Broadway on Friday evening (following openers Parmalee), the first track he played extolled the virtues of sipping a potent mixture of Actavis cough syrup and soda while smoking pungent cannabis in the faces of his detractors.
Seven decades ago, this would be an act fulfilling the definition of being a freewheeling rock and roll star.
However, seventy years later and the idea that DeFord -- who spent much of his drug-addicted, law-breaking youth in Davidson County's juvenile detention centers and corrections facilities -- would have a No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart ("Dead Man Walking") and the Country Airplay chart's No. 3 (and rising) single ("Son of a Sinner") in the same year, but open his show rapping could still be a jarring disconnect.
Here, for most in attendance, it was not.
This is because before signing with BBR Music Group in 2021, Jelly Roll had already independently released 23 albums, EPs, or mixtapes -- many featuring him rapping. From doing so, he earned co-signs from artists like Academy Award-winners Three Six Mafia, independent stalwarts Tech N9ne and Krizz Kaliko (who appeared at Bridgestone Arena to perform their appearance on the Jelly Roll track "Creatures"), plus fellow Nashville native and country, rap and rock hybrid artist Struggle Jennings.
"[Jelly Roll] rose to the occasion, faced every battle, and never gave up. He's the biggest [local-to-global] success story in Nashville, Tennessee's history," said Jennings after appearing onstage to collaborate on his previously-released Jelly Roll collaborations "Cowboys" and "Fall in the Fall."
Jelly Roll's bluesy, gritty Joe Cocker-style crooning vocal performances have unexpectedly dominated country and rock music in 2022. This follows a breakout, sold-out concert for Music City's mainstream at the Ryman Auditorium in September 2021.
However, this concert was attended by five times more people. In addition, it featured an appearance from iconic combat sports ring announcer Michael Buffer asking a crowd fueled as much by adrenaline as they were by alcohol or other mind-altering substances if they were ready to rumble.
Bridgestone Arena approvingly responded with a supersonic jet takeoff-style roar.
Jelly Roll's story is best told as a perpetual tale of redemption. Thus, he's "come a long way" so many times in his life that his past 18 months are as much mind-blowing as they are continuing in a set of moments that -- when merged with mainstream acceptance, marketing know-how, and a 3-D stage set with fire shooting from the stage, fireworks falling from the ceiling and carbon dioxide cannons -- evolve him quickly from being mischaracterized as an emerging pop star to simply continuing to exist as a folk hero reasserting his living legend status to a broader audience than ever before.
Before his 2021 concert, DeFord told Billboard that his main goal in elevating his career to the point where he could achieve peak visibility via a mainstream label was to evolve Nashville from a hub where country music's vaunted style of co-writes between a well-protected system of songwriters yielded hits, to one where hip-hop's spirit of hustling and writing with anyone who wanted to work to direct-to-consumer super-serve street-level listeners was the expectation.
To wit, Big Loud-signed ERNEST appeared at the concert to perform not just his 2022 hit country single "Flower Shops" but also to duet on "Son of a Sinner," which he co-wrote with Jelly Roll.
Before performing, ERNEST noted to the crowd that years before his mainstream success, he spent his formative years as a developing rapper and songwriter, often smoking high-concentrate THC (the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana) with Jelly Roll.
If that's not proof that Jelly Roll's success is aiding in spearheading Nashville's fast-evolving music scene, other artists like fellow Nashville native Chris Young appeared (singing his 2021 country award-winner "Famous Friends") alongside artists including Sam Hunt (for "Body Like A Back Road") and Riley Green, who appeared because DeFord noted that Green's "I Wish Grandpas Never Died," helped his family grieve the March 2019 passing of his father, Horace DeFord.
"This is a family reunion where we play therapeutic music," Jelly Roll told the crowd roughly halfway through the concert.
A crowd filled with tear-jerked and sweat-stained faces of predominantly blue-collar or otherwise hardscrabble root-borne fans holding aloft signs highlighting the date of their sobriety, release from incarceration, or survival after potentially terminal medical diagnosis cheered wildly in approval.
Even deeper -- though advised not to -- he added what he called "a political statement" to his showcase.
"We have got to legalize weed in the state of Tennessee. Let's get prescription pills and heroin off the streets and put weed on them," DeFord stated to a rousing ovation.
"Jelly Roll is for the kids," he added with a wry smile.
The final half-hour of Jelly Roll's concert was a masterful summary of the lessons and success his past has yielded him, plus the incredible potential of his future.
It kicked off with him performing "She," a mournful new ballad about the perils of addiction. This was followed by an appearance by his 13-year-old daughter Bailee Ann, who was born to his formerly substance-addicted ex-partner (he's currently married to content creator Bunnie XO). Next, they performed their 2019-released rap duet "Tears Could Talk," in which his daughter wrote about the pain of watching her mother's suffering.
Then, as they have for dates in which they've performed together in 2022, rock act Shinedown's Brent Smith and Zach Myers appeared and performed an acoustic version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic "Simple Man" with Jelly Roll. The Fisk Jubilee Singers then ascended to a stage 150 feet away from the main stage and performed Jelly Roll's next single, the gospel-tinged "I Need A Favor." The night closed with "Save Me."
The song was as much a story of the power of salvation as it was proof that having redeemed people who uniquely believe in the power of music to change our lives, being positioned as music industry superstars could be the best thing.
Jelly Roll at Bridgestone Arena -- 12/9/2022 -- SETLIST
The Hate Goes On
Only
Same A**hole
Son of the Dirty South
Famous Friends (with Chris Young)
Cowboys (with Struggle Jennings)
Fall In the Fall (with Struggle Jennings)
Smoking Section
Over You
Medley, including "House of the Rising Sun" and "Body Like a Back Road" (with Sam Hunt)
Bottle and Mary Jane
I Wish Grandpas Never Died (with Riley Green)
Flower Shops (with Ernest)
Son of a Sinner (with Ernest
Creature (with Tech N9ne and Krizz Kaliko)
Dead Man Walking
She
Tears Could Talk (with Bailee Ann DeFord)
Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd Cover with Zach Myers and Brent Smith of Shinedown)
I Need You
I Need a Favor (with Fisk Jubilee Singers)
Save Me
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jelly Roll's stardom shines, hometown crowd at Bridgestone Arena in awe
