‘I Can’t Believe My Fat White Ass Is in the Hamptons!’ Jelly Roll Rocks Bradley Cooper, Jon Hamm, Howard Stern and More Elite at SiriusXM Show: Concert Review
It’s hard to imagine a less likely setting for a Jelly Roll concert than Amagansett, which is basically part of the Hamptons, the seaside enclave on the eastern end of Long Island that has long been the flexy summer retreat for Manhattan’s ultra-moneyed elite. And although it was a specially invited audience of SiriusXM subscribers and superstars like Bradley Cooper, Jon Hamm, Jimmy Fallon, Shawn Levy, George Stephanopoulos, Fox 5 co-host Rosanna Scotto and at least one Real Housewife, there was a warmth to this plus-sized, heavily tattooed, deeply gracious and galvanizing artist’s performance that speaks not only to his raucous fusion of country, rock and hip-hop, but also his one-in-a-million ability to connect. One longtime associate noted that this was probably the oldest and wealthiest audience Jelly had ever played to, and he had them in the palm of his tattooed hand from the jump.
While the venue — Stephen Talkhouse, a 200-ish capacity club — may have led one to envision a small and intimate show, the show was held not inside the venue but in the back, under a sprawling, elaborately tricked-out tent that had several well-stocked bars and was festooned with plants and, no joke, hay bales, which meant that the hyped-up audience (the drinks were free) was watching Jelly while smelling hay. And the whole thing concluded with not just a meet-and-greet with the man himself, but a massive free barbeque.
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The show was broadcast live over the network’s Highway channel — listen here — and throughout the set Jelly shouted out the listeners and thanked the SiriusXM for its support and the role it has played in launching his late-blooming career: He’s nearly 40 and has been at it for two decades, and now that his moment is here, he is clearly savoring it, thanking the audience graciously multiple times as well as his wife and two children, his mother and four siblings, his band, crew and team — and spoke at length about how far he’s come from the East Nashville projects where he was raised, not to mention the substance abuse and years in prison that he’s risen so far above, yet will always remain with him.
Like many special SiriusXM shows, Jelly Roll played a custom set, combining his hits and songs from his forthconing album with a fascinatingly curated bunch of covers that are basically his musical DNA. He spoke of “smelling a skunk in the house” when he was a child and finally realizing it was coming from his older brother’s room, “and I heard this sound coming from behind the door”: The keyboardist then launched into the hook from N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton” and he played a medley of that song, Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson.” He spoke of his sister’s wide ranging taste in rock music, which spanned from Nirvana and the Rolling Stones to the Eagles, and played both Green Day’s “Good Riddance” and a soulful version of Hootie and the Blowfish’s 1994 hit “Let Her Cry.” And he talked about his mother and grandmother’s deep love of country, everything from George Strait and Alan Jackson to Waylon and Hank, and played both Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places” and
And he also talked about how much being interviewed by SiriusXM’s Howard Stern had meant to him, and how he’d played a couple of covers specifically for his appearance on the show, but since this was a SiriusXM show, it was probably OK to repeat them here — and then launched into Otis Redding’s bittersweet 1967 swan song, “Sittin’ on the Dock of a Bay.” Even his intro music was a sort of dial-spinning collection of snippets in the vein of the songs above, concluding with Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” (maybe a nod to his recent cover conversation with the Jersey legend in Interview).
And although the two could not be much more different in appearance, his stage presence was reminiscent of Tom Petty’s in its warmth. Jelly is more effusive with his gratitude and, despite his size, less intimidating, but both performers know (or knew) how to make their audiences feel like their friends — and despite that warmth, there’s an underlying toughness: you know they’ve seen some shit.
Of course, he also played the hits that got him to where he is: “Save Me,” “Son of a Sinner,” “Need a Favor,” “I’m Not OK,” his new single “Liar” and more. His powerful and road-tested band matched him every step of the way and he introduced all of them at the end of the set — his powerhouse drummer is a plus-sized man with a formidable mullet named Pork Chop.
Especially today, when a song that a 17-year-old records in their bedroom can suddenly vault them to international stardom and performance expectations that they’re nowhere near prepared for, years of playing dive bars and having to win over audiences pay off. Jelly is as vivid an example of that as one is likely to see — yes, most of the audience was there specifically to see him, but his ability to connect with an audience, both collectively and individually, is rare. And after the show ended, he spent at least half an hour in a meet-and-greet, shaking hands and slapping backs and taking photos until every person in line had gotten one.
His first arena tour launches August 27 in Salt Lake City and continues across the continent through the end of November — it’s not hard to imagine that Jelly Roll’s big voice, sound and presence will fill those arenas as easily as this overstuffed tent in the Hamptons.
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