Jelly Roll likes spreading himself around music’s genres – cleveland.com

Being unclassifiable is not usually a recipe for success in the music business.

But it’s sure working for Jelly Roll.

The Nashville-based singer, songwriter and rapper (real name Jason DeFord) has made his way to the top of several genre charts, especially during the past three years. “Dead Man Walking,” for instance, was No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart in 2021, while “Son of the Sinner” the following year was No. 1 for Country Airplay and No. 4 on Rock. “Need a Favor,” meanwhile, hit the top in both genres, while his latest album “Whitsitt Chapel,” released during June, was No. 1 Rock and No. 2 Country — not to mention No. 3 on the overall Billboard 200 and also No. 1 on the Top Independent Albums survey.

And Jelly Roll has a substantial rap following built from his own early albums as well as collaborations, primarily with good friend Struggle Jennings (Waylon Jennings’ step-grandson).

It’s a dizzying and largely unprecedented kind of success. And Jelly Roll confesses to be baffled by the widespread appeal.

“Man, I just can’t even…I don’t even know what to make of it,” the heavily tattooed 38-year-old –in the midst of his “Backroad Baptism Tour” — says by phone. “I literally didn’t dream of some of this stuff, it’s so big. I’m, like, confused about all of it, you know?

“My manager finally sat me down last week and his exact words were, ‘Hey man, you’ve got to stop this imposter syndrome (stuff). You’ve got to figure out how to start dealing with this better.’ I think he meant it with love, but he was honest, too.”

The “Backroad Baptism Tour” stops Saturday, Sept. 30, at Blossom Music Center.

Any confusion aside, however, Jelly Roll is comfortable and gratified to be playing to this wide of a field.

“I feel like that’s always going to be a topic of discussion with me,” he says of the diversity. “I’ve got to kind of accept that there’s rock purists that think I’m too country, there’s country purists that think I’m too rock, and I can’t shake it. Kid Rock used to say the same thing, and I never understood it until now.

“But at the end of the day, I just write the truth. I think that’s why I gravitate towards country a little bit more, ‘cause they coined the phrase ‘three chords and the truth,’ and I think three chords and the truth is what I’ve been doing my whole career.”

Jelly Roll’s run comes after a turbulent upbringing in Antioch, Tenn. that included serving time in prison for dealing drugs — though savvy enough to give away his early mixtapes with those sales. Rap was his first pursuit, including a four-part mixtape series called “Gamblin’ on the White Boy” and collaborations with fellow MCs such as Lil Wyte, Haystak and Tech N9ne as well as Jennings, and membership in the collective SNO. The country- and rock-oriented songwriting, meanwhile, allowed Jelly Roll to gain perspective on his youth in an entirely different and more insightful way.

“Telling my story with this explosion that’s happening in my career has helped me to re-live it and just go back and make peace with it,” he explains. “I got to go back to that juvenile and back to that day I was locked up. I’ve talked about (the youth he was) so much that I’m a little embarrassed of him now but I’m happy for him, the way it worked out. It’s been really cool for me to work through all these emotions, y’know?’”

Jelly Roll — who’s married and has two children, a son and daughter, from previous relationships — first charted with his independently released 2020 album “A Beautiful Disaster.” Country singer Craig Morgan, meanwhile, boosted him with an invitation for Jelly Roll to join him at the Grand Ole Opry in November of 2021, after the release of Jelly Roll’s major label debut, “Ballads of the Broken, the album that spawned “Dead Man Walking” and Son of a Sinner,” the latter of which also won three CMT Music Awards this past April.

All of that provided plenty of jet fuel for “Whitsitt Chapel,” which Jelly Roll and his cohorts — including guests Lainey Wilson (on “Save Me”), Brantley Gilbert, Jennings and Yelawolf — labored over, even throwing out a substantial number of songs before settling into the 13 that populate the set. “I know I’m nostalgic, but I miss artists putting albums out — like, projects, not just a bunch of songs like every other artist in this…town does,” Jelly Roll explains. “I was like, ‘Yo, man, that’s not what I do.’ What I do is write songs for people that (other) people don’t write songs for.

“That’s what this album is, and that’s how it kind of blossomed.”

His guiding creative philosophy, meanwhile, comes via a Bob Seger quote from the ‘70s. “This is the long-hair Silver Bullet Band Bob — and they asked him, ‘Where do you get that voice from, that big, river-flowing voice of yours? Where do you find it?’” recalls Jelly Roll, who lists Seger’s “Against the Wind as “my favorite song of all time.” “He said, ‘I find it by searching for songs I can sing with conviction.’

“And that quote has been taped on the wall in every studio I’ve had for a decade.”

Jelly Roll is applying the same conviction to the “Backroad Baptism Tour,” which he describes as “a mix of a rock show, a rap show, an old outlaw show but most importantly a little bit of a back road tent revival” that also features plenty of pyrotechnics and a band that plays with both rock crunch and country twang. Yelawolf and Jennings are on the road with him to maintain the hip-hop roots as well.

“This is an opportunity for me to touch people and stand in front of hundreds of thousands of souls every night,” Jelly Roll says, “and because of that I put up the money to bring the best show I can bring.”

He’s plotting the future, too, albeit loosely. Some time off is on the docket after the tour, but he’d like to make a full-scale rock album at some point. Meanwhile, he’s “got a bunch of songs” for whatever comes next — or perhaps for whoever might want them since writing for others is also a goal.

Mostly, however, Jelly Roll says he’s fighting to enjoy the moment and not get too far ahead of himself.

“I’m a one mountain at a time kind of guy,” he notes. “The way my mental health’s set up, my anxiety, I get overwhelmed. So I try to just focus on things one at a time and not worry about the next one ‘til I get to the top of the one I’m working on now.”

Jelly Roll’s Backyard Baptism Tour, with Yelawolf and Struggle Jennings, plays at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, at Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls. 330-920-8040 or livenation.com.