Country rap star-on-the-rise Jelly Roll has shared a new song ahead of the biggest headlining show of his career – and closing out his biggest year to date.
His latest track, “NEED A FAVOR,” arrives the morning of his homecoming concert, where he’ll headline Nashville’s nearly 19,000-capacity Bridgestone Arena on Friday (Dec. 9). This year has marked Jelly Roll’s (born Jason DeFord) breakthrough with a No. 1 song on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with “Dead Man Walking,” a tune in the Top 10 of the Country Airplay chart with “Son of a Sinner,” and more hits in his back pocket.
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From selling mixtapes out of his car and dropping more than a dozen independent albums to selling out shows and topping the charts, Jelly Roll’s success has been a long time coming.
“You couldn’t write a Cinderella story cooler than this, saying that I’ll have a headlining show at Bridgestone while I have a top 10 at country radio,” he told Billboard in conversation about his breakthrough year. “I look at it like it’s my introduction party to Nashville, even though I was born here.
“What I think I represent is just a beacon of hope,” he added. “I don’t look like the guy that you would’ve assumed would’ve made it [in the music industry].”
Using country star Sam Hunt as an example, he proved his point. “Sam is just a big striking, handsome guy,” he said. When you see him, you’re like, ‘Oh, I get it.’ When you see me, you don’t get it initially — then you meet me, and hear the story and hear the music. I just feel like I represent the guy who looks at himself in the mirror every day and goes, ‘Yeah, guys like me don’t make it.’”
Jelly Roll’s latest release “NEED A FAVOR,” a song about the internal fight between faith and vices, is available below.
Photo Credit: Patrick Tohill / Courtesy of Lime Tree Music