‘Put Out Good Music + Hope It Helps People’

2023 is shaping as much as be the yr of Jelly Roll.

His newest album, Whitsitt Chapel, got here out on June 2 and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart, No. 2 on their Country Album chart and No. 3 on the all-encompassing Billboard 200. Just just a few days prior, he launched his documentary, Save Me, and he is mere weeks away from kicking off his large Backroad Baptism enviornment tour.

Those are only a few of the top-level accolades Jelly Roll is celebrating; do not forget, he was featured in The New York Times, he is picked up just a few awards already this yr and David Draiman gave him his private stamp of approval on Twitter.

“I feel on top of the world,” Jelly Roll informed Chuck Armstrong on Loudwire Nights (July 6).

“I mean, it’s hard to feel any other way. I could not even describe how this feels. The beginning of 2022, my first show of the year was at an 800-person club in Buffalo, New York. The year ended with 16,600 people at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, completely sold out.”

Writing—and Rewriting—Whitsitt Chapel

When Jelly Roll will get requested about totally different genres—nation music this or rock music that—he would not get too hung up on the specifics.

“I write everything from an acoustic guitar,” he defined to Chuck, noting that he by no means approaches a tune with a selected sound or style in thoughts. “When we send it to production land, I immediately take myself out of that. When i’m going to the writer’s room, I know what I’m doing. I have no problem peacocking and putting my chest out and swinging my buttcheeks around, you know? But you put me into a production room? They start speaking Greek immediately. So I get it back and then it’s a vibe.”

As he talked about songwriting and manufacturing, Jelly Roll needed to get deeper with Chuck.

“If you think about the top line of my lyrics—Jelly Roll lyrics—the lyrics from ‘Son of a Sinner’ aren’t much different than the lyrics from ‘Need a Favor’ and they’re not much different from the lyrics of ‘Dead Man [Walking].’ The only thing that’s changed in that is the production.”

After he completed writing Whitsitt Chapel, he discovered himself unsettled. Even although he mentioned he had almost 60 songs prepared for his subsequent album, one thing was holding him again from transferring ahead.

But when he witnessed his daughter, Bailee, get baptized at a small church when she was 14 years outdated, all the things modified for him.

“I got baptized in a little church, too,” he informed Chuck about rising up attending Whitsitt Chapel in Nashville, the church his new album is called after. “I started talking to her about Whitsitt Chapel and then I started listening to these songs [I had written] and I was just like, man, I want to write an album. I don’t want to write a bunch of songs to pick out.”

Thanks to his daughter, Jelly Roll scrapped these songs and went again to work.

“That felt kind of purposeful and a little bit hopeful and I wanted to tell a story and I wanted to get romantic about the old days,” he mentioned. Jelly Roll reminisced about how he ended up in jail after his personal baptism after which spent 10 years out and in of the system.

“I thought about the 14 year old in that church who now is 39 and has a 14-year-old going to church. At that point, it’s like, what’s that story from song one to song 12? How do I tell that story? That was a big perspective shift…it just totally circled back around.”

What Jelly Roll’s Next Record Might Look and Sound Like

Whether Jelly Roll considers Whitsitt Chapel an official nation album or not, one factor is definite: He’s excited to start out work on his subsequent report, which he guarantees is going to be his rock report.

“I’m a huge fan of a guy named Tech N9ne,” he mentioned. “This cool thing he used to do, where every like third album, he would drop an album called the Collabo and it would be 10 or 12 songs, like a real LP, but he would have a feature on every song. And I called Tech N9ne myself and said I’m not gonna call it Callabo, but I just want you to know, before you read about it through the media, I’m stealing the idea. And that’s how I’m going to do my rock record.”

The checklist of potential collaborators appears limitless and he is already obtained reward and help from artists like David Draiman, Shinedown’s Brent Smith and Falling In Reverse’s Ronnie Radke—as he defined on Loudwire Nights—so it would possibly be a protected assumption that he is hoping to incorporate them.

And Jelly Roll’s dream is not merely to incorporate a visitor’s vocals on a observe, but it surely’s to really collaborate with the artist, each step of constructing the tune.

“I want to go with them and write it together and produce the record together with each one of these artists individually and kind of make a story … I’ve already talked to a bunch of people to set up all this stuff. I’m hoping to get into real album mode come after the tour. So I’ll write on tour, I’ll start having pitch ideas for people.”

READ MORE: Jelly Roll Names Corey Taylor as His Dream Rock Collaboration

At the beginning of the dialog on Loudwire Nights, Jelly Roll joked about attempting to get Brent Smith onto one in all Whitsitt Chapel‘s songs—album opener “Halfway to Hell”—probably foreshadowing a future partnership.

“I’ve been messing with the label. I call the label almost weekly going, ‘Dude, why don’t we take the mandolin out and put a distorted guitar on it and put Brent Smith on the second verse? Re-release that thing, man, that’s a rock song.”

What Else Did Jelly Roll Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• What it meant for him to get David Draiman’s public help and the opposite rock and nation legends who’ve gotten behind him and his music
• Why he considers himself “in the middle” and why it is robust to stay that manner
• Why he thinks there’s room in rock and nation for guys like him and Hardy

Listen to the Full Interview within the Podcast Player Below

Jelly Roll joined Loudwire Nights on Thursday, July 6; the present replays on-line right here, and you’ll tune in stay each weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you too can see if the present is accessible in your native radio station and hearken to interviews on-demand. Stream Whitsitt Chapel at this location after which take a look at Jelly Roll’s full tour schedule.