Weekend Plug-in 🔌

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(ANALYSIS) Jelly Roll is on a roll.

The “Son of a Sinner” artist — whose songs feature raw, religious lyrics that wrestle with his troubled past — won another big award Thursday night.

The rapper-turned-country-rocker claimed the Academy of Country Music’s music event of the year prize — with Lainey Wilson — for their collaboration on his smash hit “Save Me.”

“I’m going to keep this short and sweet because Jelly’s going to get up here and preach,” quipped Wilson, who also won the ACM’s female artist of the year award and the night’s top prize as entertainer of the year. 

“Thank you so much, Jelly, for asking me to be a part of such an important song,” she added, as the crowd at the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas, cheered. “This song right here speaks to so many people who feel like they’ve never had a voice, and I’m so thankful that you are a part of country music. Get up here and talk.”

Jelly Roll — a flashy cross necklace hanging down his chest, accentuating the familiar cross tattoo on his face — smiled and shrugged.

Then the singer did exactly what Wilson, clad in a red cowboy hat, predicted he would.

He preached.

“I’m going to try not to get emotional, but no pun intended … this song saved me,” said the 39-year-old Jelly Roll, who skyrocketed to fame in the past few years after decades in and out of juvenile detention and prison.

“I was in a dark place. I wrote it from my soul. I knew people would connect with it,” he said, shaking his right index finger to emphasize his points.

“Save Me” opens with these powerful lyrics:

Somebody save me, me from myself

I've spent so long living in hell

They say my lifestyle is bad for my health

It's the only thing that seems to help

All of this drinkin' and smokin' is hopeless

But feel like it's all that I need

Somethin' inside of me's broken

I hold on to anything that sets me free

Jelly Roll recounted writing the triple-platinum record with a high school friend. 

“We never thought we’d be songwriters,” he told the crowd. “I never thought I’d be standing here. I thought I’d die or go to jail. And I’m standing here as an ACM award winner. Do you hear what I’m talking about, Texas? Let’s go, baby!”

His emotional acceptance speech mirrored ones he gave after winning the Country Music Association’s best new artist award last year and three CMT Music Awards trophies last month.

“There is something poetic about a 39-year-old man winning new artist of the year,” he said at the CMA Awards in Nashville, Tennessee, this past November. “I don’t know where you’re at in your life or what you’re going through, but I want to tell you to keep going, baby. 

“I want to tell you success is on the other side of it,” he continued. “I want to tell you it’s going to be OK. I want to tell you that the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason because what’s in front of you is so much more important than what’s behind you. Let’s party, Nashville!”

Jelly Roll — whose birth name is Jason DeFord — got his nickname from his mother as a “chubby kid.”

He was nominated for three other ACM awards, including entertainer of the year, male artist of the year (won by Chris Stapleton) and single of the year for “Need A Favor” (won by Luke Combs for “Fast Car”).

“Need A Favor” grapples with prayer:

I only talk to God when I need a favor

And I only pray when I ain't got a prayer

So, who the hell am I, who the hell am I

To expect a Savior, oh

If I only talk to God when I need a favor?

But God, I need a favor

I know Amazing Grace, but I ain't been livin' them words

Swear I spend more Sundays drunk off my ass than I have in church

Hardcover King James only been savin' dust on the nightstand

Jelly Roll’s decades of drug and alcohol addiction figure heavily in his songs. In tone, they range from amusing to somber, as my Religion Unplugged colleague Jillian Cheney noted earlier this year.

At Thursday night’s show, the artist had a strong message for the devil, as Billboard magazine explains:

Taking to the stage bathed in red light, Jelly performed his unreleased new song “Liar,” a rousing rock track in which the star calls out every vice that (brings) temptation his way. “Saying drink another whiskey/ Pop another pill,” Roll sang, dressed in an all-black leather ensemble. “Money makes you happy/ Heaven isn’t real.”

When it came to the song’s bombastic chorus, Roll got the crowd at the Ford Center singing along almost instantly. “You ain’t nothing but a liar/ Yeah I walk right out that fire,” he wailed. “Yeah you try to keep me down/ Try to put me underground/ I know we’re going higher.” Before he left the stage, the singer made sure to make the point of the song crystal clear, declaring, “The devil is a liar!”

The 2023 documentary “Jelly Roll: Save Me,” which can be streamed on Hulu, goes behind the scenes of the artist’s still-in-progress journey of redemption, as Princess Jones highlighted in a review last year.

In the film, Jelly Roll talks about overcoming addiction, but he still smokes weed and drinks tequila. He and his crew pray before shows, but they cheerfully litter their speech with the F-word. 

The complicated nature of Jelly Roll’s faith and character stands out. 

That’s probably no surprise to anyone familiar with his most famous hits, including “Son of a Sinner”:

I'm just a long-haired son of a sinner

Searching for new ways I can get gone

I'm a pedal to the highway

If you ever wonder why we write these songs

'Cause I'm only one drink away from the devil

I'm only one call away from home

Yeah, I'm somewhere in the middle

I guess I'm just a little right and wrong

That’ll preach.

Inside The Godbeat

The Religion News Association has hired a new director: Jake Owens.

"With his combined experience in the nonprofit world and keen interest in quality religion news, Jake is a good fit for our organization," RNA President Ken Chitwood said. "Jake brings a lot of positive energy to the opportunities and challenges that lie before us."

The Final Plug

For Harding School of Theology, it’s the end of an era after 66 years in Memphis, Tennessee.

I traveled to the Mississippi River city to report on the seminary’s impending move to Harding University’s main campus in Searcy, Ark., about 115 miles away.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.