Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Music Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I believe music's therapeutic. I've always said it, and what
I call what I do is therapeutic music. And I
think music is probably the closest thing to therapy. I
got until I was in my thirties. It was the
closest thing to a healing thing I could do, and
music I thought was meant to I always say it
this way.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Some music's meant to be heard and some music's meant
to be felt.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
And when I was young, I got hyper focused on
the feeling of music and how music made people feel,
and how constant president always was in our lives.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
This podcast is called Music Saved Me, and on each
episode we'll look at a musician, will delve into their
story their deep connection to music. We'll talk with their
fans everyday, people with their own story to tell about
how music has saved them in challenging times. I'm Lynn Hoffman,
your host for the Music Saved Me Podcast. Today, we
(00:54):
are so lucky to have one of music's fastest rising
stars on Music Saved Me. His music defies categorization, running
the gambit from rap to rock, but his big break
has come from the country music world. He was born
and bred in Nashville, and his name is jelly Roll.
Jelly Roll, welcome to the show. Tell everyone who you
(01:15):
are and how music has saved you.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, you know, my name is jelly Roll. I'm Jason
D FDA from Nashville, Tennessee. Music saved me two or
three times over. The first time I seen music have
a real impact at all was in my household. We
none of us played music, but everybody loved music, and
music was the language of the house. So every bedroom
(01:40):
would blare different music. And my mother, who struggled with
drugs and struggled with a lot of mental health stuff,
she didn't leave her room very much, but when she would,
she would come down to the kitchen and she would
play records, and the whole house would just flock to.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
The kitchen, all six seven of us, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And I just remember, that's the only time we've seen
her in a different light, you know, one of them,
I mean, kind of one of the few times we've
seen her at all.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
But I just remember how impactful the.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Music was and how much it meant back then, you know,
And I think that was the beginning of music starting
to save my life.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Now, do you believe music has sort of supernatural healing powers,
you know, for mental, physical, or maybe even emotional problems.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I believe music is therapeutic. I've always said it, and
what I call what I do is therapeutic music. And
I think music is probably the closest thing to therapy
I got until I was in my thirties. It was
the closest thing to a healing thing I could do,
and music I thought was meant to I always say
(02:42):
it this way. Some music's meant to be heard and
some music's meant to be felt. And when I was young,
I got hyper focused on the feeling of music and
how music made people feel, and how constant and present
it always was in our lives.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Okay, describe to me how it feels when you know
that you're music is really impacting a fan.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I would think that I would hope.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
My mission statement for my music is to hope that
it helps in some sort of way. That's how I
got into music, right. I wanted music to help people
the way it helped my mother. I wanted to be
a vessel of helping people, the way I watch music
help the people around me so much, you know, And
I just wanted to write songs for the people that
I feel like nobody writes songs for.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
You know, and I lived in a certain culture. Drugs.
There were a lot of drugs.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
There was a lot of a lot of addiction, a
lot of alcoholism, a lot of poverty, a lot of
real middle class just kind of checked to check stuff.
And I feel like nobody was really writing songs for
those people, my people, our people.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
All Right, I'm going to quote you now you've said,
and I quote, I make music for people, not money.
Can you please elaborate on that?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Well, the first, the biggest joke I make is if
I was making music for money, I quit twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
You know, I sure didn't get it until it's two
years ago, so I had an innimate time to quit.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
To me, music was purpose, and as long as my
music's doing something for somebody, I'll always make it. And
even then I'll probably still make it because my music's
always done something for me. My intention from day one
was to try to help people the way that music
helped me.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
That is such a beautiful sentiment. What is it about
music that gives people hope?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Do you think I think music vocalizes what we often
cannot and there's also a thing where music makes us.
It's a comforting thing. It's a it's a moment of
not feeling alone.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, when Adelle said, they said times supposed to heal you,
but I ain't done much healing in the song Hello,
I still get goosebumps on my legs just saying that lyric.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I have goosebumps hearing you say that lyric.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
You know it's these moments of that you that music
just feels all over you.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, I mean I literally got goose both.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Of my arm just thinking about lyrics.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
It really is incredible. It's physical. The reaction. Now, this
is something really amazing. You've paid respects to families in
person who have family members who have passed away in
a tragic death. What is that experience like for you?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's it's a it's a double edged sword. You know.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I'm very I'm an impath, so I feel I feel
the pain of people, and that weighs on me at times.
But it's also a blessing because God put me in
a situation to bring a little bit of light to
really dark situations, and I feel like that's a great
responsibility that God's given me and I take it real serious,
(05:47):
and I'll never complain. The joke I make about the
music business period is I'll never I got every problem
I ever prayed for, you know, and I love it.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
So expand on this for me, How music fused with religion,
Why it's such a powerful combination.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, I think it's hopeful, right, absolutely, so. I think
that one, I think music me personally.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Music allows me an opportunity to speak about my faith
in a way that's more open and honest than I
probably could in a building that was labeled some sort
of a denominational thing. So I think that music has
a healing power all by itself.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And when you let God in it, you know, it's
undeniabl right when anytime you let the spirit get into
the music.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And there are there's a lot of people who believe that,
even in the Christian faith, that the Holy Spirit was
music driven, which is why in the early days in
Southern Baptist churches, the Holy Spirit would come on when
the music in the hands started clapping, you know, that's
when people would receive the spirit.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
What do you feel that people really need to understand,
you know, those of us who live in the real world,
about those who are serving time in prison.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I think the biggest thing they need to understand is
that those people need help. I think that we get
so caught up on discipline and the idea of discipline
that we have somewhere along the way forgot the idea
of rehabilitation, you know. And these people in jail, they
need voices, they need encouragement, you know. I think that's
(07:24):
a reason, ironically, to go back to the Bible. Jesus's
commands were so simple. Love your neighbor, Go visit people
in jail, feed the poor. Like even that far back
in time, there was an understanding of that people in
jail needed to be loved, you know what I mean. Yeah,
(07:47):
So I just try to carry that message to people today.
Is you know, go to places people aren't. You know,
it's really easy to go to a function and donate money,
and that helps a lot, you know, does. But I
would encourage people to go in there and talk to
some of these guys and make a presence.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
We live today in such a divided world. How can
music minimize that dividedness? Is that even a world?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I tell you this man, Music brings everybody together. It
always has and it always will music is It's like dinner.
It's like a suffer table thing, right, It's what brings
everybody around.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I have seen.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Hardcore conservatives and hardcore democrats crying in each other's arms
at concerts. Wow, you know it just it's pains and
international language. And I think music speaks to pain more
than it does anything, at least my particular music. And
when you're going through something like that in life, you
(08:52):
start to realize how much that other shit don't matter,
you know, and it's just a real clear understanding. And
I think music brings that to a surface level with people,
and it goes back to the common bond theory, you
know what I mean. It's a My brother's a big
ut Valls fan, and if you're a ut Valls fan,
that's all he needs to know about.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
You to at least initially like you. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
You know what I mean, you got a foot in
the door just being a Falls fan alone saying. So,
it's like, I think it's cool when you see cultures
connect through music. Like whenever I see a guy that
I don't think would be a deadhead and he's a deadhead,
and it.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Just tickles me. Pink.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I love it, you know what I mean, because I'm
like really, and he's like, dude, I went to the
Chicago Dead Company show dinner last year, and you know,
it's like, it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Man, music does say. I think how many.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Times we find those moments right where you're just like,
oh my god, I would have never guessed you were
a fish fan.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
That's so cool, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Never judge a book by its cover. What would you
say would be your proudest accomplishment in music or what
you're most proud of that your music has done.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I think the thing I'm the most proud of is
believe that my music is helping people. Believing that the
music helps and the music can always be there to help.
I think that's something else I'm proud of is that
I'm proud that I was lucky enough to come in
the streaming era where the music will live there for infinity,
(10:19):
you know what I mean, And that I love that
I'm alive during the streaming era and I don't have
to go rebuy the Bob Seeker and the Bullet Band
Silver Bullet Band album for the thirtieth time because I've
scratched the other twenty nine or lost them switching cars.
You know, I'm glad that I can just go listen
to Beautiful Loser whenever I want to.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
You know that is so true.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
You can take it with you everywhere. Now you don't
have to worry about anything. Let's hear from jelly Rolls
fans certainly has a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Jelly roll seems to be able to hit a lot
of different emotional places, and I think that he speaks
to the common person. Thankfully, he's as an artist has
really come forward and gone upward. But I think people
recognize that he puts his heart into it and he
(11:10):
says what he needs to say, and he's real.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
He's genuine.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
For me personally, I think it's a great collaboration of
a couple of different kinds of music and it can
reach like it touches different kinds of music that I've
liked through the years. Everything that he's been through holds
so many stigmas in the public eye, and opening up
in music is a great way for so many different
(11:38):
audiences and people to connect together and understand what he's
going through.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Now, you've done a lot of different music in your time,
do you remember the first time you wrapped.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
My mother struggled with mental health and addiction stuff, right,
and she'd come to the kitchen and the whole house
would come. We'd listen to music. And now I realized
the music was affecting her addiction. I was like, oh,
this makes mom happy. I should go write music, right,
So I went upstairs and I wrote a rap because
hip hop was super influential in our culture, and I
(12:15):
was I went downstairs with my little sheet of paper
and she had all of her friends at the kitchen table.
I called them the golden girls, like six or seven mother,
and they'd all come to the kitchen table together. They
just changed smoked cigarettes. And I came down. She turned
the record off and said what you got. I said,
listen to this, and I held my little sheet of
paper up and I was shaking the whole time, and
I wrapped her a little rap. And I was probably
twelve years old. Eleven years old.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I don't like.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I just remember that feeling of everybody cheering me on
and telling me to go write another one, And in hindsight,
they were just trying to get rid of me.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
That's how we do kids.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, Greg, go write another one of those.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
That is so cool. Thank you so much. This has
been just an amazing few minutes to spend with an
amazing artist and person. We have just heard the authentic
story of an incredible storyteller and someone who truly honors
the impact of music in all of our lives. Jelly
Roll is on a mission to spread the good words
(13:14):
of his music and make a real difference in the world,
and I think he's doing just that. I'm Lyn Hoffman
and thank you so much for listening to this episode
of Music Saved Me.