Jelly Roll has largely kept his thoughts about politics to himself, but backstage at the Grammy Awards Sunday night (Feb. 1), he said that’s about to change. And it will be “soon.”
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In the press room, Jelly Roll was asked if he “would be willing to comment about what’s happening in the country,” he first stressed that “people shouldn’t care to hear about my opinion, I’m a dumb redneck,” adding that he doesn’t have social media and often goes months without a phone. “I hate to be an artist who’s that aloof, but I’m so disconnected from what’s happening…. I didn’t even know politics were f-cking real until I was in my mid-20s in jail. When you grow up in a drug addict household, you think we have common calls about what’s happening in world politics. We’re just trying to find a way to survive, man.”
He then added, though, he was ready to speak out. “I have a lot to say about it and I’m going to in the next week. And everybody’s going to hear exactly what I have to say in the most loud and clear way I’ve ever spoken in my life. I look forward to it.”
Jelly Roll was one of the night’s big winners, taking home all three Grammys he was nominated for. In the pre-telecast, he and Shaboozey won the trophy for best country duo/group performance for “Amen,” while he and Brandon Lake were victorious in the best contemporary Christian music performance/song for “Hard Fought Hallelujah.”
Then on the telecast, Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken nabbed best contemporary country album. As he often has when giving an acceptance speech, Jelly Roll took us to church and perhaps hinted what is to come by declaring, “Jesus is not owned by one political party.”
Jelly Roll also has new music coming, which he spent this past year working on, and he promises a lot of songs are coming fans’ way. “I spent a year really praying about what my sound is going to be and the message I wanted to bring to the world,” he says. “I wrote 100 songs and I’m fixing to start dropping music like I’m an independent kid again. It’s going to be so much fun this year, I’m probably going to drop more music this year than I’ve ever dropped in my career in the next 12 months.”
Jelly Roll also noted the similarities between himself and the late Ozzy Osbourne, whom he paid tribute to Saturday night (Jan. 31) at the Clive Davis/Recording Academy Pre-Grammy Gala in Beverly Hills, performing an emotional version of “Mama, I’m Coming Home.” “Ozzy Osbourne, the prince of darkness, another man who wore his faith quietly, but you could see it all over him the crosses everywhere,” he said. “There’s not a kid who grew up in the ’90s who didn’t think they were Ozzy Osbourne at least once in their life in their bedroom” He then added that Osbourne’s children Kelly and Jack “call me brother now. They call me the fourth Osbourne.”