Jelly Roll is up for a GRAMMY in the Best New Artist category. Read on to learn more about the rapper-turned-country singer.
Prior to releasing his first full-length country record last year, Jelly Roll was a rap artist. In fact, he didn’t even try singing professionally until he did karaoke one night with his friends. The newly minted country star discussed the event in an interview with GRAMMY.com.
“I always wanted to do country music because I’m just such a country music fan. And I feel like ‘three chords and the truth’ was always the premise of my music. I just didn’t know I could sing. If somebody would have told me I had a cool singing voice when I was 20, I couldn’t imagine where this thing would be at now. I was, like, in my mid-30s when I found out I could sing,” he said.
He continues, “I was doing karaoke and we were doing Bob Seger, ‘Old Time Rock and Roll.’ I came off stage. And a producer was like, ‘Man, you got to do a song where you’re singin’.’ And I was like, ‘I would have done that 20 years ago if I thought I could sing, I’m a bad singer.’ He’s like, ‘Not what I just heard.’ I started working at it, and you can see that I’ve got this album Whitsitt Chapel is the first time you can hear how comfortable I am with my voice.”
Jelly Roll On His GRAMMY Nomination
Jelly Roll (born Jason DeFord) shared a heartfelt and tearful response to Instagram after learning the news. In the caption, he said the following: “I’m embarrassed to post this but my wife says honesty and rawness got me this far … I’ll post a more complete thought about this when I get my head together. I just never would’ve imagined.”
In the video, he said, “I’m not sure if I should post this or not because I’m so emotional, but the greatest honor an artist can ever hear is that they’ve been nominated for a GRAMMY,” he said. “I got to hear that this morning… I haven’t cried like this since my daddy died, I love you all, man, so f****** much.”
The 2024 GRAMMYs Best New Artist nominees are Fred again.., Ice Spice, Gracie Abrams, Coco Jones, Noah Kahan, Victoria Monét, The War And Treaty, and Jelly Roll. Catch the 66th GRAMMY Awards on February 4th, 2024, live via CBS.
