VIDEO – A MIRACLE? –
Oct. 10, 2023 – Backstage he can make an industry schmoozefest feel like an intimate hang; onstage, as at Mechanics later that night, he can bring audience members to tears as he locks eyes and bellows lyrics like those in his viral hit “Save Me” about being “damaged beyond repair.” His voice is tender yet scuffed at the edges; it’s also slightly higher than you’d expect looking at him, which gives his singing a welcome sense of vulnerability.
“I’ve never seen anybody who by the time he walks out there, before he’s even done anything, the crowd’s already in love with him,” says Eric Church, the veteran country star who invited Jelly Roll to open for him at several gigs over the summer. “I think it’s the story and the honesty. There’s so many people you run into — I’ve been doing this 20 years — where part of their shtick is this false humility. But he truly is grateful and astonished to be where he’s at in his life. You can feel it all over him.”
