Jelly Roll and Ernest Have a Drunk Luke Bryan To Thank for New Song “I Went to College, and I Went to Jail”

A new era of country music is here thanks to artists like Jelly Roll, HARDY, Lainey Wilson, Chris Stapleton, and numerous others. Over the last few years, the genre has taken over music as singers like Post Malone and even Beyoncé have dabbled in country. And showing no signs of slowing down, Jelly Roll recently teamed up with his old friend Ernest to share a teaser of their new song “I Went to College, and I Went to Jail.” While excited about their new song, apparently, it would have never happened if it wasn’t for another country star Luke Bryan.

Appearing on This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von, both Jelly Roll and Ernest discussed their inspiration behind the new single. For the singers, their friendship goes back well over a decade. Speaking about the past, Ernest even revealed he used to buy weed from his friend. But while enjoying their time together, eventually, much like the song, Ernest with to college while Jelly Roll found himself behind bars. 

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But where does Bryan fit in? According to Ernest, “Me and Luke Bryan are playing golf out at the Troubadour, and we’re listening to some rap, and we started talking about Jelly Roll. He was like, ‘Y’all have known each other for a while, right?’” He added, “I was like, ‘Yeah, I used to go by his house and acquire some things, and we would freestyle rap, this was back in like 2010. Then I went to college, and he went to jail, and then we came back all these years later.’”

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Listening to the story, Ernest admitted that Bryan responded, “Hold up, motherf**ker, you better write that f**king song right now.” 

Calling Jelly Roll From The Golf Course

Laughing about how the song came together, Jelly Roll explained how they called him from the golf course. “Imagine this, I’m getting a facetime or a phone call like every 16 minutes, from a drunk Ernest and a drunk Luke Bryan … day drunk, too. Sun beating on ’em, they’re sweating, and they’re just like, ‘Check this one out.’”

It seems that Bryan was right as the song gained praise from fans with comments reading, “Bro, this is gonna be one of those songs that go down in history.”

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(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)