Jelly Roll is one of the hottest artists in country music today. His recent Backroad Baptism Tour saw him selling out arenas and amphitheaters across the country. Additionally, he has launched three singles to the top of the Billboard Country Airplay, Mainstream Rock, and Rock and Alternative Songs charts. However, his newfound success came after years of hard work and failure.
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Jelly Roll started his career as a hip-hop artist with The Plain Shmear Tape in 2003. After that, he dropped a stack of mixtapes and independently released studio albums to a cult audience. However, he didn’t see real success until he released his first chart-topping single “Dead Man Walking” in 2021. That was the beginning of his ascent to stardom.
Changing his style was only part of what made the Antioch, Tennessee native a success, though. First and foremost, he had to change his mindset. He spoke about that change in a video shared by CMT yesterday.
“I wasn’t successful because of what people did to me or what people didn’t do for me and that was my mentality,” he said. “Instead of seeking success and going out and working for it I just sat around and moped.”
He added that he knows he’s far from the only one with that mindset. “I know so many people that will allow one bad thing to deter them from ever trying again. They’ll have one bad business deal and they’ll spend the rest of their lives going, ‘Well I would have been way better if such and such wouldn’t have screwed me out of that deal.’”
Jelly Roll went on to say that he’s no stranger to being dealt a bad hand in life. Bad situations, unprofitable deals, and questionable tours were hallmarks of his early career. However, there came a time when he stopped focusing on what others did to him or didn’t do for him. That’s when he started making big moves.
“The day I quit blaming everybody else and I just took responsibility for myself and I kept pushing forward is when things changed for me,” he revealed. Then, he ended the video with a valuable piece of advice, “Nobody needs to throw anybody a bone. Go out and get it.”
Reserve your place for an unforgettable musical journey! Get early access to Jelly Roll’s Backroad Baptism Tour before tickets sell out.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartRadio
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