Jelly Roll Shares the Secret to Lainey Wilson’s Success

Jelly Roll prides himself on being a hard worker who will do things nobody else in Nashville will do. Well … almost nobody.

I recently spoke to him, and we were talking about his Lainey Wilson duet, “Save Me.” I asked him what it says about country music that he and Wilson — both new artists — are sitting on top of the game right now.

• “Save Me” spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart in December.
• Wilson won Entertainer of the Year at the 2023 CMA Awards, and Jelly Roll took New Artist.
• Per country chart expert Chris Owen, his next radio single will be “Halfway to Hell.”

“First of all, let’s start with praising Lainey, man. I pride myself on being a really hard worker,” Jelly Roll begins. “This is what I say to people: I do the stuff that other people in this town won’t do, Lainey Wilson does the stuff that I won’t do. She is willing. She is working.”

This became obvious when the two crossed paths on the set of American Idol in January.

“When I seen her, I could tell she was a little frazzled. I said, ‘You okay?'” he remembers. “She’d just pulled up, she was running late. She was like, ‘Man, I had to wake up at 5 o’clock this morning to catch a flight, and had a layover at such and such for five hours. I leave here and I got a 4AM flight tomorrow to do a corporate show at three in the afternoon, then I gotta fly to another city to do Luke Combs.'”

“These were commercial flights,” Jelly Roll adds. “This girl was running on fumes. Her work ethic is next level.”

Related: Here’s Why Lainey Wilson Won CMA Entertainer of the Year

Both Wilson and Jelly Roll are heavily booked through 2024 at this point, and they are probably already making plans into 2025.

Evan Paul is the host of Taste of Country Nights, a syndicated radio show heard on more than 120 country radio stations nationwide, every night from 7PM to midnight. He plays the best new country music and interviews today’s top stars, like Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Dan + Shay, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Lady A, Morgan Wallen, + more!