Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson celebrate, discuss country chart success at BMI celebration

Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson were feted for their chart and cultural dominance of 2023 at music rights manager Broadcast Music Inc.'s No. 1 party, honoring the success of the former's "Need A Favor," the latter's "Watermelon Moonshine" and four years of success for the tandem's work on the 2020-released ballad "Save Me."

The festivities occurred at Music Row's Tin Roof bar location.

The event sponsor Studio Bank's senior vice president, Kari Barnhart, made a donation on behalf of Jelly Roll, Wilson, and the songwriters in support of Rainbow Omega, Inc. The non-profit provides vocational and residential programs to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

An award-winning season of greater spotlight

Notably, the end of Jelly Roll and Wilson's affable 45-minute press conference at the event heralded the maturation of the two stars -- moreso than any other two performers -- into articulate, credible leaders of country's mainstream moment.

The duo has also recently won awards as "The Female Country Artist of the Year" and "The Male Country Artist of the Year" at 2024's recent People's Choice Awards, plus were featured in Uber Eats and Coors Light commercials, respectively, during Super Bowl 58.

This follows a season wherein they went from not being invited to awards shows at all to having one Grammy, six Academy of Country Music, eight Country Music Association and three CMT Music awards between them.

'Save Me' and 'Country's Cool Again'

For Jelly Roll's, "Need a Favor" and Grammy-nominated "Save Me" are back-to-back, chart-topping platinum-selling successes. Wilson's "Bell Bottom Country" album single is her fifth consecutive No. 1 on country radio.

Jelly Roll is one of only three artists (Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs are the others) who scored three Billboard Country Airplay chart No. 1 singles in 2023. Wilson's "Watermelon Moonshine" is notable in that its' 18-week rise to radio's pinnacle was the fastest solo female country chart-climber since Carrie Underwood's 2016 hit, "Church Bells."

The moment saw Jelly Roll honor "Save Me" and "Need A Favor" songwriters David Ray, Austin Nivarel and the brother tandem of Joe and Rob Ragosta.

He described Ray's work on "Save Me" as "special art" that chronicled his most "vulnerable and broken moment ever." He was initially unsure that Wilson's 2023 addition to the then three-year-old song could add to its reach.

He then described the goosebump-filled arms and necks of those who listened to Wilson record her addition to his chart-topping ballad.

"She showed up and made it a moment," he said. "We're going to be singing that song forever."

"The way that I grew up -- the Western way of life, riding horses and wearing cowboy hats -- is cool," stated Wilson about "Country's Cool Again," her latest swamp rock-styled single that also names her forthcoming first world tour.

Wilson added that she was "thankful" for the "faith and grit required to follow a crazy blessing and calling to share stories with the world" that "help people [discover their best] selves."

Jelly Roll quickly offered that it's "insane" to endure so much commercial failure while only being governed by the idea of being a voice for people whose core values were not being advocated for in America's mainstream.

Two stars growing comfortable in superstardom

Wilson also had thoughts about expanding her stardom into advertising, marketing and social advocacy -- she's recently testified before the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet in Los Angeles during Grammy week and appeared with Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in support of his ELVIS Act aimed at protecting musicians and songwriters from misused artificial intelligence.

"Having the guts to speak about things you believe in wholeheartedly and that impact the lives of my friends and myself has been [who I was since childhood]," stated Wilson.

Jelly Roll now routinely appears in spaces like corporate NBA All-Star Game Weekend concerts in Indianapolis, where notions he only previously ascribed to Lower Broadway -- a dozen young women partying while wearing white Stetson hats -- are now nationally relevant.

"[Everywhere] feels like home right now," he said.

Home, for Jelly Roll, is now a comprehensive and relative notion for the artist.

It encapsulates his roots in southeast Nashville's Antioch neighborhood, years spent in juvenile detention adjacent to Nissan Stadium's parking lot, time spent worshipping at Whitsitt Chapel Baptist Church on the banks of the J. Percy Priest Reservoir, plus recently moving from occupying a Brentwood home in the Governor's Club private golf club community to an even more spacious Nashville home.

Jelly Roll's 2024 includes a 37-date fall arena tour, including a date at Madison Square Garden. "The World's Most Famous Arena" is ten times larger than the buildings he could fill five years prior.

"When a man makes a plan, God laughs," stated the Grammy-nominated performer.

Though he's receiving honors and support from what feels like the music industry in full, he's still an admitted fatalistic thinker nervous about scaling his most audacious career heights.

Deep inside, Jelly Roll is still an elementary school-aged Jason DeFord unsuccessfully handing out invitations to his birthday party.

"2024 has triggered my childhood trauma. I'm petrified," Jelly Roll adds.

Wilson, commiserating with a not-so-jokingly nervous Jelly Roll, relates a story from her similarly unsuccessful senior year graduation party.

"I had a cookie cake, crawfish boil and a DJ -- I ended up doing the electric slide by myself," she said,

Purpose-filled missions amid country's mainstream revival

Removing levity from the conversation, Jelly Roll tells the story that defines what he believes has been revealed to him as his artistic and human mission.

"[During the long time] I was sitting, Indian-style, on rock bottom, I made an easy, even deal with God," he said. "I promised him that if it all straightened out, I would give him some credit for [helping me out]. So I'm standing on my soapbox while holding a megaphone."

Spending time to write songs with those incarcerated at the very same juvenile detention center next to Nissan Stadium, where he was housed as a teenager, instead of picking up his "Male Country Artist of the Year" award at the People's Choice Awards, is proof of his desires in this vein.

"[Country's modern format] reflects people looking different, sounding different and coming from different walks of life," says Wilson.

"[My fans] no longer just look like me or share my background," she added. "The power of my songs is welcoming people into spaces defined by acceptance and love where people can be 190 percent themselves and for 90 minutes, just let it all go."

She's fresh from two weeks in Los Angeles, wherein the excitement and potential of people -- superstars like Melissa Etheridge and average Americans alike -- are reviving their interest in discovering their best, authentic selves via country music is palpable.

Jelly Roll joked that Grammy weekend highlighted the genre's evolution from being perceived as "hillbillies in deer stands eating catfish, coleslaw and collard greens" to being artists favored by pop stars, rap acts, a diverse blend of Americana performers and artists adjacent to country's stereotypes was a "cool" thing that had again occurred.

"Country is coming back to the Grammys [in 2025] with multiple nominations across all categories. Lainey will be up for not just the country album of the year, but the all-genre album of the year, too. [The format] is ready to compete and hang with the big dogs."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson celebrate, discuss country chart success at BMI celebration