Interviews

Jelly Roll – Interview

Jelly Roll – Sobriety Sucks, but his music does everything but. Jelly Roll Interview with Empire Extreme By Josh Drespling Photos by Andrew James Bastion At a towering 6’ 5” and 250 pounds Jelly Roll can be quite an intimidating character, self-described as a reformed drug dealer, active alcoholic, white trash pieces of shit, MMA fan, […]

Published

8 years ago

July 5, 2016

Josh Drespling

Jelly Roll – Sobriety Sucks, but his music does everything but.

Jelly Roll Interview with Empire Extreme

By Josh Drespling
Photos by Andrew James Bastion

At a towering 6’ 5” and 250 pounds Jelly Roll can be quite an intimidating character, self-described as a reformed drug dealer, active alcoholic, white trash pieces of shit, MMA fan, and the father of a beautiful girl. However once you have spent more than thirty second with the southern-boy you will quickly realize that he is a quick talking jokester who loves to have a good time.

Jelly Roll – Photo By Andrew James Bastion

Describing this Nashville natives’ music is a bit difficult. It falls in the rap category, but defies a clear classification. You could say it’s one part hood and one part southern twang, with an underlying smoothness and melody that makes you bob your head to the groove.

We caught up with Jelly Roll in Cincinnati a while back; here is how it went down.

We are here at Rock on the Range, but we are actually based in Pittsburgh. I know you were there last night. How was the show in Pittsburgh?
It was great man. What a great venue. What was it?

Alatr Bar?
Yeah, Altar bar. I’m sure you have been there a hundred times.

Yeah its an old church.
Yeah, there is the old stained glass still there. We had a good crowd and did more people than we thought we would for our first time in Pittsburgh.

So you kind of have Juggalo following? I’m an old school Juggalo from back in the day.
O.S.J. Baby. I’m a old school Juggalo too.

I’m, talking Carnival of Carnage and Riddle Box.
Oh yeah. Did you know their touring doing the whole Riddle Box album?

They gotta throw in some other song though too don’t ya think?
Yeah, absolutely.
Have you ever played any of the Gatherings?
Oh, yeah. I’m Gathering main stage this year on Saturday night.

Have they announced any other bands yet?
Oh yeah there are tons of them.
Only one that I’ve seen was GWAR and Green Jelly.
What about Wizard of the Hood!
…You know…
Don’t do it. Not right here. They are gonna crucify you! Those old school Juggalos are gonna hate you.
I know, I know they are. I hated that album.
Oh my God! Oh My God! Stop it!
I mean I love J, and all of it and J, but there is just something about that album.
I think its great. I think that’s a funny story.
I just really hope they doooo it, ya know what I mean.
I can see it theatrically and everything.
Oh, yeah it would be fuckin’ great.

Jelly Roll – Photo By Andrew James Bastion

I was reading up on you. I found that you caught a case when you were 14 for stealing a wallet without really stealing the wallet.
Yeah, I got charged as an adult on a robbery case and I was young man. So I’ve had a felony on my shit since I was a kid. It’s awful, all the way.

What is like playing in the pouring down rain in front of a bunch metal heads.
Fucking great. I loved it. They loved it. We all loved it. We had a thing there and it was an experience.

Machine Gun Kelly was here yesterday.
I’m sure he killed it.
He did. He did.

Going back a while, I saw you did a little standing up for Monoxide (Monoxide Child of Twiztid), what was the whole story to that?
He’s just a homie.

So whats the story, who where you standing up for him against.
Anybody! General statement. Monoxide is the homie. For real man, he’s been like a big brother to me. Paul, George, J, all of them have been big brothers. I’m willing to go to war with anybody about them. No exceptions.

I love the name of the tour name, Hangovers and Hot Chickens. Love it.
Yeah, that’s our shit. Have you even been to Tennessee?
Drove through it.
Famous for for hot chicken. Nashville is famous for hot chicken.
Like? Like..
Like hate your life shittin’ tomorrow hot. Nashville hot chicken is like, cry, call your momma. Its like the Homer Simpson on that episode of The Simpsons where he ate the Halbenero pepper and ran around and drank all the beer.

So whats next for you, new music, tour, what up?
Mixtapes, I have one out called Sobriety Sucks and another in about six months called Addiction Kills. Me and Lil Wyte will be doing No Filter 2. Touring rest of the year and going our with Yelawolf in the winter.

That’s all I got thanks for doing this.
Much love family, whoop whoop.

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About Author

Josh Drespling

Josh is the Publisher and creator of Empire Extreme and it’s sister publication Kingdom Extreme Magazine. He is an accomplished writer, photographer and graphic designer. He is always conjuring up new ideas and has a amazing passion for the music industry and all the things that surround it.

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Related Topics:featured Jelly Roll Rock On the range Sobriety Sucks

Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

1 month ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

2 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.