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It was a sweltering muggy Missouri in August kinda day. Fans glistening with sweat like followers at a tent revival down a backroad, suffering for their sermon.
To kick things off, Struggle Jennings took the stage. Struggle is the step-grandson of iconic country music outlaw Waylon Jennings, and his hat carries that same outlaw dust. Struggle opened the show with a fire and flurry of lyrics about redemption and turning a troublesome life around. The pit was crammed tight and the first person of the day went down and needed assistance and some water, which would be a repeat sentence for many throughout the night. A surprise emergence from Caitlynne Curtis, who is on Struggles record label, saw them duet a song. Struggle finished his set and gave a harrowing story of how he went from loosing custody of his kids and serving a stint in prison to now getting custody of all of his kids back and putting them up in the biggest house they have ever had.
Next up was the amazing Ashley McBryde. An amazing fit to a show of outlaws, Ashley belts songs about life, love, drinkin, cheatin, and success. My favorite part of this section of the show was when she sang Brenda Put Your Bra on, and a fan threw their bra up on stage and Ashley held it up and swung it around while never skipping a beat. After the song she kept it as a souvenir as she tossed out a different bra to the crowd. I can only imagine that tonight’s will be thrown to the next crowd in a viral bra exchanging event.
Now it’s time for church on a Saturday. That’s right, chants of “Jelly Roll” fill the crowd so loud you can feel it in your soul. Lights go out and with an ear crushing bass boom it explodes into chaos. The band starts off with The Lost. The moment he walked out, he was greeted by a sold out 20,000 fans.
I have been to many a show in my 45 years, but this one may take the cake as the loudest, from the music to the crowd. Jelly Roll is an experience. Not quite country, not quite rap, and not quite rock, but he has fully emerged himself into music history as one of the biggest crossover three genre artists on the planet.
His second song is an old banger when he was mainly rap and this lit the crowd on fire. His first musical break he shocked the crowd when he dropped the term “Riverport.” This man knows STL. He talked about growing up three hours from here and always coming to STL and Imos pizza. JR preaches so much positivity to the crowd like a preacher in a revival preaching that southern gospel. His die hard fans are called Bad Apples, but these apples are ripened once again by his words and his music.
Halfway to Hell saw twenty foot flame pyros repeatedly going off which brought the already muggy temp to sweltering levels. A few more fans went down and some needed to be taken from the pit area. Important to stay hydrated in Missouri for sure. Jelly Roll continued on and played so many songs in his sermon plus bonus cover medleys of classic rap songs from the 90’s.
Upon his medley of “Just a Friend” by Biz Markie, he let the fans sing and he was completely blown away almost to tears at the ear ringing crowd singing to him. “Son of a Sinner” saw him explaining that it was his first number one hit and was first played by 105.7 the Point. Later in the set would see “Need A Favor” and again he broke records with that song, explaining how it was the first time an artist ever had a number one song on both country and rock radio for the same song.
A sweet moment was had when he noticed a woman in the crowd who was holding up a giant banner. He asked if it was this person he went to grade school with, which it was, and then asked about her momma, who was right next to the woman. He said I’ll have my guys get you backstage because I have to say hi to you and your momma. That banner she was holding was a yearbook photo of them side by side.
My favorite part of his set was when BunnyXO came out and Jelly sang “Kill A Man,” which was written about her. The love these two have for each other is inspiring. Closing out the show saw Ashley McBryde taking the stage with Jelly Roll for two songs. A tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” and his hit song “Save Me” normally featuring Lainey Wilson. A Jelly Roll sermon is something everyone in life should experience. You can’t simply see his show, you experience it.
Special shout out to Josh Adams Myer for being the concert Emcee and to Hollywood Casino Amphitheater, or as Jelly Roll put it, Riverport, for being completely gracious with water for fans in the pit who were struggling with the heat and exhaustion.
Even though he’s embarking on his first major headlining tour, Jelly Roll knows this won’t be his last: St.Louis will always be a must-go tour destination, he said — and now that we’re family, we will see you at the next family reunion.
