Singer Jelly Roll brings his multitudes of musical genres for Rupp Arena concert

As a camera peered backstage prior to a commercial break during the season premiere of the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live,” audiences were presented a glimpse of Jelly Roll getting ready for his close-up. After catching sight of the welcomed intrusion, the singer — a mountain-sized man with a face sporting a scrapbook of tattoos — flashed an equally mammoth smile and formed the familiar heart image with his hands.

Initial appearances can indeed mislead. A seemingly threatening physical presence with a personal past troubled enough to make good on such an image, Jelly Roll was offering a welcome sign, a disarmament of sorts, to unfamiliar viewers at home.

Audiences that had flocked to the singer’s music over the two previous years — fanbases dominated by, but not limited to, country audiences — already knew the stories of salvation that stood at the heart of his songs. That helps explain why Jelly Roll has become one of the biggest — though perhaps most unexpected — success stories out of Nashville in recent years. But here, he stood before a massive live national audience that couldn’t help but include listeners who were either skeptical of his seemingly immediate popularity or unaware of it altogether.

In short, the stakes were kind of high.

After the program break and a formal introduction from SNL host Jean Smart and her “Hacks” co-star Hannah Einbinder, Jelly Roll let anyone watching know in a blast of soul-saving testimony just what he, his music and his mission were all about. The song he chose to perform was “Liar,” a single from what would become the singer’s biggest album, “Beautifully Broken,” in a matter of weeks. The song is an inner dialogue between a voice championing the easy thrills enabling addiction and another calling out the delusions of such entrapment.

“Played me like a fool. Saying, ‘Drink another whiskey, pop another pill. Money makes you happy, heaven isn’t real. You won’t find nobody to love because your heart’s too broke.’ Now I know you ain’t nothin’ but a liar.”

The staging for the performance was novel as well. It split the seven members of Jelly Roll’s band into two lines that faced him on each side. Behind them were two teams of five back-up vocalists that operated as a Greek chorus of sorts to the song’s storyline as well as a gospel choir to its music. It was an army contained within tight-fitting confines, all of which amplified the music’s drive and drama.

In a scant three and a half minutes, “Liar” served as a crash course in everything that has fortified Jelly Roll’s success — a singing voice that wildly expanded upon his beginnings as a rapper, a musicality with a broad pop and soul appeal that reached far beyond its initial country acceptance, a sense of honest groove that Jelly Roll’s band had a field day in bringing to life and, most of all, a thematic intent that continually embraced redemption for a life that desperately sought it.

Jelly Roll’s musical origins

Why the search? That question takes us back to the start of the story. Born Jason DeFord in the Nashville neighborhood of Antioch, Jelly Roll was incarcerated numerous times in his teens and 20s on drug and robbery charges amid mounting substance abuse issues and the personal losses that surrounded them. His music career initially took him into the heart of hip-hop with homemade recordings and mixtapes he sold out of his car. A gradual move to country music escalated when he was invited to sing with Craig Morgan at the Grand Ole Opry in November 2021 — a mere three years ago. A rock hit, “Dead Man Walking,” came Jelly Roll’s way the following summer.

But what solidified his country following and the thematic redemption of his music was 2022’s “Son of a Sinner.” By the time of the June 2023 release of “Whitsitt Chapel” (amazingly, Jelly Roll’s ninth album), the sentiments of “Son of a Sinner” became obvious with even a quick glance at the titles of his new songs — “The Lost,” “Save Me” and, perhaps most obviously, “Hungover in a Church Pew.” The album’s game changer, though, was the No. 1 country hit “Need a Favor,” a blunt admission to a perceived unworthiness of salvation.

“I only talk to God when I need a favor and I only pray when I ain’t got a prayer,” he sings. “So who the hell am I to expect a savior?”

These collective triumphs, mirrored by massive audience acceptance on a commercial as well as critical level, culminated with Jelly Roll taking home top honors as New Artist of the Year at the 2023 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards — a new artist, that is, who had been making records for over a decade. Without question, though, the thematic purpose and acceptance behind Jelly Roll’s recent music made him seem like a new artist.

The CMA win came exactly a year ago to the day from when the singer will make his return to Rupp Arena. That’s right, return. He performed there as recently as October 2023. So what can we expect with his newest visit? Well, for starters, we will get to hear how the songs on “Beautifully Broken” further enforce the redemptive drive behind Jelly Roll’s music and the joy it ultimately unlocks.

For anyone channel surfing at home this past weekend, as I was, and caught Jelly Roll on PBS’ long-running live music performance show “Austin City Limits,” the potency of the “Beautifully Broken” songs and the balance they created around the career defining music from “Whitsitt Chapel” were placed in impressive perspective.

“It’s bigger than me,” Jelly Roll told the audience at Austin’s Moody Theater during the program’s taping last April. “It’s bigger than the music. It’s about the message. It’s about redemption. It’s about second chances. It’s about being okay with not being okay sometimes.”

Somewhat expectedly, that led into another “Beautifully Broken” song titled “I Am Not Okay.” The narrative is blunt, underscoring how redemption, on any lasting level, is a work in progress accomplished in sometimes tenuous and uneasy steps.

“I know I can’t be the only one who’s holdin’ on for dear life,” the song goes. “God knows, I know when it’s all said and done, I’m not okay.”

As the chorus concludes, though, faith intervenes, finding redemption still within reach. “But it’s all gonna be alright.”

Jelly Roll with Ernest, Shaboozey and Allie Colleen

When: Nov. 8, 7 p.m.

Where: Rupp Arena, 430 W. Vine

Tickets: $33-$159.

Online: ticketmaster.com