Taken from JRE #1987 w/Jelly Roll:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6whdJI2FwFda1VXc0W7keI?si=06130f971b0040b4

It's a bit of a story, but it's fun to tell.

So I had wrote like a hundred songs last year and I didn't feel great about any of them to be honest.

The label liked a few and was trying to pick radio singles, but I just didn't have no conviction about it, Joe.

And my daughter at the same time had found her way into this little back road church in the middle of nowhere about a country where we live.

She kept asking me to come and you know, I have a tumulus relationship with the Lord, so I wasn't sure how I'd show up, but I was like, you know what, I'll go.

I went, there was 100 people, a little back road church, you know, 20 of them were kids that went to high school with her.

And around the same time, I caught this little motherfucker smoking pot, right?

She's 15, she's doing 15 year old kid stuff, and I was like, baby, you won't believe it.

About your age, I started making these same decisions and I was going to this little bitty church in Antioch.

I tell her the story of this church, she don't believe it.

So I take her to this old church, it's still there.

It's called Witsett Chapel Baptist Church.

And that night riding home with her, I didn't tell nobody, but in my mind I thought, that's the album I'm writing.

Like, fuck every song I wrote, I'm writing this album.

I called Zach Crowell, he produced every Sam Hunt song ever.

You know, 1 of the biggest producers in town I've known in my whole life, he's here with me right now.

And I said, dude, I wanna write an album called Going to Church.

And I just kinda wanna write this kind of journey and just kind of A to Z it and write a real project.

He's like, well, why don't you just call it Wits at Chapel?

So that's how we ended up doing Wits at Chapel.

So when Need a Favor came into the fold, I was like, what's worship music for sinners sound like?

You know, because when you're in church, it's holy, holy, you are great.

I was like, I don't necessarily feel that way.

And then it was like, ♪ Only talk to God when I need a favor.

♪ You know, and I was like, we gotta build it with a choir and big production.

I want that old stomp, clap, you know, that old church feel.

And I wanted to bring like that vibe of that church, you know, into the, into the, and the whole thing is the whole album is built on that vibe of like there's fire and brimstone there's everything you go through in a Sunday morning worship service.

Have you ever been to a Sunday in the South worship service?

They're gonna you're gonna convince you you're a horrible human at some point you're going to hell and then at the end they'll hit a major key instead of a minor 1 finally and go but there's hope.

I've always been a fan of those preachers.

I love the way they captivate an audience.

Even if they're crazy, even if they're talking nonsense, there's something exciting about watching some dude preach the word and just yell it out on fire

so I got a I got I'm gonna send you a link to the album but I got a preacher throughout the whole album doing that, Joe.

So you ran, like, the album starts with this dude like, and by the grace of God, we were saved.

I was in the studio Like we were just getting high and coming up with shit beautiful.

Yeah, it was so much fun It's probably most fun I've ever had writing an album cuz it's the first time I've sat down a long time and wrote an album Instead of just writing a bunch of songs and then picking an album You know what?

I was like no, I'm right it like we're gonna sit down and write an album

So what does that just came out of the blue?

yeah, it's just I just wasn't just felt like something to do and I'm gonna get like all the way real I didn't understand what was I had Commercial success for the first time in my life, and I didn't know how to deal with that So you do what everybody does in that moment?

I'm sure you may or may not have been there in your career early where you like you chase it then you're like Oh my god.

I can be yeah, and I realized that the songs wouldn't sound like jelly roll no more You know and I was like no I'm doing the thing that people do where they fuck their career up I was like I'm not doing that man.

So you think that that's just a normal trap that happens to everybody that gets success and they don't want to fuck up that success so they try to make a formula For what they think the people liked about their early shit.

Yes 100% or they chase Whatever the poppy record was or whatever the record that did the most so it's like how do I write another song like that?

So I was coming off of a hit that I When I gave you the plaque for son of a sinner was my first radio hit like hit hit And I was like, I didn't know how to come out of it because I didn't write the song for radio.

I wrote the song like I wrote every other song.

But then you start thinking, oh, I can write songs for radio.

And I had fucking 70 radio songs like fuck.

It's like nah, man I just need to I need to do what got me to radio They do what jelly roll does and I was like I know what it is I'm gonna get back on my foxhole and write me fucking out dude.

I took it off music row We went back to some little old back ass Studio in the backwoods and we wrote it kind of like you know like we wrote all my early shit

I feel like it's like every level of success that you get you're presented with a unique problem that you haven't seen before And it's up to you to just figure it out Just figure it out.

What are you doing this for and I think that applies to everything I know it applies to comedy.

I think it probably applies to everything Figure out what you're doing it for like what?

I know you have to make a living but once all that's taken care of Like what are you doing it for you should be doing it for the love of this thing Whatever this thing is that you do you are a love spreading machine as a human being

whether it's your love of carpentry Whether it's your love of electronics.

Everybody's got a thing but not everybody finds their fucking thing.

So people get trapped in something that's not their thing, and that's what they are now.

And they don't ever get to express themselves in a way that would make them feel good.

And it's like what you said, even with the music.

And that's what happened with those 70 songs.

When the why comes down to, oh, this is catchy, or this is a good song, I'm past the point of like, if this, I wanna help people, Joe.

Like my music has always been therapeutic.

So my mother was a woman who struggled with extreme mental health issues and drug addiction.

And she would never come out of her room, Joe.

And she would, she would come downstairs And she would come downstairs And she'd throw a record on.

And she'd light a cigarette at the table.

And dude, I would watch the house change.

Like, brothers, sisters, cousins, coming from across the street.

We live in a little tight neighborhood, poor people.

Neighbors coming over, her friends start flooding the house and she held court.

Joe, I would watch our kitchen turn into a nightclub and she'd start telling stories.

So she would be like, James Taylor wrote this about his drug addicted mother.

Or she'd be like, Bette Midler wrote The Rose about, and we're just like all captivated.

And then she'd play the Rose and we're all crying in the kitchen together and it's like and I didn't understand because I'm a kid right but something changed in her when the record went on is how I looked at it I didn't know anything about drug addiction anything about schizophrenia or bipolar or any of this stuff she was dealing with or manic-depressant back then what they called I didn't know any of this I just knew that this lady never fucking leaves that room and when she does it seems like the music does it so I spent my whole life writing songs for her right I was like I kind of indirectly was like writing these songs for the addicted and the broken.

So it's like I found purpose in the music.

And like I tell people, If I was gonna do it for money like any sane fucking comedian or musician I'd have quit 10 years ago Cuz fuck I wouldn't I didn't make any for 15 years You know if I was doing it for money how to quit forever go and went got a job I just knew that it was always helping people You know what?

I mean it's like the music was all because I seen how it helped my mother.

And to this day, like when you first bring up music, I'm like, I'm a mood guy.

It's like, you know how I feel about what I gotta go listen to.

To this day, if I'm going through something in life, I'll grab a joint, go hop in the pickup truck and tell my wife I'll be back.

I'm just gonna go listen to music for an hour and smoke a joint and I'm gonna come back and sort through this shit.

But it was something about that that made me wanna write songs for purpose.


Speaker 0: The Joe Rogan Experience. Can I tell you this story? It's a bit of a story, but it's fun to tell. So I had wrote like a hundred songs last year and I didn't feel great about any of them to be honest. The label liked a few and was trying to pick radio singles, but I just didn't have no conviction about it, Joe.

And my daughter at the same time had found her way into this little back road church in the middle of nowhere about a country where we live. She kept asking me to come and you know, I have a tumulus relationship with the Lord, so I wasn't sure how I'd show up, but I was like, you know what, I'll go. I went, there was 100 people, a little back road church, you know, 20 of them were kids that went to high school with her. And around the same time, I caught this little motherfucker smoking pot, right? She's 15, she's doing 15 year old kid stuff, and I was like, baby, you won't believe it.

About your age, I started making these same decisions and I was going to this little bitty church in Antioch. I tell her the story of this church, she don't believe it. So I take her to this old church, it's still there. It's called Witsett Chapel Baptist Church. And that night riding home with her, I didn't tell nobody, but in my mind I thought, that's the album I'm writing.

Like, fuck every song I wrote, I'm writing this album. I called Zach Crowell, he produced every Sam Hunt song ever. You know, 1 of the biggest producers in town I've known in my whole life, he's here with me right now. And I said, dude, I wanna write an album called Going to Church. And I just kinda wanna write this kind of journey and just kind of A to Z it and write a real project.

And Zach was like, I'm in. He's like, well, why don't you just call it Wits at Chapel? So that's how we ended up doing Wits at Chapel. So when Need a Favor came into the fold, I was like, what's worship music for sinners sound like? Like, what does a motherfucker like me?

You know, because when you're in church, it's holy, holy, you are great. I was like, I don't necessarily feel that way. So how do I feel? You know what I mean? And then it was like, ♪ Only talk to God when I need a favor.

♪ You know, and I was like, we gotta build it with a choir and big production. I want that old stomp, clap, you know, that old church feel. And I wanted to bring like that vibe of that church, you know, into the, into the, and the whole thing is the whole album is built on that vibe of like there's fire and brimstone there's everything you go through in a Sunday morning worship service. Have you ever been to a Sunday in the South worship service? They're gonna you're gonna convince you you're a horrible human at some point you're going to hell and then at the end they'll hit a major key instead of a minor 1 finally and go but there's hope.

I was like how do I write that? You know?

Speaker 1: I've always been a fan of those preachers. I love the way they captivate an audience. Even if they're crazy, even if they're talking nonsense, there's something exciting about watching some dude preach the word and just yell it out on fire

Speaker 0: so I got a I got I'm gonna send you a link to the album but I got a preacher throughout the whole album doing that, Joe. Ooh. That tied the record together. Oh, wow. So you ran, like, the album starts with this dude like, and by the grace of God, we were saved.

And it just drops the first song. Whoa. It's cool, man. That's amazing. I got nerdy, dude.

I went like old school, dude. I went like back to the 90s. I was in the studio Like we were just getting high and coming up with shit beautiful. Yeah, it was so much fun It's probably most fun I've ever had writing an album cuz it's the first time I've sat down a long time and wrote an album Instead of just writing a bunch of songs and then picking an album You know what? I mean?

I was like no, I'm right it like we're gonna sit down and write an album

Speaker 1: So what does that just came out of the blue? Inspirationally,

Speaker 0: yeah, it's just I just wasn't just felt like something to do and I'm gonna get like all the way real I didn't understand what was I had Commercial success for the first time in my life, and I didn't know how to deal with that So you do what everybody does in that moment? I'm sure you may or may not have been there in your career early where you like you chase it then you're like Oh my god. Hold on. I can be yeah, and I realized that the songs wouldn't sound like jelly roll no more You know and I was like no I'm doing the thing that people do where they fuck their career up I was like I'm not doing that man.

Speaker 1: So you think that that's just a normal trap that happens to everybody that gets success and they don't want to fuck up that success so they try to make a formula For what they think the people liked about their early shit.

Speaker 0: Yes. Yes 100% or they chase Whatever the poppy record was or whatever the record that did the most so it's like how do I write another song like that? So I was coming off of a hit that I When I gave you the plaque for son of a sinner was my first radio hit like hit hit And I was like, I didn't know how to come out of it because I didn't write the song for radio. I wrote the song like I wrote every other song. But then you start thinking, oh, I can write songs for radio.

And I had fucking 70 radio songs like fuck. I'm not you know. It's like nah, man I just need to I need to do what got me to radio They do what jelly roll does and I was like I know what it is I'm gonna get back on my foxhole and write me fucking out dude. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1: That's beautiful.

Speaker 0: I took it off music row We went back to some little old back ass Studio in the backwoods and we wrote it kind of like you know like we wrote all my early shit

Speaker 1: I feel like it's like every level of success that you get you're presented with a unique problem that you haven't seen before And it's up to you to just figure it out Just figure it out. What are you doing this for and I think that applies to everything I know it applies to comedy. It definitely seems to apply to music. I think it probably applies to everything Figure out what you're doing it for like what? Why do you like to do?

I know you have to make a living but once all that's taken care of Like what are you doing it for you should be doing it for the love of this thing Whatever this thing is that you do you are a love spreading machine as a human being

Speaker 0: right

Speaker 1: whether it's your love of carpentry Whether it's your love of electronics. What is it? What's your thing man,

Speaker 0: right?

Speaker 1: Everybody's got a thing but not everybody finds their fucking thing. That's the problem with this world. So people get trapped in something that's not their thing, and that's what they are now. And they don't ever get to express themselves in a way that would make them feel good.

Speaker 0: Well, for me, I always call it the why. And it's like what you said, even with the music. And that's what happened with those 70 songs. When the why comes down to, oh, this is catchy, or this is a good song, I'm past the point of like, if this, I wanna help people, Joe. Like my music has always been therapeutic.

My music has always been for people. What got me into music was my mother. So my mother was a woman who struggled with extreme mental health issues and drug addiction. And she would never come out of her room, Joe. And she would, she would come downstairs And she would come downstairs And she'd throw a record on.

And she'd light a cigarette at the table. And dude, I would watch the house change. Like, brothers, sisters, cousins, coming from across the street. We live in a little tight neighborhood, poor people. Neighbors coming over, her friends start flooding the house and she held court.

Joe, I would watch our kitchen turn into a nightclub and she'd start telling stories. And listen, we didn't have Google. We had to believe the bitch back then. Right, you know what I'm saying? Like, we're rich.

You know what I'm saying? So she would be like, James Taylor wrote this about his drug addicted mother. You know what I'm saying? Or something and play Fire and Rain. Or she'd be like, Bette Midler wrote The Rose about, and we're just like all captivated.

And then she'd play the Rose and we're all crying in the kitchen together and it's like and I didn't understand because I'm a kid right but something changed in her when the record went on is how I looked at it I didn't know anything about drug addiction anything about schizophrenia or bipolar or any of this stuff she was dealing with or manic-depressant back then what they called I didn't know any of this I just knew that this lady never fucking leaves that room and when she does it seems like the music does it so I spent my whole life writing songs for her right I was like I kind of indirectly was like writing these songs for the addicted and the broken. You know what I mean? Because that's what I was seeing. So it's like I found purpose in the music. And like I tell people, If I was gonna do it for money like any sane fucking comedian or musician I'd have quit 10 years ago Cuz fuck I wouldn't I didn't make any for 15 years You know if I was doing it for money how to quit forever go and went got a job I just knew that it was always helping people You know what?

I mean it's like the music was all because I seen how it helped my mother. And I knew the power of music. And to this day, like when you first bring up music, I'm like, I'm a mood guy. It's like, you know how I feel about what I gotta go listen to. To this day, if I'm going through something in life, I'll grab a joint, go hop in the pickup truck and tell my wife I'll be back.

And she knows what I'm doing. I'm just gonna go listen to music for an hour and smoke a joint and I'm gonna come back and sort through this shit. But it was something about that that made me wanna write songs for purpose. You

See all PowerfulJRE transcripts on Youtube

An Emotional Jelly Roll Says He Writes Music to Help People