Jelly Roll Speaks Out as ‘I Am Not Okay’ Hits the Top 10

Photo byCourtesy of the CMA

Jelly Roll is by now getting used to having hit singles at radio, but his current single, “I Am Not Okay,” is especially meaningful to him because of the song’s subject matter. The Nashville native has a Top 10 hit with “I Am Not Okay,” a song about mental health.

“This means more to me than people will ever know,” Jelly Roll writes on social media. “To have a top 10 on country radio is always special but to have it with a song about Mental Health is even cooler.”

“I Am Not Okay” is part of his forthcoming Beautifully Broken album, out on October 11. The 11-track record also includes “Liar” and “Get By,” part of a project that the singer-songwriter says he has put a lot of thought into it, and the messages he wants to share through his msuic.

“I’m looking for songs that have a purpose,” Jelly Roll tells the New York Times (via People). “When I go to put out a song under the name Jelly Roll, I think to myself, Why? Because for the first time in my life, it has nothing to do with a financial decision. I’m well past putting out anything for money. So, now, it really is a why.”

Not that all of the songs on Beautifully Broken are about serious subject matter. Jelly Roll also wants his fans to have a good time listening to his music, just as important to him as covering serious topics.

“I do have a couple of fun songs on this album,” Jelly Roll says on Audacy’s Katie & Company. “It was cool because I’m in a different headspace than I’ve ever been, so I was in a cool place to be able to write like that. I wrote most of my career from extreme, dark hopelessness, which I still write from, but I think this was like, I’ve had enough cool experiences. My music will always favor the fall.”

Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken album will come out a month before the 2024 CMA Awards, where he is nominated for three awards. The singer-songwriter is nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year (for his 2023 Whitsitt Chapel project), and the night’s highest honor, Entertainer of the Year, the latter an especially impressive accomplishment since it was only a year ago that Jelly Roll won the CMA Award for New Artist of the Year.

“There is something poetic about a 39-year-old man winning New Artist of the Year,” Jelly Roll said at the time. “I don’t know where you’re at in your life or what you’re going through, but I want to tell you to keep going, I want to tell you, success is on the other side. I wanna tell you it’s gonna be okay. I want to tell you that the windshield is better than the rearview mirror, because what’s in front of you is so much more important than what’s behind you.”

Jelly Roll is currently on his Beautifully Broken Tour. Find all of his music and upcoming shows at JellyRoll615.com.