Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Jelly Roll: Save Me’ on Hulu, A Music Doc As Confessional For The Rapper-Turned-Country Music Star

Jelly Roll: Save Me (Hulu) is named for the Nashville area-raised musician’s platinum-selling 2020 single, which became a multimillion-stream viral hit during the pandemic and established his stylistic shift from hip-hop to country. But this doc isn’t just about big breaks. It’s about big mistakes, too – Jelly Roll is the first to say he’s made ‘em – and how the ex-con and ex-addict is using his fame and platform to give back to his fans and the community he came from. Whitsitt Chapel, Jelly Roll’s new full-length that includes a new duet version of “Save Me” featuring singer and Yellowstone co-star Lainey Wilson, is out this June.   

JELLY ROLL – SAVE ME: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: He arrives at the 2022 Country Music Awards in a cherry-red Cadillac Fleetwood, a newly-minted star of the genre. Decked out in a custom black suit with matching leather coat, his wife Bunnie in pink lace and sequins, the couple walk the red carpet, deliver gregarious stand-up interviews – his mom was the first to bestow “Jelly Roll” on the man born Jason Bradley DeFord – stand in awe of Reba McEntire, and say hello to Luke Bryan, who he calls a friend. But asked in Save Me whether he ever even expected to be invited to such an event, and Jelly Roll responds with typically brutal honesty. “I always felt like music could’ve been it. I just wasn’t sure how possible it really fucking was. I didn’t dream of CMA red carpets when I was five. This is a big transition for me, y’all. If there was a high school vote of least likely to do anything cool, I would have for sure won unanimously.” 

A child of addiction, a kid who smoked meth out of a lightbulb at 15, and a drug-dealing juvenile delinquent eventually tried and convicted as an adult – Jelly Roll is brutally honest about it all in Save Me, a doc that captures his life surrounding a series of shows in late 2022, as his country music star continues to rise. The musician says music was his hail mary after finally leaving prison behind, and a decade of putting out rap mix tapes and independent releases coincided with life in a van, living on the road and playing 300 gigs a year. He says he just started singing a few years back, and can still “feel like a scared child” when he performs. But with the viral success of “Save Me,” interest from country music labels, and the ramp-up from club bookings to sold out arenas, Jelly Roll can speak with pride about where the hustle got him. Even more important, he’s more than willing to share his scars. 

Save Me has its share of live performance footage. It also enters the recording studio for a songwriting session with Jelly Roll and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Hillary Lindsey, and it follows the realization of a new song, the gospel-tinged “I Need a Favor,” which has since become a hit at country radio. But the doc spends even more time with Jelly Roll as a recovering addict – he kicked pills and coke, but still smokes a little weed, mostly to booze less – and with his committed efforts to be an ambassador of hope for those currently in rehab, as well as young people in juvenile facilities. (On Thanksgiving, he personally delivers a mountain of Cracker Barrel dinners to a Nashville-area detention center.) Severe depression, survivor’s guilt, imposter syndrome, and a constant vigil against his “biggest demon,” which is his mental health as it relates to his obesity – Jelly Roll still struggles with it all. But he’s not asking for sympathy. After everything, and with his newfound success, “Now it’s time to get a little hopeful, man.”      

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? With the 2022 doc Runaway, rapper, singer, and actor Post Malone put the experience of his own first big concert tour to camera. And Untrapped: The Story of Lil Baby chronicles the rough early life and rapid popular rise of the Atlanta rapper. 

Performance Worth Watching: Jelly Roll is the exterior of this doc, rolled in sugar and fried, as well as the filling, with its undeniable sweetness. But the musician isn’t the star of Save Me in a self-involved, adulation-affirming kind of way. The observations he offers on his life and how it’s come to this – putting out major label country records, selling out arenas, and discovering the joys of fatherhood – are tinged with regret, hard-won insight, resignation, and his stated intention to take the biggest bite he can out of whatever the future holds.

Memorable Dialogue: As thousands of fans gather outside Bridgestone Arena in Nashville for his sold-out homecoming concert in December 2022, Jelly Roll is still assessing where his life has led. You really get the sense in Save Me that he’s always doing this. “I’m really a street kid that had absolutely nothing going for him. To me, life was about climbing mountains. They said we were too fat to be in the music business. They told me that my voice wasn’t cool enough. They told me I didn’t have an image, would never fit in country music or any genre. These are all to me as mountains. We had to just climb and conquer.”

Sex and Skin: Nothing here, though neither Jelly Roll nor his wife Bunnie are shy about recalling how they met, with her as a sex worker in Las Vegas and him as the musician grinding, touring and living in his van.

Our Take: The depth of what Jelly Roll’s music means to his fans becomes apparent in a tour stop captured in Save Me, as the rapper, singer, and musician takes the stage at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. “I hope you listen to what I’m fixin’ to say,” he calls to the sold-out crowd, and launches into his representative single and the titular song of this doc, which quickly becomes a heartfelt singalong for the gathered throng. Close-ups capture the crowd, many of them shouting the “I’m a lost cause” line to the heavens; a little kid wears a temporary face tattoo that emulates Jelly Roll’s crucifix ink. As the footage reveals, it’s a round of mutual therapy for the audience and the star, an experience that he also repeatedly equates with going to church. The religious imagery of “those old backroad Baptist churches,” as he calls them; it’s something Jelly Roll has clearly considered deeply as the connection his music has fostered has resulted in more and more success, and that important interplay between fan and artist becomes a crux of Save Me. 

It also has the real makings of a “day in the life” reality show. Jelly Roll and his wife Bunnie make no secret of their status as outliers in the country music industry, despite the success it’s brought them, and as they’re seen dipping a toe into the glam and gushy media at the top of the Nashville game, it’s easy to see Save Me as a kind of dry run for a documentary series. Add in Jelly Roll’s very real commitment to visiting rehab centers, speaking personally with addicts, and donating gate receipts from concerts to juvenile facilities and aftercare programs, and you’ve got the makings here of a ten-episode order. There’s no doubt Jelly Roll lives large enough to sustain it.

Our Call: STREAM IT. With his status as one of country music’s newest stars established and a new record and extensive tour imminent, Save Me serves a kind of introduction of where Jelly Roll came from, and all of the joy and mistakes he encountered on the way.  

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges