Jelly Roll Joins Forces With ERNEST For Surprise Live Duet Of ‘Son Of A Sinner’

Jelly Roll made a surprise appearance during ERNEST’s recent performance in Florida, joining the fellow Nashville native for a duet of his hit Son Of A Sinner.

ERNEST is currently on the road with Morgan Wallen for the North American leg of the latter’s One Night At A Time world tour, joining the Last Night hitmaker for a lengthy string of shows leading into October. The Floridian date of the tour went down last Saturday (May 6) at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa. Jelly Roll was in town for a show of his own the night prior, playing at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater in Key West.

Jelly Roll’s appearance was met with deafening cheers from the packed-in crowd, he and ERNEST sharing a passionate handshake as they united onstage. Posting some fan-shot footage of the moment on Instagram, ERNEST labelled his longtime collaborator a “king”. Take a look below. 

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Son Of A Sinner landed as a single back in March of 2022, marking Jelly Roll’s formal introduction to the world of country rock; for more than a decade prior, he was known best for his southern rap material. 

The song – which also appears on Jelly Roll’s 2021 album Ballads Of The Broken – was co-written by ERNEST and David Ray Stevens, and went on to become the singer’s all-time biggest hit. It peaked at #31 on the Billboard Hot 100, but soared to #1 on the Country Airplay chart, #4 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and #8 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Just last month, Son Of A Sinner was certified Platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Responding to the success, Jelly Roll said in an interview that he’s never felt more at home than he does in country music. “I’m loving it,” he told Audacy’s Katie Neal. “I’ve never felt more welcomed anywhere. I was born and raised in Nashville, so [country music] is always second nature to me. It’s incredible.” 

Since then, Jelly Roll has been on a country-rocking hot streak. His next album, Whitsitt Chapel, is due out on June 2, and he’s thus far shared three singles: She, Need A Favour and the Yelawolf-assisted Unlive. He also scored big at this year’s CMT Music Awards, taking home the win for all three of his nominations – ‘Male Video of the Year’, ‘Breakthrough Male Video of the Year’ and ‘CMT Digital-First Performance of the Year’ – all thanks to Son Of A Sinner. 

“I want you to know that I don’t know what you’re going through, and I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I know you can overcome it [and] I promise you, you can… and you can be whatever you want to be, I promise you that,” he said in his speech while accepting the ‘Male Video of the Year’ award. “I told them I wanted to be a country music singer and I’m standing here at the CMT Awards with the Male Video of the Year, baby. When God got something for you, nothing can get him away.”

Last month, Brantley Gilbert revealed he was back in the studio with Jelly Roll, working on a whole EP of collaborative material. “We went and got in the studio and basically live[d] there for a week, and a lot of good stuff came out of that,” Gilbert said. “I don’t know that we’ll release all of ‘em right now, but we are working on like kind of a little EP to put out.”

When he’s not cranking out hits, Jelly Roll can be seen dishing out jelly donuts and hot wings in his Rolling With Jelly food truck. As he mentioned in a recent interview, he and business partner Jerry Gift Jr. “only hire second-chance guys”. He explained: “Every other place in the world is like, 'If you got a felony, you can't work here.' We're only hiring felons. They run the food truck and it comes out on tour with us some nights.”