“It was everything I thought it would be”, Jelly Roll says about working with Eminem on “Somebody Save Me”, noting parallels in their lives and artistry.
Jelly Roll shared his thoughts on collaborating with Eminem during an appearance on The Dumb Blonde Podcast with Bunny Xo. From childhood admiration to finding similarities in their personal journeys, Jelly Roll spoke about how their connection felt inevitable and how working with one of the biggest artists of the century exceeded all expectations. He also gave credit to Paul Rosenberg for helping their collaboration happen and for his unwavering support in the music industry.
Jelly Roll started his story about working with Marshall with a simple statement:
It was a dream come true. I don’t think I know more songs of anybody than I do of Garth Brooks, Eminem and James Taylor. I probably sing every song he’s ever written. I love the meme that says, “Eminem gave it to my childhood, Jelly Roll gave it to my adulthood” ’cause Eminem gave it to my childhood. And the irony is that to some degree, “Save Me” would impact him enough that he would create art to it. So, to some degree, maybe I helped him in his adulthood, in that weird way of a universal music circle.
He admitted that for him, personally, meeting Eminem seemed inevitable:
I always arrogantly felt like me and him were gonna connect. I felt like it was too much him in me for him not to see it eventually. Similar stories of addictive past, similar personal stories with our children, our children having to go through this stuff publicly. There are so many little parallels there. Ultimately, just trashy white kids. And it was everything I thought that would be connecting with him that way. First of all, he’s funny. He’s FUNNY funny.
Beyond Eminem, Jelly Roll praised Paul Rosenberg, Eminem’s longtime manager, comparing him to UFC President Dana White for his generous and collaborative spirit.
Paul Rosenberg is the real hero in this. We spent 20 minutes talking about how great Dana White is. That’s Paul Rosenberg in the music business. Paul Rosenberg is Dana White. He’s like, “What can I do to help you?” When you have the biggest artist of this century, pretty much, you don’t wanna play, you just want to help people. And him and Paul are thick as thieves. I hope me and John [Meneilly] live long enough to have this kinship. You can tell it’s 20-something years of managing each other, and day to day just being best friends. It’s just wholesome. Great dude. Working with Eminem was awesome.
For Jelly Roll, working with Eminem was not just a career milestone — it was the fulfilment of a lifelong admiration and the work of destiny. And also the result of his own hard work.
