Jelly Roll teases new song, sings 'Save Me' at pre-NFL draft concert

Jelly Roll, the big character with the arena-sized draw, scaled things down Wednesday for a relatively intimate show in the city he affectionately called his "second home."

The breakout country-rock-rap star hit the Fillmore in Detroit to serve up a 1-hour, 15-minute set of familiar tunes — and one brand-new song — for a capacity crowd of 3,000.

Billed as "The Night Before," the show wasn't officially affiliated with the NFL Draft, which will run Thursday through Saturday just down the street from the music venue. But in a downtown corridor already buzzing ahead of the big event, Jelly Roll’s visit certainly fit the festive mood.

Jelly Roll, in typical chatty and high-spirited form, loaded his 18-song set with material from "Ballads of the Broken" and "Whitsitt Chapel," the albums that propelled him onto the national radar after years in the musical trenches, making him the toast of awards shows and gushing cover stories.

Much of that appeal comes from his rags-to-redemption personal story — from teen battles with drugs and prison to life as a cleaned-up redneck hero with an often-penetrating lyrical touch.

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He was introduced onstage Wednesday by Flavor Flav, who led the crowd in a singalong of Jelly Roll's "Save Me," the same song that would later close the show.

Bunnie XO, his wife and a frequent fixture at his shows, was on the West Coast taping her Dumb Blonde podcast, Jelly Roll alerted the crowd. But for "Kill a Man," on which Bunnie is a typical duet partner live, the night got another special guest: singer Madeline Merlo, who sang on the original 2023 track.

As with his previous Detroit stops, the gregarious singer-rapper shared generous Motor City love: He manned the stage in a Detroit Tigers baseball cap, gushed about Detroit as home to both his favorite rapper and rock 'n' roller (Eminem and Bob Seger), saluted the Lions’ recent successes and applauded the city’s resurgence.

Ahead of "Son of a Sinner" — the 2022 hit that became his first country chart-topper — Jelly Roll had kind words for the night’s host, hailing Detroit radio station WYCD's Tim Roberts as one of the first country radio programmers to “take a chance” on his music.

Fans at the Fillmore, many of them WYCD contest winners, got treated to a sneak peek of a new work, "Liar," another wrestling demons song with a catchy '70s touch.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: [email protected].