This year’s nominees for CMA “New Artist of The Year” had some serious heavy hitters: Zach Bryan, Megan Moroney, Jelly Roll, Parker McCollum, and Hailey Whitters were all nominated.
Ultimately, the trophy fell in (and eventually out) the hands of Jelly Roll, which seemed to surprise him more than anyone else, especially after the huge year he had.
This week, Jelly Roll appeared alongside Ernest on Theo Von’s podcast, This Past Weekend, and revealed he truly didn’t believe he had a chance to win the award. After Von congratulated him, he said:
“It was really interesting because I didn’t think I had a chance to win it… I did not at all. I was up against Zach Bryan and Parker McCollum.”
“I felt like, no pun intended to my boy, I felt like Parker had a hell of a year, and I feel like Zach Bryan is the second most streamed artist in country music right now behind Morgan. So to me it was like a no brainer.”
While yes, Parker McCollum did have a hell of year and yes, Zach Bryan was the second most streamed country artist, there was still much reason to believe Jelly Roll had an equal shot at the award. The man now has three number one songs at country radio with the newly chart topping Save Me ft. Lainey Wilson, and by the way, all three were this year.
Amid his triumphs, Jelly Roll has been a supporter of Zach Bryan in particular, publicly showing admiration for the Something in the Orange singer in various interviews and podcasts- notably on the Joe Rogan Experience back in May. Jelly Roll continues to salute Bryan and detail their CMA Awards interactions where they seemed to have been enjoying hanging out together:
“I’m such a Zach Bryan fan and I got to sit next to him the whole night…There was a moment where I literally felt like me and him were tailgating and watching a concert outside of an arena… We were just there talking about the music all night.”
“I just thought for sure he would win, you know? The last thing, right before they announced the name was I think I tapped him on the shoulder and said say something nice about me.”
After his name was called, he took the opportunity to show Zach Bryan some love and respect, letting him know he doesn’t deserve the award any less:
“When I hugged him going up there I was like man you deserve this.”
Jelly Roll then went on to give arguably the most iconic speech in recent CMA Awards history, being sure to, you guessed it, commend Zach Bryan. The now 2023 “New Artist of The Year” winner, while maybe not expecting to receive the prize, came out on top in exciting fashion.
Zach ended up taking home the New Artist award over Jelly Roll at the Billboard Music Awards just a week later. I think it’s safe to say Jelly Roll is holding no grudges over that one.
Check out the conversation clip here: