Jelly Roll capped off a banner weekend in New York, N.Y. — which also included a sold-out performance at Madison Square Garden — by making his Saturday Night Live debut.
He was the musical guest on the premiere episode of the legendary show’s 50th season, joining host Jean Smart and a slew of special guests from a variety of corners of the film and entertainment industry.
Jelly performed “Liar,” the second single off his upcoming Beautifully Broken album, during his time on the show. Like much of his discography to date, “Liar” chronicles Jelly’s battle with his demons. But unlike some of the songs he’s released dealing with that subject matter, “Liar” has a more triumphant outlook, with Jelly getting the upper hand over his struggles with addiction, mental health and self-doubt.
- Jelly’s Beautifully Broken album is due out on Oct. 11.
- “Liar” follows the album’s first single, “I Am Not Okay.”
- The singer first began performing “Liar” early this spring, but he initially told fans he might never release it.
- By the ACM Awards in May, he seemed to have decided to put the song out: He performed “Liar” on the broadcast.
Jelly also shared a new song on the SNL stage. He performed “Winning Streak,” another new song off his Beautifully Broken album, which he hasn’t released yet and which fans haven’t yet heard in a major-platform live setting.
Earlier this summer, Jelly spoke to the New York Times about “Winning Streak,” saying it was inspired by an exchange he once witnessed between two attendees at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting.
“This kid, he’s going through it,” the singer explained. “One of the old men sitting there was like, ‘Look, man, it’s all good. Nobody came here on a winning streak.’ It was such a beautiful thing.”
In the same interview, Jelly — who doesn’t consider himself completely sober from alcohol, though he has gotten sober from substances like cocaine and pain pills — clarified his relationship with AA.
“I don’t tell people I go to meetings,” he explained. “It’s not a part of my story that I share because I have so much respect for the men and women in the program that get actually completely sober, that I never want my stuff to get in the way of them.”
Read More: 18 Country Stars Who Are Committed to Sobriety
Still, he says, attending AA is a part of his ability to maintain other forms of sobriety. “But I never share, I just sit quietly and appreciate the message and the meaning,” he adds.
Jelly channeled some of the aesthetic of an AA meeting for his SNL performance, with a semi-circle of empty office chairs around him and fluorescent lights in the ceiling above him. He was backed by a gospel choir as he sang, underscoring the powerful, emotional message behind “Winning Streak.”
Jelly Roll, “Winning Streak” Lyrics:
The broken past of a bottle makes a jagged rock bottom / Right now I got two shaky hands, only one way to stop it / And I haven’t touched a drop in seven hours, three minutes / Hardly sobered up, already wanna quit quittin’ / Sweatin’ in an old church basement / Wishin’ I was wasted/ I never thought I’d say this
Hello, my name’s Jason
Chorus:
I’ve been losing myself, I’ve been losing my mind / I’ve been standin’ in the rain just tryin’ to stay dry / I was so ashamed to be in this seat / ‘Til I met a man who was 20 years clean / He said, ‘Everybody here’s felt the same defeat / Nobody walks through these doors on a winning streak.’
Hold on, hold on / Just hold on
Broken man in the mirror can’t look at me ’cause he’s guilty / And I swear for the last couple months that mother f–ker tried to kill me / ‘Bout the time I saw it coming it was done with already / It’s hard to run from it when it runs in the family / A problem with the thousand more it’s causing / Man, it’s all exhausting / This is why I walked in (Thank y’all)
Repeat Chorus
I’m tired of being broken / I’m sick of feeling hopeless / Way down here at my lowest / At the end of my rope / At the end of my road
So what do I do? / So what do I do? / What do I do?
Repeat Chorus
Hold on / Hold on, hold on / Hold on
Jelly Roll’s 2024 Beautifully Broken Tour Opening Night Photos
Jelly Roll’s 2024 Beautifully Broken Tour kicked off on Tuesday, Aug. 27, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The “I Am Not Okay” singer performed in the Delta Center — home of Utah Jazz basketball — for the first time.
See photos from opening night below.