Jelly Roll offers inspiration in sold-out Pittsburgh concert

Jelly Roll provided a concise yet accurate description of his show at one point Saturday night, calling it “real music for real people with real problems.”

In a sold-out concert at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, the country/rap/rock/pop star never flinched as he stared down those issues, while also being able to forgive himself and move forward.

”I felt so many moments in my life completely helpless and I felt completely hopeless, and I thought I was never going to be able to get myself out of the hole that I had dug myself in,” said Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord.” “I thought it was the end of my story. There were so many days I just wanted to give up. I didn’t think I was going to make it one step further in life.”

An understandable sentiment, considering he had been arrested 40 times in his life and struggled with substance abuse. But he used Saturday’s concert — and as he has and will on the rest of the Beautifully Broken tour — to get away from the past, focusing instead on redemption, recovery and freedom.

“This is more than a concert because this is more than music to us. You see, to us, music is magical,” he said. “Music is medicine. Music is healing. Music is helpful. Music can be there for us when nobody else is there. We believe in the power of music.”

After delivering dozens of high fives as he walked through the crowd to the auxiliary stage, Jelly Roll kissed his wife and launched into “I Am Not Okay,” with the burning metal frame of a house sizzling above him.

“That’s how you start a show, Pittsburgh!” he said before making his way to the main stage to joined his eight-member band, including two wearing Penguins jerseys, and three backup singers.

Early highlights included the gospel hoedown of “Get By” and the yet-to-be released “Burning,” which had a guitar solo, drum solo and dancing from Jelly Roll, who sported a backwards Penguins hat.

His spiritual battles were evident in “Halfway to Hell” and “Son of a Sinner,” with an introduction of how the spirit of rock, the spirit of outlaw country and the spirit of God were all present. He acknowledged the contradiction of his belief in God while noting he’d be swearing regularly during the show. (He signed a man’s prosthetic leg at one point during the latter song, too.)

Paying tribute to the music he heard via his mother — singers like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Alan Jackson and George Strait, among others — Jelly Roll celebrated with a cover of Toby Keith’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” with help from opening act Alexandra Kay. She followed that up with a cover of Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”

Jelly Roll then took a minute to laud Kay, an independent artist making her way amidst the big business of country music, who he and his family became fans of via TikTok. (Earlier in the night, Kay gave a “shout out to my guy Jelly Roll, changing my life every night.”)

More from @JellyRoll615 at @PPGPaintsArena pic.twitter.com/IxmBuAQHts

— Mike Palm (@MikePalmMedia) October 6, 2024

After Kay left came a cover of Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” with a silky smooth transition to “Lonely Road,” a revamping of John Denver’s “Country Roads.”

After the new songs, unreleased songs (his album “Beautifully Broken” doesn’t officially drop until Oct. 11), feature songs and covers, Jelly Roll offered an apology for not playing any old songs. He rectified that with a medley of four songs, including “Fall in the Fall, ” with a lyric change referencing Pittsburgh.

Seated on a stool next to a piano with its top on fire, Jelly Roll performed the powerful ballad “She,” which addresses the heroin/fentanyl addiction issue. He said he knew the next song, “Liar,” would be impactful, prefacing it with “I’m here to tell you the devil is a liar.”

A giant skull with a cross tattoo on its face (just like Jelly Roll) lowered during “Bottle and Mary Jane,” while a giant white rosary and cross appeared for a stirring “Need a Favor.” DJ Hylyte, who helped work the crowd before the show and between bands, guested on “Smoking Section,” before the penultimate “Heart of Stone,” another song that hasn’t been officially released yet.

Just as he opened the show from the auxiliary stage, he returned there for the finale of “Save Me.” The same burning house frame appeared before being doused by water raining down that extinguished the flame and dampened Jelly Roll as he performed his Grammy-nominated hit.

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Hershey native Warren Zeiders set the stage for Jelly Roll with a fun, upbeat set of muscular, high-energy country (with one of his guitarists even sporting a Pirates hat and Steelers shirt).

While introducing “Heartbreaker,” he said he had a “habit of breaking my own heart.” Zeiders also played a pair of unreleased songs, encouraging fans to record them on their phones.

Zeiders, whose most recent album “Relapse” came out in August, had his biggest hit with “Pretty Little Poison,” his first song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard country radio charts back in March.

“I’m just going to be honest,” he said. “This is probably the hardest song I’ve ever had to write, ladies and gentlemen, the hardest song I’ve ever had to sing.”

Zeiders showed off the grit in his voice as he closed with a rocking rendition of his debut single, “Ride the Lightning” (with no relation to Metallica song).

More from @WarrenZeiders in Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/VjfaEicxD2

— Mike Palm (@MikePalmMedia) October 6, 2024

Kay, who opened the show, noted that she’d be singing “some of my most vulnerable songs,” referencing her debut album, “All I’ve Ever Known,” which details the unraveling an 11-year relationship that ended in divorce.

With a raw, heartfelt delivery that seemed on the cusp of tears, Kay seemed particularly emotional on “Everleave,” of which she said, “I just completely fell apart writing it on my living room floor.”

More from @_alexandrakay in Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/eUKi2f8mCk

— Mike Palm (@MikePalmMedia) October 6, 2024