Jelly Roll has another CMT Music Award! After winning the trophies for Male Breakthrough Video of the Year and the CMT Digital-First Performance of the Year, the rapper-turned-country-singer won another trophy, this one for Male Video of the Year, also for “Son Of A Sinner..”
“I love y’all so much,” an emotional Jelly Roll said from stage. “Thank you, CMT. Three awards in one night. I hope y’all will give me a second here. I started drinking. I didn’t think I was going to win again. It may have looked like it was only 30 yards. But it took me 39 years to walk from over there to right here. And I want you to know that I don’t know what you’re going through, and I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I know you can overcome it. I promise you. You can. And you can be whatever you want to be, I promise you that.
“I told them I wanted to be a country music singer, and I’m standing here at the CMT Awards with the Male Video of the Year,” he continued. “When God has something for you, nothing can get in the way. I know you’re watching, Mama. Look at your baby boy. … I want to thank country radio for accepting me, knowing who I was, and letting me do it my way the whole way to this stage tonight. That means the world to me. And I want to thank the country music community for standing behind me, and standing next to me through all of this.”
Jelly Roll was equally shocked to win Male Breakthrough Video of the Year, reflecting on his troubled past — including time in prison — in his acceptance speech.
“They let a loser win tonight, baby,” Jelly Roll said when accepting that trophy. “They let a loser win tonight. I wanna thank my record label, Stoney Creek. I wanna thank my management. I wanna thank my beautiful wife, Miss Bunny DeFord. This is more than an award. First of all, this is for the fans, baby. The only fan-voted awards show in America. This is for the underdog, baby. This is for the losers and the have-nots. God takes the impossible and makes it look small. Let’s go, baby.”
Jelly Roll’s first full-length country album, Whitsitt Chapel, would be out on June 2. He will embark on his Backroad Baptism Tour in July, joined by a rotating list of opening acts, including Ashley McBryde, Chase Rice, Struggle Jennings, Caitlynne Curtis, Elle King, Merkules, Three 6 Mafia, Yelawolf and Josh Adam Meyers.
Photo Credit: Catherine Powell/Getty for CMT