Jelly Roll talks how did he end up working with Eminem

Jelly Roll and Eminem in Detroit (2024)

After joining Eminem on stage to perform “Sing for the Moment” at the Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central event on Thursday, June 6, 2024, the country star Jelly Roll talked about the background story about the performance in an interview with Howard Stern.

“Man, it was so cool. Paul Rosenberg, his lifelong manager came to my Detroit show last year with Trick Trick. And we are all hanging out backstage and I’m just like ‘hey, does Marshall even know who I am?’ He’s like ‘yeah, that’s why I am here. Marshall loves you. We’re gonna figure something out, I want y’all to get together. And I’m thinking like ‘he’s just manager, he’s just just being polite.’ He told me that day like ‘I got something cooking. When it comes out, I’ll call you.’ Sure enough, they called about the Detroit show. And the first thing was ‘hey man, will you come and honor Bob Seager, we know how much of a fan of his you are, you always put him in your top 3, would you come sing Bob Seager and they wanted me to sing ‘Hollywood Nights’ and I was like ‘yo, can I sing ‘Turn The Page’ instead? And they were like ‘yeah, we can do this medley. And I was like ‘let’s do the ultimate Rock N’ Roll.” said Jelly Roll.

Then he continued: “Then they called and they were like ‘Eminem wants to know if you would sing a song with him. First of all, I get goosebumps up my body and I thought right then Howard, I bet it’s Sing For The Moment. And I said that on the phone and they were like ‘that’s exactly what it is.’ I was like ‘dude, I’m so in.’ And I didn’t meet him till the day we did it. I met him at rehearsal when we ran through it together. Man, I was so nervous. It definitely was not my best performance. You could see the nerves on my face. This song did a lot for me in dark moments of my life too. This particular song of his and I’m lifelong fan. There is not a white kid in the world that didn’t grow up listening to Eminem rapping. It gave me hope.”

“There is not enough praises for him. He’s inarguably the greatest rapper that ever lived. Ever. That’s not an arguable thing. So you are literally meeting the greatest that his craft, the greatest person to ever do that craft, you’re meeting!”

Few days ago, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Jelly Roll said that it was the coolest thing that ever happened in his career: “When I think about coolest moments of my career, right now at the top, there has to be this thing that I got to go sing with Eminem in Detroit. I got to sing ‘Sing for the Moment’ with him, which is a record where he sampled Steven Tyler. I mean, just what an incredible night and I got to go do it in Detroit. It was unreal. When his manger called me, I was like, ‘Paul, don’t play.’ He was like, ‘I swear,’ And as soon as I met Eminem, it was like the coolest moment ever, man.”

Watch the interview on The Howard Stern Show below: