Jelly Roll Thought He Was Being 'Joked' When Eminem Asked Him for a Surprise Duet

Jelly Roll is still having a pinch-me moment even after his duet with Eminem in a concert in Detroit.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the Grammy-nominated artist recalled his performance with Eminem at the Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central.

"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," he declared. "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."

Jelly Roll revealed that Eminem's team had reached out to him about the performance. At first, he was still unsure of the whole thing because it sounded too good to be true.

"Em reached out, his team reached out and said, 'Would you be interested in doing this since he was already there doing the secret tribute?' I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a joke until I met Eminem himself," he recalled feeling.

At one point, Jelly Roll thought he was being "joked."

"I even know Eminem's manager. He's a friend of mine. He's really good to me. His name is Paul and 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," he described the opportunity.

Recalling the feeling when he was performing onstage with one of his rap idols, Jelly Roll said that he was "giddy" and even felt like a "child" at the time.

"You could see it all over my performance. Just the kid in me. I thought the camera was off of me. So as soon as I get through singing, I'm like, whoa, I just let this steamroller out. It's really cool," he confirmed.

Unbeknownst to many, before he became a mainstream country music artist, Jelly Roll was a rapper. He revealed that he was inspired by rappers such as Three 6 Mafia, UGK, and 8BALL & MJG. He has since released sixteen hip-hop albums until he decided to take the country genre by storm in 2021.

Tags

Jelly Roll, Eminem