Jelly Roll just notched his latest No. 1 with “Need A Favor,” and the rising country star is looking for his next hit with “Save Me,” a duet with Lainey Wilson.
During an interview with Pure Country, Jelly Roll had nothing but praise for his duet partner, declaring that Wilson has “one of the best voices in country music.”
“It was a no-brainer,” Jelly Roll said of adding Wilson to the track. “Lainey’s like a sister. I think she’s got one of the best voices in country music, and we’re already friends so it was just such an easy collab. Now, admittedly, what I didn’t think about at the exact time, the first thought was just like, ‘Man, wouldn’t this be cool to do a real duet?’ But I didn’t realize how much of an impact the song was going to have on me when I heard it from the perspective of a woman.”
Watch Jelly Roll’s Full Interview With Pure Country Below
The Tennessee native added that he thinks Wilson’s presence on the song, which is a pleading cry for help with addiction that Jelly Roll wrote with David Ray Stevens, is what’s helping it become a success.
“I tell Lainey all the time, she’s like, ‘This song is doing incredible.’ And I was like, ‘It has nothing to do with me, Lainey.’ I’ve already put this song out. I was like, ‘People are hearing this from the perspective of a woman right now, and it’s putting a whole different energy into the universe from this song.’ You know what I mean?”

“She’s Scorching Hot… Right Now”
Jelly Roll also pointed out that Wilson took time out of her busy schedule, not to mention two recent duets that were both successful (“Never Say Never” with Cole Swindell and “wait in the truck” with HARDY), to record “Save Me.”
“I’m sure there was somebody in her camp going, hold on, we don’t need another duet right now,” Jelly Roll mused. “You know what I mean? You know how this business is. And Lainey was just like, ‘No, I’m doing it.’ She’s scorching hot on just red fire right now.”
“She’s coming off the biggest TV show on Earth,” he continued, referencing Wilson’s role on Yellowstone. “You know what I mean? Everything about it. She had a thousand reasons not to do it and one reason to do it, and that was liking me, you know what I’m saying? And she picked the one over the thousand. That’s who Lainey Wilson is.”
Performance Of “Save Me” Is “Electric”
Jelly Roll added that whenever he and Wilson get to perform the song together, it’s “electric.”
“When we look each other in the eye on that ‘all of this drinking’ part, man, I see her soul,” he said. “I see every painful thing she’s been through in her life and her eyes at that moment. It’s insane.”
Jelly Roll was referencing lyrics in the song that read, “All of this drinkin’ and smokin’ is hopeless / But feel like it’s all that I need / Somethin’ inside of me’s broken / I hold on to anything that sets me free.”

“Save Me” first appeared on Jelly Roll’s 2020 album, Self Medicated, as a solo track, but a new version with Wilson was released on his latest album, June’s Whitsitt Chapel. The duet is already showing up on the country charts, though it isn’t set to officially impact country radio until September 5.