Jelly Roll Praises This Year's CMA Awards Winners, Takes Inspiration From Taylor Swift: 'I'll Work Harder'

Jelly Roll has had an amazing year, judging by his album Beautifully broken debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, hitting No. 1 Country Airplay hits like “I Am Not Okay” and “Halfway to Hell” and embarking on his first groundbreaking arena tour, The Beautifully Broken tour. Plus, she turned in a pair of top-notch performances at this week's CMA Awards, including a moving version of “Believe” with Brooks & Dunn.

However, although he had several nominations leading up to this year's CMAs, his name was not among the year's winners. Jelly Roll was nominated for Entertainer of the Year (which eventually went to Morgan Wallen, marking his first win in the category), Vocalist of the Year (which saw Chris Stapleton pick up his eighth win in this category) and album of the Year (Jelly Roll's Whitsitt Chapel was nominated, but Cody Johnson Skin declared winner in the category). Notably, Jelly Roll appears in Skincollaborating with Johnson on the song “Whiskey Bent”.

Jelly Roll may not have left this year's CMAs with any new material in his arsenal — he won the 2023 CMA New Artist of the Year — but he's not letting that get him down. Instead, he's determined to work even harder ahead of next year's CMA Awards and had plenty of praise for this year's winners.

In a social media post, Jelly said he was grateful for his performance alongside Brooks & Dunn, praised Wallen, Johnson and Stapleton, thanked his family and revealed a moment of inspiration he got from watching Taylor Swift .

“Standing next to the two people who mean the most to me, we entered the Bridgestone Arena for my second CMA as a nominated artist,” she wrote. “On the biggest night in country music on the biggest stage in Nashville I had the opportunity to stand next to some living legends and praise Jesus in front of the world. Thank you Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, you could pick any artist in the world bigger than me, I can never thank you enough for giving me the opportunity to unashamedly stand for my faith in front of the world.”

He added of this year's CMA Awards winners, “I know I don't have to say this, but just to be clear – Chris Stapleton was and will always be Male Vocalist of the Year as long as he's alive and I think we all agree on that. MORGAN WHALEN MY BROTHER EAST TENNESSEE Finally got the flowers he deserves, no one has done more for country music over the past quarter century than Morgan. And Cody, my brother and one of my best friends Cody Johnson, your album Skin it's truly one of my favorite albums recorded in the last decade, every win for you is a win for me, you deserved it, and now I can boast that I'm one of the only items on the CMA album of the year. To my wife and daughter, thank you both. You both stood by me when I wasn't worth standing by, I'm glad we're enjoying this rocket ride together.”

He ended his post by recalling the inspiration he got from Taylor Swift when Swift was in a similar situation, following her 2017 album Reputation did not receive a Grammy nomination in the album of the Year category — however Reputation got a nomination for best pop vocal album.

Jelly Roll wrote: “Last I saw [sic] a clip the other day of Taylor Swift discovering her album Reputation she wasn't nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, and her first response was 'it's fine, I just need to make a better record' – the man who lit a fire under me in a way I'd never lit before,” she said. That was total accountability in real time and that's why Taylor is the legend that she is. That being said, I'm gonna write a better album, I'm gonna work harder and I'm gonna come back baby, I'm gonna come back PS REPUTATION it was one of the best albums ever written.”

Check out Jelly Roll's post below: