I've Never Actually Had a Jelly Roll

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand – "I've Never Actually Had a Jelly Roll"

Date: February 2, 2026
Hosts: Armstrong & Getty
Podcast Network: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode of Armstrong & Getty’s “One More Thing” dives into contemporary music culture, artist activism at the Grammys, and the social commentary of modern performers. Lighthearted banter over desserts leads into a pointed critique of political rhetoric from celebrities, spotlighting Billie Eilish’s viral Grammys statement, reactions to on-stage advocacy, and a fresh perspective from country artist Jelly Roll on musicians’ roles in social discourse.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jelly Rolls and Weekend Indulgence

• Dessert Banter: The show opens with Getty revealing he’s never had a jelly roll, sparking playful food talk and a segue into dietary confessions.
  • "I've never actually had a jelly roll." — Getty [00:04]
  • Armstrong jokes about healthy eating: "Well, I've been disciplined this year. Really, really, really good so far." [00:34]
• Both hosts reflect on overindulgence and the temptations of sugary treats.

2. Jelly Roll (The Musician): Redemption and Change

• Jelly Roll’s Backstory: Discussion shifts to the music artist Jelly Roll and his journey from troubled beginnings, crime, and addiction to fame, faith, and physical transformation.
  • Armstrong: "Jelly Roll as a guy who got off track in drugs and jail and crimes... Found God, lost weight, became a giant dog." [00:50]
• A brief aside on weight loss medications (GLP-1s) and skepticism about long-term success without major lifestyle or genetic interventions.

3. The Grammys and Political Activism in Music

• Critical Lens on Award Show Activism: The conversation turns sharp as Armstrong & Getty dissect artists’ political messaging at the recent Grammys.
  • Focus on Billie Eilish’s slogan: “No one is illegal on stolen land.” — Billie Eilish (via Armstrong) [02:19]
  • Memorable Moment: Getty reacts: "Rapturous applause to that communist style, Maoist style slogan." [02:24]
• The hosts express exasperation with what they see as naïve activism by young stars and the repetitive nature of political statements at entertainment events.

4. Notable Celebrity Remarks from the Grammys

• Replay & Reaction:
  • Kehlani’s call to action quote:
    “Everybody is so powerful in this room... together we're stronger in numbers to speak against all the injustice going on in the world right now.” — Kehlani [02:42]
  • Getty quips about the youthfulness of the presenters: "Are they all 15 years old?" [03:08]
  • Armstrong: “Art is so overrated by the artists. I like art... but it’s so overrated by the artists themselves... you're just not [having that much social impact].” [03:10]

5. The Artists' Perspective and Self-Importance

• Getty wonders aloud if Bob Dylan’s reluctance to embrace a “voice of a generation” role was a reaction to similar overblown rhetoric:
  • "I wonder if this is the sort of thing... that made Bob Dylan say, 'Would you stop it? I’m a guitar player.’" [03:48]
• Armstrong notes the difference between artistic talent and meaningful activism, feeling that many entertainers overestimate their societal influence.

6. Reaction to Billie Eilish’s Statement

• Armstrong gives a first-hand account of audience reaction during the awards:
  • “In the crowd, she's like, crazy. And, like two thirds of the people stand up ... and I was like, how dumb are you people? ... You said that's such a dumb freaking statement.” — Armstrong [04:48]
• The hosts distinguish between reasonable arguments about border enforcement and simplistic slogans, dismissing the latter as childish.

7. The Music Industry and Political Statements

• Armstrong argues that overt political commentary limits the music industry's appeal:
  • “We’ve cut off half of our potential market by coming out here and saying all these political things. Why would we want to do that?” [06:57]
• Getty points out naiveté and lack of awareness among young musicians about alternative viewpoints:
  • "You haven't even considered it, much less decided that it's a worse argument than the argument you made. So you're really out of your depth..." [06:33]

8. Jelly Roll’s Refreshing Honesty

• Jelly Roll’s Response to Press: The musician offers a candid, self-effacing take on why people shouldn’t look to him for political analysis:
  • “I can tell you that people shouldn't care to hear my opinion, man. You know, I'm a dumb redneck. I haven't watched enough. I didn't have a phone for 18 months. I've had one for four months and don't have social media... We're just trying to find a way to survive, man, you know.” — Jelly Roll [07:28]
• The hosts praise Jelly Roll’s authenticity and outsider perspective.

9. Emotion vs. Reason in Public Discourse

• Getty and Armstrong debate how emotion drives much of the activism they critique, contrasting emotional appeals with reasoned policymaking.
  • Getty summarizes: “The great divide of people who... are governed by their emotions and those who have their emotions as one of the tools in the toolkit.” [08:38]

10. Billie Eilish’s Image and Cultural Shifts

• The hosts poke fun at Billie Eilish’s various public personas and draw contrasts between past and present pop culture attitudes.
  • Armstrong references a Norm MacDonald bit lampooning solemn land acknowledgments at award shows and reflects on how dramatically the cultural reception has shifted over 30 years. [09:58]

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Notable Quotes and Timestamps

• Getty on eating sweets:
  “I've never actually had a jelly roll.” [00:04]

• Armstrong on Jelly Roll’s transformation:
  “Jelly Roll as a guy who got off track in drugs and jail and crimes... Found God, lost weight, became a giant dog.” [00:50]

• Billie Eilish (via Armstrong):
  “No one is illegal on stolen land.” [02:19]

• Getty reacting to political slogans:
  “Rapturous applause to that communist style, Maoist style slogan. Oh, you cut off the end.” [02:24]

• Armstrong on the music industry’s impact:
  “Art is so overrated by the artists... you're just not [changing the world].” [03:10]

• Jelly Roll on being asked for political opinions:
  “People shouldn't care to hear my opinion, man. You know, I'm a dumb redneck... I just... I'm so disconnected from what's happening.” [07:28]

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Memorable Moments & Tone

• The episode mixes dry humor, pointed cultural criticism, and moments of genuine reflection—with a tone that is equal parts sardonic and self-aware.
• Noteworthy: Armstrong’s story of the Norm MacDonald bit from the 1990s comparing it to the straight-faced gravitas of modern award show messaging. [09:58]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Jelly Roll banter/diet talk: [00:04–00:34]
• Jelly Roll’s rise and transformation: [00:50–01:33]
• Grammys reactions & Billie Eilish slogan: [02:19–04:48]
• Music, activism, and Bob Dylan: [03:48–04:16]
• Armstrong’s critique of political messaging: [04:48–06:57]
• Jelly Roll’s statement: [07:28–08:15]
• Emotion vs. reason in activism: [08:38–09:36]
• Norm MacDonald award show anecdote: [09:58–11:11]

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Final Thoughts

This episode takes aim at the gap between musical stardom and informed social activism, roasting both the content and tone of celebrity political statements. While the hosts enjoy plenty of light, irreverent banter, they ultimately call for humility and caution around the “self-importance” of Hollywood and music stars—applauding Jelly Roll’s honesty while critiquing what they see as the shallow activism dominating the industry’s biggest stages.

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Transcript

[Armstrong]

This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.

[Getty]

I've never actually had a jelly roll. It's one more thing.

[Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Getty]

One more thing.

[Armstrong]

Or have I. You've never had a jelly roll.

[Getty]

Is that. It's like cake that's in a spiral around.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Getty]

I probably have had a jelly roll.

[Armstrong]

Like jelly, like substance in it.

[Getty]

Yeah, yeah.

[Armstrong]

Probably not the best for you.

[Getty]

Oh, Lord, no, no, just pure sugar. Boy, did I eat like a hog over the weekend. It was a good weekend.

[Armstrong]

Well, I've been disciplined this year. Really, really, really good so far. 1/12 of the way through. Yes.

[Jelly Roll]

Katie.

[Armstrong]

Oh, no, I was looking at you like, have you. That's neat. Been eating like a pregnant person. Well, yeah, come on.

[Getty]

Me too. But there's the rub.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. So Jelly Roll the musician, I don't know very much about him, but I know, I know another radio show friend of ours that had him on many, many times and say his story is just amazing. Jelly Roll as a guy who got off track in drugs and jail and crimes and all this sort of stuff.

[Getty]

Face tats, obviously.

[Armstrong]

Lots of face tats. Found God, lost weight, became a giant dog. He's like a third of the size he used to be right now. Yeah.

[Getty]

Found God and lost weight related, I think.

[Armstrong]

Found God, became famous, saw himself on tv, lost weight. Maybe that's it. I don't know. Or just coincidentally, these drugs came along at the same time that he got famous.

[Getty]

Yeah. Oh, I was just reading about the GLP1s. You got a year and you will.

[Armstrong]

Gain it all back even if you stay on them.

[Getty]

No, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. Obviously, yeah. If you get off of them.

[Armstrong]

See, I just assumed you had to stay on them. The way weight loss works, there's never going to be a thing. There's never going to be a thing unless it like re. You know, as crispr technology redoes your genes.

[Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, anyway, where were we? Is Jelly Roll. So we talked to some about the Grammy show during the radio show, partly because there were so many obnoxious political statements from the soft headed music types and. Why don't we. Why don't we feature a couple of those? You want to go with the infamous Billie Eilish first.

[Armstrong]

No one is illegal on stolen land.

[Getty]

All right. Rapturous applause to that communist style, Maoist style slogan. Oh, you cut off the end.

[Armstrong]

Good for you. I'm sorry, I didn't know you wanted a whole thing.

[Getty]

Yeah, well, I do not accept your apology. Let's hear Kehlani, whoever that is.

[Kehlani]

Everybody is so powerful in this room and in this room later. And together we're stronger in numbers to speak against all the injustice going on in the world right now.

[Getty]

Yeah.

[Kehlani]

So instead of letting it be just a couple few here and there, I hope everybody's inspired to join together as a community of artists and speak out against what's going on. And I'mma leave this and say ice.

[Armstrong]

God dang it. All of this is my time.

[Getty]

Are they all 15 years old?

[Armstrong]

Art is so overrated by the artists. I like art, I like literature, I like music. I like painting. I like this. But it's so overrated by the artists themselves and the impact you're having on society, you're just not. You're just not.

[Getty]

Right. Yeah.

[Armstrong]

I suppose it makes it easier to, you know, do your thing if you think you're really taking on various social injustices as opposed to, you know, I was born with this genetic ability to play the guitar or the piano, and I practiced a lot. I came up with some words and people kind of like it. And I made some money without having to get a real job.

[Getty]

I wonder if this is the sort of thing that. Well, obviously he got a heap and helping of it, maybe more than anybody ever. But that made Bob Dylan say, would you stop it? I'm a guitar player. He might be the voice of anything.

[Armstrong]

That might be why Bob Dylan is the way he is. He's like one of the few artists who fully recognizes his impact.

[Getty]

Right. And he's embarrassed by the ridiculous accolades.

[Armstrong]

Yes.

[Getty]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Armstrong]

I'll bet that's it.

[Getty]

I'll bet he's of the genetic predisposition that all of us happen to be or learned.

[Armstrong]

I don't know.

[Getty]

That's like. It's embarrassing. It's just. Ah.

[Armstrong]

So the Billie Eilish thing that got the most attention that we played. No. No one is illegal on Stolen Land. I just saw it. I'd only heard it because I only watched the musical stuff during the Grammys. I don't watch the actual awards. The thing at the end was pretty cool. They did an Ozzy Osbourne song. You had some of the Guns N Roses dudes up there and everything. I thought that was cool.

[Jelly Roll]

But.

[Armstrong]

So Billie Eilish says the no one's first. I'd just like to say no one is illegal on Stolen Land. In the crowd, she's like, crazy. And, like two thirds of the people stand up and they. They go to, I think Sabrina Carpenter, one of your super hot, young blonde Women with big blue Disney eyes that look like they're an AI creation. And she's got just. Her eyes are welling up with tears and she has this look of awe on her face that Billie Eilish said this in front of a crowd of people that are also unrealistic and agree with you. And I was like, how dumb are you people? You're just so dumb. Like low uninformed or low iq. I don't know what it is. But you said that's such a dumb freaking statement. If you want to get up there and say, I think ICE is going way too far and we should not be, whatever, that's a perfectly valid. I don't know why you say it at a music show, but at least you could. You've got an argument. But the whole no one's illegal and stolen land thing is just for five year olds.

[Getty]

Yeah.

[Armstrong]

Don't embarrass yourself. I'm embarrassed for you.

[Getty]

Yeah, it's childlike. That's unbelievable.

[Armstrong]

And it's cheering.

[Getty]

Ah, yeah. What was I going to say? Something popped in my head and like I.

[Armstrong]

Like I said several times, I can't believe that somebody at a high level with some gravitas like Quincy Jones is dead now, but back in the day, somebody high level in the music industry couldn't say, look, I've been in music my whole life, I love music, we all love music. But this whole thing we've created is getting smaller and less revenue as we talk more and more about politics. I care about making music and crafting melodies and so do you. How about if we stick with that, then we won't eliminate half the country that now hates our guts and maybe.

[Getty]

Throw in a little bit. For instance, this issue. You've heard this over and over again. Has anybody ever brought that up to you? You know, there are plenty of really smart people who believe this, and if you don't, you're not even aware of that argument, are you? You haven't even considered it, much less decided that it's a worse argument than the argument you made. So you're really out of your depth. You're nice folks, you're gifted musicians, but you're kind of making a fool of yourself.

[Armstrong]

Well, I was just thinking, just appeal to their greedy. We could all make so much more money. We've cut off half of our potential market by coming out here and saying all these political things. Why would we want to do that? I want to sell records. You want to sell records.

[Getty]

Right, Right. So which brings us to Jelly Roll. Who was asked by a reporter after the awards. Well, I think it's all set up here. Would you be willing to comment on what's going on in our country right now?

[Jelly Roll]

I don't really. So this is the truth, and I'm glad somebody asked because I love talking about this stuff when people care to hear my opinion, but so I can tell you that people shouldn't care to hear my opinion, man. You know, I'm a dumb redneck. I haven't watched enough. I didn't have a phone for 18 months. I've had one for four months and don't have social media. I hate to be the artist that static aloof, but I just. I'm so disconnected from what's happening, and I'm just not a. I grew up in a house of, like, insane pandemonium and like. Like, I didn't even know politics were real until I was in my mid-20s in jail. Like, that's how disconnected. When you grow up in a drug addict household. You think we, like, have common calls about what's happening in world politics? Like, we're just trying to find a way to survive, man, you know.

[Armstrong]

Interesting. Yeah. He's. Like I said, I've been told by people who have interviewed him that he's a fascinating story and could be, you know, as big a deal. I don't. Might even already have a book out, but as big a deal like just talking to various communities as anything else.

[Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Huh.

[Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Getty]

I get that these people feel something.

[Armstrong]

I don't know.

[Getty]

I just think it comes down to that. The great divide of people who. They are governed by their emotions and those who have their emotions as one of the tools in the toolkit. And the comparison I always come up with is, you know, and you can pick whatever issue, you know, we've got to do something about that. Yeah, I know, but the proposal you've come up with, that would actually make it worse. Yeah, but we've got to do something. And just that emotion. I'm feeling this emotion that we should do something. And I just. And I don't want to hear what you're saying because I'm feeling this and I trust my feelings and you're messing with my feelings and all, I'm like, yeah, it's a pisser, ain't it? But we, you know, that won't work.

[Armstrong]

That's what I would have said if I went on after Billie Eilish last night. Yeah, it's a pisser, isn't it? So anyway, so she dressed As a.

[Getty]

Teenage girl who isn't used to having breasts yet for a while. Then she went sex kitten for a minute.

[Armstrong]

It was all phony, everybody.

[Getty]

And now it's apparently some sort of quasi pilgrim look or something.

[Armstrong]

Puritan.

[Getty]

I don't.

[Armstrong]

I was gonna grab the audio for the show, but I didn't. So there was an awards show, I think it was the Emmys back in the 90s. And you can find it on YouTube. I've watched it before. It's pretty funny. So Norm MacDonald is a presenter. Presenter. And he comes out with a guy in full Indian outfit. Have you ever seen this big giant long headdress and everything like that? And Norm MacDonald comes at the microphone, he says, I'd like to turn my time over to Chief Running Bear. And Chief Running Bear comes to the microphone and says, you're on land stolen from my people. You raped our women. You murdered our braves. And they go to the crowd and like Jon Stewart and John Oliver and all these people are just dying, laughing.

[Getty]

Wow.

[Armstrong]

At this really dry bit that Norm MacDonald's doing about them being on. On the land that belonged to this Indian. And he's talking about raping the women, everything like that. And that was in the 90s. And now you. You fast forward a few years and that's not a hilariously dry avant garde Andy Kaufman type bit. You just say it with a straight face and everybody cheers. Isn't that interesting that it changed that much in a couple of decades from, obviously this would be hilarious to say this, because it's ridiculous to take it completely seriously.

[Getty]

I blame the Internet.

[Armstrong]

How did that happen?

[Getty]

The Internet?

[Armstrong]

Billy Eilish going with some sort of sexy pilgrim thing. I don't know. What is that?

[Getty]

Oh, that, that. Try that. Hey, honey, I want you to put on these buckled shoes. What?

[Armstrong]

I'm close. Say something about Thanksgiving.

[Getty]

Call me thou or refer to me as thou, would you?

[Armstrong]

Why?

[Getty]

Just don't just do it, just go with it.

[Armstrong]

Well, I guess that's it. Thankfully, this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.