"Jelly Roll"

Summary

SmartLess Podcast Episode Summary: "Jelly Roll"

Introduction

In the March 3, 2025, episode of SmartLess, hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett welcome special guest Jelly Roll, a multi-Grammy-nominated country artist known for his compelling journey from a troubled past to musical acclaim. The episode delves deep into Jelly Roll's life, exploring themes of redemption, the music industry, and the profound impact of his work on others.

Guest Introduction and Early Life ([10:37] - [16:55])

Jelly Roll begins by sharing his tumultuous upbringing, marked by early encounters with the law. From the age of 14, he found himself entangled in various criminal activities, including armed robbery and drug-related offenses, which resulted in nearly a decade of incarceration. Reflecting on his past, Jelly Roll states:

"I was a lot. I was a 10 year, 12 years in and out of the system kind of kid. Caught my first case when I was like 14 years old." ([16:13])

His time in prison became a turning point, especially when he learned about the birth of his daughter. This revelation sparked a profound self-reflection, leading him to commit to personal change and ultimately pursue a career in music.

Turning Point and Redemption ([16:55] - [22:14])

Jelly Roll recounts the moment he decided to turn his life around, emphasizing the impact of becoming a father:

"That day in jail, I was like, I don't care how painful this change is. I'm gonna make this change." ([27:08])

He speaks passionately about the challenges of reentry, the importance of education, and rebuilding relationships with his children. His dedication to transformation is evident as he shares how his daughter turned 17 with him, showcasing his success in overcoming past adversities.

Music Career and Industry Insights ([22:14] - [43:54])

Transitioning into his music career, Jelly Roll details his early adoption of platforms like YouTube to share his work. His independent efforts quickly gained traction, leading to substantial success even before securing major record deals. He highlights the pitfalls of traditional record agreements, emphasizing the importance of artists maintaining control over their work:

"I own 100% of my master recordings on a 100% of my publishing. I own my IP completely." ([40:13])

Jelly Roll criticizes standard record deals, describing them as disproportionately favoring labels:

"It's a 70% interest rate, gentlemen. I don't care how you slice or butter that bread." ([45:45])

He advocates for fairer agreements, sharing his experiences of negotiating deals that respect his artistic freedom and financial contributions. His approach serves as a blueprint for emerging artists navigating the complexities of the music industry.

Impact and Advocacy ([43:54] - [66:07])

Beyond his music, Jelly Roll is deeply committed to advocacy, particularly around mental health and substance abuse. He recounts his testimony before Congress to advocate for stricter fentanyl regulations, underscoring the devastating toll of addiction:

"Over 160 people in America die every single day to fentanyl overdoses." ([34:14])

Jelly Roll emphasizes the need for societal change in how addiction is perceived, advocating for compassion and support rather than stigma. His efforts aim to provide hope and second chances, both through his music and his public engagements.

Personal Reflections and Community ([66:07] - [69:07])

In heartfelt conversations, Jelly Roll discusses the importance of community and connection in recovery. He shares stories of individuals whose lives were transformed by his music, highlighting the profound personal impact of his work:

"I am a representation of that. And once I realized that I wasn't telling my unique specialty story, I was telling the story of millions of Americans who have felt the same kind of pain." ([63:54])

The hosts express admiration for Jelly Roll's authenticity and commitment to making a positive difference, reinforcing the episode's themes of redemption and resilience.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with mutual expressions of gratitude and inspiration. Jelly Roll's journey from incarceration to Grammy nominations serves as a powerful testament to the possibility of change and the transformative power of music. The hosts commend him for his honesty, advocacy, and the genuine connections he fosters through his artistry.

Notable Quotes

• Jelly Roll on Transformation:

  "Change happens when the pain to remain the same is greater than the pain it takes to change." ([27:08])

• Jelly Roll on Record Deals:

  "It's a 70% interest rate, gentlemen. I don't care how you slice or butter that bread." ([45:45])

• Jelly Roll on Addiction Advocacy:

  "Addictions aren't a personal problem. We can't minimize human life because they're struggling with an addiction." ([34:54])

• Jelly Roll on Community Impact:

  "I am a representation of that. And once I realized that I wasn't telling my unique specialty story, I was telling the story of millions of Americans who have felt the same kind of pain." ([63:54])

Final Thoughts

This episode of SmartLess offers an intimate look into Jelly Roll's life, highlighting his extraordinary ability to turn personal struggles into a source of strength and inspiration for others. His candid discussions provide valuable insights into personal growth, the intricacies of the music industry, and the enduring human spirit.

Transcript

[Sean Hayes]

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[Jason Bateman]

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[Sean Hayes]

Today, the beverage aisle looks a lot.

[Will Arnett]

Different than it used to.

[Sean Hayes]

America's beverage companies are working together. We're delivering the options everyone wants.

[Will Arnett]

In fact, nearly 60% of beverages Americans buy have zero sugar. You'll find more variety than ever, including.

[Sean Hayes]

More of your favorites, now available with zero sugar. You'll also find more sizes and clear calorie information on the front of every.

[Jason Bateman]

Can, bottle and pack.

[Jelly Roll]

We know when it comes to finding.

[Jason Bateman]

Balance, the more choices, the better.

[Sean Hayes]

Hey, guys, do you mind if I count down my cold open to you?

[Will Arnett]

Ready?

[Sean Hayes]

3, 2, 1.

[Jason Bateman]

So the one be silent so that we don't hear it on the other side.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, yeah. So. So. Hang on, hang on, hang on. Wait, wait. Let's be. Let's begin. So you're just going to go three, two, one. Welcome to Smart List or whatever, but you're going to say the one or the one silent.

[Sean Hayes]

No, I'm going to say I'm going to the ones we silent.

[Will Arnett]

Could you start at five just to give me one? Yeah. Ready?

[Sean Hayes]

New Smart List episode in five. Four.

[Will Arnett]

We're going live.

[Sean Hayes]

Two.

[Jason Bateman]

Hey, guys, what's going on?

[Will Arnett]

No. Welcome to Smartless is what you say.

[Sean Hayes]

Welcome to Smart List. Welcome to Smartless. Welcome to Smart.

[Will Arnett]

Smart, Smart.

[Jelly Roll]

Smart letters.

[Sean Hayes]

Okay. Why. Why the layers?

[Jason Bateman]

It's just freezing.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Is it here? Yes, it is really cold.

[Sean Hayes]

But don't you have heat? You can put the heat on a little bit.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

Did you end up going for the heat Package at your house?

[Jason Bateman]

I live with someone doesn't enjoy the heat. Package.

[Will Arnett]

Sure.

[Jason Bateman]

So how is it nice and warm over there at your place, Shani?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, we put the heat on in the morning.

[Jason Bateman]

You don't sleep with it on?

[Sean Hayes]

God, no. Couldn't sleep with it on. You got to put the fan on. I sleep with a fan.

[Will Arnett]

You just pick a different fan every night. You just go find somebody looking for.

[Jason Bateman]

A big fan to sleep and will. It's pretty cold in New York, is it not?

[Will Arnett]

It's been real chilly, but I love it.

[Jason Bateman]

You're in a T shirt, though. So you're using the heat over there as well.

[Will Arnett]

Well, yeah, the heat's on. It's, it's quite, yeah, it's quite hot. But, but I also don't, you know, I just came from the gym, so I'm running a little hot right now.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure.

[Jason Bateman]

So you're still in your juices right now?

[Will Arnett]

Well, I mean, I showered and stuff, but, you know, you've got that, your core. Yeah, yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

Your pat. Well, you get the shot. You ever get the shower sweats where you take a shower and then you're hotter after you get out of the shower?

[Will Arnett]

But I do, I do. I've been doing ice cold showers for a couple minutes after.

[Sean Hayes]

Can't do it. Can't do it. It's not fun.

[Jason Bateman]

So wait, wait, wait. So you, you, you walk into a really cold shower?

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Or do you get it cold while you're in it?

[Will Arnett]

I, I mix it up. I do both. Today I did just cold. And so I worked out and I did cold. And then I walked home. And it's nice when you come out of the gym and you've, it's been cold in this cold out.

[Jason Bateman]

Hold it. You showered at the gym?

[Will Arnett]

I did. Yep.

[Jason Bateman]

Did you wear shower shoes?

[Will Arnett]

You know, I was thinking about this today.

[Sean Hayes]

Shower shoes.

[Will Arnett]

I, I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna answer your question, but I've been thinking about a little bit because I brought this up earlier. Like when we were, when we were on vacation over New Year's and you washed your hands and I was like, did everybody, remember I said, did everybody else die? Did everybody else get a really deep sickness? No.

[Jason Bateman]

No.

[Will Arnett]

And then I thought about your obsession the other day. You were talking about your colon and.

[Sean Hayes]

Stuff and, and slippers in hotel rooms.

[Will Arnett]

Listen, he goes, he's going, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

My bamboo shoot, clean colon.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. And, you know, it, it occurs to me that everything you're doing is kind of in vain. It doesn't matter. There's no difference. You're expecting.

[Jason Bateman]

It's total crazy town.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, it's crazy town. So in your. Your obsession with people walking in showers, hotel rooms with no shoes on, all that kind of stuff, I mean, it's completely unnecessary.

[Jason Bateman]

But I do. But all I know is that I am that. That I am that percentage more clean than the dirty Gerties that are walking around and grabbing a bunch.

[Will Arnett]

But my guess. I guess what I'm saying is, what is it getting you?

[Jason Bateman]

It's just. No, no, it's just. It's sort of a psychosomatic thing. It's just like I feel like I enjoy eating the bread out of the bread basket, knowing that my utensil, which is my fingers, right here's the equivalent. The equivalent is if you had a fork that you were about to eat your yummy little fucking carbo with cheese and sauce and shit all over it. Pasta dish. If you drop that fork on the restaurant floor, rubbed it around on the floor, then picked it up, then scooped your pasta, you'd be like, oh, this feels a little gross going into my mouth.

[Sean Hayes]

Although, that's all.

[Jason Bateman]

That's all it is.

[Sean Hayes]

I get it. I get it. You know what? And it's rubbed off on me because I was just in Chicago this last weekend, and I went to. And in the hotel. I stayed at Chicago, and I brought.

[Jason Bateman]

Stop screaming.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, Jesus. We get it. You're from Glen Ellen, Illinois.

[Sean Hayes]

And I brought. I brought slippers, Jason, because. And I used them in the hotel room because I did. I took my shoes off, and I was like, I'm walking in other people's shoes.

[Jason Bateman]

And then when you climbed into that clean bed and you pushed your feet to the bottom of that tight little cloth envelope, at the bottom, you don't have a bunch of dust and grit and grime falling off.

[Will Arnett]

Envelope. You have the grossest terminologies.

[Jason Bateman]

How's your cloth envelope?

[Will Arnett]

When you. I. Here's what I. Here's what I suspect.

[Jason Bateman]

Here's what I. Tuck your nards into the cloth envelope.

[Will Arnett]

Jesus.

[Jelly Roll]

Here's.

[Will Arnett]

Here's. Here's what I suspect when it's all said and done, when you are on your deathbed and somebody's in my clean.

[Jason Bateman]

Coffin.

[Sean Hayes]

With slippers on your feet.

[Jason Bateman]

You bet.

[Will Arnett]

What a. The. The amount of time and energy spent thinking and acting on this is. Is so much. Is valuable time on earth that you've wasted.

[Jason Bateman]

Let me tell you something. In my open casket, if you put your dirty hands on my face when you. When you cry and say goodbye to me for one last time. If those hands aren't clean.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, I'm gonna go and walk. Walk in a hotel room with bare feet. And then I'm gonna get in your.

[Jason Bateman]

Coffin, put your clammy foot on my.

[Will Arnett]

Cheek, on my cold, dead cheek, my hotel feet, and make your kids watch me do it. Here's the other thing. I fucking. I. Sean. Sean. Years ago, we're doing Arrested. My hotel fee. Years ago, we're doing Arrested Development. I had to do this whole paper. Maybe I mentioned this before. I had to put a pill in Jason's mouth, and he was so all over me about cleaning my hands before.

[Jason Bateman]

In between every take, I had a bottle of spray sanitizer in my pocket.

[Will Arnett]

And then they'd be rolling it. They'd be rolling. And I'm like, I didn't wash my hands. And then we start, and he's like, fucking freaking.

[Jason Bateman]

Fortunately, my character had to be not into it, too. So I just.

[Sean Hayes]

I kind of get it, though. I kind of get it.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, I know. Oh. Talk to the audience a little bit about what's going on, Sean.

[Sean Hayes]

I just blew my nose. All this talk made my nose run.

[Jason Bateman]

It's another thing. You drink milk and you blow your nose. I. I don't think I've blowed my nose since I was 12.

[Sean Hayes]

What do you do?

[Will Arnett]

Wait a second.

[Sean Hayes]

What do you mean?

[Will Arnett]

That's such a bonkers state.

[Jason Bateman]

Just NORC it in the shower and get on with it.

[Sean Hayes]

Ayo. All day. What if you have to blow your nose in the middle of the day?

[Jason Bateman]

Who's got a runny nose all day? Granddad, Wait a second.

[Will Arnett]

Wait a second.

[Jason Bateman]

I have a cloth Kleenex and a jacket.

[Sean Hayes]

I'm gonna save all these and put them in your coffin.

[Will Arnett]

Can I just say, and I just want to say this, and I'm gonna put it in terms that Sean can understand. Hashtag relatable. Jason. You fucking. So you don't blow your nose. You don't walk with your feet. Do you understand how.

[Jason Bateman]

And I'm wearing a cashmere robe right.

[Will Arnett]

Now, and you're wearing a cashmere robe nobody can relate to.

[Jason Bateman]

My nards are in a hot cloth. Poc.

[Will Arnett]

Nobody can relate to you at all. Jason, what's your monthly Cable Bill?

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, 250, probably.

[Will Arnett]

Probably. You don't.

[Jason Bateman]

Kills me. It kills me every time I want to cut the cord. I hope we have a guest that can talk me through cutting the cord.

[Will Arnett]

No, I tell you what we do, specialist. We don't Have a tech specialist. Although I don't know if I. That I don't know.

[Jason Bateman]

We're going to find out.

[Will Arnett]

I know some stuff about him and I know some stuff about him that a lot of other people know about him. Because people know this guy because he is a multi. Multi Grammy nominated.

[Jason Bateman]

Open your eyes, God damn it. Don't close your eyes when you say that.

[Will Arnett]

Multi. I have to, because I'm leaning into it. This guy has been at the top. He's been at number one on like virtually every Billboard chart, whether it's the all genre chart breakout, you know, Jason Mamulo. Best country song. No, Best country song performance. He has addressed issues like mental health issues through his music. He's testified before Congress to advocate for stricter rules on fentanyl and drugs. He's been such an unbelievable voice of reason in crazy times. Elton John, just an unbelievable talent. And we met him because we introduced him at a concert out on Long island at our show. You guys, it's nobody other than Jelly Roll.

[Jason Bateman]

Jelly Roll. I got it before he said it.

[Jelly Roll]

Jelly. I tell you what, I realize where I fall in the hierarchy of country music when Jay, get everybody.

[Jason Bateman]

You're talking to a real Chesney. I'm a dumb, dumb. I just saw an article did Kenny Chesney's doing something at the Sphere or something like that. Saw that article.

[Jelly Roll]

I don't want to jump back on a train y'all already got off of, but I would like to share an experience with shower shoes for a second.

[Will Arnett]

Okay, go ahead, please.

[Sean Hayes]

Didn't even know.

[Jelly Roll]

That's a great time to it. Yeah. Well, listen, the fun part is I'm going to tell you where. Where they exist for a different rule when you are incarcerated.

[Jason Bateman]

Yep. Okay.

[Jelly Roll]

Which I've had the unfortunate experience of.

[Jason Bateman]

We're going to get into that.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah. You have to wear shoes in the shower in case somebo tries to do something to you while you're in the shower.

[Sean Hayes]

Wait, so you can run?

[Jason Bateman]

No. Hang.

[Jelly Roll]

So you could. So you could. So you don't slip. You don't want to slip barefooted. So you want to put.

[Jason Bateman]

So you want to supply a nice firm base to whatever's going on in the shower.

[Jelly Roll]

Absolutely. Like, you don't leave your cell if you're incarcerated in a real, like a violent facility unless you have shoes on. Like they give you flip flops. But, like, you know, you walk to the shower in your shoes and then you normally have a friend stand outside of the shower to make sure you're double Safe.

[Will Arnett]

But really, the only thing Jason's fighting in the shower is the urge to put a finger in himself, to put him over the top.

[Jelly Roll]

And then sanitize it 30 times later and not eat for the rest of the day.

[Sean Hayes]

By the way, you just described the reason why I don't wear shower shoes.

[Jason Bateman]

All right, Jelly roll. Welcome to Smart. Let's.

[Jelly Roll]

It started the way I hoped it would.

[Jason Bateman]

Now, are you currently in a hotel room?

[Jelly Roll]

I am. I'm currently. Listen, it's. No, no, I just. I'm. I am barefoot.

[Jason Bateman]

Are you barefoot?

[Jelly Roll]

You're right.

[Jason Bateman]

Goodbye, Jelly roll.

[Jelly Roll]

No, thank you. I'm sorry. It never happens. But I didn't have. It's a long story. I didn't have my. I left my slides on.

[Will Arnett]

Jelly Roll, before we get. Now you've just established you're in LA and you're barefoot in the hotel room. And then you. You alluded to before we want to get into. About being incarcerated and just. Just a rough estimate because obviously you can know. How long do you think J. Bateman would last in prison? And. And if you just want to keep it two minutes. So how long?

[Jelly Roll]

This is where we got to be honest, right? I'm an honest guy.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. Of course.

[Jelly Roll]

Jason Bateman that we know right now would survive because he would be extorted so that he would pay for protection. He would be totally fine.

[Will Arnett]

Okay.

[Jelly Roll]

Now, had pre. Now, pre. Jason Bateman being Jason Bateman.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

Maybe a day or two.

[Jason Bateman]

Now, do you find that weak? Soft folks like me go in and immediately strike a bargain to be a friend with air quotes, somebody real tough. And so then you're protected.

[Jelly Roll]

That is traditionally how that works out.

[Jason Bateman]

Yes, sir, I'm willing to trade my virginity for. For so that I don't get my.

[Jelly Roll]

You know, they prefer money. They lawyer. Everybody's trying to appeal a case, but.

[Jason Bateman]

You'Re not walking in there with money. So how do you. How. How can you pay for security in a prison if you're not walking in there with a wallet?

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah, it's crazy. Well, back in the days when cash was a real thing, you just smuggle in cash like they did drugs. But now, as you could imagine, it's like everybody's got cell phones in there. So they're like, hey, people. And tell them cash at my people.

[Jason Bateman]

Hang on. You can have a cell phone in.

[Sean Hayes]

Cell phone in jail.

[Will Arnett]

You can't have one, but they do.

[Jelly Roll]

That's the catch. Now, they do have tablets. I haven't been locked up in a long time, so I'VE missed some of this. But they have tablets now. From what? When I go visit jails, they always show me their tablets so they can email and correspond that way.

[Will Arnett]

No kidding.

[Jelly Roll]

But when I was in there, we were smuggling them in.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, but I always wondered that same thing. Like, you hear about, like, in jail situations where the inmates can have, like, you just said, like, cell phones or they'll. They'll smuggle in drugs or certain foods. It's like, well, isn't anybody watching? And, like, the guards and stuff.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah, they.

[Jason Bateman]

It's just the guards are probably part of the process. Right?

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah. That's the big thing. Right.

[Will Arnett]

Here's the thing that. And I'm just going off this list that I just got. It just came in. The list of stuff that JB Would smuggle. A cashmere robe, slippers, preferably Uggs. But just lined is fine. Also almonds. Am I saying that right?

[Jason Bateman]

Can I also have a pair of socks so that the feet don't get too sweaty in the Ugg slippers.

[Will Arnett]

Socks are featuring Mary's crackers. Not too many, please, because, man, they're addictive.

[Jason Bateman]

The blue ones.

[Will Arnett]

The blue ones.

[Sean Hayes]

And no shiv. No shiv.

[Will Arnett]

No shiv. Wait, I do want to. My last question on this is. And JB you touched on it. How does that happen? Like, you kind of joked, you go in day one, you a bargain. I mean, I walk in there. I'm. Me. I'm a total pussy. I walk in and. And they're like, all right, you've got money. So do they reach out to me? How do I know who's the right guy to. To side with? You know, first of all, it's.

[Jelly Roll]

It's a lot of discernment. A lot of the wrong guys are going to come first. I've seen a lot of guys pay the wrong guy for protecting.

[Will Arnett]

Right.

[Jason Bateman]

How does that happen? They don't. They don't knock on the. On the. On the cell door. They wait until everyone's out for recess. Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

They'll care. Or they'll come in your cell when the cell doors pop.

[Will Arnett]

Right. Okay.

[Jelly Roll]

But it's also not as extortionary as we all make it sound. It's like it. It truly depends on where, like, what your crime was, where you were. There's a lot of mitigating, like, real, like, outside of the jokes in jail, there's a lot of politics of, like, what actually why you're there and.

[Jason Bateman]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

Traditionally, if you keep your mouth shut, you're okay in there.

[Jason Bateman]

Really.

[Sean Hayes]

Do you Mind if I ask and we can cut it if you don't want to talk about it, but why you were in there.

[Jelly Roll]

No, no, I appreciate you asking, Sean. I, I want to talk about it because I think it's a really important part of my redemption is that, you know, I was, whenever I was a younger man, I had committed a series of crimes, one of which being a armed robbery case, which is the one that ended up really sending me to prison. But sadly it's been everything from armed robbery to possession with intent to distribute. I've just, I was a lot. I was a, was a 10 year, 12 years in and out of the system kind of kid. Caught my first case when I was like 14 years old. From 14 to 25, I probably did almost that, almost that most of that decade incarcerated. I call it the revolving doors that once you get in, you know.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

But I think it's important that, that I talk about it because it's, it's a big thing. I want to give people hope and second chances and also I never want to act like I'm running from what I did or my victim deserves better than for me.

[Sean Hayes]

That's great.

[Jelly Roll]

You know what I mean? Nobody else. My victim deserves better.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. And you know, it's funny you talk about second chance. I love, I love your story. You're such a good guy and truly. And I think that, you know, redemption. Not enough of a premium is put on it in today's culture. Certainly we hold people to a crazy standard of, you know, one strike and you're out now for, for a lot less egregious crimes than armed robbery. You know, somebody might miss. I'm not talking about people who, who really are saying things to injure people or, or you know, or carrying on in a way that's, that's not. But certainly there are people who, up in the public eye. There are people who fuck who don't. Who weren't in the public eye, but it becomes public because they did something at work or whatever. Again, I'm not referring to serious crimes. I'm talking about people who made a mistake that are kind at by society is like, you know, it just doesn't pass. They, they don't like it, they disagree with it and so they say this person is out. And I think that it's a really dangerous idea because you, of somebody like you, you're living proof of what could be done when somebody's given a second chance and can bring a lot of good to the world. Do you agree with that?

[Jelly Roll]

Oh, dude, I1 thank you. Yeah. I mean, that's what I hope to represent more than anything. Right. Is that because I don't think I just stand for, like, criminal second chances. Like, I think I became a voice for, like, all second chances. Like, I'm a guy that proves that it's never too late to change. Like, when I was nominated for the best new artist at the Grammys last year, I was the second oldest artist ever nominated for best new artist in the history of the Grammys.

[Will Arnett]

Wow.

[Sean Hayes]

Wow.

[Jelly Roll]

So it's not only did I turn my life around, I did it at an age where in our business, in the music business, people would tell me I was crazy for starting.

[Sean Hayes]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

Right. You know what I mean? If I. You ain't. If you ain't caught your teeth by. It's sometimes in the acting world, I've noticed that you have guys who are arc later in their career.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

You know, but, like, in the music business, they say that our best work's done between 22 and 27.

[Jason Bateman]

Right.

[Sean Hayes]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

I didn't even start getting invited to award shows till I was 37. You know what I'm saying? I was 10 years past the music.

[Sean Hayes]

That's amazing.

[Jelly Roll]

You know?

[Sean Hayes]

You know, but what. But what was the. Because when I. When we all first met you at what I'll call the jelly roll, Howard Stern, eventually, is when I first met you. And this might sound really corny, but I. You know, you see light in people. You see goodness, you see truth. You see all of those good things that make good people who they are. And the second I met, you were so kind and outgoing and effusive, and it's genuine. It's not like, yes, totally genuine. And I felt it. And first of all, thank you for that, because being a gay person in the place that we all met, I was like. I turned to Will and Chase. I'm like, these are the places that I would get the shit beat out of me, you know, 30 years ago. But so where?

[Jason Bateman]

East Hampton?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah. No, that kind of bar. No, that kind of bar. You know, like the grungy bar, you know? But so I met you. You were so kind and so genuine. And so what was the thing that was your turning point? What was the thing that made you go, you know what? I can't do that stuff anymore. I have to open myself up. I have to be.

[Jason Bateman]

Be the warm guy I am.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

Well. Well, first of all, to a testament of what you just said, is that just for the record, we would. We would have Kicked somebody's ass for you in there?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

It would have been a totally different.

[Sean Hayes]

Experience later with us.

[Jelly Roll]

I think the kind of the real, the turning point for me, so to speak, or like what I thought really did it all for me, as cliche as it sounds, was I had my daughter when I was incarcerated.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, wow.

[Jelly Roll]

And I don't know why. I do know why. I used to say I don't know why, but it's obvious. I never, I. It was the most honest accountability and self reflection moment of my life.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, that's great.

[Jelly Roll]

You know, I had to really sit down and do an assessment of I was fixing. I just got the news. A guard knocks on my door to tell me my daughter was born. He doesn't know her name, he has no information. And I am just sitting there like realizing I'm worth. Like, I know this sounds funny, it's jail terms, but in jail you get commissary, you know. And I had like maybe 20 Raymond soups, 10 honey buns, a couple of packs of Skittles. Like I. This is what I had to my name.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

I had the one pair of clothes that I was incarcerated in. I had zero money. In fact, I was in debt. I owed restitution to my victim. I owed the courts. You know what I mean? Like, I'm in debt, I'm worth. And what the biggest thing I'm the most proud of in life is that I run the poker table and have like 30 soups. You know what I mean? Like, that was my. And I was like, as a father, I should be proud of my daughter. You know what I mean? Like, the thing I'm the most prideful about in my whole life is that I've got myself get to such a low point in life that I'm proud of having ramen noodle soups in prison. You know what I'm saying? I don't know why, Sean, but man, that just covered me.

[Sean Hayes]

Dude, I get it, I get it.

[Jelly Roll]

It's funny.

[Will Arnett]

It's funny watching Jason, you must just think about the sodium from those soups. I.

[Jason Bateman]

Exactly. I was like, yeah, it's like the amount. Oh, it would take a week to burn that off. And we will be right back. You know, one of the hardest parts about B2B marketing is reaching the right audience. You put so much effort into a campaign only for it to get wasted on the wrong people. It's like reaching pro gamers instead of programmers. That's where LinkedIn Ads comes in. Fortunately, LinkedIn is a network of over 1 billion business E people who might actually be interested in your business. You can even target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority skills or company revenue. So stop wasting budget on the wrong audience and start targeting the right professionals with LinkedIn ads. I don't mean to get pissed off, just look. LinkedIn will even give you $100 credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself. Just go to LinkedIn.com smartless that's LinkedIn.com smartless Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads. While Hilton is always expected to have top notch service, you'd be surprised at the unexpected places they're offering it now. They've partnered with Auto Camp, which offers insanely cool Airstreams in iconic outdoor destinations. Hilton also has an exclusive partnership with small Luxury Hotels of the world, providing Hilton Honors members access to over 300 luxury boutique hotels across the globe. And they've added romantic and refined nomad hotels and graduate hotels in your favorite college towns to their portfolio. Explore all the new ways to stay with those Hilton Honors points you've been saving@@hilton.com Hilton for the stay.

[Sean Hayes]

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[Jason Bateman]

So she's out there and you're in there and you're thinking, I gotta get out of here. And when I do get out of here, I gotta stay out of here. And so that was what started to turn off the not the instinct to commit crime, but just like the I'm just gonna not have that be a part of what I do anymore.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah. So it's like something clicks, right?

[Jason Bateman]

Because I'll bet you you didn't learn to be some great, nice, warm, loving human being in jail. You always were. That I would assume that the crime pattern was probably just a reflection of kind of who you were hanging out with and that people you knew were doing the same thing and you happened to get caught and down this path you went. Yes.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah. And a lot of it too, was financially driven. Like where I lived at at the time, the only people that had money did crime right in my neighborhood. It was a real clear cut thing. You either did drugs or you sold drugs.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

And even if you sold and did drugs, you were better off than the people that just did drugs, you know? Right. And I know that sounds weird, but. And I'm not trying to get into like a bunch of childhood stuff here, but my mother struggled with her own things, from addictive stuff to mental health stuff. My father had alcohol things. Like, it was a. Yeah. I was in a house where it seemed very common. Like.

[Jason Bateman]

Right. You weren't doing something weird.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah. To me, this was what was happening.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

Like this was what was going on. It wasn't until later in life. And there's a famous quote in Alcoholics Anonymous that says, change happens when the pain to remain the same is greater than the pain it takes to change.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

And that.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, that's interesting.

[Jelly Roll]

That's cool. Right? And that day in jail, I was like, I don't care how painful this change is. I'm gonna make this change. And, man, it was when I go back and speak at jails, the first time I went and spoke at a jail again, I'll never forget, I was leaving and I heard one guy whisper to another guy, he's like, all we gotta do is be rich and famous and all our problems are solved. So the next time I went and spoke, I forgot about. I never tell. The most important part of the story was that the moment from coming home to jail and deciding I was gonna make the change, to seeing the fruits of the change was like a decade long process. Process.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

You know what I mean? Like, I didn't bear fruit from that change for 10 years. I was eating sandwiches.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

You know what I mean? And just trying to find my way and living in a van and doing 50 shows and just like. Yeah, I was.

[Sean Hayes]

Daily sacrifice.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, it's daily.

[Jason Bateman]

When did you find singing? Did you start doing some of that in jail or were you doing some.

[Jelly Roll]

Of that beforehand, I was rapping more in jail.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

That's how I kind of came up in hip hop. It was more of the language of the neighborhood. But I would always sing the chorus. So, like, Friday nights, we'd go down in the jail cell and we'd beat on the walls, and I don't know how loud this people, like, kind of how I'm beating on the table.

[Jason Bateman]

Right? Yeah, right?

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

And I would go every Friday, and I would tap on that window, and I would tap on it for, like, two measures. And before I dropped the first down bass note, you know the beat. And by the time I got through tapping for those two measures, the entire unit, 230 inmates come downstairs, Jelly's gonna rap.

[Jason Bateman]

Wow.

[Jelly Roll]

And I would always. Yeah, I was crazy, right? And I would sing the chorus, and it was like, there would be like, we'd be free. Like, it felt like we were free for the night. You know what I mean? Like, everybody's standing on tables.

[Will Arnett]

Ah.

[Jelly Roll]

And then I'd. I'd write these, like, choruses, like, I'll be gone for a little while but I can't wait to see your sexy smile. But I wasn't really singing. I was just, like, doing it like that.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

But they would love it. They'd be like, sing the God for a little while song. You know what I'm saying? Because it was, like, hard thing.

[Sean Hayes]

Amazing. That's amazing.

[Jelly Roll]

That was. That's when I didn't feel powerful. Yeah. It was so cool watching music move them people back then.

[Will Arnett]

Did you. Did you have an opportunity to meet, you know, when you first started going and speaking in jails and reaching out to guys and helping people who. Who you must have identified were going through the same things that you did. And I know that that's something that, you know, I can relate to that when you meet somebody who's gone through stuff that you went through, and you can go, hey, man. And were you. Did you then have an opportunity over the years to have guys come up to you and say, hey, I met you years ago. Hey, you changed. Like, you coming in here and speaking at this jail had an impact on my life. And here's how. Have you had those moments? I bet you have.

[Jelly Roll]

I've had quite a few of them already, especially rehabs, because we go to. So my. My rule is I'm a man of faith. And my rule is real simple. My faith.

[Will Arnett]

Faith.

[Jelly Roll]

What I believe of my faith would require for me and the person that I follow is that I go speak at jails. I go feed the homeless, I go hang out with the widows, and I go to the rehabs because that's where I think that, you know, the God I serve would want me to go. That's where the representation of him went. You know what I'm saying?

[Will Arnett]

So, yeah, of course.

[Jelly Roll]

So I get it a lot, especially out of the rehabs. The jails too. The jails are so different though, because some of them guys I'm singing in front of won't come home for another 10 or 20, 20 years. But I will tell you a cool story. I went to the Oregon State Penitentiary to do the first. I brought the first music to the yard at the osp, the original penitentiary in Oregon. The only death row left in Oregon, or was the only death row left. And we took the music back to the yard and there was a guy who'd been in there for 19 years, and he tells my manager, man, he's like, man, I'm coming home at the end of this year. I come home the day after Christ Christmas. I've been gone for 20 years, you know, whatever. I'm just looking forward to hanging out with my daughter. She's 22, I've been gone since she was 2. So we fly him out and his daughter for my New Year's Eve show. So imagine being incarcerated for 20 years. You come straight out, we put you in a first class flight with your little girl, who's not a little girl anymore, she's 22. And they came down and partied with us in Nashville all of New Year's Eve, you know, And I just, I'm thinking about how over. I'm overwhelmed by this, right? And I've been doing this a few years. I just imagine what this guy's feeling, you know, and great. Went straight home and got a job. And just the character of a man whose vision and dream in jail was to go have. Do an activity with his daughter. He's like, man, I've missed 20 years of my little girl's life. The first thing I want to do is go home and be a part of her life.

[Will Arnett]

That's so amazing.

[Jason Bateman]

How soon after your daughter was born did you get out?

[Jelly Roll]

I got home when she was almost two.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

And this story is even probably the coolest part of this whole story, Jay. My daughter, her mother at the time, because I was rightfully so, a fucking criminal, wouldn't let me see her. So I had to go to court. I had to get supervised visits through the courtroom. Like, I had to step that very slow Build a relationship then six hours on Friday evening. But she had to be home before 10:00pm and then I, you know, I just had to, I had to keep going to the court every six months and going, look, I'm continuing to prove I'm changing. I'm in college. College. Look, I'm doing this. I'm like, you know, music, like being famous wasn't even a thought then. I just wanted to be a good dad. I just came home like I just wanted to focus on just.

[Jason Bateman]

You're working on those 10 years.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I was just like building that fast forward. That same little girl that was born when I was incarcerated is fixing to turn 17 years old.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, wow.

[Jelly Roll]

She's got one of the highest GPAs at her high school. She's a dual enrollment kid. And this junior going to college, me and my wife have had full custody custody of her for eight years. This is her best friend, you know what I'm saying?

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, what a great story.

[Jason Bateman]

She's been living with you for the last eight years?

[Jelly Roll]

Yep.

[Jason Bateman]

No, that's great.

[Jelly Roll]

It's awesome.

[Jason Bateman]

How cool.

[Will Arnett]

It's such a great story of how anything, anything is possible. It's so great, man.

[Sean Hayes]

It's.

[Will Arnett]

Again, that part of your. Well, all of your story I find so inspirational. I mentioned before too, you know, when you went and testified before Congress and it was about a year ago, wasn't? It was like January of last year. And, and, and really advocated for limiting or getting rid of or what was it, Fentanyl and all that stuff. And you. I, I remember you were like, I used to be part of the problem. I was a drug dealer and now I want to be part of the solution. Didn't you say something like that?

[Jelly Roll]

That's exactly what I said, Will. Thank you, sir.

[Jason Bateman]

And were you trying to help them out on what might be some more efficient ways for them to exact some change?

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah, yeah, we're working on. There's. It's a double sided sword there that we were working on a bill to stop the flow and the demand. So it's trying to figure out the balance. But yeah, I just. It was breaking my heart that the statistic I gave Jason was. And I don't know if you know this either, Sean. This will blow yalls mind if you don't, but over 160something people in America die every single day to fentanyl overdoses.

[Sean Hayes]

How many? How many?

[Jelly Roll]

160 something. To give y'all the reference I used at the fentanyl hearing Is that is a 737 plane crashing, full of human souls every day. Every single day. Wow. Now, if it was a plane that was crashing every single day, I don't predict this happens for four days before every airline in America shut down and.

[Sean Hayes]

There is a national flight, it does something about it.

[Will Arnett]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

If there was a hundred and something squirrels in Central park dying a day, there would be, there would be pickets out there of Save the Squirrels. Rightfully so. I'd be one of the picketers. You know what I mean? Like, literally. So to me, it's just. We can't minimize human life because they're struggling with an addiction. Addictions aren't a personal problem.

[Sean Hayes]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

That's how we've looked at them in society. We've dismissed addiction as well. They're getting what they deserve. They chose to do those drugs. And it's like if you don't really understand addiction and you. I could see where you would say that. But now we're in a place where everybody knows an addict. Everybody has a friend or a family member who's like, no, that dude was a great guy or a great woman. And then she got on drugs and I didn't recognize her. Couldn't talk to.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, my brother died. My brother was an alcoholic and he died from it. Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

And so, you know, it's totally different, you know.

[Jason Bateman]

Can you die from chin chin? Because Sean's. Sean's white knuckling right now, 167 days in a row.

[Will Arnett]

I thought that was the number that Sean had had. The chicken cow. What?

[Sean Hayes]

It was Kungpow Chicken.

[Will Arnett]

Kung Pa Chicken.

[Jason Bateman]

It's just going to take you down, Sean.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, yeah. And look, I can't.

[Will Arnett]

So Jelly, talk a little bit about, man. So you, you, you, you get out and you decide to make a change because of your daughter. And you've been making music as you alluded to while you were there. And now, and now you're out and you're going to school and you're working on reestablishing your relationship with your kids and all that stuff. What's the moment? What's the first musical breakthrough moment? What's the moment where you go, oh, wait a second, we might have something. What's the first song? Mixtape. What is it? Walk us through that a little bit.

[Jelly Roll]

Thank you. This is a question I never get asked because this is like a throw. Throwback. Because I know the tipping point moment, like what Malcolm Gladwell would say was my moment was a song called Save Me.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

But what I know was my moment. Because we know our moment before everybody else does, right? Like, as an artist, like, we know a moment. It's like, y'all might not have seen it then, but. But something in me triggered, like, I got something here.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

I came home and my buddy had. Had bought a flip cam from Best Buy. His name's Chad Arms. And he was like, hey, man, they got this new thing called YouTube that came out since you've been incarcerated. It was like, it's kind of like Facebook, but only for videos. I was like, fire. He was like, yeah. He had to go to a laptop, right? So he turns on a beat. And I just got out of jail. He's like, yo, just start rapping or something. I'll cut it up later. Later. And I put out this thing called a 10 minute freestyle. It got taken down later because I said something about my parole officer and got in trouble. But I'm just like, you know, I'm a young kid out of jail, so I'm just talking rapping. And he put it on YouTube. And at the time, it was called the 10 Minute Freestyle. And I won't make y'all do the quiz. I normally go pop quiz. Why was it called the 10 Minute Freestyle? And it's because at the time, YouTube wouldn't let you upload a video longer than 10 minutes. Was 10 minute, 21 seconds second videos. And at the time, they called it viral because it got like 40,000 views. This is baby YouTube infancy. So I was like, this is it. We're gonna be. This is gonna work. People care. You know, this is like. It was different. Cause when you're passing mixtapes out in the neighborhood, you see the neighborhood caring, but it's like, is somebody outside the neighborhood ever gonna care? So I'm like, there's not 40,000 people in my neighborhood. We're hot. This is real, you know?

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, yeah, right. You can build an audience and they like what you're doing. People that don't even know you like what you're doing.

[Jelly Roll]

That's was easier when people knew, do you like school in Yalls world? Maybe like school theater? It's like, yeah, of course, you know, but like, when you had to go do it at another high school, it's like, whoa, I might be onto something. I'm not a big hit here, you know?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, yeah, right, right.

[Will Arnett]

So. So you make this. So you make this YouTube video and you get some. You get some. A little bit of traction. Early days of YouTube. And then presumably you make some more and you start doing that kind of more. When do you. When do you first start getting, like, the sniffing around from the corporate entities that like to control these kinds of things and make. And see. They see dollar signs for themselves from you.

[Jelly Roll]

Man. I tell you how lucky I get, and I think y'all got lucky like this, too, is that nobody seen what was happening until it kind of happened. So, like, by the time the labels were calling, I was making seven figures a year off my YouTube, right.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, wow.

[Jelly Roll]

You know what I mean? So by the time they call, it's just like. Then they call like, hey, we'll give you a million dollars. I was like, I made that. What are you talking about?

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

You know, so the. The first call, to answer your question directly, came in, like, 2018. We didn't negotiate a deal till 2021.

[Will Arnett]

Wow.

[Jelly Roll]

Because they kept coming, like, I was like, I don't think y'all see the metrics, but y'all aren't. When I finally signed my record deal, I love talking about inside baseball. How the sausage.

[Jason Bateman]

I know.

[Will Arnett]

It's so nice.

[Sean Hayes]

We do too. We do too.

[Will Arnett]

I love it.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah. When I finally signed my. My record deal, I had already had. Had, you know, 3 million or 2.5 million YouTube subscribers, a billion views on my YouTube views on my YouTube channel.

[Sean Hayes]

Amazing.

[Jelly Roll]

I'd already had a couple of gold records independently. I was selling two to four thousand tickets everywhere in the Midwest and Southeast, everywhere in the Bible Belt or the Rust Belt, if it ended with Belt, we were killing there. You know what I mean? So it's like, you know, once we got. Once we got left of Colorado, we poof. You know what I'm saying? But we knew we worked our way out here.

[Will Arnett]

Eventually left of Colorado.

[Jelly Roll]

So by the time they started sniffing around, I was like, look, here's kind of where we are. And I got the deal I dreamed of, right?

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, exactly. Because they had to do something better than what you're.

[Jelly Roll]

Oh, how about this? Y'all know y'all will get this. I own 100% of my master recordings on a 100% of my publishing. I own my IP completely. I own everything with who. Who I am as me.

[Sean Hayes]

And now you have a whole library that is. You can hold on to for the rest of your. Pass it on to your daughter or whatever you want to do, too. Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

Yep. Just, you know what I did with it? Paid the taxes on it early and put it in the trust. Let it grow.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

Put the catalog there for the family. Let them. I broke generational Curses, baby.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. How did you. And then. So, so you jumped into that community of, you know, I. I'll say in quotes, legitimacy. Right where you. You're now, you're. You're at these shows with. With all of these sort of established acts and these record labels and all of the sort of the infrastructure. How have you found that community? You know, because you came from such.

[Will Arnett]

A. Yeah, you're an outlier. Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

And it's. You're, you're. You're the. You're the real deal. And how has that merged with you and how have you merged with them?

[Jelly Roll]

It's been great. It's been really cool. They. My deal from the beginning was, look, man, I'll trust y'all if y'all trust me. So, you know, let's just not question each other at all. So when y'all ask for something, I'm not going to question y'all. Y'all know what y'all are doing. But equally, if I tell you I want to put out an album a year or 30 songs on an album, or I start making some of these what might seem like crazy artistic choices, I was like, you just got to let me ride my wave. This is what I've been doing. This is just the way I operate. You know, I came into a label that was used to doing at the time, two year, three year album cycles, and I put out an album a year for the first three years on my deal.

[Jason Bateman]

Wow.

[Jelly Roll]

You know, I just came in at a totally different pace.

[Sean Hayes]

Well, they're smart to listen to you because more, more people in those positions should listen to the artist. I mean, they're. You're, you're. You because you're of who you are. Like, you'll make them the money they. They're looking for if you just leave you alone.

[Will Arnett]

And it's Born fruit. You've had these number one singles you've had. I mean, you're single. I am not. Okay. Or I mean. Which is a great song. It's such a great song. And as I alluded to in the intro, it deals with, you know, ideas of. Of mental health and. And really talking about it openly. I love that song, dude. I think that's. It's really powerful and inspirational and. But that thing was, that was a massive hit and that came. They might. That's the record label trusting you and you going, I know what I'm doing. And then you put a song like that out, that just explodes for sure. That must have. Must have felt vindicating. Like, I Know what I'm doing, especially.

[Jelly Roll]

With the label, because I'm like, I just came off the song Save Me with Laney, which was a huge hit for me, but it was a big ballad. So here I am, going back to the label. I'm like, hey, look, I don't want to turn. I know y'all are gonna think I'm the male Adele here, but it's like, I've got another big ballad that I love. You know what I'm saying? I was like, I think it's gonna touch people.

[Sean Hayes]

You know, Maddell is a good song.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah, Maddale. I. I'll take that one, Sean.

[Sean Hayes]

I'll steal it.

[Jelly Roll]

What if I name my album that.

[Jason Bateman]

Forgive my. My. My naivete, but if I'm a. If I'm a label and I no longer have to print albums and cassettes and DVD or CDs or whatever the hell it is, what. What. What would be the burden that I would have to bear if my artist wants to put out an album a year? Like, in other words, what cost? How much do I have to spend as a label? Because you're making the music, and then you just put it out digitally.

[Jelly Roll]

Is.

[Jason Bateman]

Is there. What would. What would give them pause to have that kind of frequency, you know, Spot on.

[Jelly Roll]

What would be the biggest pause for most artists, not me. Is that they need their money. So every time they're going to record a new album, they got to tap in and go, hey, I need a million dollars.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, I see. They just got to pay you your fee. So that's. So. But are they fronting you that fee that they then can claw back with the sales? Gotcha.

[Jelly Roll]

And at the rate of the deal, it's the worst thing in the music business. I've been preaching against this for so long, I refuse to do it. That's why I don't take their money at all. Right. Is that because in any other business, what the record businesses do to artists would be illegal, Right? Like if a bank did it or a car lot did it, they'd shut them down.

[Will Arnett]

Okay, Because.

[Jelly Roll]

Because you're not allowed to put an interest rate on that kind of money.

[Will Arnett]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

But if you don't call it a loan, you call it an advance. Right. So when I take the word loan out of it, I call it an advance, and then we recoup it at the rate of the deal. So let's. Jason, Excuse me.

[Jason Bateman]

Do you need to blow your nose? Sean, can you run over there real quick?

[Jelly Roll]

Thank you. Sean. Let's say y'all 3. Do a smartless album, right?

[Jason Bateman]

Sure. What instrument would each of us play? Go ahead and assign us each an instrument.

[Jelly Roll]

Okay. Everybody gets an instrument.

[Jason Bateman]

What do we strike you as?

[Jelly Roll]

You look like you would. You look like you could rock a saxophone.

[Jason Bateman]

That's her.

[Jelly Roll]

It could be a really cool curveball to see you with a saxophone. I would love to see. Just because I think this would be so out of pocket for the crew, is if Sean was like the electric guitar player and he carried like a big just gy Gretch. Just one of the believable oversized guitars.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

And then Will's on the keytar.

[Jelly Roll]

No, you got to have a drummer.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. You know what I mean?

[Jason Bateman]

Not a drummer.

[Sean Hayes]

He fancies himself a drummer.

[Will Arnett]

The most athletic of us. Yeah. The youngest doing most athletic.

[Jason Bateman]

And I'm just blowing things.

[Will Arnett]

Just stick with what you're good at, dude. Blowing air.

[Jason Bateman]

Wet my reed.

[Jelly Roll]

All right, so pretend y'all get the deal. Pretend y'all get the deal, Right? And I say it's a 70. 30 deal. 70% in the favor of the label. 30 for y'all. And I'll give you a million dollars to record the first Smartless album. Right? Like, okay, we get 10% apiece. You know, they're putting up all the money. Da, da, da, da. You sign the deal.

[Will Arnett]

Deal.

[Jelly Roll]

But the problem is I recoup at the rate of the deal, which means every time Smartless makes a dollar, I take 70 cents of that dollar and I go, this is mine. That was our deal. You're like, yep. And then I go, now this would be your 30 cents, but I'm going to put this 30 cents towards the million dollars you owe me.

[Jason Bateman]

Right? Wow.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, that's a. That's.

[Jelly Roll]

That is a 70% interest rate, gentlemen. I don't care how you slice or butter that bread. Now, you could. You found legal loopholes to make make it not that, but ultimately that's absurd. You know what I mean?

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

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[Sean Hayes]

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[Jason Bateman]

And now back to the show.

[Sean Hayes]

Now let me ask you something. How did you become so savvy? Did you have your pitfalls along the way and you learn and this is the result of that is now you're like, I know how to do deals now because you must have made some bad ones in order to know what good ones are.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah, well, that's what happened. And the cool thing was nobody wanted to sign me. So like when nobody wants to work with you, but you're like I had to figure it out myself.

[Will Arnett]

Right, so you had to make it yourself. And by the time they came to you and they're like, hey, here's how the deals are. You're like, hang a second. The math doesn't add up. I don't need your money under your, under your, your system.

[Jason Bateman]

Making plenty on my own.

[Will Arnett]

Right? When you. Yeah, when you kind of see that, when you see that math up front.

[Jelly Roll]

You go like, nuh, yeah, no, as soon as you see it and then you're aware, because I've done enough distribution deals and early in my career I had to take a little money. So you'd go get 100 grand and then you'd see it took you six months to pay the 100 grand back. And you're like, by the time I paid the 100 grand back, they made a half a million dollars. Right, right. I was like, I'm tripping. This is. That's. It wasn't even. You go through that enough times that when it finally happens, the label calls like, hey, we'll give you. And that's where labels kept messing up. The first three or four labels. Oh, I love talking about this. The first three or four labels that would call me would just offer me money. They thought I was just some dumb redneck, which they were, right. But they thought I was a dumber redneck than they thought I was. And they would come and they'd be like, hey, you know, I'll never forget. One label said, it's a blank check, like whatever you want it to be. Within reason. You put the amount of money you want us to give you, and then we'll put a number of albums with it.

[Jason Bateman]

Right, Gotcha.

[Jelly Roll]

You know, And I had a guy at the time who was ill advising me who was like, let's just ask for like 10 or 20 million bucks, dude, this will change both of our lives forever. He was like kind of managing me a little bit. I was like, right then I was like, I think I need to find another manager.

[Will Arnett]

You know what I'm saying?

[Jelly Roll]

I was like, I don't think this is right. I was like, cuz I'm also in a space where, you know, mama didn't raise no fool. You know what I mean? It's like I was smart enough to go, I don't. If they think I can make. Make $20 million. And that's what these people do is they count beans and determine if people can make $20 million. I think I can make $20 million. You know what I'm Saying I was like, maybe I'm crazy to think that, but you know what I mean?

[Jason Bateman]

I was like, no, they showed their cards. Yeah, exactly.

[Will Arnett]

Anytime somebody comes at you with a number and says, hey, this out of the blue and says, this is what we want to give you, you're like, all right, this is a great starting point. Obviously worth way more than they're building.

[Jason Bateman]

In a pad that's favorable.

[Will Arnett]

We've had our own. We've had our own experience with that.

[Jason Bateman]

But now, so. But industry standard on the deal structure for. For live performance, so. So touring and stuff like that is much more in the favor of the artist. Is that correct?

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah, well, to. Yeah, always. Ancillary participation is what they call it to try to get us away from the 360 deal, which is what it is still. They just gave it a cooler name. But it's always in favor of the artist, depending on what your deal was and how much money. Money you took. I know some artists in town that did bad ancillary deals, too, though. They did like 50. 50 or 70, 30 ancillaries. So they're in this 80, 20 record deal where they're only getting 20% of their streaming royalties. Don't own any of the Masters. 100 of the Masters will own up, owned by the label for the rest.

[Sean Hayes]

Right, right. That's crazy.

[Jelly Roll]

And then they go out and they'll do a 60, 40 ancillary participation. And the problem with that.

[Jason Bateman]

Meaning the concerts.

[Jelly Roll]

Yeah, yeah. But the problem with that is. Is they. That if I give the label even 80%, let's say. I mean, 20%, let's say. I said, you know what? We've done great. Y'all built my profile. I'll give you 20%. Booking agent wants 10.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

Management's still coming in at 15. Business manager still at 5. Which I've negotiated all those fees back over the years. But I mean, you know how this works. I mean, if you just. Next thing you know, there's a. The. What I try to advise artists is this. You're going to end up in a situation where you're going to make what your manager's making if you're not careful.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

You know what I mean?

[Jason Bateman]

You know, the difference is they've got.

[Jelly Roll]

12 other clients the same neighborhood together. You're in trouble. You know what I'm saying?

[Jason Bateman]

Do you get. You get to keep all the merchandise money? How does that work?

[Jelly Roll]

It's normally in the same. Same ratio, but yeah, just whatever that is. Ticket sales, it's out of mind. Completely.

[Sean Hayes]

Do you feel like you, you have to tour? Whether that's emotionally, financially, spiritually, or do you want to tour? Because I, I, I ask people this often who come on the show, who are musicians or in bands, because I'm such a homebody. Like whenever I have to go anywhere and, and pack and then, you know, shack up at a hotel and like.

[Will Arnett]

You pack his.

[Sean Hayes]

Pack a suitcase.

[Will Arnett]

The idea of going out and learning in the world is really, what really holds me back is the idea that I have to pack, then hire somebody to pack for me.

[Sean Hayes]

I hate packing.

[Will Arnett]

You're not learning anything at your house. Jesus Christ.

[Sean Hayes]

Maybe I am. Both you guys, I'm learning a lot today from Mr.

[Jason Bateman]

Roll washing in a strange room.

[Sean Hayes]

No, well, the whole point of all of that was I'm such a homebody. I, I can't imagine going on tour all the time.

[Will Arnett]

Different way of saying he's lazy, by the way.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, exactly. What's that like for you?

[Jelly Roll]

Well, I think it's a need and a want. I need to write music. Yeah, that's something I know for like my spirit and my therapy. Like, I have to write songs. Like I have. There's something in me. I'm very, very empathic. I meet people every day. I hear these stories about how my music has helped people through dark moments. And that stuff sits with me. I don't find a way to exercise that. Touring for me is just the old school. Like, I'm an old school rock and roll dude, man. Like, I still smoke pot and play the guitar a couple hours every day just for fun if I can, you.

[Will Arnett]

Know what I mean?

[Jelly Roll]

Like, it's still like, just get lost in jamming and learning other people's songs. Like, I, I love this life. I love the pace. I love the bus. I love the smell of diesel fuel. I love pilot stops at 6am Sean. Yeah, I mean, I love all that stuff, you know what I mean?

[Will Arnett]

That stuff Sean does too. Different reasons.

[Sean Hayes]

My twenties, different reason for truck stops change.

[Will Arnett]

What, what was it like? What was the moment when you got that first Grammy nomination? What was.

[Jelly Roll]

Oh, I cried, baby.

[Will Arnett]

Did you? Did you?

[Jelly Roll]

Oh, nasty couldn't quit crying. Then I called my mama to tell, and I videoed myself calling her. And my mom was a little older, you know, so I'm like, mom, I just got, I'm snot rocketing so she can't hear me. I'm just blowing snot bubbles. And she goes, you said something about some money? I said, no, mama. I said, the Grammys. She said, look, you said, your granny. I said, no, mama. I said, I just got nominated for a Grammy. And she's so funny. She goes, well, that's good. And then two seconds later, she goes, hey, I seen a picture of you and Tanya Tucker together. How cool was she? I'm still crying and my mama's asking about Tanya Tucker. Tucker the country singer.

[Will Arnett]

She had seen a picture of us.

[Jelly Roll]

Together on the Internet. Like, what's up with Dan Tucker, though? Yeah, yeah, but it was cool, man. It was in our business, it don't get no bigger, man.

[Will Arnett]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

The easiest way to describe it is I've been blessed to win a CMA. I've been blessed to win an ACM. I've been blessed.

[Will Arnett]

You swept the CMAs. That right? I mean, you cleaned up.

[Jelly Roll]

I've had some big moments. And being nominated for a grade Grammy, just the nomination trumps all those.

[Jason Bateman]

Sure, yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

I used before I got nominated for a Grammy, I was introduced as the new, the cma ACM award winning, multi platinum recording artist.

[Sean Hayes]

Right.

[Jelly Roll]

I am now introduced. Real easy, Grammy nominated recording, Jelly Roll. Just being nominated, get rid of every award I'd ever won, even being in my title.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, that's how cool it is.

[Jason Bateman]

So who. Who would you be most excited to meet at a big event like say, like the Grammys or something like that?

[Jelly Roll]

Oh, ooh, that's a good one. Because at the last Grammys, I got to meet Taylor. Taylor Swift came and talked to me, and I felt like the belle of the ball, dog. When I tell you, I felt like King Shit. I felt the same way I felt when Howard Stern hugged me. Right? When Howard hugged me.

[Jason Bateman]

He doesn't hand those out.

[Jelly Roll]

Dude, this dude likes me.

[Jason Bateman]

For real.

[Jelly Roll]

I'm looking and Taylor's walking across the room and it's like, this is Taylor Swift. So you're just watching people part like the Red Sea. They're just like. And as she's walking and my wife grabs me, she goes, I think Taylor's walking over here. I was like, no, no. And I'm looking at her and she's looking at me. And I was like, no, I think she's walking over to Boy Wonder. Because Boy Wonder was sitting. Boy Genius was sitting in front of me.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

And I think she walked over to Boy Genius and she did. She walked right up to me and gave me a hug. It was super cool.

[Will Arnett]

I was like, oh, this is. That's amazing.

[Jelly Roll]

And then I was so nervous, I fumbled. I forgot I was going to tell her this great emotional story about how I Pushed my daughter on the swing set at a park she built in her old hometown.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

And I just could not remember. I was like, the park. My daughter.

[Sean Hayes]

I was like, just so bad. You'll get that chance again, I'm sure.

[Jelly Roll]

Jay Z there, too. It was really cool. Stevie Wonder. I mean, it was like. It was definitely. Ed Sheeran came and talked to me. I mean, it was. It was really cool.

[Jason Bateman]

All good people. Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. That is. That is so cool. You know, it's. It's funny. I was thinking about your song. Well, I'm not. Okay, but Save Me and all your songs. And what is Son of a Sinner? And I. I got to hang out with a country singer songwriter a few months ago. We were on a late night, and. And he was playing all the songs, but acoustically. There were a bunch of us in this room, and I was like. And when I was listening to him play these songs acoustically and. And singing with the power and. And the emotion, I was like. I was like, these are. These are the poets of our time. Country music has become the. They speak about the heart of what's going on, and. And when you listen to the lyrics and you listen to the passion, especially in an acoustic setting. I found it in when it was, like, really stripped down, it blew my mind, man. I was so moved by this. It was probably a guy. Do you know Thomas Rhett? It was.

[Jelly Roll]

Of course.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. Yeah. I was with Thomas, and he was. He was playing, and he was playing some of his songs, and he was playing some of. Lots of other people's songs as well, man. It was. And it's true. I mean, I don't know how much you guys, Sean, and JB have listened to a lot of the country that's coming out now. And the stuff that. It's unbelievable, man.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, a little bit.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah. It's all good. It's all good stuff. Stuff.

[Jelly Roll]

Well, you got to think all the poets of. Have always ended up in Nashville. Bob Dylan went out of his way to come down here and write and do Nashville. Skyline. One of the only places James Taylor frequented besides his island of his own, where he rode at up on the Northeast, was he'd come to Nashville every now and then. Like, it's always been. It's always kind of leaned that way. And I think that we're having the biggest moment we've ever had with it. But what you got to experience is what I tell people that makes country music more special than every genre is that it's all about the song with us. Yeah, like, it's all about the hits with the other genres. Like, not in a bad way, but, like, you know, it's, yeah, it's a lot of production. It's a very produced thing. But, like, in our business is if I take all that out and I just grab my guitar right now, or if I grab this piano right now and I break this song down to just me and you acoustic, it really makes the song stand out. Out, right?

[Jason Bateman]

And what you're talking about. Yeah, it's.

[Will Arnett]

It's incredible. I, I, I was so moved in a way that it was really unexpected, man.

[Jelly Roll]

No, dude, it's. Especially when you get to do it like that. Like, when we're. All the best is when you get three or four or five of us in a room together and we're playing past the guitar.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, that's cool.

[Jelly Roll]

It's awesome. When we're like, yo, what did you write? He's like, yo, I wrote this last week. And then Thomas R. Singing a song that might not ever come out that he just wrote, and then I'm singing a song I might not ever put out that I just wrote, because it's like anything else. I just wrote it. So I think it's the best song I ever wrote. I got to listen to it for two months for him. Like, that song's not that good.

[Will Arnett]

Listen, I'm not trying to create my own private concert for me, but, but what I would like to do, and my dream would be to come to, like, Nashville and hang out with you and Tom. What a great guy. You guys would love him, too, right? He's such a great guy, right, Jelly? I mean, he's the. Oh, he's the awesome salt talent.

[Jelly Roll]

Great husband, great father.

[Will Arnett]

I mean, just present, just all around and. But to come in and hang out, I would. That would be, like, a dream. That would be a total dream to be a fly on the wall with with a bunch of you guys that it would be unbelievable anytime we, We.

[Jelly Roll]

The cool thing about it is we do it.

[Will Arnett]

Wow.

[Jelly Roll]

I think it's what made. It's similar to what y'all do. It's what made Smartless the biggest podcast on the earth. We immediately heard three friends who are at the top of their class but are buddies at core. Just hanging out and being fucking buddies. Like, that's us. Like, when we're all sitting around together passing a guitar. Like, we're not a bunch of country music superstars. We're a bunch of dumbass songwriters trying to show that we can still write Dumbass songs.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. No, you're right. Two buddies and Jason, and we, you know, we do the show and that's.

[Jelly Roll]

We got him, everybody.

[Jason Bateman]

We got him. How about this? This is probably as stupid as all the other questions I ever ask, but. But what about. I would imagine that your life before things got better was a richer pot from you to pull from, to write songs versus now. Are you. The question is, are you as inspired with stuff to write about now that things have the edges a little bit more rounded in your life? Deservedly so. Or is it. Are you still finding stuff that really grabs your. Your heartstrings? Now?

[Jelly Roll]

I. I pull from a little less personal pain, but I've gotten a thousand more muses.

[Jason Bateman]

Okay.

[Jelly Roll]

It kind of balanced itself out. I get. I. I get. I'm not making this number up. I'm sure y'all do, too. But I get thousands of messages across every platform a day, and 70% of them are, like, real. Hey, man, your song helped me out of a hole. I got sober to your music. I dealt with the death of my father with cancer to this song. Like, this song. Like, we played this at my mother's funeral. We played this at my cousin who had a fentanyl overdose at funeral. So, like, it goes back to me being very empathic.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

I feel this. Like, I'm the kind of guy that's like, if you start crying, I would cry. We would cry together. I have a nobody cries alone policy.

[Sean Hayes]

You know what I'm saying?

[Jelly Roll]

Just automatically.

[Sean Hayes]

I love that.

[Jelly Roll]

So it's like, I hear these stories, you know, I hear these stories every day. So not. I'm not. I had a man. This is. I've never said it this way, but there was a moment I thought I was special because of where I was from and what I've been through. Like, I thought, like, oh, this. The world's clicking for me because all this shit I went through is like, makes me special. And then I realized what makes me special, special is that we've all been through some sort of shit.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

And that I am a representation of that. And once I realized that I wasn't telling my unique specialty story, I was telling the story of millions of American who have felt the same kind of pain. And don't take this Sean to speak on it, but I speak for Sean's brother, right?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

Like, I am an active voice for Sean's brother right now. Brother Sean knew that before this call or not is that most of my life mission is getting people to understand that alcoholics and addicts are good people people, they're not bad people. They're just in the middle of a bad situation.

[Sean Hayes]

That's exactly.

[Will Arnett]

And it's one of the core tenets of. Of recovery is that idea is that you're. You're exactly right. You're not unique. It's that people can identify with. Exactly. And it's through that identification, you know, that creates community. And community is the option opposite of addiction. When you can create that, you know, that's it. It's so powerful.

[Jelly Roll]

Addiction is connection. Baby, you're speaking to me, Will, let's go.

[Will Arnett]

It's so true. It's so true.

[Sean Hayes]

And then when you do that, when you go through that and everything that you've been through and everything you just said, Mr.

[Jason Bateman]

Roll.

[Sean Hayes]

Is that you are now, like I said at the beginning of this interview, you are now a light. And you speak so eloquently about everything you've been through and the kind of enlightenment that you've gone through. And it's such a. Like people are now drawn to you for those reasons. And people seek out your advice, your guidance. It's really fascinating.

[Jason Bateman]

Uplifted through that connection.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

The message is different when a message always hits different when it comes from one of its own.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jelly Roll]

You know what I mean? Like, that's why I go back to jails and that's why I go to rehabs. Because I remember none of our own ever came back and talked to us. So no matter how well intentioned other people were, it just didn't hit it. You know what I mean? Because it wasn't, it wasn't coming from a place that we could like.

[Sean Hayes]

And it lights you up as much as music lights you up. The messaging. Yeah, I love that, baby.

[Jelly Roll]

It's. It's my real purpose, man. It's to serve, give.

[Will Arnett]

Giving it away is the best feeling of all. Right. I mean, that's, that's where the power comes from. That's. That's the hack that people don't.

[Jelly Roll]

You need a blessing. Be a blessing, baby. Yeah, man, be a blessing.

[Will Arnett]

Well, it's like, you know, if you're, if you're feeling unloved, it's because you're not being loving. That's been my experience. And if I push love out on people, I get that back on me.

[Sean Hayes]

That's right.

[Will Arnett]

Basically, that's.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say.

[Will Arnett]

To consider it's 100% true if you're. And this is a hack that I. That I that I'm a little reluctant to share. This is totally true. That I find if I'm feeling low or if I'm feeling, like, unconnected or I'm feeling lonely or whatever, you know, I reach out to somebody else and ask them how they're doing. It's the most unbelievable, you know, and you get.

[Jason Bateman]

I'm going to send you my number in the chat, just at the bottom of the screen.

[Will Arnett]

We know how you're doing. You're at home in your thing, like. And Sean, I know where you're at home having no experience. You know, it's a sad Hollywood story. They can't even do a real life Hollywood story. Cause there's not enough info. There's not enough life. They can't fill an hour. Cause it's too boring. It's got famous and Rich and sat in his house. Who's gonna watch that?

[Jason Bateman]

A webisode. We could do a webisode.

[Will Arnett]

We might be able to do a webisode. We'll go back. Jason. We'll put it back for Dumb. Dumb.

[Jason Bateman]

Look at.

[Sean Hayes]

Scotty got me this pencil holder. It's a little typewriter.

[Will Arnett]

There we go.

[Sean Hayes]

That's. I'm excited about that.

[Will Arnett]

That. That took up a week. That was a week. That was a week of shit just to get that jelly roll, man. Honestly, having you here has been so amazing.

[Sean Hayes]

This is awesome.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. You're just such an inspiration. And thank goodness that you are who you are, man. You've touched a lot of people. You certainly touched me. And. And I know you've helped a lot of people. So thank you for your kindness and your voice and everything. And your music, your artistry. All of it, dude.

[Jelly Roll]

Will, thanks for inviting me on. Jason. Thanks for mistaking me for Kitty Chesney, who's a foot shorter and 300 pounds lighter. Sean, I love you to absolute death, man. I love all of you all. I can't thank y'all enough for what y'all are doing for the world, man. How happy y'all are making people, how much joy you're bringing to people's car every day. It's. Man, I just hope y'all know that this was. I'm sure y'all did it just to f. You know, I. I just to connect with each other, and it just kind of spread. But, man, that's. You are helping so many people, man. You are direct servant, man. You don't even. I'm sure you know it. I'm not. I'm acting like y'all don't know but.

[Jason Bateman]

You'Re serving people like that. I help.

[Jelly Roll]

You're not. You're not wasting an hour or two of your life every day just shooting the. With your friends, man.

[Will Arnett]

You're.

[Jelly Roll]

You're helping a lot. My therapist listens to y'all. He was. He's never been. Been excited about me doing anything, but this was, like, a really big deal. This and Jay Shetty for him were like, whoa, I can't believe.

[Jason Bateman]

I'm sure. I'm sure you're as. You're as thankful as we are that people are actually listening to what it is we want to say, right? It's. It's a real joy.

[Jelly Roll]

It's a bleed with love, baby. Y'all leave with love.

[Sean Hayes]

And. And if you're ever in la, please, let's have a meal or something. I would love.

[Jason Bateman]

Please.

[Jelly Roll]

We'll do it. Yeah, we'll link for sure. Well, I'll reach out. I'd love to see y'all again sometimes, man. Love to have.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

Thank you. The great jelly roll. Thank you, brother.

[Jason Bateman]

Thanks for being with us, boys. What a nice man. That's a nice. A nice way to start the day.

[Sean Hayes]

I think we talked to him at the. At our event. I mean, just said hello.

[Jason Bateman]

But I was struck as you were just how infectious his. His light, his energy was, his warmth. When he. When he. When he shook our hands. It was. It was.

[Sean Hayes]

He's the kind of guy you want to hang out with. You want in your life. It'll make your life better. Those kinds of people make your life better.

[Will Arnett]

He makes. He. He's. There's a guy again. Like, he's just. When he's turned his life around and he spent. He's dedicated his life to making other people's lives better. Yeah. Which is awesome. Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

I love it.

[Jason Bateman]

You know, that option is available to you, Will.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, I.

[Will Arnett]

Listen, I'm out there today. I'm trying. I mean, I'm not the one again. I can't. You guys have nothing to talk. What do you talk about on a talk show? It just occurred to me. There's nothing.

[Sean Hayes]

What are you talking about?

[Jason Bateman]

I come up with bits.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

You know, I come up with bits. You know, funny stories.

[Will Arnett]

Come up with.

[Jason Bateman]

You know, I tell garbage about how I don't like to walk around hotel rooms with my bare feet and crap like that. I just make it up.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, my God. But we know them all. How much you run out of it.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, God. I need. I do need some new stories.

[Sean Hayes]

I know, Will. You're always like, you Gotta go see the world so you have something to talk about. About.

[Will Arnett]

It's true. Well, just not even just on talk show, just in general. Read books, meet people.

[Sean Hayes]

I do get off my back.

[Will Arnett]

No, I gotta get off your back. I was put on this planet to be on your back egging you on. I want you to be a better. I love Sean Hayes and I want the best for him.

[Sean Hayes]

Okay, very nice.

[Jason Bateman]

But why don't you. You could just turn on CNN International and you could.

[Will Arnett]

No, you're not.

[Sean Hayes]

Cuz you're at home or watch a movie with whatever landmark you want to.

[Will Arnett]

See to the world. Know it's.

[Jason Bateman]

But it's just. What about my sheets and my pillow and.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, or. Sean, you should get to what you're looking at on your screen. Go ahead. What do you. What was your thought?

[Sean Hayes]

I'm looking. I can't.

[Jason Bateman]

Are you trying to think of. Well, you know, if you could travel a lot back and forth to Los Angeles and New York if you had two.

[Sean Hayes]

We've used that one so many times.

[Jason Bateman]

What?

[Sean Hayes]

No, what about this? But I don't want to travel anywhere because I'd miss you guys because if we. If I leave somewhere I'd have to wave goodbye.

[Will Arnett]

I feel like we've done that too. That's.

[Jason Bateman]

You know, we never come up with anything where buy is in the middle of a word.

[Sean Hayes]

Okay. Win by a nose. Saw him go by two by two. Selling by him.

[Will Arnett]

Hey, listen, listen, listen, listen. Good news. The good news is you can go anywhere in the world, right? And you can do stuff. And if something happens back home, if somebody gets hurt, somebody gets killed and the cops interview you if you're out of town, you've got a great Al.

[Sean Hayes]

That's good bye.

[Jason Bateman]

That's fantastic.

[Will Arnett]

Smart Less. Smart less. Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Bennett Barbaco, Michael Grant, Terry and Rob Armjarf. Smart less.

[Jason Bateman]

Hey friends. Jason here. We're so excited. The smartless has officially joined the SiriusXM family. We can't wait to announce new surprise guests who we know that you'll love. If you want to be the first to new episodes ad free and a whole week early. Subscribe to SiriusXM podcasts plus on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com podcasts plus to start your free trial today.

[Sean Hayes]

At Ameca Insurance.

[Jelly Roll]

We know it's more than just a car.

[Will Arnett]

It's the two door coupe that was.

[Sean Hayes]

There for your first drive. The hatchback that took you cross country.

[Will Arnett]

And back and the minivan that tackles the weekly carpool for the cars you couldn't live without.

[Jelly Roll]

Trust Ameca Auto Insurance Ameca Empathy is our best policy. Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life. At Capella University. Our Flex Path learning format lets you learn on your own skills schedule. A different future is closer than you.

[Will Arnett]

Think with Capella University.

[Jelly Roll]

Learn more at Capella. Eduardo.