Jelly Roll capped off an epic weekend with a stirring performance of his collaborative single with MGK, “Lonely Road,” on The Tonight Show on Monday night (Sept. 30). After headlining Madison Square Garden, then performing on Saturday Night Live‘s 50th season opener and headlining the Global Citizen Festival, Jelly put a button on a career quadfecta by teaming up with Machine Gun and the song’s producer, Travis Barker, for an inspired run through the song that interpolates John Denver’s beloved 1971 “Take Me Home, Country Roads” single.
KellyRoll (as the duo have dubbed themselves) began the performance singing the song’s aching refrain a cappella while standing on either side of a flaming garbage can backed by three soulful back-up singers. “Lonely road, take me home/ To the place that we went wrong/ Where’d you go now, it’s been a ghost town/ And I’m still here, all alone,” they sang in unison before Kelly called Barker to the stage and busted into his rap verse.
The Blink-182 drummer tapped out the song’s clip-clop rhythm on the lip of the can before scooting over to a proper drum kit as Jelly and Kelly meandered to host Jimmy Fallon’s desk set to make themselves comfortable. Seated in the guest spot on the couch, Jelly Roll crooned, “I use alcohol to fill that hole/ Will our home ever be the same?,” as MGK tapped out the rhythm on Fallon’s desk.
The performance ended with the two men standing on either side of Barker, with always humble Jelly thanking Fallon and the viewers at home for “allowing us into your living rooms tonight.”
Before the set, Jelly made his first visit to the Tonight Show couch, admitting that he was so nervous that he may have “tinkled” himself a bit. “I won’t know until I do a full assessment,” he joked. He then admitted that he likely “double-tinkled” himself being in a sketch on SNL, the sadly cut-for-time hilarious House of the Dragon spoof “Blonde Dragon People,” where he played Lord of the Rings‘ Samwise Gamgee to Andy Samberg’s Legolas, for some reason.
“I was more nervous for the sketch, obviously,” he told Fallon. “Because I’m already a fish out of water in the music business. And I’m a double-fish out of water when I was there… I’m just whaled out!” And, just days after Machine Gun addressed his former beef with Jelly at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards — where he said, “Jelly, I love you. We went from 10 years ago, hating each other, to elevating each other” — Jelly Roll told Fallon, “I just love him to death. We’ve known each other a long time and we started on rocky roads and made amends.”
Jelly Roll’s upcoming album, Beautifully Broken, is due out on Oct. 11.
Watch Jelly Roll on the Tonight Show below.
