Almost Home No More! Jelly Roll’s Opry Induction Set for March 10
- All Country News
- 1 hour ago
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On a night built for legends, redemption will take center stage.
Multi-Grammy® Award winner Jelly Roll will officially be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on March 10, a milestone that feels less like a career achievement and more like destiny finally catching up. The invitation, once unimaginable for a kid from Antioch with a troubled past, now cements his place in the very circle he once watched from the pews.
And fittingly, it will be family ushering him in. Opry member and close friend Lainey Wilson will do the honors, while mentor and longtime champion Craig Morgan is set to perform. Comedian Leanne Morgan and fellow Nashville native ERNEST will also join the celebration, a lineup that mirrors Jelly Roll’s genre-blurring, community-driven rise.
But like most things in Jelly Roll’s story, the road to this moment didn’t unfold traditionally.
The formal invitation came not beneath the Opry’s wooden circle, but during a surprise appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. In a twist worthy of country songwriting itself, Rogan played a video message from Morgan inviting Jelly Roll to join the Opry family. The shock on his face said what words couldn’t. For an artist who has built a career on radical honesty, this was one of the rare times he seemed speechless.
Years before Grammy stages and arena tours, Jelly Roll sat in the Opry audience, freshly released from prison, watching Craig Morgan perform “Almost Home.” He has called that moment life-changing, a flicker of hope in a season where hope felt scarce. Years later, Morgan surprised him on the Opry stage, and the two performed “Almost Home” together beneath the glow of those historic lights. To seal the full-circle moment, Morgan gifted him handwritten, autographed lyrics to the song, a keepsake that symbolizes more than fandom. It symbolizes survival.
Since making his Opry debut on November 9, 2021, Jelly Roll hasn’t treated the institution as a bucket-list stop. He’s shown up, repeatedly. He’s mentored young artists through Opry NextStage, hosted NextStage Live events in Texas, and become a fan favorite not just for his thunderous vocals but for his visible gratitude. He doesn’t just play the Opry; he reveres it.
And in 2026, the accolades caught up to the impact.
Fresh off winning every Grammy Award he was nominated for, including Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for “Hard Fought Hallelujah” with Brandon Lake, Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Amen” with Shaboozey, and Best Contemporary Country Album for Beautifully Broken, Jelly Roll stands at a rare crossroads of country and Christian music dominance. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and features the multi-week No. 1, Grammy-nominated anthem “I Am Not Okay,” a song that doubles as his thesis statement: brokenness isn’t the end of the story.
His debut country project, Whitsitt Chapel, remains a cornerstone, the biggest country debut of its release year, and proof that testimony can be commercial, and conviction can be chart-topping.
For the Antioch native, the Opry isn’t just another award to hang on the wall. It’s sacred ground. It’s the stage that once felt galaxies away from a jail cell. It’s the house that raised the very songs that gave him a second chance at dreaming.
On March 10, when Lainey Wilson welcomes him into the fold and Craig Morgan looks on, Jelly Roll won’t just step into membership. He’ll step into the next chapter of a story that country music was always uniquely equipped to tell, one of grit, grace, and a man who went from the back row to the center circle.
And this time, he’s not just almost home.
He is home!
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