Jelly Roll pens heartfelt letter to Eminem after being featured on his new album

Jelly Roll‘s “Save Me” song gets another life on Eminem‘s new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace), which dropped Friday (July 12, 2024) and features a surprise duet with the country star on its final track, an emotional open letter to his daughters.

The song, titled “Somebody Save Me,” heavily samples Jelly’s 2023 hit song, which reached No. 19 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts in November after Lainey Wilson jumped on the remix of the song.

Eminem sings about his addiction to prescription medication, which almost led to his death via overdose in 2007. In this song, he is apologizing for not being there for the people in his life, especially for his kids, during his addiction period. This song is very similar to “Arose,” a song off of Em’s 2017 album Revival, in which he talks about his drug addiction and how it affected his family and people around him.

Jelly Roll checked a historic item off his bucket list when notching a collaboration with Eminem on “Somebody Save Me,” which served as The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)‘s poignant closer track that brought tears to many fans around the world.

Hours after the track made waves on streaming services, Jelly Roll reflected on it in an emotional post to social media about having the chance to contribute to one of his childhood hero’s projects. “I always say my childhood hero’s lived somewhere between Willie Nelson and Eminem. As a teenager (and still today) I could recite every song on the Slim Shady album, the Marshal Mathers album and the Eminem show.” said Jelly Roll.

Then he continued: “When I bonded out of jail at 17 years old and was sneaking into cyphers and battles in Nashville they would also play the “lose yourself” beat when I came out on stage at the freestyle battles. I related to every word Eminem wrote. I understand him and felt like he understood me, which was rare cause I spent most of my life feeling misunderstood. So you can imagine how I felt when I got that the call that Eminem would be sampling my song “Save Me” on his new album. And for him to use the song to discuss the other side of what could’ve happened if he would’ve allowed his demons to win brought me to tears.”

“If you haven’t heard it yet , check out “Somebody Save Me” on Eminem’s new album “the death of slim shady” special shout out to Paul Rosenberg , you’ve been nothing but kind to me and treated me like family and gave me opportunities I didn’t deserve, forever grateful.” Jelly Roll added.

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The Nashville-bred star met Eminem for the first time before hitting the stage together outside the Michigan Central Station venue last month. The heartfelt embrace was captured by Jelly’s wife, Bunnie XO. “When the goat meets THE GOAT,” she captioned the clip soundtracked by Eminem’s “My Name Is.” Jelly Roll joined Em on stage where they performed Slim Shady’s Aerosmith-sampling iconic track “Sing For the Moment.”