Grand Ole Opry's Tribute to Jelly Roll Turns Awkward When Fans Get Involved
Before we begin the latest instance “go woke, go broke,” I think it would be illustrative of what the difference between “left” and “woke” is with two country music stars: Willie Nelson and Jelly Roll.
Willie Nelson is a man of the left. (I mean, except for tax policy, where he was strangely hard-libertarian until the IRS caught up with him.) He has positions that are unpopular, to say the least, with country music fans. Sometimes, those positions are unpopular with the left, too. Willie Nelson doesn’t give a Willie Nelson-sized joint about what you think about what he thinks. He also doesn’t care what you think, either. Sure, I don’t agree with him — but I respect him, or at least that.
Jelly Roll is woke. He’s a man of the left, too, but mostly because he believes he can tell you what to think or needs to listen to other people who believe they can tell people what they can think. He cares a great deal about currying favor with the entertainment-activist opinion complex, which he believes is what really matters in life.
He cares what they think of him, and thus thinks exactly what they think so that the people they care about like them. Got all that?
And if you don’t like getting your opinions third- or fourth-hand, and only espoused because it’s what the Hollywood herd repeats to themselves, people like Jelly Roll get profoundly upset you’re not obeying them. If you find this respectable in any way, you are contemptible. Which is funny, because Jelly Roll and his ilk think it’s the other way around.
So, for those of you who forgot, Jelly Roll filled in as guest host for Jimmy Kimmel over the summer and spent the time bashing President Donald Trump as a racist and a narcissist and a fatty, inter alia.
These are the kinds of jokes that people who care about what the woke crowd think of them have been saying since well before Trump ran for president, so I’m shocked they even got what gets called “claughter” in modern argot — the substitution of clapping for laughter when someone makes a rightthink political point in the form of a not-very-good joke.
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Anyhow, it turns out that, being a country music star, this kind of didn’t go over well with country music fans, who happen to skew conservative. This, to break into modern argot again, got him “big mad.” He first told people who were offended to boycott him. When they did, he threatened to quit music.
He hasn’t quit, but he’s mostly shut up, so I guess the Grand Ole Opry decided it was safe to celebrate the fifth anniversary of his first appearance at the legendary Nashville venue. The Opry quickly found out why the stench of woke hangs around far longer than anything else.
First, the post, from Monday:
Today, 5 years ago, Jelly Roll made his Opry debut!
Happy 5 year anniversary, @JellyRoll615 🥳 https://t.co/Ljfode9570
— Grand Ole Opry (@opry) November 9, 2026
And the comments section:
@opry @JellyRoll615 Jelly woke can go to Jimmy Kimmel Hades and stay there.
— Dave Kinney (@ssikfandk) November 9, 2026
@opry @JellyRoll615 Sorry….he’s not country. Country needs to get back to its roots
— BZ Husker (@bo_husker) November 9, 2026
@opry @JellyRoll615 Read the room 😏 Jelly boy burned the bridge down 🤷♀️
— Carol 🇺🇸🌴🙏🎶 (@beachskies) November 9, 2026
@opry @JellyRoll615 Playing Christian and Country fans for 5+ years now.
— AH (@AH9234) November 9, 2026
It wasn’t much better on Facebook, where the most positive comment I could find after scrolling down through the first hundred or so was this: “I’m just here for the comments [popcorn emoji].” Considering one even claimed Jelly Roll had joined the Illuminati, I doubt the commenter was disappointed.
Meanwhile, while Nelson hasn’t performed at the Opry since 2002 and I’m not digging through Friendster and Blogspot remarks about that, I give you comments from this clip of his 1965 performance there:
@rocknrollofall His golden voice has not changed one bit. It literally sounds like they AI’d his current voice onto a TV salesman’s face.
— Wonko the Sane (@ScottyTheMenace) December 24, 2025
@rocknrollofall He had his own radio show in the 50’s and I ran my stepfather’s Olds 88 battery down more than once while listening to it.
— fore_not_four 𝒲𝒾𝓁𝓁𝒾𝒶𝓂 POPS 𝒟𝓇𝓊𝓂𝓂𝑜𝓃𝒹 (@altimaguy11) December 25, 2025
@rocknrollofall @PymPurnell My dad liked him, and Don williams, Johnny cash, etc. My dad was a singer. Good too 🙏🏻
— Gabby (@GabbyLOUISE2014) December 24, 2025
I doubt any of these people are less conservative than the average Opry follower. Nor of country fandom at large, which doesn’t seem to have caused a ruckus with the Country Music Awards’ Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award except for the occasional reefer joke.
Not that Willie would care, mind you — which is the whole point.
It’s wokeness in a nutshell: The desire to be loved by thinking the same thing that Hollywood and media types think, which is the same thing that the activist class thinks, and then the desire to lash out at anyone who doesn’t love you for it. One gets Jelly Roll’s clout-chasing; what’s the Opry’s excuse? Where have they been for the last three months?
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