Jelly Roll Weighs in on Miranda Lambert and the Selfie Fan

Jelly Roll said it hurts him to see Miranda Lambert being dragged on social media after stopping a concert to scold a fan for taking a photo, but …

“I understand the ladies wanting to take the picture, too.”

The “Need a Favor” singer hardly dodged a question about general fan behavior with a middle-of-the-road answer. He just gets it from both sides.

“She’s singing the most intimate song of her set,” Jelly Roll tells Taste of Country Nights‘ Evan Paul.

“I don’t know how she feels when she sings ‘Tin Man.’ I know when I sing ‘She’ on stage I am fighting everything in my soul not to cry —  she might be like that when she sings ‘Tin Man’ or ‘The House That Built Me.’ You don’t know how emotionally unstable some of these songs will make an artist.”

• Lambert stopped the song and scolded the fan during her Las Vegas residency show in July.
• One of the women involved would later give several interviews, sharing that it felt like she was back in school being scolded by the teacher.
• Lambert never acknowledged the incident publicly.

A Taste of Country poll of readers found that most people sided with Lambert after the incident, with many saying the group of women would have been fine, had they chosen a different song to take a picture during.

“I judge people based on intentions. I know that Miranda would never be intentionally disrespectful to anybody,” Jelly Roll shares. “I know that Miranda’s heart is right. She has been one of the best people to me in this business, from the moment I came in.”

But …

“I get the girls’ perspective, too. You pay all this money, all this time, you wanna take this picture.”

The rap-rocker-turned-country-star admits his bar for bad fan behavior is pretty high, though — he’s seen artists getting things thrown at them and can’t figure out what the fuss is about.

“I’ve been getting s–t thrown at me my whole career,” he shares, before telling a particularly grizzly story.

“Drugs, panties, bras, boots, hats, cell phones — dude, cell phones!” he says. “People will throw their cell phone and the crazy thing is if I pick this cell phone up … I never know who to give it back to.”

The story keeps going:

“I’ve had beers thrown at me. I’ve had fist fights. I’ve jumped off the stage and got into physical fist fights in the early days at our career. If you’re gonna throw something at me, make it a Xanax bar.”

Followers of the Taste of Country Nights, On Demand podcast can expect to hear this full conversation soon.