Inside Jelly Roll’s 1st Acting Role: Who Inspired Him to Branch Out

Country superstar Jelly Roll is about to have a big month on the small screen. Set to make his debut as the first-ever artist-in-residence on “American Idol” in April 2025, the hitmaker is also about to make his acting debut on the CBS show “Fire Country,” according to Us Weekly.

On March 24, the outlet reported that the hitmaker will make his debut on the April 11 episode playing a hospital worker and former inmate named Noah. The magazine also published the first photos of him acting on-set — an experience he teased in 2024 was his next big goal, inspired by another music superstar, Post Malone.

Jelly Roll Will Play an Ex-Convict Who’s Turning His Life Around, Much Like Himself

“Fire Country,” now in its third season, stars Max Thieriot as Bode, a convict who “joins a firefighting program looking for redemption and a shortened prison sentence,” per IMDb. “He and other inmates work alongside elite firefighters to extinguish massive blazes across the region.”

Billboard first reported Jelly Roll’s upcoming role in late January, premiering a video of him and Thieriot, who co-created the series, but not much information about his character was divulged at the time.

“From the stage to the fire line, it’s time to see if I can keep up,” Jelly Roll said in the promotional video.

According to Us Weekly, Jelly Roll will play Noah, “a healthcare worker and former convict who’s in the process of turning his life around.” That likely won’t be a huge departure for Jelly Roll, who spent years in and out of prison in his teens and early 20s, he told CBS Sunday Morning, but leaned into his love of music to turn his own life around.

On the April 11 episode of “Fire Country,” he’ll play a man whose mom died while he was in prison so he never got to say goodbye, per Us Weekly, so he now “works with patients like his mom, and their loved ones who struggle with saying their own goodbyes.”

The outlet said CBS’ logline for the episode also “teases a ski resort accident after a chair lift malfunction” while Vince, played by Billy Burke, “struggles in his personal life with his ailing father.”

Jelly Roll Says Post Malone Inspired Him to Explore Acting

Jelly Roll expressed his interest in acting to Billboard in June 2024, saying, “I know it sounds weird and I’d probably be really bad at it, but wouldn’t it be cool?”

He told the outlet that fellow hitmaker Post Malone, whom he’s heading out on a world tour with on April 29, inspired him to explore potential roles, explaining, “I love Post Malone, I’m such a fan, and every time I see him do some acting, I’m like, ‘Yo! I want to try it!'”

The singer continued, “Him and Cowboy Cerrone were in that same movie (2020’s “Spenser Confidential”). I was like, ‘I could do that too, I think, maybe.’ Cowboy was like, ‘You’d kill it!’ Cowboy gassed me up, I was like, all in!”

He said he would be patient as he looked for the right opportunity, telling Billboard, “I’m okay with taking my time and walking through back doors, that’s for sure.”

The “Fire Country” episode won’t be Jelly Roll’s first time on a scripted show, though. He appeared as himself in a 2024 cameo on Paramount+’s “Tulsa King,” per USA Today, interacting with Sylvester Stallone’s character and performing his hit song “I Am Not Okay.”