Jelly Roll had to make a brief detour on his way to the 2024 CMT Music Awards. A mid-air emergency forced the “Need a Favor” singer and wife Bunnie Xo to land their private jet en route to Austin, Texas. All was eventually well, though. The couple made it to the ceremony, where Jelly Roll picked up three awards before performing “Halfway to Hell.” The singer downplayed the incident during a red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight.
[RELATED: Bunnie Xo Shows Gratitude to Fans After Jelly Roll Wins Big at the 2024 CMT Music Awards]
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‘All Good’ For Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo After Plane Scare
Bunnie Xo kept fans updated on the situation via social media. The podcaster posted a video of her husband explaining what happened.
“The plane just got turned around. They said it’s an issue with the computer,” Jelly Roll says during the video. “At least it wasn’t the brakes!”
Despite the “little baby scare,” the famous couple arrived in Austin unscathed. “No, we’re awesome, man,” the rapper turned breakout country star told Entertainment Tonight. “It’s all good.”
Jelly went on to sweep the CMT Awards, winning Performance of the Year, Male Video of the Year, and Video of the Year. He beat out friends Kelsea Ballerini and Cody Johnson in two of those categories. However, no one was rooting harder for those two than Jelly Roll.
“I was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if Kelsea could win one, Cody could win one, and I could win one?’” he told Entertainment Tonight. “They’re my friends, man. But, you know, yeah, I wanna win too.”
Jelly Cries With ‘American Idol’ Contestant
On Monday (April 8), the GRAMMY nominee took his inspirational speeches to American Idol. Jelly Roll showed up in Hawaii to mentor the second half of the Top 24 finalists. The “Save Me” artist took his job very seriously, calling on his social media following to “vote for the Jelly Dozen!”
One particular contestant pulled on the musician’s heartstrings. Mia Matthews, 19, dedicated her performance of Holly Dunn’s “Daddy’s Hands” to her late father. The Alabama teen told Jelly that her father was Hawaiian and grew up only 30 minutes from Disney’s Aulani Resort, where the episode was filmed. Sadly, Matthews’ father died before he could ever show her his hometown.
“”I lost my father in 2019. So brave of you to pick that song,” Jelly Roll said through tears. “It’s probably the single hardest experience I ever had.”
Featured image by Rick Kern/Getty Images for CMT
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