Machine Gun Kelly & Jelly Roll Join Forces for John Denver-Inspired ‘Lonely Road’: Stream It Now
It’s been an enduring journey to Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll’s first collaboration. After fine-tuning “Lonely Road” for two years, the anticipated track is finally here.
“Lonely Road” hit streaming services on Friday (July 26), which features an homage to John Denver’s 1971 tune “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
Referring to themselves as KellyRoll, MGK revealed they worked on “Lonely Road” for “2 years, 8 different studios, 4 different countries, [and] changed the key 4 times.”
The genre-blending duo also teased a visual to the collaboration, which sees Jelly and MGK draped in black suits attending a funeral. Another part led to Kelly getting arrested and Jelly Roll laying a kiss on his wife, Bunnie XO.
Fans suspected a collab effort was in the works when they hit the stage together at CMA Fest’s Spotify House in June. They united for duets of Jelly Roll’s “Need a Favor” and Kelly’s hit “My Ex’s Best Friend.”
The “Bloody Valentine” artist has been busy in recent months with the release of his Hotel Diablo deluxe and a handful of singles including the alternative “Sun to Me.”
As for Jelly Roll, he’s coming off a bucket list collaboration when he teamed up with Eminem for “Somebody Save Me” to close out Em’s The Death of Slim Shady album.
He called Eminem a “childhood hero” when reflecting on having the chance to work with one of his idols.
“I always say my childhood hero’s lived somewhere between Willie Nelson and Eminem,” he began. “As a teenager (and still today) I could recite every song on the Slim Shady album, the Marshal Mathers album and the Eminem show. 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.”
Stream “Lonely Road” below.
Michael Saponara
Billboard
