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Jelly Roll‘s rise in country music may be puzzling to some, considering his exposure to hip-hop and rap music in his childhood Nashville neighborhood, but on the New York Times Popcast, he credits the storytelling nature of that music and the lyrics of his mother’s favorite songs for making him a well-rounded songwriter.

“Man, I just felt it in my spirit. It made me feel like when my mother would play, and this is such a dramatic reference point, but that’s my life, right, when she would play ‘Coward of the County’ or she would play Bette Midler’s ‘The Rose,’ and we would all be in there just bawling, crying. She’s just like, I tell people, I think I ended up writing ‘Save Me’ because I’ve been trying to write ‘The Rose’ my whole life.”