🙌🎤 "'THE THREE WORDS JELLY ROLL SANG HAVE MEANT SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT AT EVERY STAGE OF HIS LIFE'" When Jelly Roll debuted "Hands Up" during the CMA Fest TV special, fans weren't just hearing a new song—they were hearing the story of his life. The powerful anthem reflects three very different chapters, giving new meaning to a phrase that's followed him through his darkest struggles and greatest triumphs.

If you watched the annual CMA Fest special Thursday on ABC, you got to witness Jelly Roll putting his “Hands Up” as he debuted his new radio single on national TV.

For the man born Jason Bradley DeFord, it’s an expression whose meaning has changed through the years.

“Man, this song is really just three snapshots of my life,” Jelly Roll reflects. “The first time I threw my hands up was at a concert as a kid, realizing music was bigger than anything I’d ever felt before. The second time was with a cop telling me to put ’em up because I was out there making some terrible decisions.”

“Then the third time was in a church,” he continues, “finally surrendering and giving God some things I couldn’t carry anymore. Same two words, hands up, but they meant something completely different in every season of my life.”

HARDY is one of Jelly Roll’s co-writers on “Hands Up.”

Jelly Roll’s most recent trip to #1 came back in March with Shaboozey and “Amen,” which spent two weeks at the top.