The unofficial social media ambassador of country music, Jelly Roll, has had enough of the negative and often toxic commentary on Elon Musk’s platform.
Jelly’s departure from Twitter comes on the heels of heavy criticism over his performance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction where he honored Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath fame with a cover of the timeless “Mama I’m Coming Home”. The feedback from what appears to be a sea of metal fans was immediate and vitriolic, as is most commentary on social platforms anymore, and rather than just let it roll, Jelly called it out and walked away.
If you’re a fan of both Ozzy and Jelly, then you’ll know this performance wasn’t gonna be an easy one to pull off. Ozzy is a an absolute beast of of a legend and admittedly Jelly seems to have choked up a bit with tears brimming his eyes, and struggled with pitch on a few notes. But what do you expect when you put a man on stage with one of his idols literally sitting on a throne over his right shoulder and expect him to sing an emotional rock ballad that marked the highest successful period of the idol’s career (not to mention being written by none other the epitome of rock, Lemmy Kilmister)
At the end of the day the internet is full of trolls who would rather spew hate than ever be supportive or recognize nuance in a performance. I should know… just look at the comments we get on socials. We all have the freedom to say whatever we want on these platforms which is what makes them wonderful, but none of us are immune to the negativity, or to being called out FOR negativity, and that’s the conversation I think we should be having. Jelly Roll has every right to point out hateful behavior in the zero-consequences world of social media and I, for one, will not condemn him for it.