Jelly Roll Leads a Jam Session at a Virginia Jail: ‘I Heard Y’all Needed a Favor’ [Watch]

Jelly Roll was in Virginia this weekend for a sold-out stop on his 2023 Backroad Baptism Tour -- and while he was there, he fulfilled an emotional TikTok request.

Ahead of his show in Virginia Beach, the singer stopped by Chesterfield County Jail, which is home to the Helping Addicts Recover Progressively (HARP) program, a jail-based, peer-to-peer recovery model which requires participants to voluntarily commit to at least a six-month inpatient stay. The program has a robust TikTok presence, thanks to its one-of-a-kind model and its viral "Tapping Tuesdays" videos that show how participants use a therapy tool called trauma tapping to aid their recovery.

Early this month, a group of HARP program participants assembled and filmed a video requesting that Jelly make a stop at the facility while he was in town for his tour date.

"We need you to stop at Chesterfield County Jail. We here in the HARP program -- this is the HARP community right here, these are my HARP brothers -- we all support you. We love you. We're big fans," one of the participants said. "We need you to come through and give us a hope shot. Speak life, love, strength and hope. Jelly Roll, we need a favor."

Two more participants then launched into a performance of Jelly's hit single "Need a Favor," accompanied by acoustic guitar. The video quickly went viral -- and not only did Jelly agree to make the stop, but when he arrived, he said that he was as big a fan of the HARP program members as they were of him.

"I heard y'all needed a favor," Jelly told the group when he arrived at the jail facility, as a chorus of HARP participants chanted his name. "I just wanna say I'm a fan. I was watching on TikTok before y'all started calling for me."

The singer then led his audience in a group sing-a-long of "Need a Favor," "Son of a Sinner" and "Save Me," stopping in between songs to express his admiration for the inspiring work the HARP program members do.

"I don't think y'all even realize the impact that y'all are having," he reflected, thinking back on his own experience with incarceration and addiction. "Whenever I was in here, we didn't have a program like this. We didn't have people like us come talk to us."

Since the earliest days of his country music stardom, Jelly has always made it a priority to support those experiencing incarceration and addiction. In late 2022, he parlayed the proceeds from a sold-out Nashville show to finance the construction of a recording studio at Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center -- the same facility where he was incarcerated as a teen.