Jelly Roll Surprises Fans With New Worship Anthem 'Hands Up'
Jelly Roll's journey to fitness was featured in a social media video on Tuesday to tease his upcoming track.
Published June 26 2026, 6:56 a.m. ET
Jelly Roll dropped a surprise track Wednesday with no advance warning.
"Surprise! New music here," the country star shared on his Instagram Stories early Wednesday, announcing the release of Hands Up, a worship-inspired song that debuted weeks earlier as a surprise performance at CMA Fest this month.
Jelly Roll Surprise Releases His New Anthem ‘Hands Up’
To tease the release, Jelly Roll posted a video Tuesday on social media that juxtaposed a clip from an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience with footage of his ongoing physical transformation.
In the interview clip, he reflected on the moment he stopped making excuses about his health. "Every time I said that I was gonna lose the weight, Joe, I said, I lied to myself," he said. "There's a big person listening to this right now, or a drug addict, or somebody who wants to change some part of their life that right now is going, 'I'm gonna start next Monday.'"
The video opened with the text, "On day 1, I walked in the rain," alongside footage of a soaked Jelly Roll pushing through the weather. The clip then features the singer running in the rain. “Today, I’m sprinting in the rain. Because one day, not that long ago, I stopped lying to myself,” reads the text, as the song’s chorus plays in the background.
It closed with the message, "I barely made it up my driveway that day. I'm alive today because I didn't lose faith. (expletive) Monday. Start today."
A Period of Transition
The new music arrives during a period of significant transition for the artist.
Jelly Roll, whose legal name is Jason DeFord, filed for divorce from Bunnie XO on May 18, 2026, in Williamson County, Tennessee, citing irreconcilable differences. The couple's separation date is listed as May 9.
Despite the split, both Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO have spoken publicly about maintaining their friendship and their plans to have a child together through IVF.
Bunnie addressed the divorce on her podcast Dumb Blonde, saying, "We're still having a baby together. We're going to co-parent together. He's my best friend. … J has been so f—in' great about us having a baby together. We're going to raise our little nugget as one big happy family."
Jelly Roll also addressed the split publicly, saying, "Me and my wife are best friends. We will always be best friends. We just got off the phone earlier today. Nobody cheated on nobody."
The release also comes on the heels of his strongest commercial stretch to date. Whitsitt Chapel, released in 2023, debuted at No. 2 on the Top Country Albums chart and No. 3 on the Billboard 200. He followed it with Beautifully Broken in 2024, which debuted at No. 1 on both the Top Country Albums chart and the Billboard 200.