From a performance last week on the CMT Music Awards to fronting Lynyrd Skynyrd on their own “Tuesday’s Gone,” Jelly Roll has been making it a habit of stealing the show. That’ll probably be the case when the imposing, face-tattooed country singer-rapper puts his spin on a George Jones song at Still Playin’ Possum: Music and Memories of George Jones, a tribute concert set for April 25 in Huntsville, Alabama.
Jelly Roll anchors the latest round of performers added to the show and will join Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, Wynonna, Travis Tritt, Jamey Johnson, Trace Adkins, Riley Green, and more on the bill. Tanya Tucker — who was just announced as a 2023 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame — is also on the lineup, along with the Oak Ridge Boys, Sara Evans, Justin Moore, Lorrie Morgan, Michael Ray, Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr, Dillon Carmichael, and Gretchen Wilson, among others. Randy Travis is slated to make an appearance at the Von Braun Center Propst Arena too.
Jones, considered by many to be the greatest country vocalist to have ever lived, died April 26, 2013, at 81. He’s known for canon entries like “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” “White Lightning,” and “The Grand Tour,” as well as enduring novelties like “The King Is Gone (And So Are You)” and “The Corvette Song.” (Seriously, if you haven’t, watch Jones run through his array of vocal tics and drawls when singing the latter live onstage.)
Nancy Jones, the widow of Jones, is helping curate the lineup for Still Playin’ Possum, which is being filmed for broadcast. “I think the team of producers has put together some incredible moments that will surprise everyone. People will be laughing, crying, and singing along to so many of the songs performed that night,” she said in a statement. “It will be an emotional night not just for me, but also for these artists as so many were very close to George.”
Jelly Roll will release his new album Whitsitt Chapel on June 2. Last year, the Nashville-area native, born Jason DeFord, scored his first No. 1 country song with “Son of a Sinner.”