An emotional, autobiographical ode to Jelly Roll's redemptive journey from jail to finding his faith, ‘Hands Up’ arrived in the midst of his high-profile divorce from Bunnie XO. However, don't expect to find any salacious details or barbs here, ‘Hands Up’ is a powerful and deeply joyful tribute to how far Jelly has come in his journey.

The track is expected to feature on the ‘Son of a Sinner’ singer-songwriter's eagerly anticipated new album, with the spiritual nature of the track potentially another hint that Jelly will be venturing further into the Contemporary Christian Music world.

Opening with a noodling acoustic guitar and a modulated chant of ‘hands up!’, Jelly's distinctive, gravelly vocals then enter the fray, accentuating the atmospheric feel of the track. The introduction of the driving drum pattern starts to build the energy, before Jelly launches into the infectious, anthemic hook. As it progresses, it quickly explodes into a soaring chorus - one of Jelly's strongest in recent memory.

Over the course of ‘Hands Up’, Jelly narrates the pivotal events of his life, starting with the time he went to see Rage Against The Machine at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium in December 1999. He cites this as the first time he “went to church”, due to how visceral he found the experience, with young Jelly throwing his ‘hands up’.

Then, we get two further meanings of ‘hands up’, with the second verse finding Jelly recounting how he was arrested as a young man after breaking into someone's home to try and recover a bag of marijuana. The tumultuous night concludes with Jelly being pressed against the fence by the police and told to put his ‘hands up’.

For the bridge, Jelly details the most important moment in his story, where he discovered Jesus. He croons, “Our last stop’s that little cross I came across some years ago / Comin’ down and hidin’ out back there in that ol’ sinner’s row / The devil on my shoulder finally found him somewhere else to go / I never did believe in ghosts ‘til the holy one told me to throw my hands up / Oh Lord, I threw my hands up”.

In this instance - the most jubilant of all the vignettes in this song - Jelly is throwing his hands up in praise to God and Jesus, completing the narrator's moving redemption arc.

“Let me take you back in time, just climb in my DeLorean
Nashville ’99, we stood in line and started pourin’ in
That concert in the dark off Rosa Parks, that auditorium
Was church for me, yeah I believe
The first time I was born again
Was Killing In The Name, Bulls On Parade
GA packed in the pit
Me and all those people people called nothing but troubled kids
If there was ever a fire in me, yeah that’s the night I got it lit
I knew who I was born to be when he said

-

Everybody get your hands up
Everybody put your hands up
If you ain’t perfect but you try
Put ‘em way up to the sky
Touchin’ heaven kinda high
Ain’t that where we wanna go when we die
Whoa, whoa, whoa
Just put your hands up
Everybody put your hands up

-

Let’s take it down there, south of town
I’m 22, up to no good
Dressed in black, I broke the glass to take back the bag of grass they took
That story end’s against the fence right in that dead end neighborhood
Cop’s told me what I told them, when he said boy

-

You better put your hands up
Everybody put your hands up
If you ain’t perfect but you try
Put ‘em way up to the sky
Touchin’ heaven kinda high
Ain’t that where we wanna go when we die
Whoa, whoa, whoa
Just put your hands up
Everybody put your hands up

-

Our last stop’s that little cross I came across some years ago
Comin’ down and hidin’ out back there in that ol’ sinner’s row
The devil on my shoulder finally found him somewhere else to go
I never did believe in ghosts ‘til the holy one told me to throw my hands up
Oh Lord, I threw my hands up

-

Put your hands up
Everybody put your hands up
If you ain’t perfect but you try
Put ‘em way up to the sky
Touchin’ heaven kinda high
Ain’t that where we wanna go when we die
Whoa, whoa, whoa
Just put your hands up
Everybody put your hands up”

Jelly Roll

Artist