Ernest and Jelly Roll Tease New Collaboration, ‘I Went To College, He Went To Jail’, on Theo Von's Podcast

During Ernest and Jelly Roll's appearance on the latest episode of Theo Von's This Past Weekend podcast, the two hit songsmiths revealed they have a new collaboration up their sleeve.

The good friends and co-writers shared that their duet will be appearing on Ernest's highly anticipated new album, with Jelly Roll telling the story of how Ernest and Luke Bryan first came up with the idea for the track while out playing golf.

The new song, which appears to be called ‘I Went To College, He Went To Jail’, pivots around Ern and Jelly's heartwarming friendship, with the two artists first meeting almost fifteen years ago.

The track playfully outlines the differing paths that Ernest and Jelly Roll ended up taking, with Ernest having left for college while Jelly Roll spent a number of stints in jail.

When Theo Von mentioned how Ernest and Jelly Roll have a stellar track record of crafting hits, Jelly Roll responded, “We actually have a song on [Ernest's] new album that talks all about that”.

Ernest explained the unexpected origins of the song, “So me and Luke Bryan are playing golf out on Troubadour, we're listening to some rap, and we start talking about Jelly Roll. He was like, ‘Y’all have known each other for a while’, and I was like, ‘Yeah, we go back’”.

Ernest delved into how the new track came about following a nudge from Luke Bryan while out on the course. Ernest told Luke, “I used to go by [Jelly's] house and acquire some things, and we’d freestyle rap. And this was back in like 2010. Then I went to college, and he went to jail, and then we came back around all these years later. Then Luke was like, ‘Hold on, motherfucker, you better write that fucking song right now!’”

Jelly Roll joked about how Ernest and Luke Bryan proceeded to FaceTime him repeatedly during their round, singing new snippets as they continued to drunkenly build out the song.

Ernest gave Theo Von's listeners a taste of ‘I Went To College, He Went To Jail‘, crooning, “I went to college he went to jail / One was a dorm room, one was a cell / Who came out on top? / Hell, it’s hard to tell / I went to college; he went to jail”.

After hearing this uptempo, light-hearted preview, we're already keenly looking forward to when Ernest and Jelly Roll decide to make the full studio version of this collaboration available. Their chemistry always radiates through whenever the two Tennessee natives take the stage together, and excitingly, this would mark the first time the two have appeared on a song as lead vocalists and not simply as co-writers.

With Ernest confirming during his Grand Ole Opry performance last night (Wednesday, December 6th), that his new album is now finished, it hopefully won't be too long before we get to enjoy ‘I Went To College, He Went To Jail’ on streaming platforms.

For more on Ernest, see below: