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Fans Concerned After Wynonna Judd’s CMA Performance

Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group

Wynonna Judd’s performance opener with Jelly Roll at the CMA Awards is getting a lot of attention. Just after the performance, Wy came backstage to talk to the presss. And she was so excited about being back at the CMA Awards and shared her love for Jelly Roll.

But on social media, buzz started quickly as fans commented on the performance, in which some said Judd seemed “off.”

The CMA Posted to Instagram, “@JellyRoll615 took us to CHURCH kicking off the 57th Annual #CMAawards, joined by @WynonnaJudd and an amazing choir! Watch NOW as Country Music’s Biggest Night is just getting started!”

Fans started in on the performance right away with one writing, “She looked and sounded drugged.” Another fan said, “Definitely wasn’t herself, Vertigo or what, she should not have been singing with him. Lainey, is his sidekick. Hope she gets well!”

Others thought Lainey Wilson would have been a better collaborator, with another fan commenting, “Why didn’t they have Lainey. I am sorry but this was a terrible pairing..Wynonna did not look at him and she seemed off.”

Some speculated that she was dealing with vertigo. “I’m wonderIng if Wynonna had vertigo which is horrific and was holding on trying to steady the attack .. I saw a video of her at another time stop a performance and get a stool to sit on .. as a sufferer if she was having that hope she will be ok it’s horrid.”

One more fan defned Wy saying,”AS A VERTIGO SUFFERER MYSELF!! SHAME ON YOU for assuming anything until you live with this illness; you have no idea!! I absolutely loved their performance and applauded her for getting through the whole song!! Amazing Job!!” Another fan said, “She suffers from bouts of vertigo. Could be that. It’s horrible, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

Jelly Roll: Five Of His Friends In Country Music

Jelly Roll is having his big moment in country music, and he is a multiple award nominee at next month’s CMA Awards in Nashville, including a nod for the album (Whitsett Chapel) and Male Vocalist.

Last week, Jelly debuted on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. In a video clip posted to his Instagram, his team highlighted the appearance with backstage footage where Jelly says at one point in the clip, “I hadn’t left much past Ohio three years ago. National TV, dude. Two shows in one day, baby, one on national television.”

At another moment in the clip, Jimmy Fallon comes into Jelly’s dressing room to say hi. The talk show host tells Jelly, “You’re crushing it, bud, you’re crushing it. Congratulations, and keep going.” After Fallon leaves, one of Jelly’s bandmates says that was pretty cool, and Jelly replies, “That wasn’t pretty cool, that was (expletive) awesome.” Jelly adds, “It was like Waylon Jennings on the Johnny Carson show.” He says, “We’re in the middle of Rockefeller Plaza; we’re in the big leagues. Johnny Carson was here.”

After he performed on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Jelly and his band boarded a private plane from New Jersey to West Virginia and, with a police escort, went straight on stage at a sold-out show. After the show, they made it in time to watch their performance on late-night TV.

See that post here. Note: there are many expletives in the Instagram video clip.

When he performed for the first time in June at Nashville’s CMA Fest, he revealed that during his first performance at Nissan Stadium in June, which was televised as a TV special on ABC, he was “trembling.”

Jelly posted a video clip of the performance on his Instagram. He wrote in a lengthy caption, “If you listen closely, you can hear my voice shaking the first half of the song— I was trembling; I was so nervous. 65,000 people in my hometown stadium- the same stadium my father took me to every Sunday for Titans games. The same stadium I’ve been taking my daughter to since she was a baby.”

He continued, “Thank you, CMA fest, for letting me be a part of your 50th anniversary – I have literally been going to ‘Fan Fair’ since I was a child. This night was unbelievable… to hear 65k people [sing] ‘and God, I need a Favor’ in unison like one voice. Speaking of ‘NEED A FAVOR,’ I can officially say it is the #1 song on Country Radio right now. There is no greater achievement in this town than being #1 in country radio. The fact this is my 2nd number one at Country Radio this year makes it almost unbelievable to me, to be honest – and this same song also held 3 weeks at number 1 on Rock radio.”

Jelly concluded, “Just when I thought things couldn’t get any wilder, y’all continue to amaze me. Thank y’all – this has been an unreal year.”

RELATED: Luke Bryan On Why Jelly Roll Is So Special

We gathered five of Jelly’s friends in country music and share his connection to each of them.

  • Lainey Wilson

    Lainey and Jelly have been friends for a while now and are currently nominated for a CMA together for Musical Event of the Year for their collaboration of “Save Me.” They are on the same record label and are both having massive success. Wilson said in an interview earlier this year that she was an extra in his music video in 2013. She said it was the one Jelly did with Uncle Kracker, admitting she played “a drunk girl, passed out on the ground.” While that was her first interaction with him, they have since become good friends, and he considers her to be a sister.

  • Ashley McBryde

    Ashley recently opened shows for Jelly Roll. When I interviewed her recently, she told me about the man. Ashley shared about her friend, “He’s so loving and so inviting. I love being on the road with him. The culture he has created with his band, crew, and everything about that is really welcoming.” She added, “He told me my first day, ‘You’ll never feel more at home on any tour than you will on this tour.’ And I thought at first, ‘Aw, I don’t know, I’ve toured with some really amazing tours.’ He told me, ‘You’ll never feel more at home with any fanbase than you are with mine,’ and he’s right. His fan base is so diverse, and at first, when you look at a snapshot of it, you go, ‘These people don’t all belong under the same canopy right now,’ but they do. And that feeling while you’re watching a show is amazing.”

  • Cody Johnson

    Cody Johns in s red shirt and hat and Jelly Roll in a ball cap and denim jacket
    Jason Kempin x2/Getty Images

    Cody told us of Jelly in June, “Jelly’s one of my favorite people to hang out with. You may not look at me and know this, but I have a pretty jaded past as well.” He added, “I’ve always said there was a time in my life when I had to make a decision, and that decision was to chase this dream professionally with a good mindset. There are a few mistakes I’ve made in my life and decisions in my life where I could have wound up here, or I very well could have wound up in jail.” He concluded, “It’s almost like a blessing and a curse because we put so much on ourselves. And I relate to him, and he relates to me, and we’re so opposite; you’ve got the cowboy hat and the face tattoos… I think it’s a very opposite attraction kind of thing. The respect is mutual and real recognizes real.”

  • Miranda Lambert

    Miranda revealed that she and Jelly Roll were writing songs together in January. Lambert posted a couple of photos to her Instagram, one with her, Jelly Roll, and a songwriter named Telenitry. She wrote, “Made a new friend this week! Jesse was right when he said we go together like biscuits and gravy! Loved writing a tune with @jellyroll615 and @telemitry.”

  • Riley Green

    Green recently announced he is releasing a new album, Ain’t My Last Rodeo, on October 13 on BMLG Records. The 12-track project is named after a song on the album, “My Last Rodeo,” which the singer wrote solo following one of the final conversations he had with his late Grandaddy Buford while in the hospital. Riley has a song with Jelly Roll called “Copenhagen In A Cadillac” that he co-wrote on the project and a cover of Tim McGraw’s “Damn Country Music.” Green has sung on stage with Jelly many times and considers the Nashville area native a good friend.

    @rileyduckman

    Congrats @Jelly Roll #weouthere #countrymusic #nashville #anothersundaymornin #jellyroll #jellyrollconcert 🎥 @Austin Screws

    ♬ original sound - Riley Green

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.

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Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group
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