A Fruitful Relationship: Why Jelly Roll’s Fans Are Called ‘Bad Apples’
Written by djfrosty on June 1, 2023
Taylor Swift has her Swifties and Jelly Roll has his Bad Apples.
Jelly’s life story is told by the tattoos that cover his body, including a crudely drawn apple core on the rapper-turned-country artist’s left cheek.
Given his prison past, it’s easy to imagine it could be a symbol for “rotten to the core,” or, considering his religious upbringing, a reference to the concept of Original Sin and Eve and then Adam biting the apple in the Garden of Eden. But the truth is much less complicated: The ink is an homage to some of his hardcore fans, an unofficial group who refer to themselves as “the bad apples.”
Jelly’s fans took the name from his 2014 song, “Bad Apple,” a catchy, light-hearted tune about a frolicking night out with lyrics including, “Some people call me a bad apple/Yeah, I may be bruised but I still taste sweet/Some people call me a bad apple/But I may be the sweetest apple on the tree.” His fans’ usage of the term happened organically, but Jelly wanted to acknowledge their allegiance to each other with the tattoo.
Jelly Roll, who is on the cover of Billboard’s Country Power Players issue, releases his new album, Whitsitt Chapel, tomorrow (June 2). The album includes his Country Airplay No. 1, “Son of a Sinner” and rising single, “Need A Favor.”
In 2017, the Bad Apples started a private fan page on Facebook devoted to Jelly Roll that now has more than 55,000 members and with members sharing stories about Jelly and his music.
More recently, Jelly also named his new cannabis line Bad Apple; he launched the product during a late May visit to the marijuana dispensary Greenhouse of Walled Lake in Michigan. “Frankly, Michigan’s got some of the best weed in the United States. There’s no other way to say it. And trust me, I’ve smoked everywhere,” he told the Detroit Free Press. “The Michigan weed is grown with love, it’s tender, it’s all greenhouse weed. You never have to worry about getting no mountain weed on this side of the country.”