Jelly Roll, Nate Smith Showcase Timeless Talent During ‘Billboard Live in Concert’: 5 Top Moments

Singer-songwriter Nate Smith is known for his chart-topping hit “Whiskey on You,” but judging by the audience’s reaction to his new ballad, “Wreckage,” he could have another hit on his hands. The song is a powerful vessel for Smith’s soulful, muscular voice, with a message of gratitude for a lover who sees past his faults and accepts him as he is (“When everyone saw baggage, you loved when no one could”).

By the time he hit the first chorus of “Wreckage” during his opening set, the crowd was already cheering and hanging onto every note — and as the song reached its zenith, Smith paused, growing emotional and soaking up the moment. He responded by removing his hat and throwing it into the crowd.

“That’s intense!” Smith said. “I love you guys and I love this city so much.”

Jelly Roll — clad in a jacket emblazoned with the title of his newly-released album, Whitsitt Chapel and a white hat with the word “Trash” written on it — offered a sleek mix of tunes during his headlining set.

“This feels like the old days — maybe we should get this motherf–ker rowdy tonight,” he said, revving up the crowd. He performed both earlier rap songs (one of which ultimately saw a packed crowd of fans rapping along, and following Jelly Roll’s lead, holding their middle fingers in the air and chanting “We don’t give a f–k”), along with songs from Whitsitt Chapel. But he also offered up renditions of his hits, “Dead Man Walking” and “Son of a Sinner.”

Jelly Roll surprised the audience by welcoming recent American Idol contestant (and Mt. Juliet, Tennessee native) Oliver Steele to the stage.

“As a breakthrough artist of the year, it’s only right that I bring a breakthrough artist with me,” Jelly Roll told the crowd. “I had the opportunity to do the season finale of American Idol earlier this year. And they said ‘You can sing with anyone you want to sing with that’s in the top 5 on the show.’ I said, ‘Well my guy was in the top 8, but he’s from Nashville, Tennessee, and that’s the guy I want to sing with.”

Steele performed a rendition of Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One.”

Jelly Roll launched his set with with the opening track to Whitsitt Chapel, “Halfway to Hell.” Later in his set, he offered “The Lost,” a track that espouses a kind of vagabond approach to life, one of living and finding meaning on one’s own terms. “I’ve been known to find my kind of people/ That ain’t at home underneath church steeples,” the song’s verses maintain.

Jelly Roll co-wrote “The Lost” with Jesse Frasure and Miranda Lambert — whom Jelly Roll called the “baddest motherf–ker I ever met.”

At one point, Jelly Roll paused to give thanks for the way music has shifted his life for the better.

“It’s amazing how powerful music is, ain’t it?” he asked the crowd. “I’m getting choked up thinking about how much music has changed my life. Long before I wrote a song, the healing power of music changed my life. When nobody was there for me, music always was. It never let me down. I wanted to write songs to make people feel the way music made me feel.”