Jelly Roll made his Emmys debut on Sunday night (Sept. 15) to soundtrack the “in memoriam” segment with his poignant song “I Am Not Okay.”
When the country hitmaker took the stage at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater, he introduced his song — the Beautifully Broken single that has so far peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 — by saying: “I believe that music is therapeutic. I believe that music can heal. I also believe that storytelling is just as cathartic. I hope that this song can act as a healing moment for those mourning the storytellers that we have lost this year. If you are feeling lost or alone tonight, I want you to know that it’s OK to not always be OK.”
The Nashville star wore an all-black suit and stood center stage, with a string section behind him adding to the emotional weight of the song. A string of famous names and faces we lost this year scrolled on the big screen behind Jelly Roll, including Richard Simmons, Martin Mull, Shannen Doherty, Carl Weathers, Richard Lewis, Donald Sutherland and James Earl Jones, who died just last week at age 93.
The final name and face was Bob Newhart, who stayed on the screen as Jimmy Kimmel came onstage, dryly quipping: “And the award for deceased industry professional we will miss the most goes to…” Kimmel went on to pay tribute to the comic actor, whose 1960 project The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was the first comedy album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200.