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Jelly Roll shared a heartfelt tribute to his wife, Bunnie Xo, as he celebrated his 2024 CMT Music Awards victories on Monday morning (April 8).
On Sunday night (April 7), Whitsitt Chapel hitmaker won CMT Performance of the Year (“Need A Favor” from the 2023 CMT Music Awards), Male Video of the Year (“Need A Favor”), and the most coveted award of the night, Video of the Year (“Need A Favor”). Jelly Roll joined Gayle King on CBS Mornings hours after winning three awards, delivering powerful acceptance speeches and caping off the night with a fiery performance.
“It was funny that she believed in me before I fully believed in myself,” Jelly Roll, one of the most-nominated artists at the 2024 CMT Music Awards, told King of Bunnie Xo in his CBS Mornings interview. “She (saw) something that I couldn’t see. She made me believe in it. She made me start to see it, and once I could start to see it I just pedaled to the floor. She bet early on a long shot and cashed in.”
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo met in 2015, and they got married the following year in a spontaneous courthouse wedding in Las Vegas, Nevada. They recently returned to the bar where they went in 2016 when they’d first got together and “had nothing but a dream,” Bunnie Xo said when she posted a video on TikTok. They celebrated Jelly Roll’s 2024 iHeartRadio Music Award honors, winning Best New Artist award in both Pop and Country categories. Jelly Roll previously described Bunnie Xo as “my anchor in every area of my life.”
Other performers included host Kelsea Ballerini, Jason Aldean, Dasha, Bailey Zimmerman, Cody Johnson, Keith Urban, Lainey Wilson, Little Big Town with Sugarland, Megan Moroney, NEEDTOBREATHE with Jordan Davis, Old Dominion with Megan Moroney, Parker McCollum with Brittney Spencer, Sam Hunt, and Trisha Yearwood, who was revealed as the first-ever June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award. CMT also announced an all-star tribute to late country legend Toby Keith, who died earlier this year after a battle with stomach cancer. He was 62. The tribute included Brooks & Dunn, Sammy Hagar and Lainey Wilson, with special appearances by Roger Clemens, Lukas Nelson and Riley Green.
Jelly Roll was recently confirmed in the star-studded lineup of the 2024 iHeartCountry Festival, set for May 4 in Austin, Texas. The lineup also includes Old Dominion, Jason Aldean, Lady A, Riley Green, Ashley McBryde, Brothers Osborne, and Walker Hays. The show will be hosted by iHeartRadio's Bobby Bones. Fans across the country can tune in and stream the 2024 iHeartCountry Festival, as iHeartRadio Country music stations across the country will broadcast the event in their local markets, as well as on the free iHeartRadio app and iHeartRadio.com, on Saturday, May 4th at 8pm ET/5pm PT (7pm CT). Tickets are available to the general public now. For more information visit iHeartRadio.com/countryfestival.