Thursday night Pine Knob Music Theatre was a wild one to say the least. The weather outlook for Thursday was rainy for most of the day and that carried over to the concert in Clarkston, Michigan. That all started right about the time Struggle Jennings took the stage a rainy walk to the photo pit it was. Struggle Jennings is an American rapper from Nashville, Tennessee. He is the grandson of instrumental rock guitarist Duane Eddy and country musician Jessi Colter, the step-grandson of Waylon Jennings, and the nephew of Shooter Jennings. My first time out seeing Jennings and I will say he put on a very cool energetic set to the delight from the already looking packed house, in fact it was a sellout with 15,000 plus in attendance. Once we were down in the pit area it really started to pour and after the first three as we made our way to the top to exit, we came upon a double rainbow pretty sweet indeed.
Following Struggle Jennings Yelawolf took the stage, and you can say all hell broke loose. The crowd was clearly high-strung and ready to party with Yelawolf. Yelawolf delivered some high-level energy and some pretty sick lyrics. At times Yelawolf was reminding me of a famous rapper for Michigan, oh wait that would be Eminem. Yelawolf made note to the crowd saying some of yaw may not know but I’m signed with Eminem (Shady Records) insert loud roar almost ear shattering. Yelawolf is definitely one act you need to checkout. During the set Yelawolf grabbed himself a cold Modelo beer and made a toast to the crowd little did us photogs know we were about to get christened with a Modelo beer, it was all worth it making for some killer photos.
The time was finally upon us with the rain stopping and the folks ready to bust the Tennesse native made his way to the stage greeted with a thunderous roar from the sold-out crowd. Jelly Roll made note to the pine knob crowd that this show was the fastest sellout of this tour in fact it was the day of. It’s no secret Michigan loves Jelly Roll and it’s no secret Jelly Roll shares the same love. Jelly Roll opened up with “The Lost” one of several “Whitsitt Chapel” songs sprinkled throughout the set followed by “Hate goes On” during which everyone threw a certain finger in the air, that was a cool scene. A pretty cool highlight came when Jelly Roll broke into Bob Seger “Old Time Rock and Roll” only to be drowned out by the rambunction crowd, which by the way pine knob address is 33 Bob Seger Drive how fitting. Jelly Roll sat down with a local radio channel making mention how much love he has for Bob Seger. Jelly Roll went onto to say Michigan will always be a must-go tour destination, with his eyes on Little Caesars Arena next year looking forward to that already.
Key highlights from the night which included many was the cover “Fall in the Fall” song by Jelly Roll and Struggle Jennings pushing the crowd into a frenzy then getting hit with a left hook with Lynyrd Skynyrd cover “Simple Man” our we are standing or sitting right now good lord that a banger!
I can’t leave out one other fantastic highlight a Brantley Gilbert cover “Son of the Dirty South “ The “Backyard Baptism Tour” is a must see and so is seeing the hardest working man in the business right now Jelly Roll. If you want to see what hard works looks like click here and get you some of those tickets fast as the tour is red hot with sellouts happening in cities near you. Below is my gallery.
Jelly Roll Rocks Pine Knob Music Theatre
