Post Malone has cannonballed into Country music and couldn’t be receiving a warmer welcome from fans and fellow artists. One of those most excited to welcome him is Jelly Roll, who believes Country music is exactly where Posty belongs.

“He knows so much about Country music,” Jelly told Audacy’s Katie Neal of Post Malone. “This wasn’t like, ‘Oh, Country is hot right now, let me go over there,’ he’s been wanting to do this forever and has been talking about it in interviews forever.”

He continued, “His heart is here. I think they’re going to have a struggle to get him to do a record that’s not Country again.” Surely that’ll be fine by the majority of Country fans who have helped propel his first Country single, “I Had Some Help” featuring Morgan Wallen to the top of the charts in record time.

While Jelly recognizes Posty creates more of a fight for him on the charts — there is one title he is willing to relinquish to Post — one of the nicest guys in Country music. “He is the sweetest dude, ever, man,” Jelly said. “I thought I was one of the nicest guys in Country music and then I met Luke Bryan and I was like, I’m an a**.’ Now, I’ve met Post Malone and I’m like, ‘I’m just plain rude!’”

Clearly, Jelly is happy to shine the light on Post Malone and credits him for having the song of the summer with “I had Some Help,” but come fall — the 39-year-old says he’ll be ready for his own moment with new music.

“My sound has never fully favored the summer, so I think we’ll be coming out [with new music] around fall,” he revealed of a new project he says is 85-95% done. “It was cool [to write] because I’m in a different headspace than I’ve ever been so I was in a cool place to be able to write like that. I wrote most of my career from extreme, dark, hopelessness, which I still write from… I am now trying to write from the perspective of the people the music helps.”

He concluded, “I didn’t write any song on this album to try to be like, a hit. I wrote every song to be impactful.”

Hear more about the new music to come, his friendship with Post Malone and why he thinks Morgan Wallen is the Garth Brooks of our generation by checking out Jelly Roll’s entire conversation with Audacy’s Katie Neal above.

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Katie Neal