Jelly Roll takes ‘Hands Up’ inside San Quentin
The singer filmed his new “Hands Up” video at San Quentin, calling the prison shoot one of the most special moments of his career.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
Jelly Roll has taken his new video behind the walls of San Quentin, filming “Hands Up” inside the Northern California prison now known as San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.
The singer announced the official video on social media, writing that it came “from inside the walls of San Quentin” and calling the project “My Story.” The clip also arrived on YouTube under the title “Jelly Roll - Hands Up (Official Music Video).”
For Jelly Roll, the setting was more than a backdrop. The singer has spoken publicly about his own time in jail, and in his post he connected the song’s title to a personal turning point.
“The moment my life truly changed is when I threw my hands up,” Jelly Roll wrote on Instagram. He said he believed listeners may think back to their own “hands up” moment, which made the release more meaningful to him.
He added that he remembered being “in the same kind of place” as the incarcerated men involved in the video, and said getting to make the project with them was hard to put into words.
Jelly Roll also made clear that the people seen in the video were not hired performers. “These are not actors. This is not a movie set,” he said in connection with the release.
A San Quentin music lineage
The San Quentin shoot places Jelly Roll in a long line of major acts who have brought music into the facility. Rolling Stone noted that Johnny Cash performed for inmates there about six decades ago, a moment that became a key part of Cash’s prison-concert legacy.
Other artists named by Rolling Stone as part of San Quentin’s music history include Frank Sinatra and Metallica. The prison sits outside San Francisco and is now formally called the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.
In his Instagram post, Jelly Roll thanked the incarcerated men at the facility, the prison staff and the crew behind the video. He singled out everyone from the director to assistants, saying the experience was one of the most special opportunities he has had.
He also floated a big personal verdict on the finished product, writing that it “may be the best video” of his career, while joking that recent enthusiasm might be coloring his view.
The “Hands Up” video was released shortly after Rolling Stone reported that Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo had finalized their divorce after 10 years of marriage.
Jelly Roll did not frame the San Quentin video as a film set or a symbolic prison recreation. In his telling, the power of the project came from making it inside the facility with the men living there, tied to a song about surrender, change and the moment a life begins to turn.
This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.