“THESE ARE NOT ACTORS. THIS IS NOT A MOVIE SET.” JELLY ROLL WROTE THAT ABOUT THE MEN STANDING BESIDE HIM INSIDE SAN QUENTIN. He filmed the video for “Hands Up” there — black and white, directed by Anthony Mandler, released July 15. It opens with him riding up to California’s oldest prison and walking through security while armed guards watch. Then he’s inside, trading fist bumps with men who lit up when they saw him, gathering them into a prayer circle, thanking God for being a God of second chances. In the cafeteria he took the stage and hollered, “What’s up, San Quentin? Let’s goooo.” Jelly Roll has done his own time. He knows what a locked door does to a man’s sense of his own future. And this is the part that lands: the men he prayed over walked up and became his band. They played the song with him. They weren’t the audience — they were the music. Sixty-some years ago in that same prison, a 20-year-old named Merle Haggard sat in the crowd watching Johnny Cash and thought, maybe. When Cash left, Haggard said, there were guys all over that yard with guitars. This time, nobody had to just watch.
Jelly Roll’s San Quentin Video Turns a Prison Performance Into a Story About Second Chances “These are not actors. This…