Zach Crowell and Jelly Roll have been friends long before either one of them became country powerhouses — Crowell as a Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter and Jelly Roll as one of the most compelling and successful artists to emerge in the genre over the last few years.

“In the real music business, Jelly might be the person I’ve known the longest,” Crowell, 44, tells Billboard. “I started out making rap music in the mid-2000s around Nashville. I’m born and raised in Nashville, and so is Jelly. Jelly was just a rapper who used to buy beats and studio time from me back in the day.”

By the time Jelly Roll shifted to country music, Crowell was already an established hitmaker, having written and/or produced songs for artists including Carrie Underwood, Sam Hunt, Luke Bryan and Keith Urba

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