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Fire Country’s Max Thieriot Reveals How Bathroom Encounter Led to Jelly Roll’s Appearance on Show
Fire Country star and creator Max Thieriot revealed how an encounter with Jelly Roll in the bathroom at the 2024 CMT Music Awards led to the singer’s acting debut on the CBS hit.
“He was finishing drying his hands with a towel in the bathroom at the CMTs. I ran into him in the bathroom straight up at the CMT Music Awards,” Max, 36, told Us Weekly in an interview published on Friday, April 4.
Max came to find out the “Need a Favor” singer, 40, was a huge fan who hoped to appear on Fire Country.
“I said, ‘Thank you for letting us have some of your songs on the show.’ And he’s like, ‘Dude, how do I get on the show? I’ve been petitioning online and talking to my people, and you got to get me on that show,’” the Northern California native recalled. “He said Fire Country is what he really represents. … He called me the next day and it showed how sincere he was.”
“We worked on coming up with a character [for him] that we all thought would be interesting, unique and special and still. It tells some of the story about second chances and what he really represents,” Max explained. “But [it] also feels different from who he is and how people see him day to day as a country singer.”
Jelly Roll — real name Jason DeFord — plays a healthcare worker and former convict named Noah in an episode titled “Fire and Ice” airing on April 11. He shares scenes with Max’s Bode Leone as well as Billy Burke‘s Vince Leone and Jeff Fahey‘s Walter Leone, who are Bode’s father and grandfather.
The episode’s synopsis says Bode’s dad “Vince struggles to connect with his father,” and Jelly Roll’s Noah plays a central figure in that plotline. In a teaser clip from the episode, the CMA winner was seen having a moving conversation with Billy’s character.
“Memories are complicated, but your boy got a second chance,” Noah tells Vince as his new song “Dreams Don’t Die” plays over the promo. The song will debut during the “Fire and Ice” episode of Fire Country, where the singer is credited as Jason “Jelly Roll” DeFord to mark his debut as an actor.
The “Save Me” singer previously appeared as himself on TV shows such as Tulsa King, but Fire Country marks the first time he’ll step into the shoes of a character.
According to the character description, Jelly Roll’s Noah lost his mom while he was serving time in prison and “now, he works with patients like his mom, and their loved ones who struggle with saying their own goodbyes.” The “Need a Favor” singer is a former convict who served time for aggravated robbery and drug possession in his younger days and has been passionate about helping other people turn their lives around.
Fire Country is the perfect vehicle for Jelly Roll’s message about redemption. The show centers around Bode, who was introduced on the series as a convict who worked out of a fire camp for prisoners outside of his hometown of Edgewater when it premiered on CBS on October 7, 2022.
Due to his heroics, Bode was granted parole and early release from prison in the season 2 finale, and he continues to work as a firefighter with a CalFire crew.
The series is Max’s brainchild after drawing on his own life experiences growing up amid wildfires in Northern California. He wanted to feature the inmate firefighter program after seeing actual conservation camp crews in action during his formative years.
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