Fire Country fans have the CMT Music Awards to thank for Jelly Roll‘s highly-anticipated acting debut on the CBS series.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Max Thieriot revealed he “reached out first” at the awards show, adding, “He was finishing drying his hands with a towel in the bathroom at the CMTs [in April 2024]. I ran into him in the bathroom straight up at the CMT Music Awards.”
That’s where Thieriot, 36, and Jelly Roll, 40, realized they were big fans of each other’s work.
“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,'” Thieriot recalled. “He said Fire Country is what he really represents. … He called me the next day and it showed how sincere he was.”
Us exclusively shared a first look in March at Jelly Roll’s character Noah, who is a healthcare worker and former convict who’s in the process of turning his life around. The official synopsis for the April 11 episode teases a ski resort accident after a chair lift malfunction while Billy Burke‘s Vince struggles in his personal life with his ailing father.
Jelly Roll’s Noah, meanwhile, lost his mother while in prison and wasn’t able to say goodbye in person, according to the character description, which adds, “Now, he works with patients like his mom, and their loved ones who struggle with saying their own goodbyes.”
The stills from the highly-anticipated episode showed Jelly Roll with Thieriot, Burke and Walter (Jeff Fahey). The role is the musician’s first scripted project after he previously made a cameo as himself on Paramount+’s Tulsa King.
“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,” Thieriot noted to Us. “But [it] also feels different from who he is and how people see him day to day as a country singer.”
Fire Country, which premiered in 2022, follows Bode (Thieriot) as he gets a chance to shorten his prison sentence by volunteering for the California Conservation Camp Program. Three seasons in and Fire Country has found unique ways to incorporate familiar faces. During the first season, Kane Brown made an appearance as a train hopper named Robin. After a train collided with a party bus, Robin helped the Three Rock crew evacuate the victims and handed Bode a bag full of cash before the police arrived.
“I don’t know [if we will have more country singers]. I have to wait for the next awards show and I’m just going to set up a chair in the bathroom to start greeting them as they come in,” Thieriot joked. “But there’s a few that we’ve been talking with for a while now. Honestly, it would be fun to maybe see both [Kane and Jelly Roll] bring their characters back in some form.”
For now, viewers will see another guest star during the Friday, April 4, episode when Sharon’s (Diane Farr) step-sister Mickey (Morena Baccarin) returns ahead of Sheriff Country‘s premiere this fall.
“We get to see a lot more of her world and what her job is going to look like. There’s more texture of the underbelly of Edgewater and what it’s like to be a sheriff in this town. Obviously we get to meet her dad, which is pretty exciting,” the actor teased. “He’s such a character. He kind of gives you all the feels when you meet him. You’re not sure what to think. But you get to see a little bit of his charm, which is a side that Mickey also has. But he is also very different from Mickey in many, many ways.”
