On the Road With Jelly Roll

Nashville, TN (March 6, 2025)—Jelly Roll spent most of 2024 on the road, a journey that was highlighted by his fall Beautifully Broken arena tour; originally scheduled to end in late October, the trek was extended by 17 shows, wrapping up a month later than expected with a big hometown finale at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Despite the high pressure and an army of surprise guests, everything went smoothly, creating a memorable night out for fans and the country star alike.

Putting the production’s Sound Image-provided audio gear to the test throughout the trek were tour manager/FOH engineer Ron Gardner, monitor engineer J. Summers and crew chief/system designer and engineer/FOH tech Brendan Hines.

For the entire run, Summers opted for a Yamaha Rivage PM10 console to create mixes for the musicians’ Shure IEM systems. “Yamaha gives me the confidence to ensure my artists are happy on stage, which translates to a great performance for them and the audience,” he explained.

The in-ear monitors were a necessity as the headliner spent much of the evening deep in the audience on two stage thrusts and a B-stage. “The energy from the crowd and the intensity of Jelly Roll’s performance push us to find new ways to adapt,” said Summers. “Having an artist 60 feet in front of the P.A. isn’t easy—but that’s part of what makes every night special and, dare I say, a more ‘intimate’ evening in an arena.”

On the Move with Jason Mraz

Given the breakneck pace of Jelly Roll’s schedule, Sound Image provided three identical monitor rigs—each centered around another PM10—which hopscotched around the globe as needed. “We have done some serious cross-country travel and international flight hops to our A, B and C rigs,” said Summers. “In New York City, we had all three rigs running at once, set up at multiple gigs in various locations across town. We even had police escorts in between venues to get us there on time!”

Still, all that was just a warmup compared to the tour finale in Nashville, which saw Jelly Roll joined on stage by Keith Urban, Snoop Dogg, Alexandra Kay, Ernest, Struggle Jennings, Skylar Grey, Yelawolf and more. Summers and RF tech Bill Black prepared accordingly: “We always have two guest RF mics and two discrete mixes ready to go; for Bridgestone, we added more because we knew it was going to get wild.”

Using the Rivage PM10’s matrix system, Summers was able to take it all in stride: “Jelly’s got a main and spare IEM, then there are feeds into the band spares. Guest mixes are always their own discrete frequencies. Everything’s designed so we can adjust on the fly without blinking.”

Summers elaborated, “Keith Urban has his own dedicated inputs in our rig, as we’ve seen him along with his tech Chris Miller so much this year. Shinedown’s Zach Meyers needed an acoustic patched in during the show—no worries. This is why we always need to have a clean and clearly designed stage patch system with plenty of options open. We love options!”

With all that taken care of, the show came off without a hitch, just as planned. “On this show, there’s no deer-in-the-headlights moment; it’s a calm and cool, go-go-go gig,” said Summers. “Three extra IEM packs? Gotcha. Darbuka input? Done. More RF mics? Ready. It’s about being prepared for anything and trusting the team to execute at lightning speed.”