Jelly Roll, a popular rapper, singer, and songwriter who rose to mainstream prominence in 2022 following the release of two singles, “Son of a Sinner” and “Need a Favor”, has released a new single called “Lonely Road” featuring MGK. The road he’s referring to can be found right here in Montgomery County, MD.
Ok, that might be stretch, since the road is metaphorical, but the song samples John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, which was written by Bill Danoff and inspired by Clopper Road in Gaithersburg/Germantown.
Though some believe the name of the song was going to be “Take Me Home, Clopper Road,” that has been confirmed to be untrue. Bill Danoff was inspired to write “Take Me Home, Country Roads” as he drove on Clopper Road in Gaithersburg (then a country road) on his way to a family reunion with his then-girlfriend Taffy Nivert, who also helped with the song (the duo was known as Fat City and would later go on to become half of the Grammy Award-winning Starland Vocal Band).
He and John Denver sang the song together the next night and recorded it the following Monday. Though West Virginia has claimed the song, Danoff confirmed that Clopper Rd. was the inspiration (most prominently in an interview with NBC4 back in 2020).
Jelly Roll and MGK’s “Lonely Road”, which is a reimagining of Denver’s classic, tells the story of a man who is going through a difficult time, reminiscing on great memories while going down the road alone. In the chorus, Jelly Roll and MGK sing “Lonely road take me home / To the place where we went wrong / Where’d you go now?/ It’s been a ghost town / And I’m still here / All alone,”