‘Amen’ by Shaboozey & Jelly Roll - Lyrics & Meaning

First performed at Coachella 2025 in mid-April, Shaboozey then announced that this spiritually-minded anthem would be a collaboration with his longstanding friend, Jelly Roll. It's a sweet full-circle moment, after Jelly brought Shaboozey out on the road with him in 2024 on the latter's first run of major arena dates.

‘Amen’ arrived on Friday, April 25th as part of Shaboozey's Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going: The Complete Edition deluxe album, which saw the addition of six new tracks, including duets with Sierra Ferrell (‘Hail Mary’) and Myles Smith (‘Blink Twice’).

Opening with a playful, twangy guitar riff, the ‘Amen’ instrumental builds out over the course of the first verse. Initially, we just get Shaboozey's charismatic vocals coupled with the guitar, before a galvanising drum patterns enters the fray for the infectious hook.

Jelly Roll's commanding rasp injects an extra sense of gravitas into the track, before Jelly joins Shaboozey for a rousing rendition of the hook. The folk-infused, battle-cry feel of ‘Amen’ follows in a similarly energising vein to ‘Blink Twice’ with Myles Smith.

“On a lost and lonely highway
Praying for my sins
If Heaven saw me out last Friday
Then I ain't getting in
I'm getting used to getting sideways
Till I can't see straight

The angels know they don't look my way

I'm way too gone to save”

Shaboozey kicks things off by despondently reflecting on his mistakes and wrong-turns, as the ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’ hitmaker frets that he might have ruined his chances of salvaging a relationship with God. The protagonist candidly fears that, if God witnessed his alcohol-fuelled antics ‘last Friday’, He won't let him in Heaven.

“I'm digging my grave
Down twelve feet deep
Got nothing left so I'm on my knees”

As he approaches rock bottom, which finds Shaboozey metaphorically “digging my grave / Down twelve feet deep”, he decides that he has no choice but to hit his knees and pray.

“Somebody say a prayer for me
'Cause the pills ran out and I still can't sleep
Somebody send a word upstairs
'Cause the bar shut down and I'm God knows where
Oh, so knock on Heaven's door
‘Cause mine ain't working anymore
Somebody say a prayer for me
All I'm asking for is a little mercy
Amen
Amen

Amen

Amen”

The hook is permeated by a quietly optimistic atmosphere, with the protagonist asking anybody listening to say a prayer for him as he attempts to get his life back on track.

He still worries that his own pleas will be ineffective, due to his chequered past, but he nonetheless hopes that other people sending up prayers might help him make it through.

“On a dusty Silverado
Running low on grace
Going nowhere fast on a full up on gas
Just hoping I see the day
When I ain't ashamеd of no man in the mirror
And the man upstairs ain't eithеr
And I can finally set
My life straight and
Be the man my mama raised”

Jelly Roll's verse finds the ‘Need a Favor’ crooner setting his sights on a more hopeful future, with the protagonist reminding the listener that he lacks direction at the moment, before longing for a time when he doesn't feel ashamed of himself.

He implies God must feel ashamed of him too, but endearingly, they also hint throughout that, as is the Biblical teaching, nobody is ever too far gone to receive His love.

“On a lost and lonely highway
Praying for my sins
If Heaven saw me out last Friday
Then I ain't getting in
I'm getting used to getting sideways
Till I can't see straight

The angels know they don't look my way

I'm way too gone to save

-

I'm digging my grave
Down twelve feet deep
Got nothing left so I'm on my knees

-

Somebody say a prayer for me
'Cause the pills ran out and I still can't sleep
Somebody send a word upstairs
'Cause the bar shut down and I'm God knows where
Oh, so knock on Heaven's door
‘Cause mine ain't working anymore
Somebody say a prayer for me
All I'm asking for is a little mercy
Amen
Amen

Amen

Amen

-

On a dusty Silverado
Running low on grace
Going nowhere fast on a full up on gas
Just hoping I see the day
When I ain't ashamеd of no man in the mirror
And the man upstairs ain't eithеr
And I can finally set
My life straight and
Be the man my mama raised

-

Instead of digging my grave
Down twelve feet deep
I got nothing left so I'm on my knees

-

Somebody say a prayer for me
'Cause the pills ran out and I still can't sleep
Somebody send a word upstairs
'Cause the bar shut down and I'm God knows where
Oh, so knock on Heaven's door
‘Cause mine ain't working anymore
Somebody say a prayer for me
All I'm asking for is a little mercy
Amen
Amen

Amen

Amen

-

Somebody say a prayer for me, amen
Somebody say a prayer for me
Somebody say a prayer for me
'Cause the pills ran out and I still can't sleep
Somebody send a word upstairs
'Cause the bar shut down and I'm God knows where
Oh, so knock on Heaven's door
‘Cause mine ain't working anymore
Somebody say a prayer for me
All I'm asking for is a little mercy
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen”

For more on Shaboozey, see below: