Jelly Roll lifted Garth Brooks in a bear hug when they met and didn’t even realize it

Friends in high places? Jelly Roll was apparently so overcome with emotion when he met his idol Garth Brooks at the Academy of Country Music Awards earlier this month that he didn’t even realize he had picked up the legend off the ground.

“When you get too excited seeing your hero so you pick him up,” the “Save Me” and “Son of a Sinner” singer wrote, highlighting the viral moment on TikTok last week. The viral clip showed Jelly Roll overwhelmed with emotion during their first meeting backstage, embracing Brooks in a bear hug that momentarily swept him off his feet as he praised the “Friends in Low Places” singer.

Jelly Roll, 38, born Jason DeFord, explained Sunday what came over him when he met the country-music superstar: sheer excitement.

“I didn’t mean to [lift him], and I didn’t know it until the clip went viral,” the rapper-turned-country singer told ET Online.

He soon learned that the moment left a lasting impression on Brooks too. The gravelly voiced singer attended Brooks’ just-launched Las Vegas residency at the Colosseum over the weekend and had a chance to come face-to-face with his idol again.

“I’m watching it, I leave, I go backstage. I get to see him again, he holds his hands out, but he goes, ‘But don’t hurt me this time, big fella,’ ” he told ET.

The country star, who got his start selling his hip-hop mixtapes out of his car, said that meeting Brooks is “probably one of the biggest things that will ever happen for me.”