Jelly Roll landed his first No. 1 album earlier this year with Beautifully Broken. As Stereogum notes, it was apparently a close race between Jelly Roll and Charli XCX’s Brat. Ultimately, Brat ended up at No. 3 that week, behind Rod Wave’s Last Lap.

This weekend, Jelly Roll appeared on the Pat McAfee Show and shared some surprising details about his behind-the-scenes battle on the charts for No. 1 album.

When Charli XCX released her excellent album Brat earlier this year, she landed at a new career peak. She’s getting critical raves and filling arenas and racking up Grammy nominations, but she’s not necessarily one of the most popular pop stars on the scene right now.