Before Jamal Roberts delivered his unforgettable finale performance on American Idol, he found himself offstage, off track — and a little bit lost in Summit, Mississippi. Luckily, help came not from a GPS, but from a familiar hometown hero: former Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Damian Gatlin.
Gatlin, now chief deputy for the Pike County Sheriff’s Office, had been following Roberts’ American Idol journey from day one. From the moment Roberts stunned the judges with his golden ticket-winning audition of Rick James’ “Mary Jane” to his emotional finale renditions of “Just My Imagination” by The Temptations, “First Time” by Teaks, and “Heal” by Tom Odell, Gatlin and his family never missed a performance. “Some of the songs he did, we cried,” Gatlin admitted. “Some of them were really powerful. There was nobody else we could vote for but Jamal.”
But long before Roberts was crowned the Season 23 champion, he was a favorite for the Gatlin family — and that admiration grew even stronger after they met him in person at the Iron Horse Festival in McComb in May 2024. That moment almost didn’t happen, though. With only minutes to go before Roberts was due on stage, he found himself turned around in Summit, Mississippi. That’s when Shaunta McDowell, who had previously invited Roberts to perform at her “Boss Up and Get It Done” event, called in a favor from Gatlin.
“Damian, our guy is lost. He doesn’t know how to get to the event,” she told him.
Gatlin’s response? Classic. “Have no fear, Damian’s here,” he laughed, joking about his superhero moment. But in truth, it was just good ol’ Mississippi kindness. “I went and found him and went and escorted him back. He had five minutes to get on stage. We got him in two.”
Roberts made it in time — and as always, he delivered.
After the show, Gatlin recalled the singer’s respectful nature. Roberts kept a polite distance from Gatlin’s wife, clearly mindful of boundaries. But Gatlin wasn’t having it. “I said, ‘Man, hug that woman. Go ahead, you can hug her. I’m not going to get mad, not this time,’” he joked.
It’s these small stories — from a lost drive in Summit to an emotional embrace in McComb — that show who Jamal Roberts really is: a grounded, humble artist whose roots are as deep as his voice. And now, with a nation behind him and a crown to prove it, Mississippi can proudly say that its hometown hero has truly made it.
