Jelly Roll is currently one of the biggest stars in the country music world, as shown by him winning three CMT Awards on Sunday night, including video of the year. In a new interview, Jelly Roll is crediting God with leading him from juvenile detention to country music stardom.
Jelly Roll Credits God With His Success
“None of this has settled on me. I am the most average guy ever,” Jelly Roll, 39, told CBS News.
Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord, went on to talk about his experience performing at the CMT Awards.
“Feeling them and being able to give a speech and being able to try to try to talk directly and pour into somebody’s living room, that just fires me up in a way, man. I think it’s God,” he admitted.
During Sunday night’s awards show, Jelly Roll was visibly overwhelmed when he won his first award for performance of the year.
“I was just overwhelmed with emotions. I started crying because I thought about the whole year…from that moment,” he said. “It’s amazing what God can do in a year.”
While accepting his award for Male Video of the Year, Jelly Roll addressed those currently in juvenile detention, something that he experienced in his youth after being arrested for things like marijuana possession and attempted robbery.
“I just want them to know that you can really overcome this,” he explained. “This is just a moment of your life and who you were isn’t who you are, and that you can change at any given moment of the changes around the corner for all of us. I truly believe that I epitomize it as much as I can.”
As for Jelly Roll’s future goals, it’s clear that he feels that the sky is the limit for him.
“My dream was too small,” he concluded. “I’m having to give new dreams now, I’m dreaming bigger.”
Check out this full interview in the video below.
Related: Jelly Roll Donates Nearly 8,000 Toys To Nashville Children
Jelly Roll’s Criminal History
Last year, Jelly Roll opened up to Billboard about how he was arrested for aggravated robbery at 16 years of age and charged as an adult.
“I never want to overlook the fact that it was a heinous crime,” he said. “This is a grown man looking back at a 16-year-old kid that made the worst decision that he could have made in life and people could have got hurt and, by the grace of God, thankfully, nobody did.”
Though Jelly Roll was facing 20 years in prison for this charge, he ultimately served over a year followed by more than seven years of probation.
“They were talking about giving me more time than I’d been alive,” he lamented. “I hadn’t hit my last growth spurt. I was charged as an adult years before I could buy a beer, lease an apartment, get a pack of cigarettes … I feel like the justice system at that point kind of parked me on my only set path.”
Watch Jelly Roll talk more about this in the video below.
Related: Granger Smith Defends Retiring From Country Music To ‘Serve’ God – ‘Huge Feeling Of Relief’
Jelly Roll’s Country Music Success
Thankfully, Jelly Roll was able to turn his life around after serving out his sentence. After getting his start as a rapper, Jelly Roll shifted to country music, and he debuted at the famous Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in November of 2021.
By February of this year, Jelly Roll had spent 25 weeks atop Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, which is the most in history. He’s currently on his Beautifully Broken tour, with his next stop being in Florence, Arizona this weekend.
Jelly Roll’s journey from juvenile detention to country music stardom just goes to show that anything is possible if you just put your trust in God. May God bless Jelly Roll, and here’s hoping that he has many years of success to come!
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