1984-present
Jelly Roll Today: Singer Nominated for Multiple 2024 CMAs
Jelly Roll could win his second CMA trophy at the 58th annual ceremony on November 20. The country music star is nominated in three categories, including the top prize of Entertainer of the Year. Jelly Roll is up against a list of strong competitors: defending winner Lainey Wilson, Morgan Wallen, Chris Stapleton, and Luke Combs.
Since transitioning from rap to country music in 2021, Jelly Roll has experienced a rapid rise to fame and just last year was named CMA’s New Artist of the Year. This year, Jelly Roll’s first country album, Whitsitt Chapel, was nominated for Album of the Year after debuting at No. 2 on Billboard’s country album chart. The 39-year-old also received his second nod for Male Vocalist of the Year.
Jelly Roll, real name Jason DeFord, will have a featured role at another major award show, performing during the “In Memoriam” segment at the 76th Emmy Awards on Sunday.
Listen to Jelly Roll on Amazon Music, Apple Music, or Spotify
Who Is Jelly Roll?
Singer-songwriter Jelly Roll is known for hit songs like “Son of a Sinner,” “Save Me,” and “Need a Favor.” Unafraid to embrace an underdog persona, he overcame a tumultuous adolescence and early adulthood—that included several stints in prison and drug addiction—to achieve his music dreams. This turbulent past has helped inspire some of his most famous songs. Although he started in rap and hip-hop, the Tennessee native has emerged as a country music star. In November 2023, he was named CMA’s New Artist of the Year and nominated for Best New Artist at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Jason Bradley DeFord
BORN: December 4, 1984
BIRTHPLACE: Nashville, Tennessee
SPOUSE: Bunnie Xo (2016-present)
CHILDREN: Bailee and Noah
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius
Early Life
Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord, was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 4, 1984, and grew up in the city’s Antioch neighborhood. His father, Horace “Buddy” DeFord, ran a wholesale meat business and had a side hustle as a bookie. Jelly Roll also has three older half-siblings: brothers Roger and Scott and a sister named Shelby.
Jelly Roll’s mother, who struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues, gave him his nickname—and now, stage name—in his youth because he was a “chubby kid.” The singer said his mother, whose name hasn’t been made public, was why he first fell in love with music and became a good storyteller.
Around age 9 or 10, he wrote his first rap song. “I just remember thinking, ‘I want to make music that makes people feel like this music makes my mother feel,’” he said during a May 2022 interview with the Bobby Bones Show. Once he reached eighth grade, he started passing out mixtapes of his music in a high school parking lot.
Jelly Roll’s parents divorced when he was 13. After that, Jelly Roll felt responsible for taking care of his mom and began selling drugs. “When [my father] left, I was like, ‘Somebody’s got to do what he was doing, at least trying to figure out some money,’” he said. According to Billboard, he also included free mixtapes of his raps in cocaine sales.
Jelly Roll maintained a close relationship with his father, who died of cancer in March 2019. The singer credits Buddy with teaching him to “hate racism” and “how to carry myself as a man.”
Watch the documentary Jelly Roll: Save Me on Hulu
Prison and Drug Addiction
Jelly Roll was first arrested when he was 14, and revealed in the 2023 documentary Jelly Roll: Save Me that he went to jail 40 times for various offenses. One of the most serious charges was aggravated robbery when he was 16. He was charged as an adult and faced up to 20 years in prison, though he ultimately served a little over a year in jail and received more than seven years’ probation. “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,” he told Billboard. “I feel like the justice system at that point kind of parked me on my only set path.”
Because of Tennessee’s zero-tolerance policy for violent offenders, the charge is still on the singer’s record. As a result, he can’t vote, volunteer at nonprofits, or own a firearm.
In addition to selling drugs, Jelly Roll has admitted his own struggles with abusing substances like cough syrup, Xanax, and cocaine. The singer now visits rehabilitation facilities to help educate and inspire other people working through addiction.
At age 23, Jelly Roll was incarcerated for drug dealing. He was in prison on May 22, 2008, when he learned from a correctional officer that he had become a father. He credits the birth of his daughter, Bailee, as the catalyst that turned his life around. “It’s like a Damascus Road experience in the Bible,” he told podcaster Joe Rogan. “I immediately was like, ‘I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to quit this s—. I’ve got to figure it out.”
Shortly after, Jelly Roll was transferred to the education unit and earned his GED in prison. He was released in 2009.
Rap and Hip-Hop Beginnings
Struggle Jennings and Jelly Roll, seen here in October 2016, have released four albums together since 2017.
From 2010 through 2015, Jelly Roll lived out of a van as he focused on making a living through music. Shortly after his release from prison, he uploaded a video clip to YouTube called “10 Minute Freestyle,” showing him freestyle rapping about his drug dealing, incarceration, and other elements of his past. The video caught the attention of rapper Lil Wyte, who was starting his own record label and wanted to collaborate with Jelly Roll for the 2011 album Year Round. The two worked with fellow rapper BPZ on the project and called themselves SNO.
Jelly Roll said Wyte was one of the first artists to recognize his potential as a singer. “I’ll never forget Wyte looking at me and going: ‘That’s what you need to do,’” he told HipHopDx. “I didn’t know anything about music, so I was like, ‘Nah, I’m just harmonizing.’ Now I know what a harmony is, and it’s the opposite of what I was doing.”
In 2011, Jelly Roll’s album with Nashville rapper Haystak titled Strictly Business ranked a modest No. 67 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. He collaborated with Wyte again for the 2013 album No Filter, which hit No. 17 on the Top Rap Albums chart. Then, in 2017, he partnered with his friend Struggle Jennings for a rap album titled Waylon & Willie—named after Waylon Jennings, Struggle’s step-grandfather, and Willie Nelson. The pair turned the album into a series with three more releases over the next three years.
Jelly Roll occasionally sang on these albums but was hesitant to do so for an entire track. That would change on what became one of his top songs.
“Save Me” and Ascent to Country Stardom
Written and posted to YouTube within two days in May 2020, “Save Me” was one of the first songs Jelly Roll released without any rap elements. With its highly personal theme of coping with hopelessness, not to mention the singer’s impressive vocals, the song drew the attention of music executives. “I saw that pain, vulnerability, that tenderness,” said Jon Loba, the BMG Nashville record label president. “I loved his vocal. I just said, ‘That’s a country song.’ I was convinced his storytelling, his heart, and his brand would be accepted by our genre.”
Jelly Roll signed with BMG, which counts country heavy hitters like Jason Aldean, Dustin Lynch, and Lainey Wilson among its clients. The singer soon began achieving more mainstream success. In September 2021, he released his first major studio album, Ballads of the Broken, which included the singles “Dead Man Walking” and “Son of a Sinner.” The latter debuted on the Country Airplay chart in March 2022 and reached the top spot 10 months later in January 2023.
Jelly Roll performs in Michigan during his Backroad Baptism Tour in August 2023.
On November 9, 2021, Jelly Roll debuted at the famous Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and began establishing himself as a rising country star. By February 2023, he had spent 25 weeks atop Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart—the most in history. Soon after, he won three CMT Music Awards in April, including Breakthrough Male Video of the Year for “Son of a Sinner.” He also kicked off a 44-city Backroad Baptism Tour across the United States.
In June 2023, Jelly Roll released another studio album, Whitsitt Chapel, which quickly rose to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and featured an updated version of “Save Me” with Wilson. The two performed the track at the ACM Awards and during the season finale of the TV singing competition show American Idol.
In September 2023, Jelly Roll received five nominations for the CMA Awards, considered country music’s biggest honors. Among the categories were Male Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year. “Just being recognized by my peers and by the industry for the work we put in is amazing, especially for my people, this is a win for all the underdogs and forgotten,” he said. Jelly Roll won for New Artist of the Year at the annual ceremony on November 8 in Nashville and gave two live performances to bookend the show.
Additionally, his emotional acceptance speech went viral for its inspiring message. “There is something poetic about a 39-year-old man winning New Artist of the Year. I don’t know where you’re at in your life or what you’re going through, but I want to tell you to keep going, baby. I want to tell you success is on the other side of it. I want to tell you that the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason because what’s in front of you is so much more important than what’s behind you!” he said.
Jelly Roll was soon nominated for his first two Grammy Awards: Best New Artist and Best Country Duo/Group Performance for his collaboration with Lainey Wilson on “Save Me.” Although he didn’t win that night, he tallied three victories at the CMT Awards in April 2024, including Video of the Year for “Need a Favor.”
In September 2024, Jelly Roll received three nominations for this year’s CMA Awards, including the coveted award of Entertainer of the Year. He was also nominated for Male Vocalist for the second year in a row and his first country album, Whitsitt Chapel, received a nod for Album of the Year.
Wife and Children
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo, his wife, attend the ACM Awards in May 2023.
In 2015, Jelly Roll met model Bunnie Xo following his concert at the Country Saloon in Las Vegas. Although Bunnie was in a relationship then, the two kept in touch and began dating soon after. On August 31, 2016, Jelly Roll proposed to Bunnie during a Yelawolf and Deftones concert in Las Vegas, and the two were married at a nearby courthouse that night.
Bunnie, who has achieved her own success as the host of the popular Dumb Blonde podcast since 2019, has played an important role in Jelly Roll’s family relationships. Before their marriage, the singer welcomed two children, a daughter named Bailee Ann and a son named Noah, with two different women.
After learning of Bailee’s May 2008 birth while in prison, Jelly Roll met his daughter on her second birthday in 2010. Her mother—who is only known publicly by her first name, Felicia—at first refused to let the singer see Bailee until he could become a consistent presence in her life.
In addition to becoming a stepmother to Bailee, Bunnie helped Jelly Roll gain custody of his daughter after Felicia became addicted to drugs and went to prison. Despite this, they have all remained on friendly terms, with Bunnie even inviting Felicia to appear on an episode of Dumb Blonde in 2020.
Now a teenager, Bailee is a singer and songwriter like her dad. She appears with Jelly Roll in the “Tears Could Talk” music video and has surprised fans by performing the song with her father at live shows.
Jelly Roll’s son, Noah, was born in August 2016. Jelly Roll has generally been secretive about his son out of respect for Noah’s mother, Melisa, but opened up during an August 2023 interview on the Taste of Country Nights podcast. “With Bailee, I’m the full-time parent—I’m the judge, the jury, and the executioner when it comes to decisions with her,” he said. “And it’s way more of a co-parenting… actually, it’s way more of me just supporting [Melisa] when it comes to my son, so I try not to ever get in the way of what she’s building over there.” Bunnie is also active in Noah’s life and introduced him to fans in a short TikTok video in July 2023.
Bunnie and Jelly Roll revealed in June 2024 they are exploring the possibility of having a child together through in vitro fertilization.
Weight Loss
Jelly Roll has been candid about his weight struggles, admitting he weighed more than 500 pounds as recently as 2015.
In an August 2018 post to Instagram, the singer said he made changes to his lifestyle in 2016 and lost 200 pounds but eventually gained 60 of them back. “I wanna sky dive, bungee jump, ride a bull, parasail, ride roller coasters,” he wrote. “I want to LIVE a normal life and have a normal relationship with food.”
More recently, Jelly Roll revealed in February 2024 he had begun training for his first 5K race. He told People he had lost more than 70 pounds by April and has a goal of eventually shedding another 100. “I’ve been really kicking ass, man. I’m doing two to three miles a day, four to six days a week,” he said, adding that he also spends time in the sauna and is eating healthier.
Jelly Roll completed the 5K in May 2024 and said he plans to complete a half marathon next year.
Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Jelly Roll’s total net worth is estimated at around $4 million as of September 2023.
Quotes
- I want to be a guidepost of hope for people to know that losers can win. That who you were isn’t who you are.
- I got baptized in here some 20 years ago and have since done nothing but go to prison, treat a bunch of people wrong, make a lot of mistakes in life, turn it around, then go on to be a f—ing multimillionaire and help as many people as I possibly can. It’s the f—ing wildest story ever to me.
- I never lived in the present because I was so haunted by the past, and I think I’m finally starting to let my past go enough that I can actually be present.
- Music is like human nature. It evolves or dies. Artists should always be pushing the boundaries of what’s uncomfortable, and I plan to be doing that the rest of my career.
- The windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason, because what’s in front of you is so much more important than what’s behind you.
- I once heard a man say that you don’t change until the pain to remain the same is greater than the pain it takes to change.
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Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he’s not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
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