Jelly Roll Discusses How His Health Changed Following a Drastic ‘Court-Ordered’ Move in His Teen Years.Linh

The “Son of a Sinner” singer has been open about his journey with his weight and addiction

Jelly Roll has been candid about his struggles with his health and his sobriety journey, documenting them through his music over the years as well.

The 39-year-old musician has talked about struggling with alcohol and substance abuse as a teenager and undergoing a massive weight loss journey in his adulthood, having lost nearly 300 pounds in the past few years alone.

The singer sat down for a conversation with Ania Hammar on SiriusXM’s The Highway radio show, discussing his song “I Am Not Okay” from his newly released album Beautifully Broken.

The song candidly reveals some of Jelly’s (real name Jason Bradley DeFord) inner thoughts when he was at his lowest, with haunting lyrics like “I am not okay/I’m barely getting by” and “I know, I can’t be the only one/Who’s holding on for dear life.”

The host asked him about his experiences with Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and he responded: “Oh goodness. I don’t fully remember my first real meeting ’cause I was court-ordered at like 14 so I don’t remember it as much as I should.”

“But, I definitely remember the first time that I found solace in those rooms, or the first time that I kind of got introduced to the concept of this,” he continued. “And how much stuff I’ve taken from them rooms.”

Jelly spoke about the experiences finally helping his health take a turn for the better and giving him the space to grow both physically and emotionally, adding he had “never been more inspired than leaving an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting or a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.”

The “Need a Favor” hitmaker continued: “I think everybody should experience one if you’ve never drank in your life. I still think that there is something from it that is, you know, the good ones are like good theater. They’ll make you listen, you’ll learn, you’ll laugh and you’ll cry.”

He also talked about telling his life’s stories through song. “‘You hear how honest it was?’… I’m a lyric guy when it comes to that. Stories and storytelling songs were always my favorite.”

At one point, the singer was in and out of jail for several drug-related offenses, but has since turned his life around, largely inspired by his family with wife Bunnie XO.

Although, he admitted in a previous interview with Taste of Country that there was one thing he couldn’t give up: marijuana. “I get in trouble for this, all the time, but my stance on marijuana will always be the same: I believe marijuana has helped me in so many regards, with my anxiety,” he revealed.

“This is a hot-button topic, but, truly, marijuana has kept me sober,” he added, even saying that without it, he’d be “drinking codeine and popping Xanax and snorting cocaine again, but a world with weed, I’ll be alright.”

“I know that I have friends that don’t do that. I have friends that are in the program that are totally against any kind of mind-altering anything,” he explained. “I respect that. I have so much respect for those people. That’s just not how my sobriety worked out.”