One of the many charming things about country megastar Jelly Roll —birth name Jason Bailey DeFord— is his stage name. As you might've suspected, it's an old family nickname that's stuck with the Nashville-area native.
"My mother named me that whenever I was a little, chubby kid," Jelly Roll told The Bobby Bones Show. "Been fat my whole life. I spent the next 30 years trying to grow into the name. I think I've done it. I obviously look the part... It just stuck."
Jelly Roll became a permanent moniker after a childhood friend going by One Arm Clay suggested it without knowing that Mama had already rechristened her son.
"One Arm Clay was like, 'We should call you Jelly Roll. I'm One Arm Clay and you'll be Jelly Roll,'" the singer explained. "I was like 'My mama calls me Jelly Roll.' Then once the high school starts calling you something, that's the kit and caboodle."
A rapper turned country singer-songwriter, Jelly Roll embraces his checkered past in a way that's affirming to others with their own personal-life struggles. His spot in country music was solidified in June when his album Whitsitt Chapel topped the Billboard Top Rock albums and Top Independent Albums chart while reaching No. 2 on the Top Country Albums chart and No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
Jelly Roll's desire to give back to others brought him on Aug. 12 to the Chesterfield County Jail. The country star was in town for a Backroad Baptism Tour stop in Virginia Beach, and he stopped by per request of Helping Addicts Recover Progressively (HARP), which according to the Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector is a "jail-based treatment and recovery program in Virginia for those with criminal justice involvement who struggle with addiction."
