Jelly Roll says he hasn't lost touch with people from his past, admitting he still takes collect calls from inmates.
Jelly Roll hasn't lost touch with the people from his past.
The country singer recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where he spoke about his past experiences with incarceration and how becoming a father changed his life. The singer, known for his openness about his troubled past, shared some personal insights with guest hosts Martin Short and Jane Lynch.
The two-time GRAMMY-nominated singer described his time in juvenile detention as a result of "horrible decisions" that led to a cycle of incarceration lasting about a decade. He likened the moment he learned of his daughter's birth while in jail to a profound spiritual awakening, comparing it to the biblical story of Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus.
"I ended up in kind of that rotating door of the system for like a decade, and I had a daughter, and it changed my entire life, man," Jelly Roll said.
When asked if he still keeps in touch with people from his past, Jelly Roll revealed that he maintains connections with friends from his old neighborhood in Antioch, Tennessee.
"Oh yeah, I still got so many friends from my old neighborhood Antioch, Tennessee. I still collect calls from jail all the time. They got iPads in there now. God, they are spoiled," Jelly Roll humorously noted.
The singer sent a message to his friends, saying, "They are watching this, by the way. This is basic cable, I love y’all!"
Martin playfully added a greeting to these potential viewers, "Hey, guys!"
The 39-year-old "I Am Not Okay" singer was a guest on a June episode of SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Show, where he opened up about the realities of his criminal past and incarceration.
"There's a sense of safety in there," he said of jail. "When you were in the streets, there's no safety. Anything could happen at any time."
He added, "At least in jail was this little bit of comfort and chance to regroup and you'd always sell yourself the dream in jail, too. 'Oh, I'm gonna figure this out. I'm changing. I got an idea.'"
The country star -- whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord -- has previously said that he's been to jail some 40 times over the years. He was notably arrested at 16 for aggravated robbery and at 23 for drug dealing.
ET spoke to Jelly Roll at CMA Fest earlier this month, and he teased his latest music era, which will follow the success of his last album, 2023's Whitsitt Chapel.
"This has been my whole life the last 11 months," he teased to ET. "I have been drowning in this album. I've never wrote more songs. I've never took it more serious and I'm probably gonna release more music this year than I've ever released in a year of my career."
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