These two may have the most interesting backstories of any country music artist and their spouse.
Jelly Roll is one of the biggest up-and-coming names out of Nashville right now, recently scoring his first #1 hit and dropping his debut country album Whitsitt Chapel after spending much of his early career as a rapper.
But Jelly Roll has quite the life story from back before he started his career in the music industry. The country star, whose real name is Jason DeFord, spent much of his early life in and out of the prison system while battling with mental health and addiction issues.
He even recently recounted the time he found out that he became a father – when a prison guard knocked on his jail cell:
“I’m sitting in there, and that guard knocks on my door May 22nd, 2008… He goes ‘you had a kid today,’ and he walked away. I still get emotional.
It’s like a Damascus road experience in the Bible. I immediately…was like I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to quit this sh*t. I’ve got to figure it out.”
Well he decided to try to make a career in the music industry, which led to him playing gigs for a few hundred bucks while living out of his car.
And that’s when he met his future wife, Bunnie Xo – who was working as a high-end escort in Vegas:
“When I met her I was like living out of a ’96 van and I was doing $100 a night shows…I was dead broke, and she just kind of took to me.
And she was really making money in the sex work industry. Like, real money. I didn’t know that existed.
Where I’m from a prostitute is like ‘Two dolla holla!’ You know what I’m saying? It’s like ‘I’ll suck your d*ck for $50.’
This was, I mean…15, 20…real money. If she ever writes a book…we’re talking about like CEOs of oil companies. People you know.”
Jelly Roll admits he didn’t exactly understand his wife’s work, but he also didn’t have a problem with it:
“I didn’t understand the concept. I’m just a f*ckin’ old southern crack dealer…
But I didn’t have a problem with it. If it’s that high-end I’m cool with whatever.”
Bunnie has also talked about her work as an escort on her podcast, Dumb Blonde:
“Literally I would make $30, $40,000 a night. I had sugar daddies who gave me half a million dollars. I’ve had cars bought for me. Just, diamonds, jewelry, just whatever you can think of dude.
It’s not like I was ever feeding a drug habit. I always treated work like it was business.”
She also says that she told Jelly Roll when they first started dating that he was probably going to have to answer for her profession – but that he didn’t care:
“When we got into a relationship together I told him, I was like you know, ‘You’re going to be scrutinized for what I do for a living.’
And he was like, ‘You know what baby? I don’t give a f*ck.’ He’s like, ‘I love you, we’re going to ride this sh*t out together.'”
Bunnie has since given up her life as an escort, and she says a big part of that decision was because the two eventually got custody of Jelly Roll’s daughter:
“The only reason why I really wanted out of the lifestyle – because I made so much f*cking money that it was like, I didn’t see an end in sight because I was pretty much a slave to the money.
There’s a little girl who came into my life and she stole my heart and I don’t want her to feel like she ever has to sell her body to support herself.”
That’s a love story for the ages – and one that makes Johnny and June look like a couple straight out of Mayberry.
