The backstory of Jason DeFord, more commonly known as Jelly Roll, is pretty well established at this point, at least the generalities of it.
Jelly grew up in Antioch, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, and from a young age was involved in a lot of shady business. His dad was a bookie, his mom suffered from substance abuse, and while they weren’t dirt poor, there wasn’t a whole lot of money around. While Jelly always loved music, he never dreamed it could actually be a career path for him and soon fell in with the wrong crowd and became very familiar with the local law enforcement agents.
According to himself, Jelly was arrested around 40 times in his life, though the large majority of those came when he was a minor. There’s no full list of his crimes available online but we can piece together the major ones based on interviews he’s given, because let’s be honest, no one is more open than Jelly Roll and his wife Bunnie Xo.
Earlier today it was announced that Jelly Roll had been unanimously recommended for a full pardon but I wanted to know exactly what he was being pardoned of.
I tried to hunt down every arrest that’s been talked about publicly and came up with this list and as many details about each.
Jelly Roll’s Major Arrests
1998, Age 14 – Unknown, but probably drug related
Many sources have cited Jelly’s first run in with the law coming when he was just 14 years old. Because of his age, there’s really no details on what exactly happened but he’s been very open in saying he was using and selling drugs from a young age, so if I had to guess, that would be the reason for this first one.
2000, Age 15/16 – Armed Robbery
This story is more well-known, especially since he opened up about it on the Joe Rogan Experience.
“It was a heinous crime, admittedly. It was horrible, we robbed a couple guys for some weed. But they called the police because we took some money and some stuff. So it was an armed robbery, we went in there with a gun.”
He was charged as an adult and was sentenced to eight years in prison plus seven years probation. He was released after serving just over one year, his term being lighter than the co-conspirators because Jelly himself didn’t carry a gun into the home the robbed.
2007, Age 22 – Driving without a license
In October of 2007, Jelly Roll was again arrested and spent 15 days in jail, this time on a misdemeanor for driving without a license. There were no serious penalties from this one, but it wouldn’t be long before he was locked up again.
2008, Age 23 – Possession with intent to sell cocaine
After being released early for a crime that could have had him behind bars for up to 20 years, Jelly went back to his old ways and got busted for selling drugs after Nashville police officers found cocaine in his car while he was in a drug-free school zone. He was again sentenced to eight years with 8 years probation and again was released early. His probation ran out in 2016.
Undated Misdemeanor – Possession of drug paraphernalia
This is cited in many articles but there’s not much sourcing to back it up and it did not appear on his court records that I reviewed, though it is allegedly included in the potential governor’s pardon he will possibly receive.
And that’s that.
Obviously, he did a lot of other illegal things that never got picked up on his rap sheet but regardless, it’s important to look at the bright side. Jelly has completely turned his life around and is using his new found fame to support causes near and dear to his heart. As a prime example of one of music’s most powerful redemption stories, he’s been a voice of hope for all kinds of people. It’s why his music resonates with so many people. It’s never too late to make a change.
Like the music or not, we can all agree that Jelly Roll is out there doing his best to bring good into this world and for that reason I hope he get the pardon and these crimes get off his record. It’ll make international touring much more feasible, at the very least.
