Jelly Roll Discusses the “Extreme Accountability” That Led Him to Partner With the Attorney Who Prosecuted Him as a Juvenile

Before Jelly Roll was one of the biggest names in country music, he was a rapper who told true stories from the streets. He lived the stories of robbery, violence, gang affiliation, and drug dealing. As a result, he found himself in and out of jail from the time he was a teenager until he decided to turn his life around. Now, when the Antioch, Tennessee native isn’t on the road or in a studio, he’s giving back to the community he feels he damaged in his youth.

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Jelly Roll’s daughter Bailee Ann was born in 2008. Her birth was the catalyst that brought about the artists we see today. Over the weekend, he appeared on The Today Show’s Sunday Sitdown with Willy Geist to talk about his life and career. During the conversation, he reflected on the moment he knew he had to change.

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“Sitting in a jail cell having $17 in honey buns and potato chips to my name. I owned one outfit, the one that was in the jail. And here I am responsible for a child. I was the lowest common denominator of life. You know what I mean? I was the scum of the earth, I was a crack dealer. I was a horrible, horrible human,” he said. “And I was like, ‘I’ve got to figure this out.’”

Jelly Roll Turned His Life Around

Since getting his life together, Jelly Roll has regularly visited the juvenile detention center where he spent many days and nights as a teen. Now though, he’s doing more than talking to the kids and lifting their spirits. He’s helping expand the detention center to give the youths more opportunities.

“It started with me having extreme accountability and going, ‘Man, I helped make this mess.’ Then, as my heart started getting right and getting more pure, I started feeling a responsibility to go clean it up,” he said. That feeling of responsibility led him to partner with the attorney who prosecuted him all those years ago to provide at-risk youth in his home community with GED classes and vocational training.

He told Willy Geist about the conversation he had with the prosecutor about his involvement in the project. “I said I will hang drywall and cut a check. You tell me which one you want me to do if not both,” Jelly Roll recalled.

Featured Image by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global Citizen

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