Jelly Roll hasn't forgotten his humble beginnings. After triumphantly taking home all three of his Grammy nominations at the 2026 ceremony on February 1st, he announced that he would be donating one of his golden gramophone trophies to a Nashville county jail.
"I'll keep one at the studio, of course, because that was my dream," Jelly told Entertainment Tonight in an interview on February 4th. "And I think I'll give the second one to the country sheriff, Daron Hall, to display in the jail."
Jelly's Star Search costar, Sarah Michelle Gellar, who joined him in the interview, chimed in, adding, "So people know there's life after." Indeed, even the 41-year-old father of Bailee, 17, and Noah, 9, emphasized this sentiment in his acceptance speech after his album Beautifully Broken won Best Contemporary Country Album.
"There was a time in my life, y'all, that I was broken," he said. "That's why I wrote this album. I didn't think I had a chance. There were days that I thought the darkest things. I was a horrible human."
Waving a pocket-sized bible, Jelly—who tied the knot with Bunnie XO in 2016—added, "There was a moment in my life when all I had was a bible this size and a radio the same size in a six-by-eight foot cell. And I believed that those two things could change my life."
As Jelly reflected on his time in jail for drug possession back in 2008, he emphasized what kept him going—and finally got him to turn his life around. "I believed that music had the power to change my life," he continued. "And God had the power to change my life. I want to tell y'all right now. Jesus is for everybody."
Throughout his career, Jelly has been candid about his time as a criminal, admitting that he had been in and out of jail about 40 times. However, after his daughter was born in 2008, everything changed.
"I signed up for the education they offered on the door and got my GED," he recalled during an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2023. "I didn't know what I was going to do, but I was determined not to sell drugs again."
