NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s governor pardoned country star Jelly Roll on Thursday for his criminal past in the state, acknowledging the Nashville native’s long road back from drugs and prison through soul-searching, songwriting and second-chance advocacy.
The rapper-turned-singer whose legal name is Jason Deford has been talking about his redemption arc for years in front of diverse audiences, from people serving time in correctional centers to concert crowds and even in testimony before Congress.
Republican Governor Bill Lee issued the pardon after friends and civic leaders of the Grammy-nominated musician came together in an outpouring of support.
Jelly Roll’s convictions include theft and drug offences. He said a pardon would make it easier for him to travel internationally for concert tours and do Christian missionary work without filling out burdensome paperwork.
He was one of 33 people who received a pardon Thursday from Lee, who for years has issued clemency decisions around the Christmas season. Lee said Jelly Roll’s application went through the same months of careful review as other applicants. The state parole board made a unanimous, non-binding recommendation for Jelly Roll’s pardon in April.
“His story is remarkable, and it’s a story of redemption and power, which is what you look for and what you hope for,” Lee told reporters.
Jelly Roll and Lee meet at the governor’s mansion
Lee said he never met Jelly Roll until Thursday, when the musician visited the governor’s mansion about news of the pardon. The two hugged in front of a lit Christmas tree and a fireplace decorated with festive garlands.
Unlike recent high-profile federal pardons, which let people out of prison, a Tennessee pardon serves as a declaration of forgiveness for someone who has already completed a prison sentence. The pardons offer a path to the restoration of certain civil rights such as the right to vote, although there are some legal limitations, and the governor can specify the terms.
Jelly Roll broke into country music with the 2023 album “Whitsitt Chapel” and crossover songs like “Need a Favor.” He has won several CMT Awards, a CMA Award and has also garnered seven career Grammy nominations.
Much of his music deals with overcoming adversity, such as the song “Winning Streak” about someone’s first day sober. Or straight and to the point, “I’m Not Okay.”
“When I first started doing this, I was telling my story of my broken self,” he told The Associated Press in an interview. “Until I went through it, I realized that my story was the story of many. So now I’m no longer telling my story. I’m getting to pull it from the walls of the people whose story has never been told.”
Jelly Roll: ‘I was part of the problem’
In front of the parole board, Jelly Roll said he first fell in love with songwriting while incarcerated, calling music a therapeutic passion project that “ended up changing my life in ways I never dreamed imaginable.”
Outside of the sold-out shows, he testified before the US Senate about the dangers of fentanyl, describing his younger drug-dealing self as “the uneducated guy in the kitchen playing chemistry with drugs that I knew absolutely nothing about.”
“I was part of the problem,” he told lawmakers at the time. “I’m here now as a man who wants to be part of the solution.”
Jelly Roll’s most serious convictions include robbery at 17 and drug charges at 23. In the first case, a female acquaintance helped Jelly Roll and two armed accomplices rob $350 from people in a house in 2002. Because the victims knew the female acquaintance, she and Jelly Roll were quickly arrested. Jelly Roll was unarmed, and was sentenced to a year in prison plus probation.
In another raid in 2008, police found marijuana and crack cocaine in his car, leading to eight years of court-ordered supervision.
The Sheriff whose jail had Jelly Roll urged a pardon
Friends and civic leaders cited his transformation in support of the pardon.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall, who runs the Nashville jail, wrote that Jelly Roll had an awakening in one of the jails he ran. Live Nation Entertainment CEO and President Michael Rapino mentioned Jelly Roll’s donations from his shows to at-risk youth charities.
“I think he has a chance and he’s in the process of rehabilitating a generation, and that’s not just words,” Hall said in a phone interview Thursday. “I’m talking about what I see we need in our country, it’s people who accept responsibility, accept the fact that they make mistakes and accept the fact that they need help.”
The parole board began considering Jelly Roll’s pardon application in October 2024, which marks the state’s five-year timeline for eligibility after his sentence expires. Prominent Nashville attorney David Raybin represented Jelly Roll in the pardon case.
Lee’s office said no one was pardoned Thursday who had a homicide or sex-related conviction, or for any crime committed as an adult against a minor.