NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s governor on Thursday pardoned country star Jelly Roll for his criminal past in the state, acknowledging the Nashville native’s long road back from drugs and prison through soul-searching, songwriting and pleading for second chances.
The rapper-turned-singer, whose legal name is Jason Deford, has spoken about his arc of redemption for years to audiences ranging from people serving time in correctional facilities to concert crowds and even testifying before Congress.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee issued the pardon after friends and civic leaders of the Grammy-nominated musician joined in an outpouring of support.
Jelly Roll’s convictions include robbery and drug offences. He said a pardon would make it easier for him to travel abroad for concert tours and do Christian missionary work without filling out burdensome paperwork.
He was one of 33 people pardoned Thursday by Lee, who has for years issued clemency decisions around Christmas. Lee said Jelly Roll’s application underwent the same months of thorough review as other applicants. The state parole board made a nonbinding, unanimous recommendation for Jelly Roll’s pardon in April.
“His story is remarkable and it’s a redemptive, powerful story, 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 had never met Jelly Roll until Thursday, when the musician visited the governor’s mansion for news of the pardon. The two embraced in front of a lit Christmas tree and a fireplace decorated with holiday garlands.
Unlike recent federal pardons, which let people out of prison, the Tennessee pardon serves as a declaration of forgiveness for someone who has already completed a prison sentence. Pardons provide a way to restore 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 hits like “Need a Favor.” He has won multiple CMT Awards, a CMA Award, and has also received seven career Grammy nominations.
Much of his music deals with overcoming adversity, such as the song “Winning Streak” about one’s first day sober. Or straight and to the point, “I’m not well.”
“When I started doing this, I was telling my story about myself being broken,” he told The Associated Press in an interview. “When I went through that, I realized that my story was the story of many. So now I stop telling my story. I start pulling it straight from the cracks of people whose story has never been told.”
Jelly Roll: ‘I was part of the problem’
Speaking before the parole board, Jelly Roll said he first fell in love with songwriting while in custody, calling music a therapeutic passion project that would “end up changing my life in ways I never imagined.”
Outside of sold-out shows, he testified before the US Senate about the dangers of fentanyl, describing his younger drug-dealing self as “the uneducated man in the kitchen, playing chemist with drugs 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 a part of the solution.”
Jelly Roll’s most serious convictions include a robbery at 17 and drug charges at 23. In the first case, a female acquaintance helped Jelly Roll and two armed accomplices steal $350 from people in a home in 2002. Because the victims knew the acquaintance, she and Jelly Roll were quickly arrested. Jelly Roll was unarmed and was sentenced to a year in jail plus probation.
In another run in 2008, police found marijuana and crack cocaine in his car, leading to eight years of court-ordered surveillance.
The sheriff whose prison held Jelly Roll apologized
Friends and civic leaders cited his transformation in support of a pardon.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall, who runs the Nashville jail, wrote that Jelly Roll had an awakening at one of the jails he ran. Live Nation Entertainment CEO and President Michael Rapino cited 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 these are not just words,” Hall said in a phone interview Thursday. “I’m talking about what I see we need in our country, people who accept responsibility, accept that they’re wrong, and accept that they need help.”
The parole board began reviewing Jelly Roll’s request for clemency in October 2024, which marks the state’s five-year deadline 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.