Jelly Roll, a Tennessee Governor, and the Power of Redemption

On this episode of Our American Stories, before he was known as a country music artist, Jelly Roll had a record that included multiple arrests and time behind bars. Years later, after turning his life around and using his music to help others facing the same struggles, his story entered Tennessee’s pardon process.

That process brought his case before Governor Bill Lee. But when Lee spoke about the decision, he didn’t just talk about the law. He spoke about loss, about the death of his wife, and about the faith that carried him through it.

Our own Lee Habeeb shares the story of two men, from very different walks of life, brought together by hardship, faith, and the belief that no life is beyond redemption.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ah freda wow.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
B me.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
Up next, the story of a governor in an ex
con turned music star and their two resurrection stories. Bill
Lee was raised on the thousand acre cattle farm his
grandparents started in Franklin, Tennessee. He knew great success as

(00:42):
the CEO of his family construction company, growing it to
twelve hundred employees. Years later, he'd become CEO of his
home state, becoming governor in twenty nineteen, but years before
a tragic event, the death of his wife, Carol, would
drive Lee to the edges of despair. Jason DeFord was

(01:04):
born in Antioch, Tennessee, a blue collar suburb of Nashville.
His father was a meat salesman, bookie, and Methodist believer.
His mother struggled with mental health and addiction, and gave
her son the nickname the world would know him by.
DeFord was never comfortable in his skin, taunted for his size, clothes,

(01:28):
and background. By his teens, he was doing and selling drugs.
For nearly a decade, he drifted in and out of prison.
A tragic death didn't alter the course of Deford's life.
A birth did. While serving a stint in prison, he
learned he was the father of a baby girl, news
that propelled a radical change in his life. Along their

(01:53):
very different spiritual journeys, these two Nashville men would cross paths.
It would take Governor Lye address at the National Prayer
Breakfast for the world to know about it.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
The days of our lives. There are days in our
lives that can be described by a simple sentence. Then
there's other days that chapters are written about. And I
had one of those days. You have to probably mine
was in late July years ago. On that July afternoon
that I drove home from work, and I saw my

(02:28):
sun fishing, and my other son playing, and my daughter
is on a mission trip, and my four year old
was on a horse with my wife. And I drove
up the drive of my home and I thought about
the fact that I must be the most blessed man ever.
A few minutes later, I heard far away cross of

(02:50):
a four year old, and I knew that something was
terribly wrong, and I jumped into my truck and I
drove as fast as I could, and I found my
wife lifeless on the ground next to a horse. And
that day in my life, my life took a very

(03:14):
dark turn.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
In the weeks to follow, Lee's life reached depths of
despair he could never have imagined. His oldest daughter attempted suicide,
his business faltered, But months after his wife's death, Lee
experienced an unexpected spiritual breakthrough and his family burial ground.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
I knew that I would have a tombstone right there
beside her. Might be forty days, might be forty years.
And as I stood there contemplating that, I thought, I
had this thought that went through my brain. I wonder
what she would say to me standing right here. I
wonder what she's doing. I know she's still alive, more

(03:58):
alive than ever, And the thought came to me what
she would say is what God would say, and is saying.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
There are.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Very few things in life that matter, and we should
be about them.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Lee left the gravesite, knowing he could trust God to
show him away out of the abyss.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Jesus said, say that in this world you'll have many troubles,
but he also said I will overcome.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
The world.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
And in my life. That truth then became real, and
he became real to me like he had never been.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Lee's family would go on mission trips, building houses, and
working in orphanages, doing what Lee described as getting out
of ourselves. He also worked in inner city programs, kids
and education reform worked that prompted him to run for governor.
As time passed, Lee's life was resurrected. He remarried, his

(05:10):
family and business flourished. His belief in God's goodness forged
not just in prosperity, but adversity. Lee then told the
story of his pardon of DeFord, who'd become the Grammy
Award winning music superstar we all now know. It turns
out Lee and de Ford met back in two thousand
and eight while sharing his testimony with inmates at a

(05:33):
local prison. Though Lee didn't remember to Ford, to Ford
remembered Lee, you aren't the governor, and I was in jellyball,
and here we are seventeen years later, he told Governor
Lee in his office. Lee ended his speech talking about
a very different kind of pardon power.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
I have a belief that within every human being there's
this in eight sense that we all need a pardon,
and there is only one who can grant that pardon,
and he has to be asked. And his name is

(06:20):
Jesus and Ah for one. I'm glad that he summons me,
and I asked him, and he pardoned me.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
Forever to Ford would become jelly Roll, but his musical
path forward wasn't an easy one. His music was too
country for rap, to rock for country, and to rap
for rock. Record labels weren't sure he'd connect with mass
audiences given his appearance and his personal biography. Jelly Roll

(06:51):
told a reporter once, I was told, nobody's gonna buy
a four hundred pound man singing sad songs. Turning point
in his career came in twenty twenty with the release
of Save Me, a cry for help with his addiction problems.
YouTube views in the hundreds of millions piled up, as

(07:12):
did record label offers. His twenty twenty three album, Witsitt Champel,
named after the Tennessee church he attended as a boy,
became number one on the Rock and Country charts. At
the twenty twenty six Grammys, Jelly Roll took to the
stage to accept the award for Best Contemporary Country Album.
He didn't hide the source of his success.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
I know they're gonna try to kick me off here,
so just let me try to get this out first.
Of all, Jesus, I hear you, and I'm listening.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
Lord.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
I am listening Lord. Second of all, I want to
thank my beautiful wife. I would have never changed my
life without you. I'd ended up dinner in jail. I'd
have killed myself if it wasn't for you. And Jesus,
I thank you for the I thank you for my label, Broken.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Bow, a country radio paper.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
What's up now.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
There was a time in my life, y'all that I
was broken. That's why I wrote this album. I didn't
think I had a chance, y'all. There was days that
I thought the darkest things. I was a horrible human.
There was a moment in my life that all I
had was a Bible this big in a radio the
same size, and a six by eight foot sell And
I believe that those two things could change my life.
I believe that music had the power to change my life,

(08:19):
and God had the power to change my life. And
I want to tell y'all right now, Jesus is for everybody.
Jesus is not owned by one political party. Jesus is
not owned by no music label. Jesus is Jesus and
anybody can have a relationship with him. I love you Lord.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
These are remarkable faith stories Lehn de Fords, and even
better resurrection stories. Two men who grew up in different worlds,
mere miles apart, forever bonded by an earthly parton and
his spiritual part and available to all who seek it.

(08:55):
Ah plea.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Over and deforey a slave.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
I be buried in my grave

Speaker 2 (09:14):
And go home to my lo and these free