Bobby saw Jelly Roll earlier this week at the Opry and wanted to revisit his original interview. He came by in May 2022 to share his life. Jelly Roll has a very inspiring story that he loves to share in hopes of connecting with people. He comes from a middle lower class community where he was the youngest child of 4. His dad was a meat salesman for his own family company called DeFord Wholesale Meats, and his mom struggled with addiction and mental health. He spent about 12 years in and out of the jail system until he had an awakening moment sitting in his jail cell. A guard knocked on his cell door to tell him that he had a daughter. Check out the full interview!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
So I played the Grand Old Opry earlier this week,
and I did my comedy set like fifteen minutes or so,
and I can just feel I can just feel the
positive anticipation. I would even call it a positive tension.
It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. And so, by the way,
everybody's Bobby here. We're doing a special episode of the
Bobby Cast here and and by myself over at the
(00:25):
house right now recording this, and so that's why this
even started.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Weird.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
But I'm playing the Opry and then I finish my
set and I go and I shoot my TV promos
and there's just a few extra people in the hallway
and then they're like, it's like ten minutes before the
show starts, and they're like, is anybody's seen Jelly Roll?
And he's not there yet. Now I know Jelly Roll
a little bit. I know he loves the Grand Old Opry.
(00:50):
I know he loves the history and tradition to country music.
And I know Jelly Roll is going to be there
on time. And so someone says, hey, could you go
out and do more comedy of jelly Roll night here
on time? And I said, there is no chance he's
going to be late. I'm telling you jelly Roll well
will be here when the show starts. It doesn't matter
if he made sound check or not. Of course he
(01:12):
was there, right, So jelly Roll shows up and again
I've been lucky enough. I think I've played the Opry.
I don't know at this point twenty times, maybe more,
or maybe a few less. And I've done that TV
show there probably forty or fifty times. There are certain
nights where an artist comes on that's new crushes, they
get a standing ovation. That's always special. There are certain
(01:33):
nights where an artist who has some history and some
hits crushes and gets a standing ovation that's always special.
That's like the first level of special. Now the second
level of super special is like when Garth shows up
and crushes and the place is just in hysterics because
they just watched Garth Brooks perform at the Grandite Opry.
You can count me in that group as well. It's
really really an amazing thing to see because you know,
(01:55):
Garth loves it, cares about it, He's inducted so many people.
He just he's the guy. And there was something I'd
never seen before, and it was with jelly Roll about
to perform I had never seen a crowd so energetic
and hungry for the performance pre performance than I did
that night. So I go out and I start the
(02:17):
TV show and they're like, okay, here we go three
two one, and I'm like, everybody, it's Bobby Bones. We're
here at the Grandel Opry and we're gonna have jelly
Roll and then boom again. It's like stone cold Steve
Austin the rock was coming down the aisle. The place
went berserk. It was unlike any Opry energy I had
ever seen before, especially before a performance. People were going
(02:42):
bonkers for jelly Roll. That were jelly Roll t shirts
all through the Opry. And I get it, a lot
of his fans and crowd had come to the Opry show,
but that's what the Opry is about, too, like exposing
new people to the Grand Ole Opry. I'd never seen
anything like it at the Grand Ole Opry, and I've
been to the Opry again over one hundred times. So
I was talking to my I said, hey, I want
to go up and record this and let people know
in case they don't know, and maybe they just know
(03:04):
a couple of jelly Roll songs only talk to God
will not need a favor jam, right, but how this
guy connects with folks is amazing to see. And that's it,
and that's why we're doing this. A couple things. Whan,
I want to give you guys a little backround on
jelly Roll and then two just play the first like
(03:29):
big thing that he had done with us and really
with the country community that we recorded. And I remember
jelly Roll coming in and we finished the interview and
I was going and I was refreshing and honest, and
then you guys just were like, holy crap. You guys
made me feel like the job that we did was good.
I thought it, and I just do what I do right,
and sometimes people like it, some most people don't. But
I don't deviate too much from me because it's me.
(03:51):
You know. I don't want to be something I'm not.
But I just remember thinking that was good and then
you guys were like, this was freaking awesome. And it
wasn't because of me, It was because of jelly Roll.
So a little about jelly Roll. I mean, his name
is jelly Roll. That was always weird to say whenever
we first started to play his songs on country music
on country radio and I guess I had known jelly
(04:13):
Roll a little bit before because I'd met him playing
golf down in Brentwood. I had seen him around time.
I met him before, and it was a fan but
I knew him as jelly Roll the rapper, which he
still is the rapper, but that's how I knew him.
I was like, it's jelly Roll the rapper. But jelly
Roll is like, for real, dude, tattoos all in his face.
(04:36):
Like you see him, you kind of know what you're
gonna get. But his real name obviously is not jelly Roll.
His real name is Jason Jason de Ford D E
f O r D. His mom started calling him jelly Roll.
He's got now rock number ones and country number ones.
He was writing number one on the Billboard Emerging Artist
chart in February. He's been at it for a long
time music wise. It's not somebody who just like popped
(04:59):
up and some notes that we wrote down here. Jelly
Roll is married to Bunny to Ford aka Bunny XO,
has two children from a previous relationship. Although he's new
to country music, jelly Roll grew up just south of
downtown in Nashville, where he didn't spend a lot of
time playing the Honkey Talks, but rapping and so his
independent album, The Big sal Story in twenty twelve hit
(05:24):
a lot of hip hop stuff. But again, he's one
of those guys too that you just understand and believe
that the guy's from here. He understands country music. And
if it's not even about the history of country music,
it's like the message of country music and why you
do country music, because to me, country music is never
about sonics as much as it is the art, why
you're singing it, how you're singing it. There's a documentary
(05:44):
on Hulu that you can talk about. It's a struggles
with addiction, mental health prison. You know, he's done a
lot to give back to folks in prison because I
think he knows that he didn't have a lot of
chances growing up and he ended up there, and he
wants to make sure people that are there also have
a shot while they're in and once they get out.
So here we go. I wanted to play this back
for you guys, and if you've heard it, you've heard it.
(06:05):
But it's not gonna hurt anything put up on the feed.
This is from months and months and months ago. It
was jelly Rolls first big national interview and he came
to the show and crushed it, and it was the
first time I had spent any time with him talking professionally,
and I loved it. So here it is a special
Bobby Cast, only because I was so moved by the
performance at the Grand Ole Opry. Here is Jelly Roll.
(06:27):
This is the Bobby Cast. I saw that you have
posted announcement Seni, you're coming on the show, and that
The Rock had liked it. Yes, sir, on your Instagram. Yes,
how do you know the Rock? Uh?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Dude, it's kind of weird. So you know, the Rock
has real Nashville roots, like super Nashville roots. So he
was like, I think it went to mcgavic. So he
just keeps his finger on the pulse of Nashville, like
he's just like engulfed in the culture. And I think,
like a song am I randomly came up on his play.
It's like the most random occurrence ever. And somebody reached
out was like, yo, the Rock's gonna post a saw
a video with one of your songs.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I was like, please don't play with me. It's like,
don't do that to me.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It was like, I swear to God, this was like
four or five years six years ago, and he sure did.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
And ever since then we stayed in touch.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Man, he was the first person to congratulate me whenever
I got invited to the grand Old Lobery.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And he congratulated you.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
How he sent me a voice He sends like the
voice memos. That's like his thing.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
You know, He'll like, you got a voice memo from
the rock?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, I want to play it, but
I don't want to be that guy. Yeah. I mean
I listened to it every now and then to put
myself up.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's like it's like my pre workout before I go
get drunk, because I don't work out, so right before
I go to a bar, I'll listen to like a
voice memo from the rock.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Jelly rolls with us. Let's talk about for the audience
that hasn't come across from music yet or who you are, Like,
what's up with the name jelly roll?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
So I'm obviously looked the part. And my mother named
me that whenever I was a little chubby kid, been
fat my whole life, and she tried to call me
jelly roll when I was young, and I spent the
next thirty years trying to grow into the name.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I think I've done it, and yeah, just stuck.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And then I had a guy in high school that
jokingly called me jelly Roll. He didn't know that was
my house name. And his name was one arm Clay
and you won't believe it, but he had one arm
and one arm Clay was like, we should call you
jelly Roll. I'm one arm Clay and you'll be jelly
Ro's like, my mama calls me jelly Roll. And then
once the high school starts calling you something, you know
that's the kid in Kaboodle.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
And so when did you start doing music?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
I started writing songs whenever I was like seven or eight.
In the words of Brantley Gilbert, I didn't know I
could sing, but I knew I could talk fast, So
I wrote a lot of raps. What did it for
me was my mother stro First of all, my mother
follows this show and she only follows like six people,
and I don't even think I'm one of them. I
think it's like my three aunts, some dude that she
shouldn't be following that has a six pack in the
(08:47):
Bobby Bone show.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So if you want to put me on y'all's Instagram,
i'd be.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Five, we'll put you up there.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
But uh yeah, just kind of just kind of came
that way.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
So I do want to play some of the song
because it's such a good song. This is called Son
of a Sinner, and I'm gonna play it for you
now from Jelly Row. I'm just.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
A center searching some new ways I can get. I'm
a pedal to the hell.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And if you have a under way, we write be song.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So it's kind of a different approach from you from
what I've heard, Like this is very emotional you singing.
It's I mean, it's a country song, Like why create
this song in this way?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Well, I had a record. I've always wrote very cathartic music.
My mother struggled with addictions and mental health issues when
I was younger. She's a totally different woman now. But Bobby,
she would listen to music and it would change everything.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
She'd put old records on it smokes cigarettes in that
old mumu and sit at the kitchen table and just
white trashes could be just singing along to Bob seeg
or Waylon Jennings and I just remember thinking, man, I
want to make music that makes people feel like this
music makes my mother feel. You know, had my mother
had help from a doctor, I might have been a
surgeon and I had a six pack and been called
slim totem or something. But it's it just turned out
(10:07):
the other way. So I've always kind of wrote real
songs for real people's with my goal, and the country
thing was just kind of me leaning into my roots.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I was born and raised right here in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
You know, it's every kid's dream in Nashville to some
sort to be a country music artist. And it just
kind of happened organically. Me and Ernest were in the
studio about as high as a hippie, about three sheets gone,
and picked up a guitar and there it went.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
When you played the Opry I think it was in
the last year, twenty twenty one, right, that'd be a
special moment, especially growing up here in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, it's like not only the historic side of country music,
but it's the side of like driving by.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
There my whole life, dude.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I remember the grand old Opry House from the Screaming
Delta Demon at opry Land. That is old school Nashville talk.
Before that whack mall was that Moss Sucks. Before that
mall was there, it was a theme park, you know
what I mean. So we would watch it from the
theme park.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
It was like I just from as a kid, just thinking, man,
and yeah, it was just like a dream come true
on all fronts.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Did your family think it was super cool that you
were performing in that circle?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Oh yeah, dude. My mother came, My whole family came.
It was a white trash bash, Dude.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
We were all there.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Everybody wore their Sunday best man. You should have seen.
I bought a sports coat. It was big, dude. It's
a big deal.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Man.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
My daughter got dressed up. It was huge for us.
We don't dress up like that for funerals or weddings.
I mean it was that big of a deal.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Were you nervous?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I'm nervous now. This whole thing is unreal.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Do you got a really I'm a kid that was
spent most of his juvenile life in jail. Dude, you
are the Joe Rogan of country music. I am sitting
on this is I am here?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You know what I mean? It's like I was you
think I'm nervous for all this.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You know, I don't want to cuss, but yeah, this
is all my nervousness makes me want to start spouting
out of the mouth.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
What is it about now that I mean? Cause you're
I'll just say, you're kind of blowing up more mainstream
than ever. Like, what is it about this chapter of
your life that is creating this for you? Now?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I think it's the ten year overnight success story, right,
kid that slept in a van and did two hundred
and thirty shows a year for one hundred dollars a show. Dude,
I used to open up for a pack of bubble
gum and a bag of bud you know what I mean.
So it's like, I think it's just years of writing
a thousand songs and thousands of songs and just kind
of coming here. And I don't know, I think it's
getting the opportunity to sit in places like this and
(12:18):
tell my story. That's probably helping the most, because when
you look at me, you probably don't expect to hear
from me what you hear, you know, So what.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Is your story?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
If someone said, hey, man, we're thinking about doing a book.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
With you, right, are you considering it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I well, let's hear your story. What is and you
know you can tie it up a bit, But what
is your story that you think inspires so many people?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I want y'all to be clear. Bobby Bonham just signed
me to a book publishing deal on this show, y'all.
So in a nutshell, I'm from Antiock, Tennessee. I grew
up in a middle lower class community. My father was
a hard working meat salesman. He ran a meat company
called d fort S d Fort Oh sale meets it's
our family name on the side. He book betts. My
mother struggle with addiction. I was the youngest of four.
(13:00):
I never controlled the radio. That's the reason that I
make the kind of music I make now. And at
about the age of fourteen, I started making a series
of decisions that would lead to what we call the
revolving door of the judicial system. And I spent probably
twelve years in and out of that system, probably nine
years in, three years out, you know, the old do
(13:21):
a year in three months home, two years in four
months home kind of thing. And I won't even talk
about the crimes because I don't think there's no glory
in them. And I'm not proud of them, but it
is a part of my story. And it's also too
many to list on this show, but I uh, yeah, man,
I had a Damascus Road experience in the old Baptist term.
(13:42):
On May twenty second, two thousand and eight, I was
at CSA on Hardin Place, right down the street from here.
I was in sail two twenty three, and a guarden
knocked on my door and it told me that I
had had a daughter. And I knew that I'd heard
that I had got a young woman pregnant during one
of my outs or ends, I guess in that case,
but I had. But when I was back in jail,
(14:03):
the baby was born, and I just remember thinking, man,
you know, I had a good father. He was a hustler,
but he was a really good man. And I was like,
I want to be a good father, you know. And
I didn't. I didn't have any skill sets. I'd never
had a job. I'm still to this day not qualified
to do much more than talk to you and sing.
And I was like, well, I know I can do music.
So I came home and started selling see these office
spindles and mixtapes out of trunks and doing shows and
(14:27):
you know, selling little bag of bud here and there
when I had to, but I'd got away from real criminal,
nefarious activities, and uh yeah, I kind of led to here.
And now I'm sitting here at the Bobby Bone show,
you know, ready to talk to lunchbox about drinking tequila?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Are you a big tequila drinker?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Oh? Goodness?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
That the drink?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Oh boy, listen, it's like when you blow the whistle
of a dog hears and he's the only one of
the room that hears it.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Can we are we shooting some? You got some?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I thought this was where you busted out the ball
like well, coincidentally, the Rocks sent us some terror of mine.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I was gonna be like, yes, you have a lot
of face tattoos. How many on your face?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I never counted.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Well, I'm guessing well some of them connect. Right When
you have to commit to your first face tattoo? Is
that a big decision?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
I was too young to commit to anything when I
did that. For what it's worth, what was the first one?
I think I had the cross and the tear drop
at the same time when I was one of my
stints on a state funded vacation.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh, you had them done in prison. Oh yeah, I
didn't seem safe.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
No, no, no, but it's it's the safest thing there.
You think that's not safe. You see the stuff that
happens in prison. That right there is great a safety.
But let me tell you that that would pass the commission,
the CDC would have prove compared to the other stuff
happening in there.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Well, you have a rose up near your I do,
above your left eye. It connects down to what is that?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It's a heart with a locket And at this.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Point you've seen it so many times it's probably just
your face right.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Well, I see it backwards too, So you know, you
got to think when you're telling me somethings on.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I don't know what side what's on?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
You have one that goes down Bobby Bones is reading describe.
He also has one that's like a straight line going
down into his left eye and it comes down below. Yeah,
what's the word above the eyebrow?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
My son?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Noah, okay, And this is ignorance on my part. But
we've always heard that the tear drops, Like if you
have a tear drop and it's not filled in why
I'm just asking, I don't know. Ignorance you can teach me.
If it's not filled in, you attempted to kill someone
and we're unsuccessful. If it's filled in, it was a success.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
No comment.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
That's why I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Minor for the tears, would never forget.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
We should see powerful.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
But I asked, let's take a quick pause for a
message from our sponsor, Jelly Rolls in studio by the way, which,
(17:07):
by the way, dead Man Walking number one rock song.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
As of today.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
I thought, that's why we're shooting tequila and your muffed
the punt.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
None of us say most added dead Man Walking number
one on the rock chart. Do we have a clip
of that ray?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Same album?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Here it is? And you would you consider yourself first
and foremost a hip hop artist?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
No, no, no, dude, I consider myself a singer songwriter.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
I guess I just knew you from doing hip hop
first though, crazy and it's you being a hip hop
artist and then the rock stuff and now the country stuff.
But I think that's that's the attitude, like you're just
creating based on what you feel.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Just make just make real music for real people. I
call it therapeutic music. Byby, it's just important. Some music's
meant to be heard, and some music is meant to
be felt, and I hyper focus on making music to
people can feel. You know. It's kind of the Willie
Nelson effect. I'm a he wasn't big, but I'm a big,
jovial guy in real life, you know, kind of a hippie.
But Willie wrote the saddest songs, and I feel like
that's kind of where when I get in that studio,
(18:09):
my wife calls it my uh confessional booth.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
It's kind of my therapy.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Do you ever confessed to something? And she's like, I
didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
No, no, no, dude, we're best friends. Dude, I can't
surprise that one with anything. I wish I could surprise her.
We've lost all surprise. She helps me find bulls on
my butt, I mean, where as close as you could be.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Boils on his butt, Like they're so close, she'll look
to find them.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Sure, the watch the watch of screaming at me?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Why thank you? I was hoping it was.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Is that is that real?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well no, in case somebody wants to hit me in
the head later, it depends on whose.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Asp And it looks loaded with diamonds, Yes, sir, like
that is my.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Wife bought me this back to her? Shout out to
my wife, Bunny. I love her to death.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And your wife's name is Bunny bu n an I E.
And is that? Is it like jelly roll Bunny or
is her name really Bunny?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Her name is Bunny. Yes, he was Bunny before me.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So you ever think about changing your name officially to
jelly role so it could be a legal name.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I've thought about it, but I just I don't. You know.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I don't like going. I don't like paperwork. You probably
could imagine.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, I've considered making Bones my real middle name so
I can use it or if I run for office,
I can officially use it. When you run for office?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Can I be your running mate? Did I get a
book deal? One show? But I'm blown away by this.
This is more than I ever expected.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
What are your life shows like?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Like?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Incredible? Okay, let me brag for a second. And I'm
a humble guy, but man, we turn that thing upside down.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It is.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
The live shows cover everything from old classic rock to
hip hop to country, the soul. We do a little
motown in there. I mean, it is an incredible show.
It's a live band to guitars, bass DJ to keep
the old school hip hop element alive and well more
of an MC than a DJ. But he'll still scratch
a little bit here and there. Drums, we do it right.
Adding a steel player this year, it's gonna be fire.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
You Hadding a still player, we are It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
We got a full blown country album in the works. Baby,
this was this, you know, make no mistake. It looks
like a toe tap. But I'm finna do a cannonball
in the country music bubble.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I'm on the way. I'm belly flopping.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I saw that you and Branley are doing some shows together.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
One of my favorite dudes on earth.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So how did Brandley Gilbert? I guess he got in
touch with you and said, hey, come do some shows
with me.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
He called me one night, which was like the craziest
call ever. But I kept hearing around town, hey man,
you need to meet Brandley Gilbert. Man, y'all look like
y'all get in trouble, and I love people I'll get
in trouble with. And everybody kept telling him, hey, have
you met Jelly Roll? Y'all should meet and he finally,
you know, I guess the word of traveled. He called
me and said he I want to do some shows
next summer. And what's crazy is I had done a
podcast with my wife a couple of years earlier, and
(20:41):
I was like, when it comes to doing shows, I
think artists missed the old school approach of like doing
it for people and doing it for the exposure. So
I was like, if this was two years ago, my
wife's podcast, three years ago, I said, if Brandley Gilbert,
kid Rocker Shined Down called me, I would not even
ask what the amount of money was. I'd say, yes,
I want to go on tour with them. And I'm
(21:03):
literally doing thirty dates with Shine Down this year, in
like ten dates with Brandley Gilbert.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, it was just a complete manifestation.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So I'm looking at you and you're in black and
you got the chains on and the face tattoos and
the bling. Do you know we've met before?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Oh yeah no, listen. I tried to make him turn
the golf cart around and.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Chase you, but we've met, and I didn't want to.
I've met Jellyroll playing golf before.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Now I was fixing him to say, this is the
most memory I have was I was with Steve Hodges
from Sony.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Right, and he's like playing golf on a nice course.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I didn't want to blow his fine and be like
I've seen Jelly Roll playing in a nice golf course.
Oh yeah, So are you? Are you a big golfer?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Well, I'm I'm big and golf, but I'm not a
big golfer. I'm not a good golfer, but I really
I enjoy anything that you can have a cocktail at
nine am and people don't judge you. And golf is
that sport. We've all been out there with an old
man that ordered a jack and coke at eight fifteen
in the morning. Nobody says nothing to that old man
except that's awesome, right. That only happens on tour in
(22:03):
a golf course.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You know, when I saw you, you was a big
record guy. Were you guys talking about this project now or.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
No, we're just having life.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
No, I was already I'd already signed with Broken Bow
at that time, and we were just you know, I
love how this man.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
He's a good dude, and you know, I've got a
you know, just good dude man.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
He's find of golf with We play good together and
I'll also gas him up, get him drunk on that
back nine. And I think people intentionally bring me out
on days when they want to get loose.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Whenever you have to go to the golf course, so
you know it's tucked in and get you nice cauld
I saw you looking like a golfer, Yes, sir, Does
that feel foreign with the collared shirt?
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, I never looked goof here. Yeah, I've never looked
good here. Man.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I'm telling you, I don't wear collar church for nothing,
but the opera. I didn't even wear him the court.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
How many times do you think you've been to court?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Oh? Fifty, easy, one hundred. I couldn't even imagine.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
If we get serious for a second, what would you
say to a kid now that's listening to this at
fourteen fifteen years old, that maybe is not growing up
in the most ideal situation and has to make some
tough choices right now like you did.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Man, it's if we can get serious about that subject.
We're doing a show later in Nashville this year, big show,
and I'm donating one hundred percent of the money from
the show to help build a music program in the
juvenile here in Davidson County, and I'm matching it with
my own money dollar for dollar.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So you're raising money and then matching the money you raise.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yes, sir, I believe artists need to start stroking a
check man. I hate when artists just want a fundraise
and they don't want to reach in their old, precious
bank account.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Put your money where your mouth is, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And why is that important to you?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Because I think these kids.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
When I was in juvenile Bobby, nobody ever came to
talk to me that I understood, right, God bless them.
The Gideons would come and they'd slide a Bible under
the door, and I appreciate that because I read that
Bible a thousand times and they'd go, God bless you,
young man. But you know, as an eighty year old
dude with a suit and tie that was disconnected by
a door, nobody comes to it and gives these kids hope.
And I've been to the adult prison and I've been
(23:50):
to the juvenile prison. The adult prison is full of
a bunch of grown men who need to figure out
a way to break a cycle. The juveniles full of
a bunch of young kids that don't think they know
any better any better, you know. And I'm a big
advocate for justice reform because when I was sixteen, I
made a decision that I'm not proud of, but ended
up getting charged as an adult. And here I stand
in front of you, twenty years removed from that decision.
(24:11):
I'm not allowed to carry a firearm. I'm not allowed
to vote. I just had to fight tooth and nail
to get a passport. I'm missing millions of dollars in
Canada that I'll never be able to go get because
of a decision I made twenty years ago. I was
sixteen years old, dude. I mean, I don't know if
I can say this, but I hadn't even started sprouting
hair down there, you know, And here I was being
charged as a full blown out there. I couldn't buy
(24:33):
a pack of cigarettes, but you justified my criminal act
is enough to charge me as an adult. I'm super
passionate about that. These kids need chances, they need to
see outside of their environment. I have people right now
by me that are from my neighborhood that never left
my neighborhood. They watched the Tennessee Titans on TV, and
I call them now that I'm successful I'm like, I'll
take you to a game. They're like, no, I'm cool.
(24:54):
I'm like, you know that stadium's eleven minutes from your house.
Never seen it. They don't know anyth thing past that environment.
Nobody ever comes through and tries to help these kids, man,
And that's what I'm the most passionate about, and that's
what i want to help with the most. And I'm
gonna put my money where my mouth is when it
comes to it.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
What about your kids? How do you planning to be
a good dad and use what you've been through as
an example to your kids.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
My daughter is almost to be fourteen this month, and
her mother had got into about with heroin and had
a rough addiction, and we ended up getting custoded of
her money, me and my wife eight or nine years ago.
I have my daughter all the time. She flies out
on weekends. I mean, I see her this morning on
the way to school. I'll be the first thing she
(25:38):
sees when she comes home from school. And to me,
parenting is just about honesty, you know, It's just about
being really honest and having an open dialogue. These kids
are exposed to stuff so much faster than we were
because of the internet.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Dude. Back whenever I wanted to get a little risky, I.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Had to go put together pieces of magazines, right, you know,
I had to go find them in various spots. You know,
these kids are exposed to so much stuff, and Uh,
to me, it's just about being honest and having a dialogue.
My my daughter is is like, I call her my
little road dog. That's my little homie. You know, that's
my little best friend. And we talk like that and
every now and then, you got to be dad. You
got to growl and show your teeth. But ultimately it's
(26:16):
just about bringing her along the way and keeping her
as close as you can, just kind of watching it grow.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Sounds like honesty is a massive part of who you are.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Yeah, Lunchbox has met me outside of here. Same guy
that's sitting here, The same guy was there.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
You know, where'd you guys meet?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Well, softball.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
We played softball together and we drink a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
We did. It's factual, So I was I was excited
to bring this up.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
You play softball, you play golf, yeap, where are you
doing the equestrian.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Dude, I'm an oversize listen, I am an athlete and
an alcoholics body, Bobby, I'm trying to tell you, man,
I have I had a bomb, didn't I?
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I had a stinger, Dude.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
I had the most famous base hit in celebrity softball history.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
I was one of the celebrity game.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
But you guys are like a secret lead if you're
something Tuesday nights, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, yeah, and we bowled on Wednesdays. Come hang out,
we'll talk about that book.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Jelly rolls here with us again. Congratulations. I dead Ben
Walking a number one songs. It's great. Son of a
Center again, most added at country radio. And you have
a whole country album coming out.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
I do Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Me and Brandley have been writing a lot. Me and
Ernest I got some stuff in the kettle pop Man,
I'm cooking.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Baby.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
We're gonna play Son of a Center now. But man,
just appreciate you coming in. You know, I think you
got to You have a great message. I think you
can speak to the people that you want to speak to.
And again, you're probably one of the only people that can,
you know, because unless you come from something, you almost
don't want to listen to people lecture you. You know,
I'm from a very small town in Arkansas and it's
like people don't understand unless they've experienced it. So I
(27:45):
appreciate your message, and I think you're probably reaching a
lot of people when others can't so, and you have
to go through a lot to actually get that message
and gather those tools. But man, it's good to see
you here.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I feel good, dude. I'm a huge fan of the show.
My mama's a fan of the show. We're all like,
this is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Man.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
We're keeping up with the big acting debut and I'm
looking forward to drinking with Lunchbox again. I'm totally in
the know of this show. This isn't I didn't do
research on the way in. I literally I seen Luke
Comb sit in his seat and I was like, we're
getting close. I'm bigger than Luke, but it looks like
he's comfortable in it. So now that I'm in it,
I feel great and I'd love to come back and
talk again. And one thing you're always going to get
(28:23):
from me, Bobby, for better or worse, it's honesty and real.
And I do want to be a voice for the voiceless.
I do want to help the people that you know.
The music's here to help and I think that's what
music did for me to this day. Music helps me
through my darkest moments. We got three minutes of songwriters
to change the way people feel, or to ride with
them in the darkest moment or the best moment of
their life. And I take those three minutes more than
(28:44):
I'm more serious and I take anything else in my life.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I appreciate that. And at jelly roll six point five
if you want to follow him. Yeah, baby, thanks for
listening to a Bobby Cast production.
So I played the Grand Old Opry earlier this week,
and I did my comedy set like fifteen minutes or so,
and I can just feel I can just feel the
positive anticipation. I would even call it a positive tension.
It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. And so, by the way,
everybody's Bobby here. We're doing a special episode of the
Bobby Cast here and and by myself over at the
(00:25):
house right now recording this, and so that's why this
even started.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Weird.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
But I'm playing the Opry and then I finish my
set and I go and I shoot my TV promos
and there's just a few extra people in the hallway
and then they're like, it's like ten minutes before the
show starts, and they're like, is anybody's seen Jelly Roll?
And he's not there yet. Now I know Jelly Roll
a little bit. I know he loves the Grand Old Opry.
(00:50):
I know he loves the history and tradition to country music.
And I know Jelly Roll is going to be there
on time. And so someone says, hey, could you go
out and do more comedy of jelly Roll night here
on time? And I said, there is no chance he's
going to be late. I'm telling you jelly Roll well
will be here when the show starts. It doesn't matter
if he made sound check or not. Of course he
(01:12):
was there, right, So jelly Roll shows up and again
I've been lucky enough. I think I've played the Opry.
I don't know at this point twenty times, maybe more,
or maybe a few less. And I've done that TV
show there probably forty or fifty times. There are certain
nights where an artist comes on that's new crushes, they
get a standing ovation. That's always special. There are certain
(01:33):
nights where an artist who has some history and some
hits crushes and gets a standing ovation that's always special.
That's like the first level of special. Now the second
level of super special is like when Garth shows up
and crushes and the place is just in hysterics because
they just watched Garth Brooks perform at the Grandite Opry.
You can count me in that group as well. It's
really really an amazing thing to see because you know,
(01:55):
Garth loves it, cares about it, He's inducted so many people.
He just he's the guy. And there was something I'd
never seen before, and it was with jelly Roll about
to perform I had never seen a crowd so energetic
and hungry for the performance pre performance than I did
that night. So I go out and I start the
(02:17):
TV show and they're like, okay, here we go three
two one, and I'm like, everybody, it's Bobby Bones. We're
here at the Grandel Opry and we're gonna have jelly
Roll and then boom again. It's like stone cold Steve
Austin the rock was coming down the aisle. The place
went berserk. It was unlike any Opry energy I had
ever seen before, especially before a performance. People were going
(02:42):
bonkers for jelly Roll. That were jelly Roll t shirts
all through the Opry. And I get it, a lot
of his fans and crowd had come to the Opry show,
but that's what the Opry is about, too, like exposing
new people to the Grand Ole Opry. I'd never seen
anything like it at the Grand Ole Opry, and I've
been to the Opry again over one hundred times. So
I was talking to my I said, hey, I want
to go up and record this and let people know
in case they don't know, and maybe they just know
(03:04):
a couple of jelly Roll songs only talk to God
will not need a favor jam, right, but how this
guy connects with folks is amazing to see. And that's it,
and that's why we're doing this. A couple things. Whan,
I want to give you guys a little backround on
jelly Roll and then two just play the first like
(03:29):
big thing that he had done with us and really
with the country community that we recorded. And I remember
jelly Roll coming in and we finished the interview and
I was going and I was refreshing and honest, and
then you guys just were like, holy crap. You guys
made me feel like the job that we did was good.
I thought it, and I just do what I do right,
and sometimes people like it, some most people don't. But
I don't deviate too much from me because it's me.
(03:51):
You know. I don't want to be something I'm not.
But I just remember thinking that was good and then
you guys were like, this was freaking awesome. And it
wasn't because of me, It was because of jelly Roll.
So a little about jelly Roll. I mean, his name
is jelly Roll. That was always weird to say whenever
we first started to play his songs on country music
on country radio and I guess I had known jelly
(04:13):
Roll a little bit before because I'd met him playing
golf down in Brentwood. I had seen him around time.
I met him before, and it was a fan but
I knew him as jelly Roll the rapper, which he
still is the rapper, but that's how I knew him.
I was like, it's jelly Roll the rapper. But jelly
Roll is like, for real, dude, tattoos all in his face.
(04:36):
Like you see him, you kind of know what you're
gonna get. But his real name obviously is not jelly Roll.
His real name is Jason Jason de Ford D E
f O r D. His mom started calling him jelly Roll.
He's got now rock number ones and country number ones.
He was writing number one on the Billboard Emerging Artist
chart in February. He's been at it for a long
time music wise. It's not somebody who just like popped
(04:59):
up and some notes that we wrote down here. Jelly
Roll is married to Bunny to Ford aka Bunny XO,
has two children from a previous relationship. Although he's new
to country music, jelly Roll grew up just south of
downtown in Nashville, where he didn't spend a lot of
time playing the Honkey Talks, but rapping and so his
independent album, The Big sal Story in twenty twelve hit
(05:24):
a lot of hip hop stuff. But again, he's one
of those guys too that you just understand and believe
that the guy's from here. He understands country music. And
if it's not even about the history of country music,
it's like the message of country music and why you
do country music, because to me, country music is never
about sonics as much as it is the art, why
you're singing it, how you're singing it. There's a documentary
(05:44):
on Hulu that you can talk about. It's a struggles
with addiction, mental health prison. You know, he's done a
lot to give back to folks in prison because I
think he knows that he didn't have a lot of
chances growing up and he ended up there, and he
wants to make sure people that are there also have
a shot while they're in and once they get out.
So here we go. I wanted to play this back
for you guys, and if you've heard it, you've heard it.
(06:05):
But it's not gonna hurt anything put up on the feed.
This is from months and months and months ago. It
was jelly Rolls first big national interview and he came
to the show and crushed it, and it was the
first time I had spent any time with him talking professionally,
and I loved it. So here it is a special
Bobby Cast, only because I was so moved by the
performance at the Grand Ole Opry. Here is Jelly Roll.
(06:27):
This is the Bobby Cast. I saw that you have
posted announcement Seni, you're coming on the show, and that
The Rock had liked it. Yes, sir, on your Instagram. Yes,
how do you know the Rock? Uh?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Dude, it's kind of weird. So you know, the Rock
has real Nashville roots, like super Nashville roots. So he
was like, I think it went to mcgavic. So he
just keeps his finger on the pulse of Nashville, like
he's just like engulfed in the culture. And I think,
like a song am I randomly came up on his play.
It's like the most random occurrence ever. And somebody reached
out was like, yo, the Rock's gonna post a saw
a video with one of your songs.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I was like, please don't play with me. It's like,
don't do that to me.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It was like, I swear to God, this was like
four or five years six years ago, and he sure did.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
And ever since then we stayed in touch.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Man, he was the first person to congratulate me whenever
I got invited to the grand Old Lobery.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And he congratulated you.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
How he sent me a voice He sends like the
voice memos. That's like his thing.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
You know, He'll like, you got a voice memo from
the rock?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, I want to play it, but
I don't want to be that guy. Yeah. I mean
I listened to it every now and then to put
myself up.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's like it's like my pre workout before I go
get drunk, because I don't work out, so right before
I go to a bar, I'll listen to like a
voice memo from the rock.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Jelly rolls with us. Let's talk about for the audience
that hasn't come across from music yet or who you are, Like,
what's up with the name jelly roll?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
So I'm obviously looked the part. And my mother named
me that whenever I was a little chubby kid, been
fat my whole life, and she tried to call me
jelly roll when I was young, and I spent the
next thirty years trying to grow into the name.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I think I've done it, and yeah, just stuck.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And then I had a guy in high school that
jokingly called me jelly Roll. He didn't know that was
my house name. And his name was one arm Clay
and you won't believe it, but he had one arm
and one arm Clay was like, we should call you
jelly Roll. I'm one arm Clay and you'll be jelly
Ro's like, my mama calls me jelly Roll. And then
once the high school starts calling you something, you know
that's the kid in Kaboodle.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
And so when did you start doing music?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
I started writing songs whenever I was like seven or eight.
In the words of Brantley Gilbert, I didn't know I
could sing, but I knew I could talk fast, So
I wrote a lot of raps. What did it for
me was my mother stro First of all, my mother
follows this show and she only follows like six people,
and I don't even think I'm one of them. I
think it's like my three aunts, some dude that she
shouldn't be following that has a six pack in the
(08:47):
Bobby Bone show.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So if you want to put me on y'all's Instagram,
i'd be.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Five, we'll put you up there.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
But uh yeah, just kind of just kind of came
that way.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
So I do want to play some of the song
because it's such a good song. This is called Son
of a Sinner, and I'm gonna play it for you
now from Jelly Row. I'm just.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
A center searching some new ways I can get. I'm
a pedal to the hell.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And if you have a under way, we write be song.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So it's kind of a different approach from you from
what I've heard, Like this is very emotional you singing.
It's I mean, it's a country song, Like why create
this song in this way?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Well, I had a record. I've always wrote very cathartic music.
My mother struggled with addictions and mental health issues when
I was younger. She's a totally different woman now. But Bobby,
she would listen to music and it would change everything.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
She'd put old records on it smokes cigarettes in that
old mumu and sit at the kitchen table and just
white trashes could be just singing along to Bob seeg
or Waylon Jennings and I just remember thinking, man, I
want to make music that makes people feel like this
music makes my mother feel. You know, had my mother
had help from a doctor, I might have been a
surgeon and I had a six pack and been called
slim totem or something. But it's it just turned out
(10:07):
the other way. So I've always kind of wrote real
songs for real people's with my goal, and the country
thing was just kind of me leaning into my roots.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I was born and raised right here in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
You know, it's every kid's dream in Nashville to some
sort to be a country music artist. And it just
kind of happened organically. Me and Ernest were in the
studio about as high as a hippie, about three sheets gone,
and picked up a guitar and there it went.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
When you played the Opry I think it was in
the last year, twenty twenty one, right, that'd be a
special moment, especially growing up here in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, it's like not only the historic side of country music,
but it's the side of like driving by.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
There my whole life, dude.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I remember the grand old Opry House from the Screaming
Delta Demon at opry Land. That is old school Nashville talk.
Before that whack mall was that Moss Sucks. Before that
mall was there, it was a theme park, you know
what I mean. So we would watch it from the
theme park.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
It was like I just from as a kid, just thinking, man,
and yeah, it was just like a dream come true
on all fronts.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Did your family think it was super cool that you
were performing in that circle?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Oh yeah, dude. My mother came, My whole family came.
It was a white trash bash, Dude.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
We were all there.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Everybody wore their Sunday best man. You should have seen.
I bought a sports coat. It was big, dude. It's
a big deal.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Man.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
My daughter got dressed up. It was huge for us.
We don't dress up like that for funerals or weddings.
I mean it was that big of a deal.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Were you nervous?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I'm nervous now. This whole thing is unreal.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Do you got a really I'm a kid that was
spent most of his juvenile life in jail. Dude, you
are the Joe Rogan of country music. I am sitting
on this is I am here?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You know what I mean? It's like I was you
think I'm nervous for all this.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You know, I don't want to cuss, but yeah, this
is all my nervousness makes me want to start spouting
out of the mouth.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
What is it about now that I mean? Cause you're
I'll just say, you're kind of blowing up more mainstream
than ever. Like, what is it about this chapter of
your life that is creating this for you? Now?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I think it's the ten year overnight success story, right,
kid that slept in a van and did two hundred
and thirty shows a year for one hundred dollars a show. Dude,
I used to open up for a pack of bubble
gum and a bag of bud you know what I mean.
So it's like, I think it's just years of writing
a thousand songs and thousands of songs and just kind
of coming here. And I don't know, I think it's
getting the opportunity to sit in places like this and
(12:18):
tell my story. That's probably helping the most, because when
you look at me, you probably don't expect to hear
from me what you hear, you know, So what.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Is your story?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
If someone said, hey, man, we're thinking about doing a book.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
With you, right, are you considering it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I well, let's hear your story. What is and you
know you can tie it up a bit, But what
is your story that you think inspires so many people?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I want y'all to be clear. Bobby Bonham just signed
me to a book publishing deal on this show, y'all.
So in a nutshell, I'm from Antiock, Tennessee. I grew
up in a middle lower class community. My father was
a hard working meat salesman. He ran a meat company
called d fort S d Fort Oh sale meets it's
our family name on the side. He book betts. My
mother struggle with addiction. I was the youngest of four.
(13:00):
I never controlled the radio. That's the reason that I
make the kind of music I make now. And at
about the age of fourteen, I started making a series
of decisions that would lead to what we call the
revolving door of the judicial system. And I spent probably
twelve years in and out of that system, probably nine
years in, three years out, you know, the old do
(13:21):
a year in three months home, two years in four
months home kind of thing. And I won't even talk
about the crimes because I don't think there's no glory
in them. And I'm not proud of them, but it
is a part of my story. And it's also too
many to list on this show, but I uh, yeah, man,
I had a Damascus Road experience in the old Baptist term.
(13:42):
On May twenty second, two thousand and eight, I was
at CSA on Hardin Place, right down the street from here.
I was in sail two twenty three, and a guarden
knocked on my door and it told me that I
had had a daughter. And I knew that I'd heard
that I had got a young woman pregnant during one
of my outs or ends, I guess in that case,
but I had. But when I was back in jail,
(14:03):
the baby was born, and I just remember thinking, man,
you know, I had a good father. He was a hustler,
but he was a really good man. And I was like,
I want to be a good father, you know. And
I didn't. I didn't have any skill sets. I'd never
had a job. I'm still to this day not qualified
to do much more than talk to you and sing.
And I was like, well, I know I can do music.
So I came home and started selling see these office
spindles and mixtapes out of trunks and doing shows and
(14:27):
you know, selling little bag of bud here and there
when I had to, but I'd got away from real criminal,
nefarious activities, and uh yeah, I kind of led to here.
And now I'm sitting here at the Bobby Bone show,
you know, ready to talk to lunchbox about drinking tequila?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Are you a big tequila drinker?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Oh? Goodness?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
That the drink?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Oh boy, listen, it's like when you blow the whistle
of a dog hears and he's the only one of
the room that hears it.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Can we are we shooting some? You got some?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I thought this was where you busted out the ball
like well, coincidentally, the Rocks sent us some terror of mine.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I was gonna be like, yes, you have a lot
of face tattoos. How many on your face?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I never counted.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Well, I'm guessing well some of them connect. Right When
you have to commit to your first face tattoo? Is
that a big decision?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
I was too young to commit to anything when I
did that. For what it's worth, what was the first one?
I think I had the cross and the tear drop
at the same time when I was one of my
stints on a state funded vacation.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh, you had them done in prison. Oh yeah, I
didn't seem safe.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
No, no, no, but it's it's the safest thing there.
You think that's not safe. You see the stuff that
happens in prison. That right there is great a safety.
But let me tell you that that would pass the commission,
the CDC would have prove compared to the other stuff
happening in there.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Well, you have a rose up near your I do,
above your left eye. It connects down to what is that?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It's a heart with a locket And at this.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Point you've seen it so many times it's probably just
your face right.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Well, I see it backwards too, So you know, you
got to think when you're telling me somethings on.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I don't know what side what's on?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
You have one that goes down Bobby Bones is reading describe.
He also has one that's like a straight line going
down into his left eye and it comes down below. Yeah,
what's the word above the eyebrow?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
My son?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Noah, okay, And this is ignorance on my part. But
we've always heard that the tear drops, Like if you
have a tear drop and it's not filled in why
I'm just asking, I don't know. Ignorance you can teach me.
If it's not filled in, you attempted to kill someone
and we're unsuccessful. If it's filled in, it was a success.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
No comment.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
That's why I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Minor for the tears, would never forget.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
We should see powerful.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
But I asked, let's take a quick pause for a
message from our sponsor, Jelly Rolls in studio by the way, which,
(17:07):
by the way, dead Man Walking number one rock song.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
As of today.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
I thought, that's why we're shooting tequila and your muffed
the punt.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
None of us say most added dead Man Walking number
one on the rock chart. Do we have a clip
of that ray?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Same album?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Here it is? And you would you consider yourself first
and foremost a hip hop artist?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
No, no, no, dude, I consider myself a singer songwriter.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
I guess I just knew you from doing hip hop
first though, crazy and it's you being a hip hop
artist and then the rock stuff and now the country stuff.
But I think that's that's the attitude, like you're just
creating based on what you feel.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Just make just make real music for real people. I
call it therapeutic music. Byby, it's just important. Some music's
meant to be heard, and some music is meant to
be felt, and I hyper focus on making music to
people can feel. You know. It's kind of the Willie
Nelson effect. I'm a he wasn't big, but I'm a big,
jovial guy in real life, you know, kind of a hippie.
But Willie wrote the saddest songs, and I feel like
that's kind of where when I get in that studio,
(18:09):
my wife calls it my uh confessional booth.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
It's kind of my therapy.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Do you ever confessed to something? And she's like, I
didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
No, no, no, dude, we're best friends. Dude, I can't
surprise that one with anything. I wish I could surprise her.
We've lost all surprise. She helps me find bulls on
my butt, I mean, where as close as you could be.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Boils on his butt, Like they're so close, she'll look
to find them.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Sure, the watch the watch of screaming at me?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Why thank you? I was hoping it was.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Is that is that real?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well no, in case somebody wants to hit me in
the head later, it depends on whose.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Asp And it looks loaded with diamonds, Yes, sir, like
that is my.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Wife bought me this back to her? Shout out to
my wife, Bunny. I love her to death.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And your wife's name is Bunny bu n an I E.
And is that? Is it like jelly roll Bunny or
is her name really Bunny?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Her name is Bunny. Yes, he was Bunny before me.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So you ever think about changing your name officially to
jelly role so it could be a legal name.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I've thought about it, but I just I don't. You know.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I don't like going. I don't like paperwork. You probably
could imagine.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, I've considered making Bones my real middle name so
I can use it or if I run for office,
I can officially use it. When you run for office?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Can I be your running mate? Did I get a
book deal? One show? But I'm blown away by this.
This is more than I ever expected.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
What are your life shows like?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Like?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Incredible? Okay, let me brag for a second. And I'm
a humble guy, but man, we turn that thing upside down.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It is.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
The live shows cover everything from old classic rock to
hip hop to country, the soul. We do a little
motown in there. I mean, it is an incredible show.
It's a live band to guitars, bass DJ to keep
the old school hip hop element alive and well more
of an MC than a DJ. But he'll still scratch
a little bit here and there. Drums, we do it right.
Adding a steel player this year, it's gonna be fire.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
You Hadding a still player, we are It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
We got a full blown country album in the works. Baby,
this was this, you know, make no mistake. It looks
like a toe tap. But I'm finna do a cannonball
in the country music bubble.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I'm on the way. I'm belly flopping.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I saw that you and Branley are doing some shows together.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
One of my favorite dudes on earth.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So how did Brandley Gilbert? I guess he got in
touch with you and said, hey, come do some shows
with me.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
He called me one night, which was like the craziest
call ever. But I kept hearing around town, hey man,
you need to meet Brandley Gilbert. Man, y'all look like
y'all get in trouble, and I love people I'll get
in trouble with. And everybody kept telling him, hey, have
you met Jelly Roll? Y'all should meet and he finally,
you know, I guess the word of traveled. He called
me and said he I want to do some shows
next summer. And what's crazy is I had done a
podcast with my wife a couple of years earlier, and
(20:41):
I was like, when it comes to doing shows, I
think artists missed the old school approach of like doing
it for people and doing it for the exposure. So
I was like, if this was two years ago, my
wife's podcast, three years ago, I said, if Brandley Gilbert,
kid Rocker Shined Down called me, I would not even
ask what the amount of money was. I'd say, yes,
I want to go on tour with them. And I'm
(21:03):
literally doing thirty dates with Shine Down this year, in
like ten dates with Brandley Gilbert.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, it was just a complete manifestation.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So I'm looking at you and you're in black and
you got the chains on and the face tattoos and
the bling. Do you know we've met before?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Oh yeah no, listen. I tried to make him turn
the golf cart around and.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Chase you, but we've met, and I didn't want to.
I've met Jellyroll playing golf before.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Now I was fixing him to say, this is the
most memory I have was I was with Steve Hodges
from Sony.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Right, and he's like playing golf on a nice course.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I didn't want to blow his fine and be like
I've seen Jelly Roll playing in a nice golf course.
Oh yeah, So are you? Are you a big golfer?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Well, I'm I'm big and golf, but I'm not a
big golfer. I'm not a good golfer, but I really
I enjoy anything that you can have a cocktail at
nine am and people don't judge you. And golf is
that sport. We've all been out there with an old
man that ordered a jack and coke at eight fifteen
in the morning. Nobody says nothing to that old man
except that's awesome, right. That only happens on tour in
(22:03):
a golf course.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You know, when I saw you, you was a big
record guy. Were you guys talking about this project now or.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
No, we're just having life.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
No, I was already I'd already signed with Broken Bow
at that time, and we were just you know, I
love how this man.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
He's a good dude, and you know, I've got a
you know, just good dude man.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
He's find of golf with We play good together and
I'll also gas him up, get him drunk on that
back nine. And I think people intentionally bring me out
on days when they want to get loose.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Whenever you have to go to the golf course, so
you know it's tucked in and get you nice cauld
I saw you looking like a golfer, Yes, sir, Does
that feel foreign with the collared shirt?
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, I never looked goof here. Yeah, I've never looked
good here. Man.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I'm telling you, I don't wear collar church for nothing,
but the opera. I didn't even wear him the court.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
How many times do you think you've been to court?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Oh? Fifty, easy, one hundred. I couldn't even imagine.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
If we get serious for a second, what would you
say to a kid now that's listening to this at
fourteen fifteen years old, that maybe is not growing up
in the most ideal situation and has to make some
tough choices right now like you did.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Man, it's if we can get serious about that subject.
We're doing a show later in Nashville this year, big show,
and I'm donating one hundred percent of the money from
the show to help build a music program in the
juvenile here in Davidson County, and I'm matching it with
my own money dollar for dollar.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So you're raising money and then matching the money you raise.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yes, sir, I believe artists need to start stroking a
check man. I hate when artists just want a fundraise
and they don't want to reach in their old, precious
bank account.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Put your money where your mouth is, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And why is that important to you?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Because I think these kids.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
When I was in juvenile Bobby, nobody ever came to
talk to me that I understood, right, God bless them.
The Gideons would come and they'd slide a Bible under
the door, and I appreciate that because I read that
Bible a thousand times and they'd go, God bless you,
young man. But you know, as an eighty year old
dude with a suit and tie that was disconnected by
a door, nobody comes to it and gives these kids hope.
And I've been to the adult prison and I've been
(23:50):
to the juvenile prison. The adult prison is full of
a bunch of grown men who need to figure out
a way to break a cycle. The juveniles full of
a bunch of young kids that don't think they know
any better any better, you know. And I'm a big
advocate for justice reform because when I was sixteen, I
made a decision that I'm not proud of, but ended
up getting charged as an adult. And here I stand
in front of you, twenty years removed from that decision.
(24:11):
I'm not allowed to carry a firearm. I'm not allowed
to vote. I just had to fight tooth and nail
to get a passport. I'm missing millions of dollars in
Canada that I'll never be able to go get because
of a decision I made twenty years ago. I was
sixteen years old, dude. I mean, I don't know if
I can say this, but I hadn't even started sprouting
hair down there, you know, And here I was being
charged as a full blown out there. I couldn't buy
(24:33):
a pack of cigarettes, but you justified my criminal act
is enough to charge me as an adult. I'm super
passionate about that. These kids need chances, they need to
see outside of their environment. I have people right now
by me that are from my neighborhood that never left
my neighborhood. They watched the Tennessee Titans on TV, and
I call them now that I'm successful I'm like, I'll
take you to a game. They're like, no, I'm cool.
(24:54):
I'm like, you know that stadium's eleven minutes from your house.
Never seen it. They don't know anyth thing past that environment.
Nobody ever comes through and tries to help these kids, man,
And that's what I'm the most passionate about, and that's
what i want to help with the most. And I'm
gonna put my money where my mouth is when it
comes to it.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
What about your kids? How do you planning to be
a good dad and use what you've been through as
an example to your kids.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
My daughter is almost to be fourteen this month, and
her mother had got into about with heroin and had
a rough addiction, and we ended up getting custoded of
her money, me and my wife eight or nine years ago.
I have my daughter all the time. She flies out
on weekends. I mean, I see her this morning on
the way to school. I'll be the first thing she
(25:38):
sees when she comes home from school. And to me,
parenting is just about honesty, you know, It's just about
being really honest and having an open dialogue. These kids
are exposed to stuff so much faster than we were
because of the internet.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Dude. Back whenever I wanted to get a little risky, I.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Had to go put together pieces of magazines, right, you know,
I had to go find them in various spots. You know,
these kids are exposed to so much stuff, and Uh,
to me, it's just about being honest and having a dialogue.
My my daughter is is like, I call her my
little road dog. That's my little homie. You know, that's
my little best friend. And we talk like that and
every now and then, you got to be dad. You
got to growl and show your teeth. But ultimately it's
(26:16):
just about bringing her along the way and keeping her
as close as you can, just kind of watching it grow.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Sounds like honesty is a massive part of who you are.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Yeah, Lunchbox has met me outside of here. Same guy
that's sitting here, The same guy was there.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
You know, where'd you guys meet?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Well, softball.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
We played softball together and we drink a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
We did. It's factual, So I was I was excited
to bring this up.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
You play softball, you play golf, yeap, where are you
doing the equestrian.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Dude, I'm an oversize listen, I am an athlete and
an alcoholics body, Bobby, I'm trying to tell you, man,
I have I had a bomb, didn't I?
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I had a stinger, Dude.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
I had the most famous base hit in celebrity softball history.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
I was one of the celebrity game.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
But you guys are like a secret lead if you're
something Tuesday nights, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, yeah, and we bowled on Wednesdays. Come hang out,
we'll talk about that book.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Jelly rolls here with us again. Congratulations. I dead Ben
Walking a number one songs. It's great. Son of a
Center again, most added at country radio. And you have
a whole country album coming out.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
I do Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Me and Brandley have been writing a lot. Me and
Ernest I got some stuff in the kettle pop Man,
I'm cooking.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Baby.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
We're gonna play Son of a Center now. But man,
just appreciate you coming in. You know, I think you
got to You have a great message. I think you
can speak to the people that you want to speak to.
And again, you're probably one of the only people that can,
you know, because unless you come from something, you almost
don't want to listen to people lecture you. You know,
I'm from a very small town in Arkansas and it's
like people don't understand unless they've experienced it. So I
(27:45):
appreciate your message, and I think you're probably reaching a
lot of people when others can't so, and you have
to go through a lot to actually get that message
and gather those tools. But man, it's good to see
you here.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I feel good, dude. I'm a huge fan of the show.
My mama's a fan of the show. We're all like,
this is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Man.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
We're keeping up with the big acting debut and I'm
looking forward to drinking with Lunchbox again. I'm totally in
the know of this show. This isn't I didn't do
research on the way in. I literally I seen Luke
Comb sit in his seat and I was like, we're
getting close. I'm bigger than Luke, but it looks like
he's comfortable in it. So now that I'm in it,
I feel great and I'd love to come back and
talk again. And one thing you're always going to get
(28:23):
from me, Bobby, for better or worse, it's honesty and real.
And I do want to be a voice for the voiceless.
I do want to help the people that you know.
The music's here to help and I think that's what
music did for me to this day. Music helps me
through my darkest moments. We got three minutes of songwriters
to change the way people feel, or to ride with
them in the darkest moment or the best moment of
their life. And I take those three minutes more than
(28:44):
I'm more serious and I take anything else in my life.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I appreciate that. And at jelly roll six point five
if you want to follow him. Yeah, baby, thanks for
listening to a Bobby Cast production.
Host
Bobby Bones
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