On April 22, 2025, the Tennessee Board of Parole recommended a pardon for Jelly Roll, the final decision belongs to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
Jelly Roll show to help the Impact Youth Outreach in Nashville
Jelly Roll holds a press conference about his first headlining show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, benefitting Impact Youth Outreach.
Stephanie Amador, Nashville Tennessean
- Tennessee’s parole board recommended a pardon for musician Jelly Roll (Jason DeFord).
- Jelly Roll’s pardon application highlighted his charitable work, music career, and global impact.
- His past crimes, including robbery and drug possession, are factors in the governor’s decision.
- Jelly Roll expressed hope for the pardon’s approval and emphasized its significance.
Nashville native country, pop, rap and rock superstar Jelly Roll, with support from a growing global network of friends, civic leaders and music industry executives, could soon see his criminal record cleared.
On April 22, the Tennessee Board of Parole recommended a pardon for the 40-year-old, formerly oft-incarcerated performer born Jason DeFord. The final decision regarding the pardon now belongs to Gov. Bill Lee.
The board held a nearly two-hour hearing and deliberations including testimony from Nashville Sheriff Daron Hall, who cited the performer’s emotional growth in a jail he manages.
“This was incredible. I pray this goes through. But today was special for me, regardless,” Jelly Roll wrote in a press statement.
One board member recused themselves from voting.
What has Jelly Roll done, to date, to earn his pardon?
Jelly Roll’s pardon application notably included statements from friends, civic leaders and numerous music industry executives, including Live Nation Entertainment CEO and President Michael Rapino, who noted how the artist has used his live concert earnings for considerable charitable giving for at-risk youth in the past few years.
Activities like holding a No. 1 celebration for his 2024 hit “I Am Not Okay” at North Nashville’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in mid-January support therapeutic rehabilitation of North America’s incarcerated communities.
“(Songwriting) started as a passion project that felt therapeutic and would end up changing my life in ways that I never dreamed imaginable and opened doors that I’ve never thought possible,” Jelly Roll said April 22.
Jelly Roll’s growing worldwide stardom impacting pardon necessity
Jelly Roll is seeking a pardon not just because of his desire, as he noted during his parole hearing, “to be an inspiration for people who are now where I used to be — to let them know that change is truly possible.” He also plans to “take (his) message of redemption through the power of music and faith through the rest of the world. God willing, to go do missionary work in my 50s and 60s.”
As a burgeoning global superstar, his next career step includes a world tour. But his criminal record continues to prevent him from freely traveling the globe.
To perform in Canada, he requires a special permit that can include long wait times for a decision, according to a letter from an immigration attorney submitted with his clemency packet.
As his growth develops to encompass double-digit numbers of chart-topping hits in multiple genres, 2025 also finds him not just debuting gospel anthems with Brandon Lake at the Grand Ole Opry and headlining at Stagecoach Festival and the Music City Rodeo. He’s also a regular guest on American Idol and has received literacy awareness honors at Oxford University.
The “I Need A Favor” vocalist appeared in Washington, D.C. in Jan. 2024 at Capitol Hill’s Dirksen Senate Office Building, to testify in a hearing during an open, hybrid-format session of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs entitled, “Stopping the Flow of Fentanyl: Public Awareness and Legislative Solutions.”
Five months later, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and YouTube Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen announced that he would join Chuck D, Grace Bowers, Breland, Kane Brown, Herbie Hancock, Denyce Graves, Teddy Swims, Justin Tranter, Armani White, and Lainey Wilson as U.S. Global Music Ambassadors in a Department of State-YouTube partnership aimed at “(elevating) music as a diplomatic platform to promote peace and democracy in support of the United States’ broader foreign policy goals.”
When will Jelly Roll’s pardon be decided upon? Factors in that decision?
Regarding his pardon, Jelly Roll has numerous crimes to consider. In 2002, he staged a breaking and entering robbery with two armed men and a female for $350, though he was unarmed. The robbery’s victims knew the female acquaintance, and she and Jelly Roll were immediately arrested. As a result, he was sentenced to serve a year in prison and additional probation.
In 2008, on-patrol Nashville police officers found crack cocaine and marijuana in his vehicle, resulting in a sentence of eight years of court-ordered supervision.
He also has two misdemeanors for driving without a license and possession of drug paraphernalia.
