Jason Bradley DeFord, known to fans as Jelly Roll, has risen from Nashville’s working-class Antioch neighborhood to become a country music star. Despite growing up just minutes from the heart of Music City, DeFord’s early musical interests leaned towards hip-hop.
Today, Jelly Roll is a celebrated figure in country music, though his career began in rap. “I always wanted to be in country music, man,” DeFord shared with Q’s Tom Power. “The joke I tell is that from Antioch to Music Row is 30 minutes, but it took me almost 40 years to get there.”
DeFord spent years writing rap music and selling his mixtapes from the back of his car. His transition to country music began when a producer heard him singing karaoke and suggested he should sing rather than rap. DeFord quickly adapted, recognizing that his early hip-hop lyrics were essentially country songs delivered in a different style. “Even if you listen to the subject matter of my early hip-hop stuff, I was singing country songs,” he explained. “I was just rapping ’em.”
The country music community welcomed DeFord with open arms. Country radio stations played his songs, despite his unconventional appearance for the genre. Last year, he won the New Artist of the Year award at the 2023 Country Music Association Awards. “Country music [gave] me a place to call home, finally,” DeFord said. “No genre would define me. I was too rock for hip-hop. I was too hip-hop for country. I was too country for rock.”
Jelly Roll’s journey from incarceration to country stardom is a testament to his versatility and resilience, finding his true musical home in country music.
