Jelly Roll is speaking out about the possibility of receiving a pardon. The Nashville native had his pardon unanimously approved by Tennessee Board of Parole, one year after Sheriff Daron Hall recommended Governor Bill Lee grant him a full pardon.
“This was incredible,” Jelly Roll says (via the Associated Press). “I pray this goes through. But today was special for me, regardless.”
It was while in prison that Jelly Roll’s love and passion for songwriting began. He now makes it a point to visit prisons as often as possible, and believes his story, especially with a pardon, could inspire countless others.
“I want to be an inspiration for people who are now where I used to be — to let them know that change is truly possible,” Jelly Roll told the board. “One of the reasons I’m asking for your recommendation for this pardon is because I’m looking to take my message of redemption through the power of music and faith through the rest of the world.”
Because of Jelly Roll’s felony conviction, for armed robbery when he was a teenager, Jelly Roll is unable to visit other countries, due to his criminal record. Jelly Roll, vocal about his Christian faith, says he wants his pardon for much more than to be able to perform overseas.
“I’ll still be using this same pardon, God willing, to go do missionary work in my 50s and 60s,” he says.
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Although Jelly Roll’s pardon is one step closer to coming to fruition, Governor Lee acknowledges that it isn’t an overnight decision.
“The reporting on Jelly Roll, that’s encouraging for his situation, but there are steps yet to happen in that case,” he says.
Jelly Roll is excited about the possibility of a pardon, while also not condoning the actions that caused him to be charged with a felony.
“I never want to overlook the fact that it was a heinous crime,” Jelly Roll tells Billboard. “This is a grown man looking back at a 16-year-old kid that made the worst decision that he could have made in life and people could have got hurt and, by the grace of God, thankfully, nobody did … They were talking about giving me more time than I’d been alive. I hadn’t hit my last growth spurt. I was charged as an adult years before I could buy a beer, lease an apartment, get a pack of cigarettes.”
Jelly Roll has been outspoken about his desire for a pardon, but he also wants the entire juvenile judicial system looked at, so others don’t find themselves in the situation he was in.
“Maybe we’re disciplining an age group that should be rehabilitated,” Jelly Roll suggests. “I just want to have that conversation, and if it can end in a pardon … let’s go.”
The “Heart of Stone” singer knows his life is not the norm. Growing up in a lower-income family, with a mother who struggled with mental illness, it’s a marvel even to Jelly Roll that he has done so much with his life. He can also give himself grace for the choices he made as a teenager, without understanding the consequences.
“It’s a dream killer. It’s the automatic dream killer,” Jelly Roll says on Q With Tom Power. “My felony happened to me when I was 16, which is two years before you’re an adult, and they charged me as an adult in that moment. So even then, I wish I had really the brain to understand what my lawyer was trying to explain to me when he was saying, ‘Hey man, in the state of Tennessee, when you get one of these, you can never get it off your record. You can never get it expunged. It’s on your record forever.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the CMA