“I hate the man I used to be.” Jelly Roll says it like he’s said it to himself a thousand times. But on the Jay Shetty Podcast for once he says it with the world listening. This is not an interview it’s a reckoning. No stage no spotlight just a man unzipping every layer he’s ever tried to hide behind.
For 90 minutes Jelly lays it all out juvenile prison at 15 addiction that nearly killed him food as anesthesia and the generational curses he’s still breaking one day at a time. He doesn’t cry he doesn’t flinch but his voice wavers when he talks about the boy he used to be and the man who’s still trying to forgive him.
JELLY ROLL’s Brutal Journey of Self-Forgiveness “I hate the man I used to be…”
Jay asked him a question. What would you say to that fifteen year old boy in a cell. Jelly Roll stopped talking. It got to him. He said it was the best question anyone ever asked him. He did not run from it. He looked right at it. By doing that he lets other people look at their own past too.
If the podcast is a map of pain then Save Me is the prayer written on it. In the simple version of the song Jelly Roll just begs. He sings somebody save me from myself. There is no polish. There is no room to hide. It is just a man sitting with all his mistakes. He is trying to turn what is left into a song.
Jelly Roll – Save Me (New Unreleased Video)
The pain in his voice is not acting. It is memory. When you connect it to what he shares in the podcast it all makes sense. The guilt. The prison time. The wounds from his father. The long nights. The therapy. The belief in himself. The fear inside him. That is why his voice shakes when he sings. This is not for entertainment. It is about finally letting out what has been locked up inside him for years.
Jelly Roll does not sing to amaze people. He sings because it is how he stays alive. It does not matter if he is talking into a podcast microphone or playing a beat up guitar. He is not trying to be anything. He is just trying to be real. Follow him on YouTube Instagram and Facebook because the next thing he shares might just give you the courage to face your own reflection.