Jelly Roll Reflects on Armed Robbery Charge at 15: ‘I Had No Business Taking From Anybody’

Country and hip-hop musician Jelly Roll wants to do better with his responsiblity decades after committing armed robbery as a teen.

Before becoming a mainstream act, the 39-year-old spent years in and out of jail, one of his longest stints being in the Metro-Davidson Country Detention Facility, where, in 2000, he was convicted of aggravated robbery with a weapon. Jelly Roll, born Jason Bradley DeFord, has since turned his life around and often reflects on his troubled upbringing in music.

On the podcast On Purpose With Jay Shetty, the Beautifully Broken artist gracefully took on a challenging question when asked what he'd say to the person that he robbed at 15 years old.

"That's the best question I've ever been asked. I've avoided this question, hoping, because I don't know how to answer it Jay," Jelly Roll said around the 21-minute mark of the video below.

"I've thought about reaching out. This has been 24 years ago now, and I just don't know how that would even start, how I would go about it," he continued. "'Cause sometimes I wonder if they might have even seen me in passing or are aware of my success and I wonder if they've even correlated...I mean, I've obviously dramatically changed. I was 15, dude."

Joking that he'd "hardly hit puberty" at the time of the robbery, Jelly Roll added that his robbery victim is on his "amends list." "I just haven't made it that far
down yet," he added.

When asked what he'd say to them, Jelly Roll explained that he would ask for their forgiveness "because there's no excuse," and that he'd take accountability.

"No matter how old I was, I had no business taking from anybody, just this entitlement that I had this–the world owed me enough that I could come take your stuff," he stressed. "What a horrible, horrible way to look at life and people, just what a horrible way to interact with the Earth."

The musician added that he'd ask for "a little grace" as he was underage at the time.

"This is how I know I was 15 because the more when I try to make logic of it, I can't. There was no logic to what I did it made absolutely no sense," Jelly Roll said. "I learned so much from it and the way that I interact with people and I hoped that they would see that made it my life's mission to change and to change people, because that's what I'm representing the most in what I do."

Explaining that he speaks for "an unspoken group of people," Jelly Roll added that he's "diligently prove myself" with his platform.

"I've not only changed, but I took the platform serious. It's making me change more every day the responsibility that God's given me, and I would hope they would forgive me," he concluded.

Jelly Roll has given back to those with a similar background as him, recently visiting Columbus, Ohio, where, ahead of his Nationwide Arena concert, he spoke to youth at the Franklin County Juvenile Intervention Center.