NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday granted a full pardon to country star Jelly Roll, formally closing the chapter on a criminal past the Nashville native has spent years publicly confronting through music, advocacy, and personal transformation.
Born Jason Deford, the rapper-turned-country singer has long spoken candidly about his journey from addiction, incarceration, and despair to sobriety, songwriting, and purpose. His story—shared everywhere from prison auditoriums to sold-out arenas and even the halls of Congress—was a central factor in the decision.
Lee, a Republican, issued the pardon following months of review and after a wave of support from friends, civic leaders, and community advocates. The Tennessee Board of Parole unanimously recommended the pardon in April, a nonbinding step in a process Lee’s office said followed the same rigorous standards applied to all applicants.
“His story is remarkable,” Lee told reporters. “It’s redemptive and powerful—exactly what you hope to see.” The governor added that he looks forward to meeting Jelly Roll in person.
Jelly Roll was one of 33 people pardoned Thursday, part of Lee’s long-standing practice of issuing clemency decisions around the Christmas season. Under Tennessee law, a pardon does not erase past prison time but serves as an official statement of forgiveness after a sentence has been completed. It can also restore certain civil rights, including voting, though some limitations apply.
The singer’s criminal history includes a robbery conviction as a teenager and later drug-related felonies. At 17, Jelly Roll was sentenced to a year in prison and probation for his role in a 2002 robbery in which he was unarmed. In 2008, he was again arrested after police found marijuana and crack cocaine in his vehicle, leading to years of court-ordered supervision.
Jelly Roll has said the pardon will ease international travel for touring and allow him to pursue Christian missionary work without the extensive legal hurdles his record previously required.
Music ultimately became the turning point. While incarcerated, he discovered songwriting as a form of therapy—what he later described to the parole board as a passion project that “ended up changing my life in ways I never dreamed imaginable.”
Since breaking into mainstream country with his 2023 album Whitsitt Chapel, Jelly Roll has built a career around raw honesty and resilience. Songs like “Winning Streak,” which captures the fragile triumph of early sobriety, and “I Am Not Okay” have resonated far beyond country radio. He has earned multiple CMT Awards, a CMA Award, and seven Grammy nominations, three of them in recent years.
“When I first started doing this, I was just telling my story of my broken self,” Jelly Roll told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “By the time I got through it, I realized my story was the story of many.”
That sense of responsibility has carried him beyond music. He has testified before the U.S. Senate about the dangers of fentanyl, describing his younger self as “an uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemist with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about.”
“I was a part of the problem,” he told lawmakers. “I want to be a part of the solution.”
Supporters echoed that sentiment in letters backing his pardon. Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall wrote that Jelly Roll experienced a personal awakening while incarcerated in a jail Hall oversees. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino cited the artist’s charitable giving, including donations from concerts to organizations serving at-risk youth.
The parole board began reviewing Jelly Roll’s application in October 2024, marking the five-year eligibility period after his sentence expired. He was represented by prominent Nashville attorney David Raybin.
Lee’s office noted that none of the individuals pardoned Thursday had homicide or sex-related convictions, or adult convictions involving minors.
For Jelly Roll, the pardon stands not as an ending, but as affirmation of a long, difficult road already traveled—a public acknowledgment that redemption, once earned, can be recognized.