Jelly Roll comes clean about his sobriety journey: ‘A hot button topic’

Jelly Roll is keeping it real when it comes to his sobriety journey, at the expense of potentially getting into trouble over his opinions.

Speaking to Taste of Country for an interview published Friday, May 24, the 39-year-old country star revealed that self-medicating with marijuana helped him not only overcome his past cocaine use but also his anxiety.

Born Jason Bradley DeFord, Jelly Roll acknowledged that though “this is a hot button topic” for many people, “but, truly, marijuana has kept me sober.”

He elaborated, “I get in trouble for this, all the time, but my stance on marijuana will always be the same: I believe marijuana has helped me in so many regards, with my anxiety.”

At the same time, however, Jelly Roll – who recently lost over 60 lbs and ran his first ever 5k race – acknowledged that his approach doesn’t align with everyone else’s.

“I know that I have friends that don’t do that. I have friends that are in the program that are totally against any kind of mind-altering anything,” he said, adding, “I respect that. I have so much respect for those people.”

He reflected, “That’s just not how my sobriety worked out.”

Jelly Roll has been open about his past struggles with addiction, which landed him in jail about 40 times before he turned his life around for the sake of his daughter, Bailee Ann, with wife Bunnie XO.