Why Jelly Roll Is Donating One of His Newly Won Grammys to a Local Nashville Jail

Jelly Roll might have won three Grammy awards this past weekend, but he’s not holding on to all of them for long.

After Jelly Roll’s wife, Bunnie Xo, told Entertainment Tonight at the Sunday, February 1, awards ceremony that she would be helping herself to one of his newly won prizes, the country singer shared what he plans to do with the other two.

“I’m going to obviously keep one at the studio because that was my dream,” Jelly Roll told Entertainment Tonight in a Wednesday, February 4, interview alongside his Star Search costars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chrissy Teigen and Anthony Anderson.

The third Grammy, Jelly Roll (real name Jason Bradley DeFord) said, will serve as a beacon of hope in his native Nashville.

“I think I’m going to give the second one to the county sheriff, Daron Hall, to put at the jail,” the 41-year-old singer said, referring to the sheriff of Davidson County.

“So people know there’s life after,” Gellar, 48, chimed in.

Jelly Roll has been candid in the past about his criminal history, sharing in his 2023 documentary, Jelly Roll: Save Me, that he had been to jail around 40 times for various offenses, including possession with intent to distribute and aggravated robbery.

The “Son of a Sinner” singer turned his life around upon becoming a father in 2008. He has two children, daughter Bailee, 17, and son Noah, 9.

In December 2025, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee pardoned the singer for his past convictions. “His story is remarkable, and it’s a redemptive, powerful story, which is what you look for and what you hope for,” Lee told reporters, per AP.

Jelly Roll alluded to spending much of his youth in and out of trouble with the law during his acceptance speech for Best Contemporary Country Album at Sunday’s Grammys, held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

“First of all, Jesus, I hear you and I am listening, Lord. I am listening, Lord,” Jelly Roll said on stage. “Second of all, I wanna thank my beautiful wife. I would have never changed my life without you. I would have ended up dead or in jail, I would have killed myself if it wasn’t for you. I thank you for that.”

Jelly Roll won Best Contemporary Country Album for his 2024 LP, Beautifully Broken.

“There was a time in my life, y’all, that I was broken. That’s why I wrote this album,” he said of the album’s inspiration. “I didn’t think I had a chance, y’all. There was days that I thought the darkest things. I was a horrible human. There was a moment in my life when all I had was a bible this big and a radio the same size in a six-by-eight-foot cell, and I believed that those two things could change my life. I believed that music had the power to change my life and God had the power to change my life, and I wanna tell y’all right now, Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by one political party. Jesus is not owned by no music label. Jesus is Jesus, and everybody can have a relationship with him.”

Jelly Roll also took home the awards for Best Country Duo/Group Performance with his Shaboozey collaboration, “Amen,” and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song, which he shared with “Hard Fought Hallelujah” collaborator Brandon Lake.