Why Country Star Calls Daughter’s Birth a ‘Damascus Road Experience’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Country star Jelly Roll says the birth of his daughter while he was in prison inspired him to turn his life around.
“[I was] sitting in a jail cell, having $17 of honeybuns and potato chips to my name,” he said during an appearance on SUNDAY TODAY WITH WILLIE GEIST. “I own one outfit, the one that was in the jail, and here I am responsible for a child.”
He continued, “I mean, I was the lowest common denominator in life, you know? I mean, I was scum of the Earth. I was a crack dealer. I was a horrible, horrible human. And I was like, ‘I’ve got to figure this out.’”
Jelly Roll has previously spoken about his daughter Bailee’s birth being the catalyst for his life change.
During a recent appearance on JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, he explained, “I was incarcerated as a juvenile for some horrible decisions and I ended up in kind of that rotating door of the system for like a decade.”
“I had a daughter, and it changed my entire life, man. It was almost like the Damascus Road experience where Saul turned to Paul for me,” Jelly Roll continued. “I was incarcerated, and they knocked on my door and told me she was born. And I just wept.
He joked, “It’s the first time I’d cried, and I can’t quit crying now. Now I cry if I just see a squirrel in the street. I’m like, ‘The little squirrel!’ Spent 30 years not crying, and now I can’t stop.”
Jelly Roll and his wife Bunnie have recently revealed that they’re trying to have a baby — their first together. The country singer is already father to Bailee and son Noah.
“We had planned on doing this privately, but decided our ivf journey needed to be shared because we’ve always been so open,” Bunnie posted on her Instagram Story. “w/ all odds stacked against us, it’s already been hard & we have only just begun.”
She continued, “We have been meeting w/ ivf doctors & exploring all our options to add to our family. God Willing- Baby DeFord 2026.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Jelly Roll’s efforts to support young incarcerated people:
Country singer and rapper Jelly Roll is giving back to a community he was once part of.
“On Tuesday, Aug. 8, the CMT Music Award winner, 39, helped break ground on Nashville’s new Youth Campus for Empowerment. Jelly Roll — whose was born as Jason Bradley DeFord — is from nearby Antioch, Tenn., and was incarcerated in the city’s old facility, Davidson County Juvenile Justice Center, several times during his youth,” PEOPLE reported.
“I was in and out of there for about three, three and a half years. I spent a lot of time there and eventually got charged as an adult for a crime I committed as a juvenile,” Jelly Roll said of the youth center. “And I just realized that was the most impactful thing that ever happened in my life, and the darkest moments of my life still were being that 15-year-old scared kid spending Thanksgiving away from his family.”
“Get rid of stuff that makes you feel like a caged animal,” he added. “Make these kids feel loved and give them a chance in life. A lot of these kids are victims of their circumstances. This is a really great chance to change things.”
According to Nashville’s Juvenile Court Clerk, “The Nashville Youth Campus for Empowerment (‘NYCE Campus’) will be a family-oriented, trauma-informed campus designed to support the intrinsic value of all members of our community. In addition to serving as the home of the Davidson County Juvenile Court and a pre-trial housing facility for justice-involved youth, the NYCE Campus will house resources and agencies that can provide immediate service delivery to families in need.”
“It was a vision that we needed,” juvenile court judge Sheila Calloway said.
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