Tennessee board recommends that governor pardon country star Jelly Roll
The board issued its nonbinding recommendation unanimously after a hearing that lasted about an hour and 45 minutes with several witnesses, including Nashville Sheriff Daron Hall, advocating for the 40-year-old musician named Jason DeFord. One board member recused themselves from voting.
The tattooed rapper-turned-country singer broke out in country with his 2023 album 'Whitsitt Chapel' and crossover songs like 'Need a Favor.' Focusing on songs about his redemption after spending time in juvenile detention facilities, Jelly Roll has won multiple CMT Awards, a CMA Award and earned four Grammy nominations, including for new artist of the year.
'This was incredible,' he said after the vote, according to the board's recording of the meeting. 'I pray this goes through. But today was special for me, regardless.'
His most serious convictions include a robbery at age 17 and drug charges at 23. In the first case, a female acquaintance helped Jelly Roll and two other young men enter a house in 2002. Both of the others were carrying guns, although Jelly Roll was unarmed. They demanded money, and received $350 and a wallet with no money in it. Because the victims knew the female acquaintance, she and Jelly Roll were arrested right away. He was sentenced to serve 1 year in prison and additional time on probation.
Later, in 2008, police on patrol saw him quickly shut his car trunk as they approached. The officers said they smelled marijuana and searched the trunk, finding both marijuana and crack cocaine. He was sentenced to 8 years of court-ordered supervision.
He also has two misdemeanor offenses for driving without a license and possession of drug paraphernalia.
These days, he often visits jails and rehabilitation centers before performing concerts. He has bought restaurants out for the day to feed people who are homeless and played basketball with kids at a youth center the same day that he performed in Winnipeg. He said he generally doesn't seek out news coverage when he makes these visits.
One of the reasons Jelly Roll gave for needing a pardon is to be able to travel to Canada to perform, which his criminal record makes difficult. Currently, he would need to apply for a special permit that can include long wait times for a decision, according to a letter from an immigration attorney submitted with his clemency packet.
He said he would use the pardon for much more than going on tour, though.
'I'll still be using this same pardon, God willing, to go do missionary work in my 50s and 60s,' he said.
Due to his criminal record, he told the board that every time he travels it 'takes a team of lawyers and a mountain of paperwork to secure my entry into those countries.' He said he recently was able to make his first tour in Canada and took his first trip to the United Kingdom, where he spoke about a rehabilitation program.
A pardon is a statement of forgiveness by the state for a crime or crimes. Applicants are not eligible until they are five years past the date that their sentence expired in Tennessee. The parole board began considering Jelly Roll's pardon application in October 2024.
Lee, a Republican, has issued more than 90 pardons since taking office in 2019, all of them since 2021.
___
Associated Press writer Kristin M. Hall contributed from Nashville.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

an hour ago
Noah Cyrus talks returning to Nashville roots with new album
ABC News' Linsey Davis sat down with Grammy-nominated singer Noah Cyrus to talk about the messaging behind her sophomore album 'I Want My Loved Ones to Go with Me.'


San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Lawyer seeks release for Erik Menendez, citing medical condition
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An attorney is seeking Erik Menendez's release from prison because of a medical condition after he was taken to a hospital. The 57-year-old has been serving a life without parole sentence along with his brother Lyle Menendez after being convicted of murdering their parents in their Beverly Hills, California, home in 1989. A judge recently resentenced the brothers to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole. They will appear in front of the state parole board Aug. 21 and 22. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed Erik Menendez was taken to an outside medical facility Friday and remained there Tuesday 'in fair condition.' His lawyer, Mark Geragos, told TMZ that Menendez was having a 'serious medical condition' and should receive a prison furlough, something the governor granted some inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Geragos did not elaborate on the condition, but he said releasing Menendez was the 'only fair and equitable thing to do" so he had time to prepare for his parole hearing properly. Geragos' office confirmed his comments to TMZ but did not make him available for an interview. A judge last week ordered Los Angeles prosecutors to explain why Erik and Lyle Menendez's murder convictions should not be reexamined in light of new evidence supporting their claims of sexual abuse by their father. While defense attorneys at the time argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance. The order was in response to a habeas corpus petition filed by the Menendez brothers in May 2023 seeking a review of their convictions in a process separate from their resentencing bid.


San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
'The Osbournes' changed Ozzy's image from grisly to cuddly, and changed reality TV
LOS ANGELES (AP) — There was Ozzy before 'The Osbournes' and Ozzy after 'The Osbournes.' For much of his life, the Black Sabbath founder and legendary heavy metal frontman who died at 76 on Tuesday was known to much of the public as a dark purveyor of deeds ranging from decadent to downright Satanic. Wild stories followed him. Clergy condemned him. Parents sued him. But with the debut of his family reality show on MTV, the world learned what those who'd been paying closer attention already knew: Ozzy Osbourne was soft and fuzzy under the darkness. During its relatively short run from 2002 to 2005, 'The Osbournes' became a runaway hit and made stars of his wife Sharon and kids Jack and Kelly. But more than that, it made a star of the domesticated version of Ozzy Osbourne, and in the process changed reality TV. In 2025, when virtually every variety of celebrity has had a reality show, it's hard to see what a novelty the series was. MTV sold it as television's first 'reality sitcom." 'Just the idea of the Black Sabbath founder, who will forever be known for biting the head off a bat during a 1982 concert, as a family man seems strange,' Associated Press Media Writer David Bauder wrote on the eve of 'The Osbournes' premiere. But on the show, Osbourne was "sweetly funny — and under everything a lot like the put-upon dads you've been seeing in television sitcoms for generations.' Danny Deraney, a publicist who worked with Osbourne and was a lifelong fan, said of the show, "You saw some guy who was curious. You saw some guy who was being funny. You just saw pretty much the real thing.' 'He's not the guy that everyone associates with the 'Prince of Darkness' and all this craziness,' Deraney said. "And people loved him. He became so affable to so many people because of that show. As metal fans, we knew it. We knew that's who he was. But now everyone knew.' Reality shows at the time, especially the popular competition shows like 'Survivor,' thrived on heightened circumstances. For 'The Osbournes,' no stakes were too low. They sat on the couch. They ate dinner. The now-sober Ozzy sipped Diet Cokes, and urged his kids not to indulge in alcohol or drugs when they went out. He struggled to find the History Channel on his satellite TV. They feuded with the neighbors because, of all things, their loud music was driving the Osbournes crazy. 'You were seeing this really fascinating, appealing, bizarre tension between the public persona of a celebrity and their mundane experiences at home,' said Kathryn VanArendonk, a critic for Vulture and New York Magazine. The sitcom tone was apparent from its first moments. 'You turn on this show and you get this like little jazzy cover theme song of the song 'Crazy Train,' and there's all these bright colors and fancy editing, and we just got to see this like totally 180-degree different side of Ozzy which was just surprising and incredible to watch," said Nick Caruso, staff editor at TVLine. Like family sitcoms, the affection its leads clearly had for each other was essential to its appeal. 'For some reason, we kind of just fell in love with them the same way that we grew to love Ozzy and Sharon as like a marital unit," Caruso said. What was maybe strangest about the show was how not-strange it felt. The two Ozzies seemed seamless rather than contradictory. 'You're realizing that these things are personas and that all personas are these like elaborate complex mosaics of like who a person is,' VanArendonk said. 'The Osbournes' had both an immediate and a long-term affect on the genre. Both Caruso and VanArendonk said shows like 'Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,' which followed then-pop stars Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey after they married, was clearly a descendant. And countless other shows felt its influence, from 'The Kardashians' to 'The Baldwins' — the recently debuted reality series on Alec Baldwin, his wife Hilaria and their seven kids. ''The Baldwins' as a reality show is explicitly modeled on 'The Osbournes,' VanArendonk said. 'It's like you have these famous people and now you get to see what their home lives are like, what they are like as parents, what they're eating, what they are taking on with them on vacation, who their pets are, and they are these sort of cuddly, warm, eccentric figures.'