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Jelly Roll’s stunning transformation: Weight loss, faith, and overcoming addiction · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:10
  You're listening to The Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:14
  I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:16
  Happy New Year.
• 0:18
  First of all, and uh I'm gonna tell you, I I sound stuffed up today.
• 0:23
  Uh I got really sick.
• 0:26
  I'm fighting a sinus infection.
• 0:29
  So um hopefully my voice holds out today, but uh that's neither here nor there.
• 0:36
  I just need to take better care of myself, and um not very good at doing that.
• 0:41
  So I I uh I guess I suffer for it.
• 0:45
  Um, but we're gonna talk about good news because that's what we're here for, and no, it's not the capture of Venezuela's Maduro.
• 0:58
  Uh we're gonna let that story kind of percolate a little bit before we cover that, but that is uh huge news over the weekend, and uh of course uh it was Swift.
• 1:10
  Our military did what our military does best, and uh they gathered good intel, and they had a handful of strikes, and it was fast, it was vicious, and Maduro and his wife boarded a plane and were brought back to the United States.
• 1:29
  Um yeah, kudos to our military and the Trump administration for uh for that capture, but that's not our story today.
• 1:42
  Our story today is actually a really cool one, and I've been seeing this in the news a lot, and uh it's none other than Jelly Roll and his weight loss transformation.
• 1:56
  If you don't know Jelly Roll, um uh, you know, maybe you're not a country music enthusiast.
• 2:01
  Uh I certainly am not, but I don't mind country music, but it's just kind of not my it's not my genre.
• 2:10
  Um I will say that Jelly Roll is uh he's got good music, and he really writes from the heart.
• 2:20
  And uh I want to give a little bit of a backdrop to to his story because I think it's really important to understand the gravity, no pun intended of his dramatic weight loss.
• 2:33
  Uh he was 500 pounds, known as the fat country music star.
• 2:39
  Uh, he gained stardom pretty much overnight before 2023.
• 2:44
  Not many people had heard of Jelly Roll.
• 2:47
  And then he won uh uh like the young country music award, and that was a huge honor.
• 2:56
  And he literally got pretty famous overnight, and uh when you listen to his music, you understand why.
• 3:05
  You know, he's very, very creative.
• 3:07
  He uh he connects with people on a level that I just don't see many artists of any genre doing.
• 3:14
  And uh he writes his music from his struggles, he had a really really difficult life, and watched a lot of his friends die.
• 3:24
  He was uh he was really into some some bad stuff with uh drugs and drug trafficking.
• 3:29
  He just lived a hard life, and uh Jelly Roll is from the backwoods of Arkansas, so he's a good old Arkansas boy.
• 3:38
  I lived in Arkansas for almost 10 years, uh, so you know, I'm very familiar with uh with Arkansas.
• 3:46
  I've uh you know, loved loved the Ozarks.
• 3:51
  I won't say that I loved the foothills where I lived, uh, but I did love the Ozark Mountains.
• 3:57
  There's a lot of beautiful, beautiful scenery, and tremendous state parks and waterfalls, and there's just a lot of a lot of cool scenery in Arkansas, and uh, of course, there's hot springs, and uh that was always a cool town to go visit, but at any rate, um Jelly Roll.
• 4:18
  He's a good old Arkansas boy, and his journey to fame you don't see this often where people remain humble, and that's what I always liked about Jelly Roll is uh he truly remains humble, and you can tell he's very, very grateful for the whole journey.
• 4:40
  He's grateful for his fans, and just the opportunity to be able to bless people with his music.
• 4:47
  So it uh it really is uh a special journey that he had, and uh he talks about how he basically ate his feelings, and uh, you know, you just had a hard hard life, and I don't know, it's really difficult when when you have that kind of a journey, and then you're pushed into stardom, and uh, you know, you you have to face all the things of your past.
• 5:12
  Uh people tend to cope in different ways.
• 5:18
  And Jelly Roll talks about how uh this really was a coping mechanism.
• 5:23
  Uh food became his kind of his comfort zone, uh, so to speak.
• 5:29
  And uh he said in 2023, I think it was that by 2026 he wanted to be on the cover of uh men's health.
• 5:44
  And uh lo and behold, he's on the cover of men's health.
• 5:49
  So Jelly Roll shed three hundred pounds, and he did it, and kudos to him because I think this is the incredible part of the story, but he did it by sheer grit and determination.
• 6:05
  He didn't use drugs, uh, he didn't get surgery.
• 6:11
  This was all diet and exercise.
• 6:15
  And I don't know, for anybody who's ever struggled with weight, um that is an incredible feat.
• 6:24
  That is not easy to do.
• 6:26
  So the amount of discipline that it takes.
• 6:29
  It's just I mean uh I don't even know the right word.
• 6:36
  Discipline's not even the right word.
• 6:38
  I mean, it takes discipline, but uh pain and endurance, um, support, exhaustion, yeah.
• 6:49
  He he talked about fighting exhaustion.
• 6:52
  He couldn't even walk a mile, and he's just kept pushing himself and pushing himself.
• 6:57
  And I think it was last year he said that um, or maybe the end of 2023, he he wanted to run a um, it was like a 5k, and he wanted to start with that.
• 7:08
  Then he wanted to do a marathon, and he just kept pushing himself and pushing the limits, and it really paid off.
• 7:16
  I mean, he's down, he's down to 200 pounds.
• 7:21
  And not to disclose my my weight as your affectionate host here, but that's my weight.
• 7:30
  And uh, I'm not an overweight guy.
• 7:34
  So Jelly Roll, two hundred pounds.
• 7:39
  He lost 300 pounds.
• 7:42
  That is unbelievable.
• 7:43
  And I just I'm gonna applaud him from start to finish.
• 7:47
  So I'm gonna look here at uh a little bit of a story.
• 7:51
  There's an ABC news article that's really excellent, and again, uh there are tons of stories out there that have all published in the last couple of days, but uh this ABC News article is really really good.
• 8:05
  And uh it talks about how you know Jelly Roll made his goal, he met his goal being on men's health.
• 8:15
  Uh, this was a dream that he shared just a year ago, December of 2024 on the Pat McAfee show.
• 8:24
  And uh I remember him talking about that.
• 8:29
  Remember when he first started talking about it, and Jelly Roll was a beast.
• 8:37
  And uh I'm like, man, like I'm I'm applauding him, I'm standing behind him.
• 8:42
  I hope he does it, but boy, does he have a long way to go?
• 8:47
  And uh here we are just over 365 days later, and he's on the cover of Men's Health.
• 8:58
  I mean, it's absolutely incredible, and the amount of people that he inspires is just breathtaking.
• 9:05
  And he talks about that too.
• 9:06
  You know, he'll I'll mention that here in this article where he says, you know, if I can inspire other people to do this, uh it's all worth it.
• 9:16
  So that's a cool thing about him too, is he this was not just for himself.
• 9:22
  This was not a selfish thing to do.
• 9:25
  Uh he did this for his family, he did it for his fans, and uh he did it also for himself, but it wasn't primarily for himself.
• 9:39
  He said, I was killing myself literally.
• 9:42
  I mean, I was eating myself to absolute death.
• 9:47
  Uh yeah, he's right.
• 9:50
  He talks about seeing his doctor's report and being absolutely in shock.
• 9:56
  And uh he said that his his uh
• 10:00
  His cholesterol was so high, and all of his blood work was so bad that the doctors basically told him, you know, you're you're walking with one foot in the grave.
• 10:14
  And uh he was just barely into his 40s, and he's like, I don't want to live this way.
• 10:22
  Um Richard Dormant, who is the men's health editorial director, told uh ABC News that the team really wanted to find out why Jelly Roll was so determined to make such a significant change.
• 10:41
  And here's what Dorman had to say.
• 10:44
  He said, We really wanted to get at the root of what was driving this desire for transformation.
• 10:50
  So once we started to have that conversation, we really began to understand his why, which was his relationship with food and what he came to think of as a food addiction.
• 11:02
  Uh so jelly roll, again, as the article points out, he's known for his open and honest lyrics.
• 11:10
  Uh he has the very famous song.
• 11:13
  I think this was one of the first ones that put him on the charts, but um, I only talk to God when I need a favor.
• 11:19
  And uh, you know, he talks about his faith struggle, and um, you know, he's definitely very open about uh about his relationship with God, and now he has a potty mouth, he's a little rough around the edges, and I think some people that's that's a big turn off, but uh I think he's just real.
• 11:40
  You know, he doesn't hide who he is, he doesn't hide his past, he doesn't he doesn't speak in platitudes.
• 11:46
  Uh he just puts it all out there, and I appreciate that.
• 11:51
  So Jelly Earl said, here I was going into my 40s at 500 and some pounds.
• 11:58
  I think I was just trying to find my way into whatever I could, and I think what I was doing was I felt so misunderstood that I was closet eating the whole time.
• 12:09
  Uh I I think that's one of the things that we just can't wrap our minds around.
• 12:14
  When people are pushed into stardom.
• 12:18
  I think that we just assume that there's an arrogance about people.
• 12:23
  And you know, it goes back to the assumptions.
• 12:26
  I talk about this a lot on the show.
• 12:28
  You know, we have we have a lot of assumptions about people.
• 12:31
  People from Hollywood are all corrupt, right?
• 12:35
  That's a that's a preconceived idea that we have.
• 12:39
  That's false.
• 12:42
  Um the entertainers are selfish.
• 12:47
  All they care about is money.
• 12:50
  Well, you find out after a while that all these people are real people, just like you and I.
• 12:57
  And being pushed into stardom.
• 13:00
  Uh and it's such a bizarre thing because he was pushed into stardom at a late stage in life.
• 13:08
  Uh, but it does something to you.
• 13:11
  And the industry can be really tough on you, and it's a hard lifestyle.
• 13:15
  I mean, it's you look at what uh musicians have to do, and they have to be really, really physically fit.
• 13:24
  I mean, it's a very demanding uh industry.
• 13:29
  You run on lack of sleep, and your schedule is just crazy, and they're just constantly pushing concerts out and talking to fans and you know, moving around all over the place, and uh it takes a lot to entertain people.
• 13:43
  It takes a lot to be on stage for two hours at a time performing.
• 13:48
  I think he just was feeling it.
• 13:50
  You know, he felt the again, no pun intended, but he felt the weight of that.
• 13:55
  And it really was challenging.
• 13:57
  So he had to face that, yet another thing he had to face and look it in the eye and be honest about it.
• 14:03
  And what I love about what Jelly Earl did is that he was completely transparent.
• 14:08
  You know, from the very beginning, he just put it out there.
• 14:12
  He's like, Look, I'm I'm fat, I'm unhealthy, uh, I'm on a path to die.
• 14:18
  And I'm gonna change that.
• 14:21
  He didn't come up with excuses, he didn't talk about, well, I'm gonna try and I'm gonna see if it works, and you know, he didn't use that language.
• 14:29
  His language was just sheer determination.
• 14:32
  And he said, I will be on the cover of men's health in 2026.
• 14:39
  And here we are, just barely a couple days into 2026, and he's already on the cover.
• 14:46
  I was thinking, like, yeah, by the end of 2026, maybe.
• 14:51
  But one year after he said that, he's on the cover, and he looks fantastic.
• 14:57
  I mean, he just looks good.
• 14:59
  He looks healthy, he looks happy, and uh, I'm so happy for him.
• 15:05
  So uh anyway, he said again, I was I was going into my 40s at 500 and some pounds, and uh he was just kind of feeling his way through life.
• 15:17
  He had all this overnight fame, and he had fans that he really connects with, and he had to keep uh entertaining and keeping them pleased, and it's just it's it's a lot of pressure.
• 15:32
  And I I get it.
• 15:35
  Especially when uh when you're facing all the all the demons of your past.
• 15:40
  Uh it's just it's easy to eat your feelings away, or do whatever it is that uh that brings you comfort.
• 15:49
  For some people, it's drinking, you know, some people it's food, other people it's uh whatever, being promiscuous.
• 15:58
  So, yeah, his comfort was food, and man, he really suffered for it.
• 16:05
  So I love this statement that he gave.
• 16:07
  He said, I wish I could bottle what I'm feeling right now.
• 16:11
  I wish I could bottle that up and give it to everybody who's struggling out there.
• 16:18
  It's special, it's different.
• 16:20
  And it really came through food and exercise.
• 16:23
  It came through just being willing to pound the pavement and get my heart rate up.
• 16:28
  I love that.
• 16:29
  I wish I could bottle this up and give it to everybody out there who's struggling.
• 16:34
  That's a selfless thing to say.
• 16:36
  That's what I love about Jelly Roll.
• 16:38
  You know, he's always thinking about other people.
• 16:40
  And if you don't believe me, go watch some of his videos, watch his concerts and watch the way that he interacts with uh with his fans.
• 16:48
  He's very selfless guy.
• 16:50
  Uh but it's really cool.
• 16:52
  We'll talk more about this journey.
• 16:53
  We're coming up on another break, and I'm about to have a coughing fit, so the uh the break is good timing.
• 16:59
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• 20:09
  Jelly Roll shares his weight loss transformation.
• 20:12
  This wasn't just an ordinary weight loss transformation.
• 20:15
  This dude lost 300 pounds in a very short time while taking no drugs.
• 20:26
  He said it's just not for me.
• 20:28
  I'm not saying that other people can't do that.
• 20:32
  That just wasn't my journey.
• 20:34
  And he said, My, you know, my biggest fear as a musician is acid reflux.
• 20:40
  That's of course one of the side effects of some of these weight loss drugs.
• 20:44
  And he's like, I just didn't want to go that route.
• 20:48
  So he decided to pound the pavement in his words, change his diet and surround himself with loving people.
• 20:56
  Family, friends, trainers.
• 20:59
  And he just pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed.
• 21:03
  Now, I don't love exercise.
• 21:05
  I'm going to be honest.
• 21:07
  I'm blessed to uh have a really good metabolism.
• 21:11
  And I just I don't like it.
• 21:14
  And I can't imagine how rigorous his exercise was.
• 21:21
  To have to lose 300 pounds in a matter of, you know, a little over a year.
• 21:28
  That's no small feature.
• 21:31
  And to do that without any drugs, without surgery, uh, to just go out there and exercise and eat right, that takes a lot of determination.
• 21:44
  You have to want that so bad that that becomes your soul focus.
• 21:50
  And keep in mind, he was still writing music.
• 21:53
  He was still performing.
• 21:54
  He was still living his life.
• 21:57
  He was still being a father and a husband.
• 22:00
  So to be able to be all those things, and very recently coming into stardom.
• 22:08
  Like I said, I think it was 2023 when uh when he really was put on the map, so to speak.
• 22:15
  I mean, we're talking just two years ago.
• 22:18
  He he came out of nowhere.
• 22:21
  I don't think hardly anybody knew who Jelly Roll was prior to 2022.
• 22:28
  Then he just comes out of nowhere, and he has all these all these hits, and they're, I mean, tremendous hits.
• 22:35
  They're great.
• 22:36
  My daughter who vowed to never like jelly roll, she just didn't like him.
• 22:41
  I think because uh because of his language, I think that was the biggest barrier.
• 22:46
  She's like, and she doesn't like that that his nickname is Jelly Roll.
• 22:51
  And uh she's like, why Jelly Roll?
• 22:55
  But anyway, she's come to love his music.
• 22:59
  And it's because the the lyrics are so stinking raw.
• 23:05
  And uh, you know, his song I Am Not Okay, absolutely fantastic.
• 23:10
  The first time I heard it, I mean, I absolutely was infatuated with this song.
• 23:16
  And particularly the lyrics, because you can tell he's writing from a place of pain.
• 23:21
  You can feel the pain in that song.
• 23:24
  And I've seen him perform that song where people hold up signs and they're like, this song saved my life.
• 23:32
  You know, there are people who uh young people who are thinking about suicide and uh his lyrics, being honest, being open and open about it.
• 23:45
  I'm not okay.
• 23:46
  I'm barely getting by.
• 23:49
  Uh, but the conclusion is it's it's gonna be alright.
• 23:52
  You know, you're gonna be alright.
• 23:56
  But just uh that it's written in the present tense, it's it's not that I was not okay, it's that I I am I'm not okay.
• 24:04
  And keep in mind he he wrote that song kind of towards the beginning of this weight loss journey.
• 24:11
  And some of the feelings that he had to feel about himself.
• 24:14
  I mean, it's you know, your self-worth and uh so forth really takes a hit and he talks about it.
• 24:20
  You know, I'm not speculating here, like he really talks about it.
• 24:26
  That he just he was really struggling with a lot of things.
• 24:28
  He said his testosterone levels were way off, super low.
• 24:34
  And he talked about uh it just affected every aspect of his life, it just made him feel like a terrible person.
• 24:45
  So um the ABC article ends this way.
• 24:50
  Uh I just love this.
• 24:54
  Uh Dorman said about Jelly Roll, he said he opens the opens up the doors for us to follow him on his path through setbacks through the challenges, through the days when it's really, really hard.
• 25:08
  And you don't want to do this.
• 25:11
  But he perseveres.
• 25:13
  And I think ultimately that's what we learn from the film is that everybody's journey is different.
• 25:20
  But by understanding that it's maybe not a straight line, that there is no one right way to do it, ultimately, you can get to where you need where you want to go.
• 25:33
  I love that.
• 25:34
  I love that line.
• 25:35
  I I love that line of reasoning.
• 25:40
  That there's not one way to do it.
• 25:42
  It's you know, for for everybody, it's not gonna be the same journey.
• 25:46
  And that's the point, and that's what I love about uh the documentary.
• 25:50
  I really want to watch it.
• 25:52
  It sounds absolutely fascinating.
• 25:55
  Um not everybody's on the same path.
• 26:01
  You know, not everybody can exercise.
• 26:05
  Not like that.
• 26:06
  Not everybody has access to trainers or has the funding to have your personal private trainers.
• 26:16
  So everybody's journey is gonna be different.
• 26:18
  Some people are gonna get the uh the lap banned, some people are gonna uh they're gonna take drugs because that's a that's a better fit for them.
• 26:29
  So not everybody's journey is the same, and that's what I love about jelly roll is he doesn't expect it to be.
• 26:37
  You know, he recognizes that everybody's on a different path.
• 26:41
  But his biggest thing is if I can help inspire somebody, if I can help somebody start that journey, that's the big win.
• 26:50
  Um I'm gonna read a little bit from men's health because since that's the magazine that he was on, they wrote an excellent, excellent piece a couple days about uh about jelly roll and his journey.
• 27:04
  Uh in fact, they publish it January 2nd, and I just want to read a couple lines from this.
• 27:12
  Jelly Roll fists a handful of loose skin beneath his black compression shirt and moves it from his hip over toward his belly, pulling it out of the way.
• 27:26
  He takes my left hand and wedges it in there, planting it on his iliac crest, the top of his hip bone.
• 27:35
  I can feel the bone's definition.
• 27:37
  He reaches down between my legs and claws the inside of my left thigh with his huge hand.
• 27:44
  I will 1,000% not hurt you, especially if if you keep that neck stiff when you land, so you don't bang your head, he says.
• 27:58
  Like a dad coaching his kid to go off the diving board for the first time.
• 28:03
  You ready?
• 28:05
  Oh, yeah, definitely, I tell him.
• 28:07
  Trying to sound extremely cool with the fact that he's about to body slam me.
• 28:13
  To be fair, I volunteered to be body slammed.
• 28:16
  I'm here to write about both body and soul, and a body slam seems to be uh seems like a good way to place my trust in both in the newfound strength and power of his emerging physique physique, and in the goodness of his heart, which has always been there, but which receded for more than a decade behind a tonnage of cocaine, prison time, self-hatred, and fat.
• 28:47
  I love that opening couple paragraphs.
• 28:55
  Um it just really gives you a glimpse in into his life, into the struggles.
• 29:05
  You know, the cocaine addiction, the the drug trafficking, the prison time, um, self-hatred, fat.
• 29:17
  Uh he lived a tough life.
• 29:20
  A really tough life.
• 29:24
  For him to come out of that and to be as humble and gentle and kind of gracious as what he is speaks a lot to his character.
• 29:35
  And that's you know, really the hidden lightness in this story.
• 29:37
  It's not just about the weight loss journey, it's about who Jelly Roll is, and that there's hope out there for all of us.
• 29:45
  You know, this really is a story of hope.
• 29:49
  That even if it's eating disorders that we're dealing with, you know, we're all facing something in this life.
• 29:59
  We're all facing.
• 30:00
  Different struggles.
• 30:03
  And uh, to quote Jelly Roll, it's all gonna be okay.
• 30:10
  You know, and he he's a prime living example that through just sheer determination, you can push through.
• 30:20
  You can you can you can set a different path for your life.
• 30:26
  You know, I think that's the the crux of this is that a lot of us feel like we're stuck.
• 30:32
  We feel like we're trapped.
• 30:33
  We feel like we're bonded into um into these certain patterns and that we can't change.
• 30:39
  Well, I'll never change.
• 30:40
  That's the way it's I've always been this way, you know.
• 30:42
  I've always struggled with whatever it is, and we hear this kind of language, and it just doesn't work.
• 30:51
  Jelly roll doesn't allow it to work.
• 30:56
  Um yeah, so let me read on in this men's health article.
• 31:02
  So good, it's so written so well.
• 31:06
  Uh when you're getting body shamed, putting your hand on the body slammer's hip bone is important because in the choreographed mechanics of professional wrestling, you assist the body slammer.
• 31:22
  Um I think I said shamer, it's slammer.
• 31:26
  I'm I'm really struggling here.
• 31:27
  I'm so sick.
• 31:28
  I just feel like total crap today.
• 31:31
  Um, anyway, uh, you assist the body slammer by pushing off his hip bone as he's heaving you up over his head, making it easier for him to get you up in the air before dropping you.
• 31:44
  The hip bone move is a little trick that happens quickly and sneakily.
• 31:49
  You can also push off from the guy's quad, but the hip is better because you can really press on it, almost like pushing off the ground for a handspring.
• 31:59
  Uh, so there's a lot of technique behind this, and I don't know this, I'm not a wrestler.
• 32:04
  Um, but jelly roll loves wrestling, he loves the MMA, and he's a friends, uh, friends with a lot of the guys in the MMA.
• 32:16
  Um he even joined the massive WWE event, SummerSlam 2025 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, teaming with Randy the Viper Orton to fight Drew McIntyre and the prolific YouTuber Logan Paul.
• 32:39
  Uh Paul, Logan Paul apparently slammed jelly roll into an announcer's table.
• 32:49
  Uh he's delivered body slams before, but now it's different.
• 32:52
  More fun because his body can move better, and he just overall feels better.
• 33:00
  I'm reading the article here.
• 33:01
  He demonstrates for me a few times that the best way to land with that neck stiff so your head doesn't pound the mat.
• 33:08
  He plops down into an athletic sitting position and practices falling back while not letting his head drop.
• 33:16
  He's talking the whole time and not wheezing.
• 33:19
  And when he's done, he bounces back up onto his feet.
• 33:25
  I mean, this is impressive.
• 33:27
  To be able to do all that without wheezing, without uh, you know, I get winded going up the steps sometimes, and I'm not uh I'm not proud of that.
• 33:37
  But I'm just showing that this dude's athletic.
• 33:42
  I mean, this this guy was 500 pounds just a short time ago.
• 33:50
  Now he's picking people up over his head and body slamming them.
• 33:55
  He's boxing and he's wrestling, he's doing it without getting winded.
• 34:00
  Do you realize how huge that is?
• 34:04
  Absolutely incredible.
• 34:06
  I'm just I'm reading this article and I'm thinking, man, I couldn't body slam somebody.
• 34:11
  I couldn't, I'm just not athletic enough.
• 34:15
  This takes a tremendous amount of athleticism, strength and endurance.
• 34:23
  Um it's really really cool.
• 34:28
  So the author here, uh, he says, when I first met him, Jelly Roll in February 2025, he was 380 pounds, down 160 pounds from his heaviest in 2020.
• 34:43
  He hadn't seen or felt the definition of his hip bones in years.
• 34:48
  Now it's November.
• 34:50
  He's 265 and hopping around the ring looking spry.
• 34:59
  Well, now apparently he's down uh he's down to 200.
• 35:06
  That's just incredible.
• 35:08
  How do you lose weight that fast?
• 35:11
  How do you become this jacked?
• 35:13
  Like if you look at him, he's he's fit, man.
• 35:18
  He's got like these defined muscles, and he just looks good.
• 35:22
  He looks healthy.
• 35:25
  Uh, so I love the story.
• 35:26
  I love everything about it.
• 35:28
  I love the inspiration.
• 35:29
  I love the uh the grit and determination.
• 35:33
  Uh I love that he did this through exercise and diet, that he took zero shortcuts.
• 35:40
  This is pure just absolutely wanting this and knowing that he's gonna get there.
• 35:47
  He had a goal, he set the goal, and he accomplished it.
• 35:56
  There's nothing, folks, that uh that we can't accomplish.
• 36:00
  And there's something deeply spiritual about that.
• 36:04
  You know, Jesus says, whatever you whatever you want, believe that you've already received it.
• 36:12
  You ask for it in prayer, and it will be yours.
• 36:18
  He talks about having faith that moves mountains.
• 36:22
  And uh there's such a strong faith element to this, and that's part of why I'm really attracted to this story.
• 36:29
  You know, it's not just about the weight loss and how cool of a guy jelly roll is.
• 36:33
  I could just listen to him forever.
• 36:35
  I he's just so down to earth and uh so gracious and humble.
• 36:40
  Uh, but I I really really am attracted to that faith element that he says I couldn't have done any of this without God.
• 36:52
  Uh he he married an absolutely beautiful woman.
• 36:59
  Um, and she married him when he was 500 pounds.
• 37:04
  Um he's he's got a lot going for him, and he's very humble about it.
• 37:14
  And it just shows that uh, you know, if you really believe in God, and he talks about that a lot.
• 37:21
  If you believe in God, if you believe that God has your best interest at heart, there's nothing that you can't accomplish.
• 37:30
  And he talks about how he was he was a nobody, he was a druggie.
• 37:35
  It's kind of a deadbeat, and uh God reached in and rescued him.
• 37:43
  And uh that's really cool.
• 37:45
  We're coming up on another break here.
• 37:47
  All of our shows do go to podcasts the next day after the broadcast is heard on talk radio.
• 37:52
  You can hear them on Spotify Stitcher, Pandora, iHeart Podcast, many, many more.
• 37:58
  Make sure you subscribe, rate the show, share it, and when we come back, we'll talk more about the faith element because I think that's really the key component here in this entire story.
• 38:11
  Uh, with God, all things are possible.
• 38:14
  We'll be right back.
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• 39:29
  Um losing 300 pounds is absolutely incredible.
• 39:37
  Uh, I was reading this article, uh, portions of it from Men's Health, written by Ryan Dest, uh?
• 39:49
  I don't know how you say it.
• 39:50
  It's uh it's got it's a hyphenated uh Italian name, I guess.
• 39:56
  Uh, but anyway, and my brain's just not functioning.
• 39:59
  You can
• 40:00
  Clearly tell uh the sinus infection has my head so full of stuff.
• 40:06
  Um at any rate, uh, it's just really cool because he talks about the journey and how jelly roll really uh that was his goal is to be in men's health, to be fit enough to not just be in men's health, but to be on the cover.
• 40:26
  And lo and behold, here we are in January of 2026, and Jelly Roll is on the cover, and he's looking fit, he's looking ripped.
• 40:36
  Uh, his muscles are defined.
• 40:38
  He just he looks healthy and happy.
• 40:42
  And uh we go.
• 40:46
  Jelly Roll talking about his life.
• 40:51
  You know, he said uh uh here's how he did it.
• 40:58
  Here's how he lost weight.
• 41:00
  He he distilled his method and his focus into one word food.
• 41:08
  Food, food, food, food.
• 41:15
  Um this was clearly done by diet, diet and exercise.
• 41:22
  And Jelly Roll had been addicted to food for as long as he could remember.
• 41:27
  He ate constantly.
• 41:30
  He says that he ate a lot at Waffle House when I went to college.
• 41:34
  That was uh we don't have waffle houses in the north, so I absolutely loved going to Waffle House.
• 41:41
  So Jelly Roll, I'm with you, buddy.
• 41:43
  I I can relate.
• 41:45
  Um, but he ate anything he wanted.
• 41:48
  He was addicted to alcohol, cocaine, coding.
• 41:54
  Uh he had an addiction to money, which turned into um an addiction to feeling important.
• 42:05
  And uh Jelly Roll said around eighth grade, I discovered that there were there was lots of ways to make money.
• 42:13
  Uh it started with buying candy from the dollar store near my school.
• 42:17
  Then I go sell it at lunch.
• 42:20
  Then I end up getting a pager and getting some homies.
• 42:26
  The next thing you know, people are uh they see potential in you, and they start feeding another direction.
• 42:33
  Kids start smoking weed around the eighth grade.
• 42:36
  I happen to be able to find some of it.
• 42:41
  Eighth grade, uh, by the way, was the same time that his parents divorced.
• 42:47
  So there's the trigger.
• 42:50
  He's got a tough, tough home life, dealing with some things there, he's got the peer pressure.
• 42:58
  Um friends are getting into drugs, he's hustling, getting a pager.
• 43:07
  It's showing my age here.
• 43:10
  Some people are like, what in the world is a pager?
• 43:14
  Oh, yeah.
• 43:14
  Pagers were they were popular back in the 90s.
• 43:21
  But anyway, uh, yeah, it's so he's peddling.
• 43:24
  He learned how to pedal.
• 43:27
  I buy candy and I upsell it.
• 43:30
  I can make a little bit of money here.
• 43:33
  So then he starts getting into weed, and then he learns that if he sells drugs, he can make even more money.
• 43:42
  Uh so then he just um got into it, you know, got in really deep.
• 43:49
  Next decade, um, a mess of drug deals, jail time, gangs.
• 43:57
  Yeah, jelly roll said it uh totally took a different path.
• 44:02
  Thought I was uh something I wasn't, and I was not that person, man.
• 44:07
  I am not that man.
• 44:09
  But if you'd asked me then, I'd have died proving it to you.
• 44:15
  I'd let you kill me to prove to prove to you that I was tough.
• 44:19
  You know, that's what's interesting.
• 44:21
  He's uh he really is a gentle giant, and it just shows that drugs completely alter who you are.
• 44:29
  Like he took on this tough persona, thought he was like the baddest dude around, joined gangs, and uh that he was he was out to prove that he was the toughest, baddest guy in the world, and he said that that wasn't me.
• 44:46
  You know, I but I was never that person.
• 44:49
  I think it just shows you that uh, you know, when you start down a down a path, and people start dragging you into into drugs and uh a life of gang and dishonesty, it changes you.
• 45:09
  I think he had to deal with a lot of uh self self-hatred, you know.
• 45:14
  He knew that he wasn't this tough guy, he knew that he wasn't a bad dude, he's got a heart of gold.
• 45:23
  And it just um yeah, took him down this bad path for decades, you know, he really struggled in and out of jail, um, just constantly in trouble.
• 45:36
  So um, yeah, his heaviest weight is just over five five hundred and forty pounds.
• 45:50
  That's where he was about five years ago.
• 45:54
  More than a quarter ton.
• 45:57
  Uh that's what his estimate is.
• 46:01
  The scale that he used was only calibrated up to 520 pounds, but the needle went past 520.
• 46:12
  So he thinks he was somewhere in the the 540 uh to possibly up to 560 range.
• 46:20
  I mean, that is a big dude.
• 46:23
  Unbelievable.
• 46:24
  But if you see him now, you uh I'll post these articles to the uh show notes.
• 46:29
  You've got to see what he looks like.
• 46:32
  I mean, he's boxing, his face just looks so thin and so good.
• 46:38
  I mean, this dude is fit.
• 46:42
  Uh but Jelly Roll says his first step was mental.
• 46:45
  Before anything, he found a therapist that he liked.
• 46:50
  He went after the addiction and in ways similar to how he had stopped using cocaine and alcohol.
• 46:57
  He said, even before I got into getting my blood work done, I went and got mental health therapy about my overeating.
• 47:05
  I started treating my food addiction like what it was, an addiction.
• 47:10
  Why did I treat cocaine a certain way?
• 47:13
  I went to meetings for cocaine and found a sponsor and detoxed off it.
• 47:18
  And uh I can't say the word here, but crapped myself and went through a real hard life.
• 47:27
  Changing emotional choices to get off cocaine and coating.
• 47:32
  Um, I didn't look at the food addiction different.
• 47:36
  Once I started treating food like an addiction, it started changing everything for me.
• 47:43
  When I started really looking at the source of why I was eating, what I what was I eating for?
• 47:53
  So that's what's really important.
• 47:55
  And I love, I just love that he's open about this.
• 47:59
  Because a lot of people who go to therapy, they they don't publicize that.
• 48:05
  You know, especially when you're a public star, you're a public figure.
• 48:10
  A lot of people respect you and look up to you.
• 48:13
  It's so easy to put on this persona, and a lot of people do that.
• 48:17
  You look at the showbiz industry, and a lot of people put on like this fake persona, they put on a mask and they make it look like everything's all together, and they're really not.
• 48:31
  You know, a lot of these people are really struggling with uh with addictions with drug and alcohol addictions.
• 48:39
  They're people just like you and I.
• 48:42
  But why hide that?
• 48:44
  You know, Jelly Roll chose not to hide the fact that um he was going to therapy, it's where he began.
• 48:55
  So he wanted to find out what he was eating for, why was he eating?
• 48:59
  Why was he addicted to food?
• 49:01
  What was it in his life?
• 49:03
  What was it about himself that was causing him to uh to overeat and to treat food like an addiction?
• 49:15
  So, yeah, really cool stuff here.
• 49:18
  Um he talked on Joe Rogue, and he said, I was so fat that I took that weekend and I fasted and just ate a couple of chicken noodle soups.
• 49:28
  When I came in under 500, I was like, I'm finally under 500 pounds, but I was privately thinking, dude, F.
• 49:40
  He drops the F bomb a lot.
• 49:43
  Um I'm sending a grown man picture of me on the scale at almost 500 pounds, but then he captioned the photo.
• 49:54
  He said, I guess we've got to start somewhere.
• 49:58
  I mean it.
• 50:00
  How cool is that for him to get the look back now to look back at that picture where he felt like a loser.
• 50:05
  You know, he was posting this picture of him at 500 pounds, and he was he's like, he just looked at that and felt disgusted in himself.
• 50:15
  It was like, how am I gonna do this?
• 50:19
  And now he gets to look back at that picture.
• 50:21
  I I would post that picture.
• 50:22
  If that were me, I would post that picture on the wall.
• 50:26
  And I put it next to the men's health picture.
• 50:30
  And I'd be like, man, look what I did.
• 50:35
  Look exactly what I did.
• 50:38
  Um so yeah, jelly roll first was getting the mental right, getting the therapist, then he got the blood work done, and his insulin levels were absolutely off the charts.
• 50:52
  So a lot of times you, you know, you become diabetic when you're morbidly obese.
• 51:00
  And uh cholesterol levels were absolutely just off the charts.
• 51:05
  He was not a healthy dude.
• 51:08
  Testosterone level was super low.
• 51:13
  Um just crazy.
• 51:18
  Low T levels.
• 51:20
  Um he said when I went in there for the test, it was it was bad, bad.
• 51:26
  The world opened up when I seen it on paper.
• 51:30
  I was like, that's my testosterone level.
• 51:34
  I mean, dude, we're talking a 57.
• 51:39
  So yeah, seeing that stuff is a wake-up call.
• 51:44
  And sometimes people need that wake-up call.
• 51:48
  Uh, but for him, it wasn't just about the food and uh, you know, coming to grips with that and coming to grips with his past and all that stuff.
• 51:56
  You know, that was part of the story.
• 51:58
  But as I mentioned, the bigger part of the story for me is is the faith element.
• 52:03
  It's the fact that he puts his complete faith and trust in God.
• 52:10
  And he's like, you know, I I can not do any of this without God.
• 52:16
  He's very open about that.
• 52:19
  And I hope that that inspires other people.
• 52:21
  I hope that other people see that and realize that it's so true.
• 52:25
  And it reminds me a lot of what Steve Harvey says.
• 52:28
  Steve Harvey talks a lot about that too.
• 52:31
  And Harvey says we can't do any of this without God.
• 52:37
  I just watched a clip the other day of Steve Harvey, and he said, my mom taught me that when times got tough, and then he broke down crying, and he was like, you know, for me, things got really tough.
• 52:51
  He was homeless for what over three years.
• 52:56
  Living in his car, couldn't make ends meet.
• 52:59
  He was just in a really, really bad way.
• 53:03
  And he said, I turned to the one thing that my mama taught me that in times of desperation, you don't question why you're in that position.
• 53:17
  You pray and you ask God to take you out of that position.
• 53:21
  And he said, that's exactly what I did.
• 53:23
  And God reached in in his time, and God rescued Steve Harvey.
• 53:30
  And not only did he rescue him, look at where he's at now.
• 53:36
  And he said, I always wanted to be able to bless people.
• 53:39
  Like for me, it wasn't just about getting fame and money.
• 53:44
  He's like, I I wanted to truly bless people.
• 53:47
  I wanted to help people out.
• 53:50
  And there's a certain humility element that goes with that kind of stardom.
• 53:57
  And when you see people like uh Denzel Washington, Steve Harvey, Jelly Roll.
• 54:04
  You know, they all share that faith element in common.
• 54:08
  And I think that's truly what sets them apart from other entertainers.
• 54:13
  It's the fact that they they're very open about their faith, and they say, you know, like God is at the absolute forefront of everything that we do.
• 54:22
  He's who's in focus, he's the one who we serve, he's the one who we're here to glorify.
• 54:30
  And that's really cool.
• 54:31
  So, you know, again, for me, the the big part of this story is that uh there's a faith element that you just don't see many people.
• 54:40
  Um you don't see many people drop that much weight and become that athletic in such a short amount of time.
• 54:49
  It just doesn't happen.
• 54:52
  And uh the fact that it did happen, the fact that that he trained and trained and trained, uh, tells me how much God really is blessing him.
• 55:04
  And I don't think that this could be done without God, and that's just um I'm not saying that because I'm a pastor, I'm not saying that because I think it's silly.
• 55:14
  I truly legitimately believe that.
• 55:18
  That when you lean into God, when you put all of your trust into God, God blesses you in more ways than you can imagine.
• 55:30
  And you know, there's an expression you can't out give God, you can never outdo him.
• 55:36
  You can't, you can't outshow God.
• 55:40
  And so, whatever it is, whatever challenges before you, if you set your face on that and you lean into God and you trust him, God will see you through.
• 55:51
  God will take you across that finish line.
• 55:55
  God will do it in his time.
• 55:59
  And to me, that's the hidden lightness of this story.
• 56:05
  It's that God is blessing this man.
• 56:09
  God has shown up over and over and over consistently in his life, and God has given him a platform to be open and transparent about his struggles and to uh not just about his struggles, but about uh all the things that he's overcome.
• 56:27
  And I truly hope that that inspires other people.
• 56:30
  I hope that other people who are struggling see documentaries like this, and that it absolutely transforms their life.
• 56:40
  Because uh life is short.
• 56:43
  And uh I I learned that uh well, I learn it every day, but with the recent loss of my good friend, it's just another reminder.
• 56:51
  Life is short, life is precious.
• 56:54
  Don't waste it being caught up in whatever these addictions are that uh you know that you might be caught up in.
• 57:01
  So the hidden lightness is that there's help out there, and uh we can all overcome.
• 57:07
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu, um, the menu navigation bar at America Outloud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 57:18
  There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
• 57:21
  When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
• 57:27
  Join me in being a light.