Country music star and former drug dealer Jelly Roll gives powerful testimony before Congress about dangers of fentanyl

This week, a tatted up, obese country music star aptly nicknamed Jelly Roll spoke with some members of Congress to encourage them to pass the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act and to share with them a powerful message about the impact that drugs have had on his life and on the lives of his loved ones, including friends, family, and fans.

On Thursday, 39-year-old Nashville native Jelly Roll, whose given name is Jason DeFord, appeared before members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to talk about the dangers of drugs, especially fentanyl. DeFord — a self-proclaimed former drug dealer who reportedly served time for armed robbery and possession with intent to sell, among other crimes — insisted that his message is not political.

"Because of my past, my right to vote has been restricted, [and] I have never paid attention to a political race in my life, " DeFord told the committee. "Ironically, I think that makes me the perfect person to speak about this because fentanyl transcends partisanship and ideology."

DeFord went on to claim that every day in America, approximately 190 die every day as the result of overdose, enough to fill a 737 plane. "Imagine the national media attention it would get if they were reporting that a plane was crashing every single day and killing 190 people. But because it's 190 drug addicts we don't feel that way," he continued.

DeFord also admitted that, as a former drug dealer, he was once "part of the problem." "I was the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemist with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about," he claimed.

At that time, he said he "genuinely" believed that "selling drugs was a victimless crime." "I truly believed that, y'all," he added for emphasis.

He eventually changed his tune, though, after he saw how drugs ravaged his community. "I've attended more funerals than I care to share with y'all," he explained without self-pity. "... I could sit here and cry for days about the caskets I've carried [and] the people I've loved dearly, deeply in my soul. Good people."

These lost loved ones, the fans he sees at his concerts who are "grappling with" addiction, and the struggles his daughter's mother has had with substance abuse have all led DeFord to decide to become "part of the solution," he said.

Passing the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which would declare fentanyl trafficking a national emergency, is a good "first step," he told members of the committee, but it can't end there.

"I encourage you to take it outside of this room. You take it to your colleagues and your constituents, and you give them the most that you can," he continued. Doing so would show people that "their elected officials actually care more about human life than they do about ideology," he claimed. Finally, he urged them to discuss the drug issue at home, "at the kitchen table," where it "matters" most.

Though DeFord, whose mother reportedly gave him the nickname Jelly Roll when he was a chubby youngster, won the Country Music Association's New Artist of the Year Award just last November, he has actually been on the music scene for more than a decade, both as a country and a rap artist. Many of his hits, including "Son of a Sinner" and "Dead Man Walking" make reference to addiction.

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