Jelly Roll addressed lawmakers on Thursday (January 11) and delivered a powerful testimony about the fentanyl crisis, sharing his own firsthand experience.
“I was a part of the problem,” he said. “I am here now standing as a man that wants to be a part of the solution.”
The award-winning artist, hailing from the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, attended a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. to urge members of Congress to support anti-fentanyl legislation. Jelly Roll, 39, has been open about his previous criminal charges, jail time and struggles with addiction, and now visits jails to perform for and speak to people who are incarcerated.
Jelly Roll encouraged officials to pass the FEND Off Fentanyl Act (Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act), targeting the China-Mexico illicit fentanyl supply chain, per the committee. Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-S.C.) noted in his opening statement that it’s “so iportant for Americans to come together around such an important issue.”
“I’m guessing most of you didn’t have ‘Jelly Roll testifies at Senate Banking hearin’” on your 2024 bingo cards. But few speak – and sing – as eloquently, as openly, as, shall we say, viscerally about addiction as he does,” said U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, in his opening statement. “There is a reason why Americans flock to his music and his concerts. He has a connection with people based on shared pain, shared challenges, shared hope.”
Jelly Roll thanked Brown and Scott for the opportunity to speak in his caption on Instagram as he shared a video of his testimony on Thursday. “I pray this message is the beginning of a real change and awareness when it comes to Fentanyl and Drug Addiction in America,” he wrote.
Jelly Roll’s Testimony
“During the time that I’ve been given to share my testimony here, I think it’s important to note before I start that in these five minutes I’ll be speaking, somebody in the United States will die of a drug overdose. And it is almost a 72% chance that during those five minutes, it will be fentanyl-related,” Jelly Roll, who was born Jason DeFord, said. He noted during his testimony that he is “neither Democrat, nor Republican. In fact, because of my past, my right to vote has been restricted, (so) I have never paid attention to a political race in my life. Ironically, I think that makes me the perfect person to speak about this because fentanyl transcends partisanship and ideology, gentlemen and women.”
The Whistitt Chapel star told the committee that approximately the same number of passengers on a 737 aircraft die every day in the U.S. of drug overdoses, though those Americans aren’t provided the same attention or given the effort to understand the root of the issue.
“I’ve attended more funerals than I care to share with y’all,” Jelly Roll said. “I could sit here and cry for days about the caskets I’ve carried of people I love dearly, deeply in my soul. Good people. Not just drug addicts. Uncles, friends, cousins, normal people. Some people that just got in a car wreck and started taking a pain pill to manage it. One thing led to the other. How fast it spirals out of control, I don’t think people truly, truly understand.
Jelly Roll, who spoke about his history as a drug dealer, also noted that he wasn’t there to defend the use of illegal drugs, and said he was the “perfect” person to talk about the fentanyl crisis: “I was a part of the problem. I am here now standing as a man that wants to be a part of the solution. I brought my community down. I hurt people. I was the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemist with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about. Just like these drug dealers are going right now when they are mixing every drug on the market with fentanyl, and they’re killing the people we love.”
The reigning CMA Awards New Artist of the Year and 2024 Grammy Award nominee admitted he “genuinely” believed selling drugs was a victimless crime when he used to sell them. He’s since shifted his perspective, including because of his 15-year-old daughter whose mother struggles with addiction.
“It’s time for us to be proactive and not reactive,” Jelly Roll urged. “…If we don’t talk to the other side of Capitol Hill and stop the demand, we are gonna spin our tires in the mud. Y’all are taking the first step, but I encourage you to take it outside of this room. Take it to your colleagues and your constituents, and you give them the most that you can.
“I not only encourage y’all to do this, I encourage y’all to take it a step further. At every concert I perform, I witness the heartbreaking impact of fentanyl,” Jelly Roll concluded. “I see fans grappling with this tragedy in the form of music, that they seek solace in music and hope that their experiences won’t befall others. They crave reassurance — these are the people I’m here to speak for, y’all — these people crave reassurance that their elected officials actually care more about human life than they do about ideology and partisanship. I stand here as a regular member of society. I am a stupid songwriter, y’all. But I have firsthand witnessed this in a way most people have not. I encourage y’all to not only pass this bill, but I encourage you to bring it up where it matters: at the kitchen table.”