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Jelly Roll opened up about feeling “a lot of guilt” before he opted to take a break from his phone — and throw it in the Cumberland River in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Beautifully Broken artist spoke about it while catching up with his wife, Bunnie Xo, on a recent episode of her podcast, Dumb Blonde. Jelly Roll posted a video last month announcing plans to take a months-long break from his phone and social media as he wrapped up his 2024 tour. He said at that time that he has “a very unhealthy relationship with phones. …I’m throwing this phone out the window tonight. I’m gonna go phoneless for a few months.”
Jelly Roll further opened up about his decision with Bunnie Xo, explaining that he was “overwhelmed” by hundreds of messages per day. The reigning iHeartRadio Music Awards Best New Artist award in both Pop and Country categories said he “felt guilty” to miss messages from loved ones, and avoided catching up on a daunting number of notifications by “mindlessly scrolling.”
“I was getting to a point that I was getting hundreds and hundreds of text messages a day. And I just was overwhelmed,” Jelly Roll said. “I just could not field them all, and then when I would finally sit down and go back through them, I would just feel like such a bad human for missing them. I was carrying a lot of guilt. This phone was causing me a lot of guilt.
“I would just feel guilty of looking back and seeing six or seven missed text messages from somebody I love. And then you get to a point where you’re like, but I love so many people. …people that know me, this is on par for me, you know what I mean?” Jelly Roll continued. “Ultimately, I just wanna be a better person. I wanna be a better husband, I wanna be a better father, I wanna be a better human, I wanna be a better artist, you know what I mean? I realized the phone does not help me be any of the stuff I actually wanna be.”
Throughout the conversation, Jelly Roll also spoke about his weight loss transformation goals, his upcoming tour with Post Malone and more. Find the full episode on iHeartRadio here (warning: language).