Country singer Jelly Roll is down 275 pounds from 2020.
The “Save Me” crooner graces the cover of Men’s Health’s Winter 2026 issue, where he flaunts his new figure and opens up about his weight loss in a new photoshoot and interview with the brand. When he first began this journey, he was at his heaviest weight ever of 540 pounds.
Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord, explained to the outlet that what really helped him slim down was treating his relationship with food as what it really was: an addiction. He first sought therapy for his vice, noting, “That was a big part of my journey: wanting to know what’s happening within me.”
“I went to meetings for cocaine and found a sponsor and detoxed off of it and s— myself and went through real hard, life-changing emotional choices to get off cocaine and codeine,” Jelly Roll continued.
“I didn’t look at the food addiction differently. Once I started treating food like an addiction, it started changing everything for me. I started really looking at the source of why I was eating. What was I eating for?” he said.
Jelly Roll, who had heavily used drugs for years, began getting clean in 2008 when he learned that his first child, daughter Bailee Ann DeFord, was born while he was incarcerated.
Before his life as a Grammy-nominated singer, Jelly Roll had been arrested approximately 40 times, with his first arrest at age 14 and his last at age 23. Most of his time spent behind bars stemmed from drug-related offenses, though he was also incarcerated for aggravated robbery at age 17.
In a video published by Men’s Health on Instagram, Jelly Roll is seen embracing his new lifestyle, which includes running, weightlifting and boxing. “Just a dramatically different world,” he told the outlet.
Jelly Roll’s issue of Men’s Health is now on stands. His interview with the brand can also be read online here.
