Jelly Roll Declares ‘God Has a Bigger Purpose’ Amid Rising Success
By Movieguide® Contributor
Though drugs and crime once plagued his life, musician Jason DeFord, known as Jelly Roll, sees God’s purpose for his life as he rises to the top of the country music world.
“Faith was a lot of me believing it was going to work out for me,” he told Fox News Digital. “Could you imagine being a 37-year-old, unsuccessful musician when you told people that was your job?”
“It wasn’t like something I did on the side. Like, it was my job. And I just always had faith that God had a bigger purpose for what I was trying to do,” he said.
A faithful believer in Jesus Christ, Jelly Roll knows this opportunity isn’t about him but about sharing his faith.
“What does it mean when a guy like me gets the opportunity to be the new pop artist of the year at [the] iHeartRadio awards? It means that God will always use the least likely messenger with the biggest message, every single time,” he said during his iHeartRadio Award acceptance speech.
“God never called the equipped. God always equipped the call. I think that I am a living manifestation of that,” DeFord told Fox News.
Just like Noah and the building of the ark, God often chooses the most unlikely people to accomplish His will so that others will be drawn to Him.
“I feel like God historically is always, you know, listen, Noah didn’t know anything about building a boat. He had no tradesmanship in building anything, and that’s who God picked to build an ark,” the singer said.
Along with his music, DeFord works to fight the fentanyl epidemic, something he has personal experience with.
“I brought my community down. I hurt people,” he said during a congressional testimony earlier this year. “I was the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemist with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about, just like these drug dealers are doing right now, mixing every drug on the market with fentanyl, and they’re killing the people we love.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Country star Jelly Roll is one of the many voices calling on lawmakers to take action in the fentanyl crisis.
“At every concert I perform, I witness the heartbreaking impact of fentanyl,” the artist said during a Senate hearing about the FEND Off Fentanyl Act. “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.”
Jelly Roll continued, “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.”
The singer shared that he has attended many funerals for people who have been affected by the drug — “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 and how fast it spirals out of control — I don’t think people truly, truly understand.”
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