Jelly Roll Launches Music Studio Inside Juvenile Detention Center: ‘Bring Hope’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Jelly Roll is giving kids behind bars an incredible opportunity by opening a music studio inside the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center in Nashville, where he was once incarcerated.
“This collaboration, featuring music luminaries Jeffrey Steele and ERNEST, alongside 35 pro-hit songwriters who helped kick off the program launch, embodies the belief in music’s role in personal growth and redemption, showcasing the journey from juvenile detention to success,” a press release about the launch of the studio said.
This project has been a long time coming for Jelly Roll, who has been looking to give back ever since he broke onto the music scene in 2021 after going unnoticed for 18 years.
“It’s important, man. I think it’s important that we give back, especially [to] our kids,” Jelly Roll told PEOPLE in 2022. “Man, our youth is so impressionable and the old quote goes, ‘None of them asked to be here.’”
“They were born into just whatever situation it was, and sometimes they can’t see past that situation or that neighborhood or that environment,” he continued. “I just hope to bring hope to that and kind of be a beacon and a light for those kids.”
Jelly Roll is no stranger to the difficulties of juvenile detention, as he was in and out of the system throughout his youth.
“I was in and out of there for about three, three and a half years,” he said. “I spent a lot of time there and eventually got charged as an adult for a crime I committed as a juvenile. And I just realized that was the most impactful thing that ever happened in my life, and the darkest moments of my life still being that 15-year-old scared kid spending Thanksgiving away from his family.”
Having found freedom from a life of crime through music and getting back on the right path, Jelly Roll hopes that this recording studio will help many children currently in the system find a way to move forward with their lives.
The singer has also relied on his Christian faith to bring him through tough times. He now uses his platform to share the Gospel and help people find hope regardless of their situation.
“Faith was a lot of me believing it was going to work out for me,” he told Fox News earlier this month. “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.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Grammy Award-nominated artist Jelly Roll is using his past to help others struggling with addiction.
“I had to learn that you could drink alcohol without doing cocaine. It took me a long time to learn that,” he told PEOPLE. “I’ve never said that, but that’s real. There was a long time where I just assumed, when people told me they drank without doing cocaine, I was like, I thought we only drank to do cocaine.”
Jelly Roll never went to a rehabilitation center for his addiction, but he does frequently visit various centers and even jails to encourage those in the same situation he was in.
“I always said that if I ever got in this situation, I would do everything I could to give back,” he said. “The fact that just me showing up places can make people happy is such a gift, and I feel like if God gave me that gift, I should show up.”
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