The Grammy-nominated singer was arrested dozens of times as a teen and spent time behind bars for aggravated robbery
Jelly Roll just wants to “spread love.”
The country star and former inmate took his music to the yard this week, crooning for convicts housed at the maximum security Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.
The Grammy-nominated star’s set list at the show in the prison’s yard fittingly included Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” which he personalized to “Oregon State Prison.”
“For the first time in 20 f—— years they have brought music to the prison yard,” Jelly Roll told the prisoners gathered around his impromptu stage.
“Just trying to spread love,” the “Save Me” singer wrote in the caption for an Instagram video.
He told them, “I wrote my first song behind the walls. It never feels better than to come back behind the wall and sing a song for y’all.”
“If you love drawing, if you love writing, if you love poetry, if you love listening to music, playing the guitar, I just pray that you put that passion into it and live it as much as you possibly can,” he added.
The 39-year-old said friend and famous bowhunter Cam Hanes had encouraged the singer to visit the prison after he made a trip there himself.
“I was as excited as he was about it, after we chatted for a minute he told me that he had an idea that maybe I could come with him next time and sing songs,” Jelly Roll wrote of Monday’s visit. “I told him right then we was going to make it happen.
“It felt so good bringing a little light to such a dark place. I am a firm believer that if we commit crimes we should do our time and be held accountable for our actions, but I also believe that every human deserves love no matter how bad of a decision they have made.”
Hanes was with Jelly Roll during the show.
“What a show. Amazing. These guys enjoyed the show so much,” Hanes said.
Jelly Roll added, “It felt good to go love on these guys. I remember being in a dark place and no one ever coming through and showing us any hope of changing the path of our lives, if one inmate was inspired to do better by my presence yesterday it was worth my weight in gold to stop by and sing.”
He called his visit “chicken soup for the soul,” thanking the prison staff for allowing him to perform.
In his Instagram video, Jelly Roll noted that he had visited prisons before, “but this motherf—– is different.”
“I’m sure I speak for Cam and myself when I say we came into that Penitentiary hoping to bless people and left feeling blessed,” he wrote on Instagram.
Jelly Roll stayed around after his show to talk to inmates and sign autographs on the tickets the prison handed out for the concert.
“He was great,” one inmate who met the singer said. Another inmate said after hearing “Save Me” on the radio for the first time, “I got clean that day.”
The singer knows what it’s like. He was arrested dozens of times as a teenager while dealing drugs and first went to jail at 14. Aside from dealing drugs, his charges also included shoplifting and aggravated robbery.
He was charged as an adult at 16 for a robbery that involved a gun.
“I never want to overlook the fact that it was a heinous crime,” he told Billboard last year. “This is a grown man looking back at a 16-year-old kid that made the worst decision that he could have made in life, and people could have got hurt and, by the grace of God, thankfully, nobody did.”
“I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it wasn’t for what I went through,” Jelly Roll told Fox News Digital last year. “I think it empowered me. I think it gave me my voice. It taught me a lot about overcoming. It taught me a lot about changing and the ability to change.
“I was a horrible human for decades, and to just be able to turn that around and give a message in the music and help people … and just try to give back as much as I can in every way I can is very indicative of where I came from and how important it is to me to always reach back.”
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Source: USA Today
