In a CBS "Sunday Morning" feature from Jan. 7, reporter Kelefa Sanneh joined Jelly Roll as the country singer returned to his former jail cell in Nashville.
Videos by Wide Open Country
"There was a time in my life where I truly thought... this was it," Jelly Roll said while revisiting the Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility. "And then coming here, you know, just after getting nominated for two Grammys, it just hits different. ... I didn't think I'd get emotional, to be honest."
The broadcast followed a huge year for Jelly Roll. Aside from those Grammy nods, the singer-songwriter earned critical acclaim and commercial success with his Whitsitt Chapel album and won the CMA's New Artist of the Year award. Each accomplishment well exceeded Jelly Roll's post-jail expectations.
"Even when I left here, I didn't have a plan," he said. "I knew that I loved music, and I knew it was the only thing I had any skill set [for]."
Nowadays, Jelly Roll uses his platform to share inspirational messages to inmates across the country.
"I'm trying to just encourage, inspire and entertain," he said. "I'm just trying to get you free for a minute. When I go to juveniles, I'm trying to get you to understand that you're loved."
His message is that he's living proof that a long shot may just have a shot, after all.
"I think that it's cool to see vulnerability that way, and that we can all grow together and that it's okay to not have it figured out at 35," he said. "It's okay to not have it figured out at 25. It's okay to not have it figured out at 15. Just know that you can figure it out, and believe in that."
Jelly Roll is up for Best New Artist and Best Country Group/Duo Performance —along with Lainey Wilson for their duet "Save Me"— at this year's Grammys, which air on Feb. 4.
