Jelly Roll is due to perform at the Invictus Games in Whistler/Vancouver in February. Jelly Roll’s inclusion in the musical line-up was announced last month via a cute Invictus video with Prince Harry. Jelly Roll came into a tattoo parlor and “tattooed” Harry’s neck. Good times. While Jelly Roll was certainly well known before that Invictus video, there was a new kind of focus on him because he was now associated with Harry. Suddenly, people had a lot of feelings about Jelly Roll’s politics, even though the man is a felon who cannot vote. In November, there was also a video of Jelly Roll greeting Donald Trump with a sh-t-eating grin on his face and obviously, people believed Jelly Roll was and is MAGA-coded. Well, he made a new statement about his politics:
Jelly Roll is responding to criticism for meeting the President-elect Donald Trump. While appearing on his wife Bunnie Xo’s podcast Dumb Blonde for the Dec. 16 episode, the “Halfway to Hell” singer spoke about meeting with Trump, 78 during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 16.
“Dude, there’s not a chance in hell that I’m not going to meet the president-elect. I don’t care,” Jelly, 40, said, noting how he would be excited to meet any president.
“If I got a call to meet Joe Biden, I would have stopped at any point and [met] him,” the singer added. “That’s the active president. I don’t care about what he thinks or I think about policies.”
“I don’t hide behind the ‘I’m not political stuff.’ I’m not political! People who actually know me know I’m also one of the old-school dudes,” he continued. “I like to talk about things I’m passionate about. With that, I like to know about it. I don’t know enough about politics to act like I know anything that’s going on or what anybody’s standing for policy-wise.”
The “Son of a Sinner” singer added that he didn’t grow up in a “voting culture” at home where his parents “pushed” him to vote. “They did push respecting the president though,” he said, adding that he thinks the position is “the hardest job in the world.”
“Meeting President Trump was cool. Ultimately, I don’t really care [about] any blowback I get about it,” Jelly concluded. “The truth is: It was really cool to meet the president.”
Bunnie, 44, agreed. “Anybody who gets the opportunity to meet a president, a vice president… anything like that. It’s a f—ing honor.”
I sort of believe that Jelly Roll is the kind of person who thinks Donald Trump is “cool,” but I also buy that JR simply has respect for the office of presidency, so he would be jazzed to meet the president, ex-president, vice president, etc, regardless of political party. As he says, if President Biden had asked him to perform at the White House, or asked for a photo-op, JR would have happily done that because that’s the president. I’ve actually met a lot of people like this, who don’t consider themselves political at all and swear that they don’t care about political parties. It’s usually white people and yeah, they usually vote Republican.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, screencaps from Invictus video.
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- Country superstar, Jason DeFord known as Jelly Roll, performs to a sold out crowd of 15,000 at the Califrnia Mid- State Fair in Paso Robles, California. this is the 78th Annual Mid-State. Tuesday July 23rd, 2024.,Image: 891898040, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: JERRY PEREZ/Avalon/Avalon
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- Country superstar, Jason DeFord known as Jelly Roll, performs to a sold out crowd of 15,000 at the Califrnia Mid- State Fair in Paso Robles, California. this is the 78th Annual Mid-State. Tuesday July 23rd, 2024.,Image: 891898057, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: JERRY PEREZ/Avalon/Avalon
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- Country superstar, Jason DeFord known as Jelly Roll, performs to a sold out crowd of 15,000 at the Califrnia Mid- State Fair in Paso Robles, California. this is the 78th Annual Mid-State. Tuesday July 23rd, 2024.,Image: 891898062, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: JERRY PEREZ/Avalon/Avalon
I agree.
I know it’s extremely difficult to separate the person from the elected office they hold. That said, the office holder may not be a good person, BUT, the office itself is still deserving of respect. So Jelly Roll is respectful of the office of POTUS, irrespective of the holder of said office. I respect that.
My mother was a staunch, straight-ticket Republican. When I was in college, Gary Hart was running for the Democratic nomination and he was campaigning in my college town. My mother told me “Go to that rally! It isn’t every day a person has the chance to see and here and maybe meet a possible President.”
I get it. Musicians like him know how their bread is buttered. But it would be more understandable if it was Mitt Romney or just a standard Republican (not many of those left) and not one of the most vile creatures to ever hold office in the US.
I’m not even mad at the guy because I’m not a fan of whatever—I just wish everyone would treat Trump like the piece of shit he is. He doesn’t deserve to be treated with respect or kindness or warmth.
Honestly, I would be jazzed to meet the president — except if it were Trump. Truly. He’s so repugnant to me that I would not feel that it was “cool” at all. I wouldn’t do it.
Also, it would be great if we as a society could reach people who consider themselves “not in a voting culture.” It’s 40-48% of the population (roughly) that are not exercising their agency.
Hear, hear! 👏
Yeah, no. That’s like saying he’d be jazzed to meet Hitler or Putin just because they were or are leaders. Normalizing the evil that is in the White House now is not right.
Edit to correct – normalizing the evil that is coming into the White House with Trump is not right.
Realized after rereading it looked like I wrote the current Biden administration was evil which was NOT what I meant!
I’ve always gotten along with ppl that voted differently, I’m not going to say whether I respect them, but I’ve gotten along with them. But with trump, this is a little different. I’d like to see Jelly Roll meet President Biden, President Obama or VP Harris and see if he acts the same.
ewww sorry no. gross white people having the luxury to say they dont have to worry about politics is not a flex.
EXACTLY !!!!
Also agree!
Jelly Roll says he respects the office of the presidency. That is more than we can say for Trump.
Also get tired of people claiming, as if to brag they don’t know a lot about politics or policy. Because of so many people like this we have a convicted felon heading to the white house.
I mean, if you can’t vote though and seem to have spent a fair amount of time locked up…you’re not exactly taken up with the mainstream concerns that politicians supposedly address.
1. Must be nice that you have the privilege of being unaffected by politics.
2. At this time in history, saying nothing still says something.
3. I respect the Presidency enough to refuse to shake hands with the disgrace who will soon be holding office again.
I love Jelly’s song “I am not okay” as it completely describes my life. That said, I first was introduced to him on the sports podcast Bussin’ With The Boys which is hosted by 2 former NFL players. I listened to them on a regular basis until they had Trump on as a guest at which point I immediately unsubscribed and never listened to them again. Jelly was on their show at least 3 times in 2024. The company you keep and all of that…
I also agree with the notion above that I’d definitely would consider meeting a President who belonged to a party that espoused principles not aligned with mine. Except for Trump — because he’s a fascist.
“I’m not political.” 🙄
The fact that you can’t vote, my good man, is a political choice (made by others) that places you in a certain political context. You can choose to deny it, if you wish, but that doesn’t alter the reality. We all exist in a political context; therefore, we are all “political”. Please wake up.
You can respect the office and not be able to vote and still care about who is running the country. That’s what he’s missing. Care about what’s happening to your fellow citizens.
All I have to say on this is, they always vote against their own interests. And this time around they really got played as the person they voted for is just a pawn for the tech bros.
I think only Certain People would be starstruck over meeting a literal fascist in the making, but what do I know.