Some say nothing is an accident. If that’s true I would say I was destined to get my dates wrong tonight so I would be in the car listening to the radio and hear the song, “Need a Favor.” I know I’m a little late to the Jason “Jelly Roll” DeFord music party but in my defense, I have been listening to my four-year-old’s “Runaway Pancake” cd on repeat for the past six months. You may recognize his name from other tracks such as “Son of a Sinner,” “She,” or “Dead Man Walking.” Upon hearing “Need a Favor” for the first time I was immediately googling it and knew it would be a topic of conversation for me.
As I looked into the man named after a pastry, things just started to connect. Recently I heard Father Mike Schmitz say something along the lines of, “God prepares you with everything you need to fulfill your purpose.” Jelly Roll has become a music icon who describes his work as “therapeutic, real music for real people.” The son of an addict with mental health issues, his passion for making music was ignited watching the positive power a song could have over the emotional well-being of his mother. Known as a master of all music genres, it seems he can attribute that to never having control over the radio as a kid. After spending twelve years in and out of the judicial system, he instantly decided to turn his life around from cell 223 on March 22, 2008, when the prison guard announced that a woman had birthed his daughter.
Today his song lyrics are touching millions of hearts for the same reason people love Taylor Swift, he’s just so damn relatable! Jelly Roll is now a passionate philanthropist who does not just fundraise but matches every dollar out of his own bank accounts to help support youth outreach programs. Learning his story, I feel like this is exactly what Father Mike was talking about. God not only gave him an incredible gift as a talented singer/songwriter but lead him to do His work by helping countless people.
Hearing Jelly Roll talk on the Bobby Bones Show about his passion for justice reform and working with juvenile correction centers I was reminded of what Mother Olga spoke about this Saturday on Almsgiving. The topic was Work of Mercy: Visit the Imprisoned. She described various forms of imprisonment from the literal to the figurative imprisonment of addiction and mental illnesses. Mother Olga has prayed with many prisoners worldwide including some just moments before receiving the death penalty. Her quote that stands out to me the most is, “We believe in our Catholic faith that every sinner has a future because every saint had a past.” We have this preconceived notion that the saints are perfect, but one could argue sainthood is granted on the effectiveness of your life’s work. I would say on those merits, Jelly Roll is on his way to sainthood, and he definitely has a past!
Now everyone loves a good Cinderella story such as a reformed convict starts selling tapes out of his car until eventually he makes it big. When I was feeling down the other night because apparently only like ten people are reading my blog, my husband told me a story to make me feel better. He said he saw a video online of a famous comedian talking about his journey and how frustrating it was when he felt like “he was killing it” with his material but no one was noticing. He said that ultimately if you keep creating and putting it out there eventually it will get noticed by the right people. This gave me a spark of hope and I smile again as I realize it worked for Jelly Roll.
Now Jelly Roll’s songs may not seem altogether “holy,” in fact one might classify his work as “spiritual hypocrisy.” However, I would argue what is special about his music is that he is shining a light on a population of people who are struggling. People who are downtrodden and feel forgotten. I talked the other day about the importance of “feeling seen” and frankly sometimes that’s all we need in order to turn our lives around. So, thank-you Jelly Roll for keeping it real, raw and relatable.