Jelly Roll admitted he was emotionally overwhelmed after learning he’d won not one but two Grammy Awards, before he even stepped onto the red carpet.
The 41-year-old artist picked up trophies for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song and Best Country Duo/Group Performance earlier in the evening, a moment he says completely unraveled him.
“I was late getting out here because it took me about 30 minutes just to get myself together,” Jelly Roll told E! News on the carpet in Los Angeles. “I haven’t cried like that in a long time. It was happy tears. Just a full-on, cathartic cry.”
For Jelly Roll, born Jason DeFord, the wins carried deep spiritual meaning. He pointed to the titles of the songs themselves as evidence that something bigger was at work. “The first song you give me a Grammy for is Amen? The second one is Hard Fought Hallelujah?” he said. “You can’t tell me God isn’t all over that.”
His wife, Bunnie XO, was less surprised by the moment, insisting she always believed this outcome was inevitable. “We were talking about it in the car on the way here,” she said. “He kept saying, ‘I never saw this coming.’ And I told him, ‘I did.’ The first night I met him, I told him he was special—and I meant it.”
The emotional night comes after a period of major personal change for the artist. Jelly Roll began a serious health transformation in 2023 after realizing his lifestyle was putting his life at risk. Speaking previously on The Joe Rogan Experience, he said approaching 40 forced him to confront some hard truths.
“I knew I was headed toward something bad,” he explained. “I’d already had multiple heart issues. I could feel myself dying.” Since then, Jelly Roll has lost nearly 200 pounds and says he feels healthier than he has in years—physically and emotionally.
On a night that honored both his music and his journey, the tears, it turns out, were well earned.
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