‘I was going to come and spread the love’

COLUMBUS (WXIX) – Just before his concert at Nationwide Arena on Oct. 9, Jelly Roll made a “surprise” visit to an Ohio juvenile detention center to “spread love” to the young people who need it the most need.

It was a special moment for teens at the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center as they played spades and other card games with rap-country artist and GRAMMY Award winner Jelly Roll.

As the group discussed their talents and how they could develop them, they also listened to the story of Jelly Roll who briefly reviewed his time behind bars from a young age.

“When I was 14, I was arrested for the first time, and from 14 to 26, I probably spent 10 years in prison. I was tied up and charged (as an) adult when I was 15 and a half for a theft case, and uh… man, I’m just a product of the system,” he told them .

A native of Nashville, the 39-year-old spent much of his youth in the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center and later, the Metro-Davidson County Detention Center.

The artist says he remembers sitting in “that seat,” an impressionable boy, as people visited him and “poured love” into him that he didn’t quite understand.

“The staff were showering me with love, but I didn’t really understand them because we’re obviously to some extent on two different sides of the basic belief system, the judges were coming in, I was asking all these people to try and I couldn’t really connect,” he said.

No matter who came to see him, he felt like they were “preaching to him,” Jelly Roll told the teens.

“So instead of preaching to you, I’m going to show you how bad you’ll be at Spades,” he said, which elicited a bit of laughter.

This wasn’t the first facility Jelly Roll visited since he rose to fame. He returned to his old prison where he wrote hundreds of songs and visited the Genesee County Jail in Michigan and the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Oregon.

Although a show is planned in Columbus this Wednesday, Jelly Roll said he spends a lot of time in the city and she claims him as “one of them.”

“I just knew that if I ever had the chance to make a difference, I would come back… I would come and spread love,” he said, reflecting on his time in the system.

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