Jelly Roll Opens Up About an "Ugly" Delay in His Attempt to Lose Weight.
Jelly Roll is aware that things can go wrong at times. Even though the 41-year-old (actual name Jason Bradley DeFord) has been committed to losing weight in recent years—he estimates he has already lost close to 300 pounds—he disclosed that he experienced a setback shortly after appearing on the cover of Men's Health in the fall.
“This is where the game gets a little ugly,” Jelly stated in a YouTube vlog on April 17. “We hit the goal and it was right before the holidays. So, I was like, ‘You know what, man? I've been working hard for the last three years losing this weight. I’m going to enjoy the holidays.’”
In December, Jelly injured his clavicle in addition to giving himself permission to overindulge in his Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 20 (June 8 – Sept 5, 2026).
Register for Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
Register for Tekedia AI Lab.
“That set me down where I had to quit running, quit walking, quit exercising for some extended period of time,” he clarified. “I said all that to say that I have to some degree lost my way.”
Even though Jelly had set himself the goal of appearing on the cover of Men's Health years ago, he was still underweighting for the picture shoot. The vocalist of "Wild Ones" estimated that he was still 40–60 pounds from that benchmark despite having to take a break from training.
“I haven't weighed in,” he acknowledged it. “I've been avoiding the scale. I'm afraid to see what the scale is going to say from what my actual goal is.”
However, Jelly has set a lofty new objective to help him get back on track: run the 2026 New York Marathon in November and then appear on a magazine cover without a shirt.
“I want to get these last 40 or 50 pounds off and then I eventually want to cut my skin,” he stated, “and I eventually want to be on the cover of something crazy like GQ or Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair or Forbes or Time with my shirt off.”
He continued, “I know this is getting real silly now, but I don't know. I just believe there's this story that a guy can go from 560 pounds to a shirt off picture.”
When Jelly Roll initially talked about his collarbone injury in March, he disclosed that he had broken it while riding an ATV.
"Y'all just took this thing out for the first time since I flipped it," he posted a video on Instagram on March 1. "I broke my collarbone. I was so scared to get back on this thing. I just knew if I didn't get back on it sooner than later, I was just going to be more and more afraid of it."
However, the ailment affected more than just his exercise regimen—Jelly also had to deal with considerable discomfort during the February Grammy Awards.
"I was out there running all over the Grammys with a broken collarbone," he remembered. "Every time I hugged somebody that week, I wanted to scream. I just didn't say it, but every time somebody squeezed me, dude, I thought I was gonna cry."
Fortunately, he managed to climb back into the saddle.
"Sometimes, the machine does more than the user thinks it can and this was all user error," he came to a conclusion. "Anyways, moral of the story: get back on that pony, baby."
Uploaded files: