Country star Jelly Roll hit back at people upset that he recently decided to meet with President-elect Donald Trump, explaining that he was taught to respect the president regardless of politics.
During an appearance on his wife Bunnie Xo‘s podcast Dumb Blonde, the 40-year-old singer — born Jason DeFord — said that when he met with Trump at the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden in New York it was an opportunity he wouldn’t pass up, no matter who was the president.
“Dude, there’s not a chance in hell that I’m not going to meet the president-elect,” Jelly Roll said. “I don’t care.”
“If I got a call to meet [President] Joe Biden, I would have stopped at any point and [met] him,” he 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,” DeFord 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 “Halfway to Hell” singer made it clear he wasn’t raised in a home that made voting important, but said that they did teach him to respect the person in the highest office of the land, People magazine noted.
“They did push respecting the president though,” the country singer said, pointing out that it’s “the hardest job in the world.”
During the UFC event, pictures surfaced online showing Jelly Roll and Trump shaking hands, smiling and apparently having a brief conversation.
Earlier this year, DeFord made headlines when he spoke out on Capitol Hill about the dangers of fentanyl — and he later talked about how it scares him for “this next generation,” especially his own children, as previously reported.
Jelly Roll said our country has “seen crack,” cocaine, and opioids, but added, “we’ve never seen something that is so deadly in such small amounts that’s being mixed in so many different things,” People magazine noted.
“My daughter will never experience the safety of experimenting with drugs,” the father of two told the outlet. “I know that sounds crazy to say, but when I was a kid, my mother would be like, ‘You’re going to try everything once. Just be safe.’ It’s not safe for any kid to be doing anything.”
“How many more people does [fentanyl] have to kill a day before we start to care, if the number right now is close to 200,” he added. “I just think it’s time to speak about it. It scares me for my daughter. It scares me for my son. It scares me for this next generation. We’ve never seen nothing like fentanyl.”
The “Son of a Sinner” hitmaker turned his life around after racking up some 40 stints behind bars for various drug-related charges, starting as young as 14, People noted.
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