Jelly Roll is opening up about the moment he realized his weight and addiction were damaging the people he loved most — and how that realization pushed him to transform his life.
During the December 10 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, the singer told Joe Rogan that he “realized then how much my addiction had been hurting this family, how much that my sex life with my wife was horrible.”
“Dude, I married a f–kin’ big-t-tty, blonde, beautiful woman, dawg. I married the kind of woman that makes you smile when you’re crying, Joe. And I couldn’t even get aroused I was so big. I was having to play Twister to have sex—left foot here, right foot in the X. ‘Are we in there yet? Tell me if you feel something.’ It was bad.”
The realization extended to his relationship with his son as well. “I think about my son,” he said. “My brother would have to go throw football with him. I was too big to throw the football. I was like, ‘That’s what my addiction has done to these people.’”
That moment of clarity propelled the singer to commit to real change. He promised his family he would start exercising beginning with a simple walk.
“I’m done lying to y’all and I’m done lying to me,” he recalled telling them. “I told y’all I was going to go do this walk and I’m going to do this walk.”
When he returned from that first attempt, he found his family waiting for him.
“I’m coming up the driveway to the hill and all my family is out there, cheering me on, clapping, hands up,” he shared. “I’d done nothing but lie to them for years about this weight… They had every reason not to go out there and cheer me on. That was the moment where I was like, ‘Damn.’”
From there, everything changed. “I never thought I’d lose this weight, dude,” he told Rogan. “Dude, I feel great, Joe. I feel really, really good, dude.”
A 5K Milestone
In May 2024, Jelly Roll completed his first 5K, the 2 Bears 5K, alongside his wife, Bunnie Xo. The 3.1-mile race marked a major milestone: in January, he “couldn’t walk a mile.”
Reflecting on the emotional finish, he said, “So the fact that we got three point whatever it was done today, I feel really, really good about it. I left here feeling really motivated.”
How Much Weight He’s Lost So Far
Training for the race in 2024 helped kickstart major changes for the singer.
After finishing the 2 Bears event, he told Entertainment Tonight that he’d shed “50 to 70-something pounds,” adding, “I got to double check again — it was a lot of weight.”
In mid April 2024, while still deep in training, he told People he was “doing 2 to 3 miles a day, four to six days a week,” along with sauna sessions, cold plunges, and eating healthier.
“I’ve been really kicking a**, man,” he said. “I’m probably down 70-something pounds.”
“I was thinking, I plan on losing another 100, 100-and-something,” he continued. “If I feel this good down this weight, man, I can only imagine what I’m going to feel like by the time I go on tour.”
In an August 2025 video shared by the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, Jelly Roll revealed that he had officially “lost 200 pounds.”
His Weight-Loss Method Today
In an April 2025 interview with Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night show host asked how the star has been dropping the pounds, and Jelly Roll admitted the truth isn’t flashy.
“I’ve been thinking of ways to make it sound cool, but I can’t,” he said. “I’m eating a lot of protein, vegetables and walking. That’s what I’m doing.”
The singer did admit however that he isn’t perfect. At the 2025 Academy of Country Music Awards he told Fox News Digital he still struggles with the food element of weight loss.
“If you’re really battling obesity, you got to start at the dinner table, man. The walking’s great, all the other stuff’s great, but you got to fight that addiction at the dinner table,” he said.
