Jelly Roll Opens up About How He’s Lost 70 Pounds

Jelly Roll has been making some big physical changes lately, and now he’s opening up about losing 70 pounds. Speaking to PEOPLE, the rapper-turned-country-music star revealed that he’s been working on getting in shape for the 2 Bears 5K with comedians Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura, which will take place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on May 7.

“I’m probably down 70-something pounds,” the 39-year-old told the outlet. “I’ve been really kicking ass, man. I’m doing two to three miles a day, four to six days a week. I’m doing 20 to 30 minutes in the sauna, six minutes in a cold plunge every day. I’m eating healthy right now.”

“I feel really good,” the “Need a Favor” singer added. “I was thinking, I plan on losing another 100, 100-and-something [pounds]. 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.”

Real name Jason Bradley DeFord, Jelly Roll is a musician from Nashville, Tennessee, who grew up in a suburb of Music City. As a teenager, he began a career as a rapper in the early ’00s, playing local venues and selling CDs out of the trunk of his car. At the same time, he found himself in and out of prison, after getting in trouble with the law on multiple occasions. 

Over the years, Jelly Roll has worked with other rappers such as Yelawolf, Lil Wyte, Tech N9ne, and Struggle Jennings. While he’s incorporated country music into his sound many times over the years, it wasn’t until his most recent album, Whitsitt Chapel, that Jelly Roll fully embraced being a country music star.