Jelly Roll on His Dramatic Weight Loss: ‘They’re Calling Me Veggie Roll’

When Jelly Roll has walked into rooms lately, fans haven't been noticing a new outfit; they have been noticing a whole new frame. The country music star recently revealed he’s shed a remarkable 200 pounds.   

And in true Jelly Roll fashion? He’s laughing about the new nickname fans gave him: “They’re calling me Veggie Roll, y’all.” Roll, whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord, took the moniker “Jelly Roll,” a nickname his mother gave him as he was a chubby kid, and flipped it into a badge of self-acceptance.  

DeFord started his weight loss journey in 2022. His transformation is more natural and grueling. With celebrities fast-tracking their weight loss with the help of drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, he preferred au naturel, worried about potential side effects.   

He said (via OK! Magazine), “I just was afraid of it. As a singer, few things scare me more than acid reflux. Like, you'll watch me get up out of a bed, I'll burp and wake up panicked, and go take something for it. You know? Because that stuff will just rip the vocal cords.”  

Roll struggled with his weight all his life. In an Instagram post shared in 2018, he said, “All I’ve ever known was being fat, and I’m f— miserable. I wanna skydive, bungee jump, ride a bull, parasail, ride roller coasters — I want to LIVE a normal life and have a normal relationship with food."  

He also told his wife, Bunnie Xo, that one of his goals is to be on the cover of Men’s Health next year: “I wanna have one of the biggest transformations."  

Roll has been constantly posting about his progress. In September, fans were delighted by how much weight he lost when he posted a photo of himself while in Rome. He captioned it with, “I can fit in Louis Vuitton now. Pray for my bank account."  

Watch him dance and have the time of his life in a TikTok he recently posted, with fans flooding the comments with their support.