"There’s not a chance in hell I’m not going to meet the president-elect" — Jelly Roll addresses backlash over meeting Donald Trump

Jelly Roll defended his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump amid backlash in a recent episode on his wife, Bunnie Xo's Dumb Blonde podcast. The singer and rapper faced public outcry after he was seen shaking hands with Trump during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden, NYC, on November 16, weeks after Trump won the election.

During the December 16 episode of the podcast, Jelly Roll explained that he was not a political person, and would have met President Joe Biden if he ever received the honor.

"Dude, there’s not a chance in hell that I’m not going to meet the president-elect. I don’t care — if I got a call to meet Joe Biden, I would have stopped at any point and meet him. 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!"

He added that he was an "old-school dude" who liked to talk about what he was passionate about. He also said that he did not know enough about politics to get involved with either side, but he came from a family that respected presidents irrespective of the parties.

"People who actually know me know I’m also one of the old school dudes. 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. I didn’t grow up in a voting culture. My father didn’t push voting on me, my mother didn’t push voting on me. They did push respecting the president though,” he added.

Jelly Roll also shed light on what he and Trump talked about when he met the president-elect in November. He said Trump told him he loved the song "Save Me," and praised the singer for "doing incredible things."

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Jelly Roll did not vote in the 2024 election

Jelly Roll recently revealed he was one of the many people who didn't vote during the 2024 elections. However, this was not by choice, as the singer lost his right to vote when he was convicted of a robbery in 2003 (convicted felons in Tennessee did not have the right to vote.)

According to MNS, he revealed this information when a TikTok user accused him and his wife of voting for Trump during the 2024 election. In a now-deleted comment, Jelly Roll wrote:

“I can’t vote sir – at all. lol. Nor have I ever. Nor will I ever be allowed to vote. It’s alright, you don’t know me, but please don’t lie about me.”

Jelly Roll has also explicitly stated that he did not identify as a Democrat or a Republican when he testified in front of Congress about the fentanyl epidemic in January 2024. He added he never paid heed to politics after losing his right to vote due to his conviction.

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The singer, whose birth name is Jason DeFord, testified in favor of passing the FEND Off Fentanyl Act. He explained his passion for the subject, saying he hurt many in his community when he was in and out of detention centers for drug-related crimes as a teenager.

"I brought my community down. I hurt people. I was the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemists with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about, just like these drug dealers are doing right now when they're mixing every drug on the market with fentanyl. And they're killing the people we love," he said.

Jelly Roll said he wanted to be a part of the solution now instead of the problem. He urged Congress to be proactive about the bill, which he believed could stop fentanyl supply in the US.