Jelly Roll has cleaned up his act recently — but he says smoking pot has kept him away from harder drugs.
“I get in trouble for this, all the time, but my stance on marijuana will always be the same: I believe marijuana has helped me in so many regards, with my anxiety,” the country music star said in a new interview with Taste of Country. “This is a hot-button topic, but, truly, marijuana has kept me sober.”
The “Son of a Sinner” singer, 39, went on to admit that in a “world without weed,” he would be “drinking codeine and popping Xanax and snorting cocaine again.”
“But a world with weed, I’ll be alright,” said in the interview, published Friday.
Speaking candidly about substance abuse, Jelly continued, “I know that I have friends that don’t do that. I have friends that are in the program that are totally against any kind of mind-altering anything. I respect that. I have so much respect for those people. That’s just not how my sobriety worked out.”
HuffPost has reached out to Jelly Roll’s reps for comment.
Jelly, whose legal name is Jason Bradley DeFord, opened up last year about his positive experience joining Alcohol Anonymous, after being jailed 40 times for drug-related offenses.
“I’ve never talked about this in interviews, but because I do drink and smoke weed, I will attend meetings occasionally. If I’m really struggling with thinking of my behavioral pattern, I’ll go to a meeting,” the Grammy nominee told People in December 2023.
Jelly added, “I just — out of an abundance of respect for the people who really got off the drugs completely, and the alcohol and the weed — don’t necessarily claim to be a part of the program, because I respect their work and I would never want to diminish it with some of my actions, but AA has done a lot for me.”
Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.