Country star Jelly Roll makes emotional plea to Congress for anti-fentanyl law

Grammy nominee, born Jason DeFord, who experieneed addiction before music career, says fentanyl ‘killing the people we love’

Saying he was “once part of the problem” but now “wants to be a part of the solution”, the country singer Jelly Roll – who overcame drug addiction and imprisonment to achieve stardom – appeared before US lawmakers and urged them to pass an anti-fentanyl law.

“I’ve attended more funerals than I care to share with y’all,” the musician who was born Jason DeFord recently told the Senate banking, housing and urban affairs committee. “I could sit here and cry for days about the caskets I’ve carried of people I love dearly, deeply in my soul. Good people, not just drug addicts. Uncles, friends, cousins, normal people.”

He said: “I brought my community down. I hurt people. I was the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemist 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.”

DeFord’s impassioned remarks on Capitol Hill came as Congress weighs approval of the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence Off Fentanyl Act.

Colloquially referred to as the Fend Off Fentanyl Act, the measure proposes to implement sanctions and anti-money laundering strategies to curb the flow of the potent synthetic opioid, which generally comes into the US after being manufactured in Mexico using Chinese precursor chemicals.

Officials say fentanyl – which is mixed with other drugs to make them cheaper and more addictive – kills nearly 200 people daily in the US and is the leading cause of deaths among American adults younger than 45.

The Senate banking, housing and urban affairs committee voted to pass the Fend Off Fentanyl Act in June. But, as ABC News reported, US House member Patrick McHenry blocked it from inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act as part of an unsuccessful effort by McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, to get his own cryptocurrency measure added to the NDAA.

Enter DeFord, who appeared before the Senate banking committee and alluded to his personally knowing at least 30 people who have died as a result of the US fentanyl crisis. Other loved ones of his are grappling with addiction, including his teenage daughter’s mother, as he revealed during the committee hearing.

“Every single day, I have to wonder if me and my wife … if today will be the day that I have to tell my daughter that her mother became a part of the national statistic,” DeFord remarked.

DeFord, 39, has recounted how he had tried most drugs by the time he was 15. DeFord, a Tennessee native, was 16 when he was charged as an adult with aggravated robbery, spent 18 months in prison and then drifted in and out of lockups over the next decade, including for possession of crack cocaine with intent to resell it.

He spoke about how he is now rehabilitated, but his criminal record has cost him his right to vote as well as some housing opportunities as he pursued a career as a rapper and country singer.

DeFord advocated for law enforcement officials to crack down on drug dealing but advocated for addiction to be approached with mental health treatment options and resources.

“I was a part of the problem,” DeFord said to the Senate committee, who also heard from two law enforcement officials Thursday as the act’s chances of final congressional passage remained unclear. “I am here now, standing as a man that wants to be a part of the solution.

“I suggest that we stand up and do more as fast as we possibly can.”

The turning point in DeFord’s musical career came with his 2020 single Save Me, which is also the title of a Hulu documentary about him.

In November, after more than a dozen albums spanning multiple genres, DeFord earned two Grammy nominations, including in the prestigious best new artist category. He had won the Country Music Association’s prize for best new artist days earlier. And in April, he earned three Country Music Television awards.

“There’s something that’s kind of brokenly beautiful about this almost 40-year-old man making his way, you know,” he told the Guardian. “I’m the real Cinderella man.”

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