Image: REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
If there’s one artist everyone keeps hearing about, it’s Jelly Roll. But how did he get such a unique name? It turns out that Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, has been called that ever since he was a kid.
In a great interview last year by Bobby Bones on the “Bobby Bones Show”, Jelly Roll admitted that his mom has been calling him that since he was little. And then he joked that physically speaking he’s been gradually growing into that “role” ever since.
But it wasn’t just his Mom who called him Jelly Roll growing up. Apparently, completely un-related, a childhood friend named One Arm Clay (Yes, you read that right) also decided to name him Jelly Roll.
Jelly said, “One Arm Clay was like, ‘We should call you Jelly Roll’ . . . “I was like, ‘My mama calls me Jelly Roll.'” And thus ended the greatest artist-naming of all time.
In an old Facebook post he talks more about it and defends himself, “You’ll find out my name represents my size and demeanor in life at times but not my music and what I stand for.” (Nicki Swift)
