Jelly Roll Says He Feared His Heart Would Give Out Before 200-Lb Weight Loss
- - Jelly Roll Says He Feared His Heart Would Give Out Before 200-Lb Weight Loss
Grace GalanteDecember 12, 2025 at 12:21 AM
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Photo by Marc Grimwade on Getty Images
Jelly Roll is opening up about the health anxiety he faced before his 200-lb weight loss.
During a Dec. 10 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, the country singer said that he dealt with “multiple heart issues” and “could feel myself dying” before finally deciding to make a change.
“I started really considering taking the step to try to make a major change in my life,” Jelly Roll, 41, said of the time around his 39th birthday in 2023. “I thought about it around my birthday ‘cause I knew my next one was 40. You know what, I don't think I've ever met a 500-pound 40-year-old.”
“It felt like I'd already cheated the game. I'd had multiple heart issues,” he continued. “I was like, man, I should really start trying to figure this out. I could feel myself dying.”
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“I’ve been trying to lose this weight my whole life,” the singer added, revealing that he spent most of 2022 yo-yoing between 480 and 560 lbs. “That's how much I fluctuated in just a year, up and down.”
After that year, he decided to take a different approach.
"I'm going to really take my time with it and I'm going to think about what I'm doing and be intentional," he said of starting his weight loss journey. "I'm not going to let it be an emotional thing where you just jump up and go, 'I'm going to go running today!' I was like, 'Let me figure this out.'”
Jelly Roll credited a healthy diet and exercise for his dramatic weight loss, and explained to Rogan how he had to shift his mindset to stay on track with his goals and avoid over-eating.
“Clearly, I've dealt with drug addiction. So, I was like, maybe there's something here," he explained. "Overeating wasn't a failure of willpower for me. It was a biological loop that I didn't know how to interrupt.”
Rogan added, “The problem with food addiction, as opposed to every other addiction, is that you have to keep doing the thing you're addicted to.”
RELATED: Jelly Roll’s New Song Has Fans Saying the Same Thing
“It's everywhere. Not that crack isn't everywhere and heroin isn't everywhere," Jelly Roll continued. "There's not heroin on this table. You know what I'm saying? There's a cookie on here somewhere.”
“Food is something that you need to sustain you to keep alive. Like imagine if you were a gambling addict, but you had to play a few hands of blackjack every day,” Rogan noted. "Every day."
“I had never planned on living,” the musician shared, saying that early in his career, he thought, “When I die, at least my kids might be okay and they won't be ashamed of me."
Jelly Roll has two children, daughter Bailee Ann, 17, and sonNoah Buddy, 9. He also revealed that the last time he saw Rogan prior to this podcast appearance, he believed he would never see him again.
“I'd think, you know, it'll probably go any day for me. You know what I mean? Like, my heart could quit any day. I could relapse and overdose,” he said of his old mindset, before sharing what he thinks at the present moment. "To sit here and look at you now like, 'Dog, I'm going to be a 70-year-old man with you, Bubba'… it's going to be cool.”
"I never would have thought I could have this kind of life," he added.
Also during the podcast episode, Jelly Roll burst into tears after being personally invited to join the Grand Ole Opry by country star Craig Morgan.
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This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 12, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
