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Jelly Roll To Testify At Senate Hearing On Fentanyl Crisis

Jelly Roll is doing his part to stop the flow of fentanyl in our country. According to the United States Senate on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Ohio Senator Sherrod…

Jelly Roll speaking on stage in a black ball cap and back denim jacket
Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Jelly Roll is doing his part to stop the flow of fentanyl in our country. According to the United States Senate on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown announced that Jason "Jelly Roll" DeFord will be a witness for an in-person hearing on Thursday (1/11).

Brown is the committee chairman for banking, housing, and urban affairs and will hold the hearing at 10 am. All hearings are webcast live and will be available once the hearing starts. You can watch the hearing when it happens here.

The committee posted to X (formerly Twitter), "This week, we will welcome @JellyRoll615 to testify about the fentanyl crisis. As a musician and philanthropist, Jelly Roll has used his powerful voice both on and off stage to call attention to the addiction crisis."

See that post here.

Jelly Roll will be a witness along with Patrick Yoes, National President, Fraternal Order of Police; and Christopher J. Urben, Managing Director, Nardello & Co, and Assistant Special Agent in Charge (Retired), Special Operations Division, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Jelly Roll did a recent interview with The New York Times and admitted that to get started in the Nashville music business, he needed money, and selling drugs was the way he earned it.

Jelly said, "I want to be open about it — I thought it was my only choice. I lived in a decently middle-class neighborhood, but I didn't know one person on my street with a career. Everybody did drugs."

He added, "I just was like, I know it's going to take money to get out of here. And the most obvious way to make money was what was happening in the neighborhood. And it's no excuse."

Jelly also told The Times that he has not changed after his recent GRAMMY nominations. He said he is still "me" and that whatever's actually happening in his life is the music he's putting out. Jelly said he called his mother when he learned of his GRAMMY nominations. He noted that he was "getting to call a woman I've called from jail" to tell her about the GRAMMYS. He said that was "the craziest call" you can make.

In other Jelly Roll news, he recently agreed to participate in a 5k run, in the "5k by May" challenge.

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.