Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast.

My thanks as always for clicking and listening along.

Man, am I excited for you to hear my conversation this week with one of the brightest, most talented and honestly most inspiring stars in all of music right now. He goes by the name

of Jelly Roll. His real name is Jason DeFord, but his mom gave him the nickname Jelly Roll many, many,

many years ago. And it has stuck through his life and now through his rise to stardom.

If you don't know Jelly Roll, look them up real quick, you'll know him right

away. Big guy, face tattoos, big smile, lots of energy, lots of charisma, and lots of talent as a musician.

He actually started as a rapper and has evolved in the last few years to become one of the biggest

stars in country music and really has transcended into popular music as well.

And I caught him in this incredible moment. We got together in a hotel room in New York City. I'm

surprised he even had an hour to spend with me. He's so busy between everything he's doing and the

tour he's on, the album he has coming out beautifully broken. So I caught him in this moment where

he had just played a sold-out show in Boston

at the arena where the Celtics play. Then he had sold out the next night, Madison Square

Garden in New York. Next day, he headlines the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park in New York,

tens of thousands of people in the park watching him. And then that same night, he does SNL.

Next night, he sells out the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, across the river.

Then he does Fallon and then goes back out on his tour. So it was just great to sit with him and

just let him kind of take a deep breath and appreciate all that's happened for him.

Just honestly, in the last couple of years when

he has exploded. A very troubled youth that he's very open about. Most of his music, in fact, is about it.

You'll hear him talk about it. Went to jail for the first time at 14. At age 16, he was charged with

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