What Is Jelly Roll's Real Name & Where Did He Get His Sweet Moniker?
It's probably not too surprising to find out that singer Jelly Roll's name is a nickname, but what you may not know about the rapper and country singer is that his real name is Jason Bradley DeFord. Jelly Roll's wife, Alisa DeFord, also has a nickname and is mostly known as Bunnie Xo.
The Nashville native didn't come up with the Jelly Roll moniker himself. It was his mother who bestowed the name on him, according to a story from "The Bobby Bones Show" in May 2022. "And my mother named me that whenever I was a little chubby kid," Jelly Roll said. "Been fat my whole life. And she started calling me Jelly Roll when I was young and I spent the next 30 years trying to grow into the name, I think I've done it, and it just stuck." The "Creature" singer also told the story of an interesting coincidence — one of his classmates, One-Arm Clay, suggested the Jelly Roll nickname for him too.
"I was like, 'My momma calls me Jelly Roll!' And then once the high school starts calling you something, you know that's the kit and caboodle," Jelly Roll said.
Jelly Roll's love of a certain dessert helped inspire the nickname from his mother
In a StageRightSecrets interview from June 2023 during the CMA Fest, Jelly Roll talked a bit more about his nickname-turned-stage-name and the dessert that inspired it: "So I was a chunky little kid who loved doughnuts and every Sunday after church I'd get one. [My mom] called me her little Jelly Roll."
Jelly Roll also explained how stage names and nicknames aren't the same thing. He continued, "You don't get to pick your nickname. You get to pick your stage name. Right? I could've, I would've been Zeus the Warrior Prince or something if I got to pick it, you know?" He talked more about some friends from his old neighborhood and their unfortunate nicknames. Nicknames were a topic of discussion when Jelly Roll sat down with Howard Stern in June 2024 as well. The singer joked that he might have turned out differently if his mother nicknamed him "Slim Jim."
Jelly Roll's father, Horace "Buddy" DeFord, sadly died in 2019. However, his mother and creator of his nickname, Donna DeFord, has seen Jelly Roll's continued rise to fame.
Jelly Roll saw how music helped his mother
On "The Bobby Bones Show," Jelly Roll also discussed how music positively affected his mother Donna DeFord amidst her previous mental health and addiction issues. Jelly Roll told Bones, "And I just remember thinking, 'Man, I wanna make music that makes people feel like this music makes my mother feel.'" In an October 2023 Instagram post, Jelly Roll touched on that again and how she motivated him to begin making music. He also talked about how he loved when she watched him perform.
Although Donna was unable to join Jelly Roll at the 2024 Grammys, she made a red carpet appearance via FaceTime. In an Entertainment Tonight interview, Jelly Roll mentioned how happy he was that his daughter, Bailee Ann DeFord, and his wife, Bunnie Xo, were with him. As for his mother, Jelly Roll was concerned about how Donna would be able to get around in her wheelchair. He added, "But she's watching from home man. ... She's FaceTimed me 10 times today already."
When the interviewer Kevin Frazier asked if they could FaceTime Donna, Jelly got out his phone and gave it a try — and she picked up! He held up his phone so the cameras could see. When Frazier said, "We wish you were here tonight!" Donna said, "I do too, I wish I could've been there too."