Jelly Roll has shared an unusually candid account of his long-running struggle with overeating, describing food addiction as one of the hardest battles he faces.
The 41-year-old performer, whose real name is Jason DeFord, has been outspoken for years about the most difficult parts of his life, including past substance abuse and the work it took to get sober. In recent years, that honesty has extended to his health journey, which has included major changes to his diet, exercise routine and daily habits as he has worked to lose a substantial amount of weight.
He has previously said that learning to treat food differently became a major turning point in that process. In one of his more recent YouTube updates, he again spoke openly about how quickly stress eating can escalate and how addictive patterns can reappear when he feels overwhelmed.
In the clip, he explained how quickly stress eating can escalate and how familiar addictive patterns can reappear.
“I’ve been overeating the last three or four days and I was feeling myself stress eating,” the musician told his viewers. “And then, what else happened, was the addict in me came out.”
He then described how one indulgence can quickly snowball into a much bigger setback.
“We had this show at this one spot and I love thei catering and they have a dairy-free skillet cookie. I don’t eat nothing like that. I’m, like, a drug addict. I can’t eat that, because if I eat one, I eat two. I eat four.
“Later that night, I’m at the taco truck getting the peanut butter fluff. Next thing I know, we’re at the rest stop and I’m looking for a chocolate bar. I’m like, ‘Damn, I don’t… that fast, went from now I’ve consumed 2,000 extra calories today that I didn’t even see coming.”
For the singer, whose real name is Jason DeFord, the issue goes far beyond a single bad day. He said one decision can trigger cravings that linger well beyond the moment.
“I have to pay attention to it, cut it’s like the taste of blood,” he explained. “Now it’s going to take me a whole ‘nother week to get that back completely out of my mouth. I can’t have one anything, you know what i mean? My problem is, it could be healthy — if you put a big bowl of strawberries, if you put a bowl this big of strawberries in front of me and leave me alone, I will eat the entire bowl of strawberries. I got to take a few strawberries and be like, ‘Put the bowl away.’ You know what I mean? Or just not eat the strawberry at all.”
He also drew a direct comparison between his eating habits and the way he previously approached alcohol and drugs, saying the same all-or-nothing mindset has followed him in different areas of life.
“What I learned is how you do anything is how you do everything. I’m like that with alcohol. I’m like that, I’ve never done, I’ve never done ‘a shot.’ I’ve never done ‘a line’ of cocaine. I’ve never smoked ‘a joint.’ You know what I mean? Either we’re smoking all day, we’re drinking all night, we’re doing coke. That’ show it’s working for me. So it’s like, once I realized that was my thing with food, now I just have things that are… like that skillet cookie — I just don’t eat it. People are like, ‘Oh, you can have one for a cheat meal.’ I was like, ‘You can have one for a cheat meal. I can’t.’ You know what I’m saying? Cuz it’ll, they might be a five-day food bender for me.”
Although sobriety helped him eliminate some destructive behaviors, he said food presents a different kind of challenge because it is unavoidable. Unlike drugs or alcohol, he said, it is something he has to face every day.
“I had to learn that food was an addiction,” Jelly Roll shared, shedding light on the psychological weight of his ongoing weight loss journey. “The hard part about food addiction is that you have to look at your drug three times a day. You can’t just quit food cold turkey.”
His comments have struck a chord with many fans following his health journey. Over the last year, the Save Me singer has shed around 100 pounds through major lifestyle changes, including disciplined training and healthier eating while touring, and he later said he had lost far more as his transformation continued.
Even with that progress, he has made clear that the mental side of overeating remains an everyday fight. In a later update this spring, he also acknowledged that a setback and time away from his usual routine had made it harder to stay on track, underscoring how nonlinear the process can be.
He said food can be especially difficult for people with addictive tendencies because it is so deeply woven into daily life and social situations.
“When I was checking out of drug addiction, I just stopped going to the places where people did drugs,” he explained. “But with food, it’s everywhere. It’s at every celebration, it’s comfort when you’re sad, and it’s right there on every street corner.”
By speaking so frankly about emotional eating, addiction, and weight loss, Jelly Roll continues to connect with people dealing with similar struggles in private. His message is that progress is possible, even when recovery is complicated and rarely linear.