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For Jelly Roll, losing weight was a life-or-death matter.
The country superstar spoke about his 300-pound weight loss during an appearance on “Joe Rogan Experience,” and according to him, he felt like he could only have lived another six to 12 months at his former weight.
“I don’t think I’m making this up when I say I think I was six to 12 months away from missing it,” he told Rogan. “Especially traveling – you know, I travel 280 days a year. At 500-something pounds, 200-something flights a year, 250 flights a year?”
JELLY ROLL UNVEILS DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION WITHOUT SIGNATURE BEARD AFTER WEIGHT LOSS
Jelly Roll is seen in November 2022 (left) and November 2025 (right). (Getty Images)
“So bad for you,” Rogan agreed.
Jelly Roll continued, “I wasn’t going to be able to do it, I knew it.”
The “Save Me” singer, who turned 41 on Dec. 4, explained that he first began seriously considering losing weight on his 39th birthday because “I knew my next one was 40 … I don’t think I’ve ever met a 500-pound 40-year-old.”
He said that he’d felt like he’d “already cheated the game” after dealing with “multiple heart issues.”
“I was like, ‘Man, I should really start trying to figure this out’ … I could feel myself dying, Joe,” he said.
Jelly Roll performs on stage at Strummingbird Festival on Nov. 2, 2025 in Perth, Australia. (Matt Jelonek/Getty Images)
Jelly Roll shared that he’s “been trying to lose this weight my whole life,” but this time around, he approached the issue differently – instead of thinking of his overeating as “a failure of willpower,” he started looking at it as “a biological loop that I didn’t know how to interrupt.”
“I spent most of 2022 between 480 and 560 pounds,” he explained. “That’s how much I fluctuated in a year, just up and down.”
This time around, he decided not to make any big promises to himself or to his family, and instead started small. With the help of an expert, his first step towards weight loss was to start cold plunges and getting in 10,000 steps a day.
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Jelly Roll spoke about how his wife, Bunnie XO, and his kids have supported him in his weight-loss journey. (Taylor Hill)
He became emotional when talking about how his family cheered him on when he went for his first big walk, saying, “I realized then how much my addiction had been hurting this family.”
He admitted that his sex life with his wife, Bunnie XO, was “terrible” as an example, telling Rogan, “I married the kind of woman that makes you smile when you’re crying, Joe, and I couldn’t even get aroused, I was so big.”
Another thing he couldn’t do was throw around a football with his son — he said that his brother did it with him instead.
“I was like, ‘That’s what my addiction has done to these people, and here they are cheering for me. No, dude, we’re turning up … we’re going to figure this out.'”
The country singer also shared that he has 35 pounds of extra skin from losing so much weight. (JOHN LAMPARSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
In addition to those small changes, he started changing his diet — he said he hasn’t had any bread in two years, except on Thanksgiving — and he also began therapy to begin working through his food addiction.
“I never planned on living, Joe,” he confessed to Rogan. “Like, ever. It was never in my plan of life. Even as I was getting successful, like I was coming out here and life was getting good for me, and in my mind, I was like, ‘OK, good, at least when I die my kids might be OK, and they won’t be ashamed of me … at least their daddy died of obesity because he had mental health issues, but he was a cool f—ing dude, man, who did some cool stuff, you know?”
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He added, “I never would have thought I could have this kind of life.”
Jelly Roll admitted that a few years ago, he didn’t think he’d live much longer, but now he can see himself becoming a 70-year-old man. (Jason Kempin)
Even the last time he saw Rogan, he thought to himself that he’d never see him again.
“It’ll probably go any day for me,” he remembered thinking. “Like, my heart could quit any day. I could relapse and overdose. I’m not thinking right most of the time.”
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Now, Jelly Roll said that his thought process is completely different.
“To like, sit here and look at you now, I’m like, ‘Dog, I’m going to be a 70-year-old man with you, bubba.’ … It’s going to be cool.”