Jelly Roll found himself in front of a different audience Thursday (January 11) as the country star, born Jason DeFord, testified before the US Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the fentanyl crisis.
He spoke on behalf of the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, bipartisan legislation that would impose sanctions to reduce the flow of the drug into communities by sanctioning the bank accounts of drug cartels and suppliers.
Jelly Roll arrived at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington DC with her wife Bunnie XO for the hearing titled “Stop the Flow of Fentanyl: Public Awareness and Legislative Solutions.”
“I'm guessing most of you didn't have 'Jelly Roll Testifies at Senate Banking Hearing' on your 2024 bingo cards,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said in his opening remarks. “But few speak – and sing – as eloquently, as openly, and, shall we say, indirectly, about addiction as he does. There's a reason Americans flock to his music and concerts. It has a relationship with people based on shared pain, shared challenges, shared hope.”
Jelly Roll, who served time in prison for selling drugs and whose songs like “She” address addiction, spoke passionately about the devastating effects fentanyl has had nationally and in his community.
“I have attended more funerals than I care to share with all of you on this committee. I could sit here and cry for days about the tapes I've carried with people I loved very much, deep in my soul, good people, not just drug addicts,” he said. “Uncles, friends, cousins, regular people, some people who just got in a car and started taking a pain pill to deal with it.”
Jelly Roll, noting that 190 people die every day in the US from drug addiction, got even more personal by bringing committee members to his home. “Now I have a 15-year-old daughter whose mother is a drug addict,” he said. “Every day I look into the eyes of a victim in my home the effects of drugs, every day. And every day I have to wonder if me and my wife, if today will be the day I have to tell my daughter that her mother has become a national statistic.”
He also spoke about his criminal past, adding that he didn't believe he was harming people. “I was the uneducated guy in the kitchen playing chemist with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about, like these drug dealers are doing right now when they're mixing every drug on the market with fentanyl and killing the people we love. ” he said. “I truly believed when I sold drugs that selling drugs was a victimless crime. I truly believed that.”
He implored the committee to pass the legislation, but to go further and work on the issues that are causing the addition, not just the delegates, saying, “I really believe in myself that this bill, that this bill will stop the provision and can to help stop the supply of fentanyl. But as part of being proactive, gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, I have to be honest and tell you all that if we don't speak to the other side of the Capitol and stop the demand, we're going to be kicking our tires in the mud.”
Also testifying were Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, and Christopher J. Urben, managing director, Nardello & Co, and assistant special officer (retired), Special Operations Division, US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Check out Jelly Roll's testimonial below:
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/jelly-roll-senate-testimony-fentanyl-crisis-video-1235580526/
