Jelly Roll has never been shy about his long, hard road to stardom, which included several run-ins with the law as a teenager and one that landed him behind bars. But now that he's on the straight and narrow and has rocketed from juvenile delinquent to world-leading country music superstar, the 39-year-old singer said People magazine that he's making sure his 16-year-old daughter Bailee doesn't hit the same roadblocks she did when she was her age.
“[I said]“I don't judge you based on what you do. I judge you based on what I know you're capable of,” he said of a recent conversation he had with his daughter in which he reminded Bailee of how much potential he sees in her on the cover of “From Inmate to Icon: How Jelly Roll Beat the Odds .”
“You're a lot smarter than I was when I was 16. You're so much better, so much more emotionally intelligent,” he told his daughter, who was born in 2008, while he was in prison. “You can read a room much better. So don't try to get out of trouble Miss Sassy by weaponizing my past,” added the “Save Me” singer, who was 14 when he was first arrested. Jelly and her wife Bunnie XO have had full custody of Bailee since 2017 due to her biological mother's reported substance abuse struggles.
The good news for the father-of-two – he also has an eight-year-old son called Noah – is that he believes Bailee is “completely ahead” of where she was at her age, confident she has a promising future. “When I look at what she does that I think is horrible, I look back at what I did when I was 16 and I'm like 'oh man…' When I'm hard on her about things or a little pushy, she knows it's out of love,” he said.
As proof, Bailee was with Jelly when he appeared at the 2024 CMA Awards last week. “We were really close before it blew up, but she understands what she's doing to her future and her family's future,” he said of the father-daughter relationship's trajectory as his career has gone supernova over the past two years. “He's a really down-to-earth kid. She has been in the same public school district for 10 years and has had the same friends since Bunny and I had custody of her. I think a lot of that has helped.” In a recent appearance at Bunnie's Silly blonde podcast, Bailee said she hopes to attend Columbia University study of criminal law after high school.
The six-time country Airplay chart-topper closed out his Beautifully Broken tour at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday night (November 26), where he was joined by guests including Snoop Dogg, ERNEST, Morgan Wallen, Keith Urban and Skylar Grey. . He is scheduled to support Post Malone on the singer's 2025 Big Ass Stadium tour next spring.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/jelly-roll-not-worried-daughter-bailee-follow-criminal-footsteps-smarter-1235840621/
