Jelly Roll Compares Over-Eating Struggle to Drug Addiction

Jelly Roll is getting candid about his disordered eating habits, comparing his struggles to substance abuse.

“I’ve been overeating the last three or four days and I was feeling myself stress eating,” the musician, 41, said of his eating habits in a new video shared via his YouTube channel on Friday, July 10. “And then, what else happened, was the addict in me came out.”

He continued, “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.”

Jelly Roll, real name Jason Bradley DeFord, has been on an ongoing and very public weight loss journey, revealing he has lost over 275 pounds by exercising and changing his diet.

In the Friday video, which featured the singer speaking to fan about their weight and eating habits, Jelly Roll described how one food-related decision can lead to days of unhealthy eating habits.

“Then that breeds the last three days of having to really… Now 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 added, “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.”

The singer went on to tell the fan that he can “relate” to his own experiences — overeating in private, usually inside a vehicle — and pointed out the reality of having an eating disorder.

“People don’t get it. I tell people, you don’t become the size me and you became without having a mental health issue, you know what I mean?” he said. “It’s something way deeper than just, you know, it’s a different thing. But oce you get to that point of really realizing what you’re hungry for, everything changed. And knowing what your triggers are.”

In April of this month — one month before the singer announced his shocking split from estranged wife Bunnie XO — the singer opened up about a recent weight loss setback.

“This is where the game gets a little ugly,” he said via a YouTube video at the time, admitting that he went “off the rails” in the lead-up to the holiday season. “We hit the goal and it was right before the holidays. So, I was like, ‘You know what, man? I’ve been working hard for the last three years losing this weight.’ I said, ‘I’m going to enjoy the holidays.’”

He continued, “That set me down where I had to quit running, quit walking, quit exercising for some extended period of time. I said all that to say that I have, to some degree, lost my way.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Alliance for Eating Disorders website or call their hotline at (866) 662-1235. Text “ALLIANCE” to 741741 for free, 24/7 support.