Man on Fire

Jelly Roll is living the dream. Which is all the sweeter because it started as a nightmare

Written by Arsenio Orteza |

Jason DeFord — the 40-year-old rapper-turned-country-music-superstar better known as Jelly Roll — doesn’t use social media, so he doesn’t know that on April Fool’s Day Larry the Cable Guy posted the following on X: “If you look closely at one of Post Malone’s tattoos he has an unfinished one that says ‘continued on Jelly Roll’s face.’”

Jelly laughs heartily — first because it’s funny, second because he does everything heartily, and third because he knows that getting to be the punchline of a famous comedian’s joke is a sign of truly having made it.

“My whole life I was like ‘Man, if I was ever relevant enough to be the butt end of a joke!’ I love Larry the Cable Guy. Our whole family used to huddle around the TV and watch the Blue Collar Comedy tapes, you know what I’m sayin’? That’s awesome.”

Larry the Cable Guy isn’t exactly getting in on the ground floor. Examples of Jelly Roll’s ascendancy have proliferated since his career began blowing up five years ago with his song “Save Me.” It’s barely an exaggeration to say that the number of doors that have subsequently opened, and keep opening, for him have created a butterfly effect of fame.

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