Better late than never. More than six months after the 2026 Grammy Awards, where Jelly Roll insisted he would state his political views within the following week, he finally did so loudly and unequivocally during his last night guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live, ABC’s late-night talkshow.
Jelly Roll has been a headline-grabbing machine this week, from his sweet words about the late Dolly Parton to the backlash from MAGA and America’s network of conservative media when he roasted Donald Trump, more than once. During his monologue on Thursday evening (Aug. 27), Roll took the conversation even further.
Flashback to the Grammys on Feb. 1, a night when he won three golden gramophones. Backstage, Jelly told the press room that he was ready, willing and able to share his thoughts on the state of politics in his homeland.
“I have a lot to say about it and I’m going to in the next week. And everybody’s going to hear exactly what I have to say in the most loud and clear way I’ve ever spoken in my life. I look forward to it,” he said.
He prefaced that, in his own self-deprecating way, by saying that “people shouldn’t care to hear about my opinion, I’m a dumb redneck.” Then came nothing but silence.
“Can I get something off my chest,” he said on Kimmel. “For the last six months, I’ve watched people decide who I am, what I am, what I believe, what I support and what I don’t support. And I felt that even more this week, just because I told a couple of jokes. And honestly, this goes back further for me, y’all.”
This goes back to February this year, and the Grammys, a night where his dreams came true. “It was the single greatest moment and greatest honor of my career. I got called on that stage. I got handed my award that I’ve been dreaming about since I was a child. And immediately after, I was asked to make what I felt at the time was a political stands. I fumbled my words.”
Looking back, “I don’t necessarily regret asking for more time before I spoke. I wish more people took more time before they spoke. But I do wish I had found the words to express my heart just a little bit sooner. But I was afraid that anything I was going to say was going to be immediately taken as a political statement.” He continued, “Ironically, by trying so hard not to make a political statement, I became one. I spent my entire career trying not to belong to a political party. Partly because until March of this year, I wasn’t allowed to vote. But now that I have that right, it’s one I plan to exercise this coming November.”
This Nov. 3 is, of course, the midterm elections. Jelly Roll didn’t reveal which political party he registered with, but stressed he represents “those without representation… I’ve always tried to be a voice for the voiceless…I try to speak for the unspoken for. And that night at the Grammys, I had an opportunity to speak up for people who were scared, hurting and felt like nobody was speaking for them. I had a microphone and I didn’t use it the right way.” Choking back tears, he added, “My daddy always told me it is never too late to do the right thing.
“Human dignity isn’t Republican nor Democrat. Compassion isn’t left wing and mercy isn’t right wing. Pain and healing knows no partisanship. Hurting hearts are more important than poll numbers and there are no boundaries or borders for broken families.”
Roll admitted on Kimmel that he was a “man of second chances,” calling coming from his broken past, coming back and winning a Grammy “the American dream.”
He also stressed that he would shake the hand of any sitting president and his shaking Trump’s hand did not imply an endorsement, it simply showed respect for the office of the president.
Earlier in the week, Jelly quipped that he’d “lost an entire Donald Trump” when describing his own 300-pound weight loss and at one point joked, “Mr. President, from one fat pig to another, take it from me that physical fitness is very important.”
Later, after the right-wing raised a collective angry fist, he remarked: “We can debate whether this president is mentally fit, but I think we can all agree he is certainly not physically fit,” before introducing a parody commercial for a fake weight-loss drug called “Donjaro.”
Proving that his “fat-on-fat” jokes hit a soft spot, Florida Rep. Jimmy Patronis went on to say that, because of the singer teased Trump about his girth, Jelly Roll is unwelcome in the Florida Panhandle.
“I have joked all week all week long on this show about how I’m a convicted felon who was given the opportunity to change his life. And the fact is, that wasn’t a joke y’all,” he remarked on Thursday night. Jelly is on a roll. He’s living the dream. The American dream. “It can’t just be for people like me,” he insisted. “The American dream should be for everybody.”
Watch Jelly Roll’s monologue below.
