“My Husband Has Always Talked About God”: Bunnie XO Responds to Critics of Jelly Roll's Grammy Speech on Jesus

After earning a trio of prestigious GRAMMY Awards and cementing himself as one of the most influential figures in the contemporary country scene, Jelly Roll and his wife, Bunnie XO, will hopefully have been in full celebration-mode for the past few weeks.

Unfortunately, the internet often loves to dampen a moment of joy, and some online commentators have criticised Jelly Roll for the religious nature of his GRAMMY speech.

When accepting the first ever gong for Best Contemporary Country Album for Beautifully Broken, Jelly touched on his faith journey, “Jesus, I hear you, and I’m listening. Lord, I am listening. Lord. Second of all, I want to thank my beautiful wife. I would have never changed my life without you. I would have ended up dead or in jail. I would have killed myself if it wasn’t for you and Jesus. I thank you for that”.

As he held up a little red Bible, he went on, “There was a time in my life, y'all, that I was broken. That's why I wrote this album. I didn't think I had a chance, y'all. There were days that I thought the darkest things. I was a horrible human. There was a moment in my life that all I had was a Bible this big, and a radio the same size, and a six-by-eight-foot cell. And I believe that those two things could change my life. I believe that music had the power to change my life, and God had the power to change my life. And I want to tell y'all right now Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by one political party. Jesus is not owned by no music label. Jesus is Jesus and anybody can have a relationship with Him. I love you, Lord”.

Some online trolls have been accusing Jelly's openness about his Christian faith as performative, while others have speculated that his decision to use the GRAMMY platform to praise God and Jesus rather than denounce the Trump administration's ICE raids - as many fellow artists did - is “proof” that he is a Trump supporter.

In a new podcast episode, Bunnie XO has expressed her bemusement at the hate Jelly has been receiving in light of his GRAMMY speech. Bunnie points to the way that, throughout his discography, the ‘Need a Favor’ hitmaker has explored spiritual themes.

Bunnie begins, “Who would have thought that my husband's speech would set the internet on fire?”, before highlighting that his 2026 GRAMMY speech was very similar in sentiment to his 2023 CMA Awards speech, in which he also discussed his faith.

Bunnie explains, “The problem is people are weaponizing the Bible and religion way more than they are celebrating the name of Jesus, to the point where they're just proving why people do not want to be a Christian. For the longest time, I didn't want to be a Christian because of what I saw growing up. Everything that I saw was hypocrisy, the congregation just backbiting each other...Seeing all these people online tearing apart my husband's walk of faith makes me not want to associate with that type of Christianity...I've been seeing videos where people are one saying that my husband is “performing”. He's a “performative Christian”. In what world is it okay to ever question somebody's walk with God?”

The host of the Dumb Blonde Podcast goes on, “Yeah, my husband's not sitting there saying ‘You need to go to church! You need to donate to this frickin’ congregation!’...He's not asking for anything. All he's saying is, ‘Hey, Jesus is for everybody’”.

Bunnie flips it round on the haters, pointing out that they're being insincere in their intentions, by making videos on the speech as a means of using Jelly's name for hits, “The only reason why you're even questioning my husband's faith is not because you genuinely care. It's because you want to make money off of his name and you want the views. You know right now, anything ‘Jelly Roll’ is going to get views”.

Bunnie then cites a host of songs from across Jelly's catalogue, such as ‘Save Me’, ‘Son of a Sinner’, ‘Roll Me Up’ and ‘Even Angels Cry’, on which he dives into his relationship with God. She stresses that this is something that has been close to his heart since he was a child, it's just that he has honed his walk with God in recent years.

We even have an inkling that Jelly might be gearing up to drop a full-blown Contemporary Christian album, following his hit duet with Brandon Lake, ‘Hard Fought Hallelujah’, which won the GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.

It's definitely true that spirituality has always been a key muse for the Nashville native in his songwriting, with his last three albums, Beautifully Broken, Whitsitt Chapel and Ballads of the Broken, all pivoting around the core theme of religion and faith. Whitsitt Chapel in particular carries a powerful narrative of salvation and redemption.

Bunnie frustratedly outlines, “There's always been symbolism. My husband was raised Methodist. He went to church. He walked with God. Granted, in the beginning, there were a lot of sexual undertones. We were dipping a toe in and out of like, ‘Hey, I grew up in a Christian home, but I'm still rebelling’. Self-Medicated had ‘Save Me’ on it. That's literally where he's talking about “somebody saved me” - and he's talking about God...His music has always had Christian undertones...This is not new. What you're watching is a man who is growing in his faith in front of everybody. It's not like he just woke up one day and was like, ‘I'm gonna use Christianity’...Are you kidding me? They're the hardest crowd to please”.

Jelly's faith has been a crucial part of his story ever since we were first introduced to him in the country world, and it's certainly a shame to see his proud GRAMMY moment being somewhat tainted by online judgement and criticism of his intentions.

As Bunnie flags in her new podcast episode, Jelly is not telling people they should subscribe to any particular way of thinking or any religion. He is simply expressing his faith on a public stage, something he has done since he first made it onto these platforms. Bunnie and Jelly have both been beacons of light in the country world, carrying out a host of charity work and lifting up the stories of those who often feel forgotten, such as members of the criminal justice system.

Hopefully the online furore that has met the country trailblazer's GRAMMY acceptance speech has not taken away from the fact that it is a colossal, game-changing achievement, especially for an artist that started off in an entirely different genre.

Watch Bunnie XO's latest podcast episode below:

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