“I Used to Get So Mad”: Jelly Roll Reveals What Frustrated Him About His Fellow Inmates in Jail

During a new interview, Jelly Roll reflects on his various experiences in jail, with the ‘Need a Favor’ hitmaker revealing what frustrated him about the outlook of his fellow inmates.

He begins by recalling how they'd refer to prisons as ‘camps’, with the Nashville native outlining how there was a great deal of comparison, which led to a ‘grass is greener’ mentality.

Jelly explains, “We'd go to different camps, is what they'd call them, you know? They'd be like, ‘This camp, that camp’, and...‘Ah that camp over there is way cooler than this camp’. And I used to get so mad at inmates, I'd be like, ‘Bro, we're not talking about malls’”.

The ‘Hands Up’ singer-songwriter candidly goes on, “Are we literally so desperate, we're comparing jails? As to what jail was nicer? Like, we're f***ing incarcerated. They all suck really, really bad. The nicest one I've ever been in, sucked bad. The nicest jail, and I've toured a few, and they still suck! They don't get any cooler”.

Jelly concludes the insightful conversation, which takes place while he's driving, by emphasising that he never wants to go back, “I've never been to one where I was like, ‘You know what? I think I'll stay’. I've never been to one where I was like, ‘You know what? I might just hang out here’. I even like the guys here a lot, and nothing about it makes me want to go and bunk up with somebody for a week”.

It's an interesting, behind-the-scenes snapshot into Jelly's time in jail, with the GRAMMY winner getting honest about how he would get annoyed at inmates’ outlook on prison life. Jelly has spoken movingly on a number of occasions about how, despite often feeling low and struggling a lot with his mental health while in prison, he always held onto a glimmer of hope which stemmed from his deep-seated faith.

Since coming out of jail for the last time in 2009, Jelly has become a vocal advocate for improving the juvenile detention and prison system, with the genre-blurring artist regularly visiting various prisons and donating to local centres in Nashville. The video for ‘Hands Up’ was even filmed at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

Jelly continues to get some flak online off the back of his emotionally charged monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week, in which he got strikingly real with viewers about his politics, President Trump, his religious beliefs, the 2026 GRAMMYs and more.

As he comes under the blinding glare of our cultural magnifying glass once again, this new meditation on his time in jail is a timely reminder of how much good Jelly is doing through his philanthropic efforts and through the hopeful message of his music.

His latest single, ‘Hands Up’, epitomises this, and regardless of whether listeners might agree with his personal views or not, there's no question that the ‘Son of a Sinner’ crooner is doing his best to try and do good with the platform he's been given.