Jelly Roll Explains His Political Views In Emotional, Powerful Speech On Jimmy Kimmel Live - MUST WATCH!

Jelly Roll wants to make it explicitly clear where he stands!

On Thursday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the 41-year-old Tennessean (who’s been covering for Trump nemesis Jimmy Kimmel all week) addressed his political views after days of cable TV pundits speaking and speculating for him.

He started off his monologue saying:

“A lot of people seem to think these Jimmy Kimmel writers have secretly been pulling the strings and forcing this good old country boy to poke fun at our commander-in-chief. But let’s be real about this, y’all. Do you think I would take orders from some sweaty little dork named Josh? No, I was just telling it like it is. And for some reason, that seemed to freak a lot of people out. I guess now that I’ve lost all this weight, folks can finally see I HAVE BALLS.”

Continuing, he said those who thought he was MAGA were wrong. And same for those who now think he’s “some sort of liberal,” explaining:

“It is funny that before this week everybody thought I was MAGA and now they think I’m some sort of liberal snowflake. I guess I’m just not used to people projecting their beliefs onto me. Although, a few years ago, I was so fat you could project a movie onto me. BUT I WILL say nobody has overreacted more to my monologues this week than the talking heads on cable news. First of all, I didn’t do this for the check. I’m rich, Y’ALL. And listen, I don’t want to throw my buddy under the bus, but Jimmy Kimmel is cheap as hell.”

For those who criticized his support of the UFC fight at the White House, he explained:

“And secondly, do y’all know why I was raving about the UFC fight at the White House? Because it was awesome. JUSTIN GATESY PULLED OFF ONE OF THE BIGGEST UPSETS IN UFC HISTORY, Y’ALL. Just because I watched a fight on TV doesn’t mean I support everything this administration does. Just like hosting Jimmy Kimmel’s show doesn’t mean I have all of Jimmy Kimmel’s politics.”

Getting into more detail, the rapper/singer elaborated:

“Sure, I lean left on some things, but like most folks, I’m pretty down the middle. I am a Christian. I am a country music singer. I’m a farmer. I’m a bow hunter. And most of the things I eat, I prefer to get with a stick and a string. That’s the truth. In fact, in fact, the second I leave here, I’m going elk hunting and I’m going to send the vegan producer Aaron her own Elk steak. But I also spent this past week working in a building with the kindest, most talented group of Chihuahua hugging oat milk latte loving lefties on God’s green earth. And it was a blast, Y’ALL. And I truly am going to miss all of my communist Antifa friends here on the staff of Jimmy Kim live. You guys are like family to me.”

Then the tone starts to change as he gets more serious:

“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. I won my first Grammy. Actually, somehow on that night, I won three of them. It was the single greatest moment and the greatest honor of my career. I got called on that stage. I got handed an 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 stance. 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.”

If you don’t recall, the Grammys quote that got him in hot water was simply, “People shouldn’t care to hear my opinion. I’m a dumb redneck.”

He continued:

“And 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 even allowed to vote. But now that I have that right, it’s one I plan to exercise this coming November. It’s simple for me, y’all. I always wanted the recovering addict, the felon who is trying to change his life, the single mama working a double hard for her family, and everybody else that ever felt forgotten to know that I represent those without representation. And speaking for those people is what I believe my calling is. I’ve always tried to be a voice for the voiceless because I know those people. Those are my people. I try to speak for the unspoken. 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. But my daddy always told me, It is it is never too late to do the right thing.”

Now getting even deeper into it, he said:

“So, I’m going to try to do the right thing right now because human dignity isn’t Republican nor Democrat. Compassion isn’t leftwing 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.

I am a man of second chances. I have joked 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. This country gave me room and a chance to become something more than the biggest and worst mistake I ever made. I got to build a life. I got to make music. I got to take care of my family. And I got to stand on that stage that night and win a Grammy. And that is the American dream. [cheering and screaming] what I know. The American dream can’t just be for people like me. It can’t be for just people like me. Second chances, grace, dignity, opportunity. It can’t just be for people like me. Redemption, empathy, decency, and hope. It can’t just be for people like me. The American dream should be for everybody.

And I want y’all to know that despite the fact that I cuss and I tell jokes, I truly am a man of faith. And I can’t read the Gospels without being confronted by the words of Jesus himself when he said, ‘When I was hungry, you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me a drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me in.’ That’s what Jesus said.

He also gave us two commandments. Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. And that’s what I should have said that night. There wasn’t an asterct after neighbor. There wasn’t a political party exemption. It did not require us to know what country you were born in. There wasn’t a sentence afterward that said, “Unless you’re afraid of them.” It just said, “Love your neighbor.” And I don’t know about y’all, but that’s the standard I want to be held to. And there’s one more thing I want to clear up. I want you to know that my father was one of my best friends. He was a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and he died in 2019. And this might be a hot take, but out of respect for him and everybody who has ever served and continues to serve this country, I will always shake the hand of the sitting president of the United States when asked. My father would have been disappointed had I done anything other than that. I’m proud that I was able to shake the president of the United States hand. I’m also proud that I live in a country where I can make jokes about him. Ain’t that’s what great about being an American. The democracy, the freedom, the freedom of speech. And y’all know what I’m talking about. The same freedom of speech that both sides of the aisle claim they want until they hear something they don’t want to hear. And I will shake the hand of any president that occupies that office because a handshake is not an endorsement. A conversation is not an allegiance and a joke is not a political point of view. And in my business, taking a picture with a political figure or anybody else for that matter doesn’t mean you agree or disagree with their policies or politics. More often than not, I don’t.”

Bunnie Xo‘s ex then finished with a story about his late father:

“I want to leave y’all with this because I was scared to tell this story. It’s so personal. My father, Buddy Dford, God rest his soul, was a blue back Democrat and his brother was a red hat Republican. And this might be hard for people to understand out there, but they were absolutely best friends. And when my father was in hospice on his deathbed and I had the opportunity to ask him everything I wanted to know, I said, “Dad, how are you and your brother so tight when y’all didn’t agree about anything?” And he looked at me and said, “Son, we agreed about hundreds of things. We only didn’t agree about a few things, and we were not going to let the few things we didn’t agree about define our entire relationship.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot. Because here’s the truth and the fact of the matter. Politicians and algorithms make an absolute fortune convincing usthat the person across the street from us is the reason our life is hard. And transparently, I don’t know how qualified I am to be standing up here talking about this. I don’t have any qualifications at all. But something I’ve learned about God over the years is he doesn’t have much of a history of rating around for perfect people. So if being imperfect is the only qualification I need, hell, I might be the best candidate. And I just want us to remember that the person across the street from us is a human being before they’re a voter. And what I want to ask of myself is to defend human dignity even when it could cost me something. It hasn’t been easy being on this show this week. I knew what kind of a storm I was going to cause and I was okay with that because I told myself I would never be so afraid of being called political again that I didn’t say what I know is right.”

Finally, while calling out politicians on both sides, he concluded his powerful monologue with an important reminder:

“And while everything else I’ve said this week has been a complete joke, this is not. Our leaders on both sides of the aisle are doing an absolute s**t job of trying to bring us together. AND THIS IS WHAT WE NEED TO REMEMBER. That doesn’t mean that responsibility disappears. That means that responsibility then falls on us. And when I say us, I mean the old school we the people. There’s a famous quote I live by There’s a famous quote that I think about all the time that says, “While we are fighting monsters, we must be careful not to become a monster ourselves. We may disagree. We may argue. We may vote completely differently. But let’s try not to let the couple of things we disagree about forget the hundreds and hundreds of things we have in common. My daddy was right about that. And he was right about something else. It is never too late to do the right
thing. And I hope that tonight while he’s looking down from heaven, I made him proud. And tomorrow, I’m going to try a little harder than I did today to love my neighbor cuz sometimes they’re not all the way lovable. And I hope y’all will do the same thing.”

Love is what it’s all about!

Watch in full (below)!