On his final night of guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live this week, Jelly Roll finally addressed his political views.
At the Grammy Awards in February, Jelly Roll was asked about his politics, but he declined to answer. “I have a lot to say about it and I’m going to in the next week,” he said at the time. “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.”
The musician didn’t follow through — until now. Jelly Roll cracked jokes at the expense of Donald Trump and his administration throughout this week, leading some to speculate about his political affiliation.
“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,” he said last night during his final monologue. “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.”
He added, “It is funny that before this week everybody thought I was MAGA. And now they think I’m some sort of liberal snowflake.”
The musician clarified his identity. “Sure, I lean left on some things, but like most folks I’m pretty down the middle,” he said. “I am a Christian. I am a country music singer. I’m a farmer. I’m a bow hunter. And most of things I eat I prefer to get with a stick and a string. That’s the truth.”
Jelly Roll explained that while he enjoyed hosting the late-night show, he had been most looking forward to having a platform to “get some very personal stuff off my chest.”
“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,” he said. “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. Actually, somehow on that night, I won three of them.”
He continued, “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 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.”
“And, ironically, by trying so hard not to make a political statement, I became one,” he noted. “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.”
Jelly Roll didn’t specify which party he plans to vote for in the midterm elections in November, but said he wanted to represent “those without representation.”
“I try to speak for the unspoken for,” he said. “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.”
The singer got teary. “My daddy always told me it is never too late to do the right thing,” he said. “So I am going to try to do the right thing right now because 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.”
He describes himself “a man of second chances” and said it was America that allowed him to become that. “Here’s what I know: The American Dream can’t just be for people like me,” he said. “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.”
The singer explained that because his father was a veteran and because he respects people who serve in the military, he will always shake the hand of the U.S. president, regardless of their politics. “My father would have been disappointed had I done anything other than that,” he said. “I’m proud that I was able to shake the president of the United States’ hand. I’m also proud that I’m in a country where I can make jokes about him.”
He added that “a handshake is not an endorsement” and “a conversation is not an allegiance.” “And a joke is not a political point of view,” he confirmed.
Jelly Roll finished his monologue with a personal story about his father, a “blue back Democrat,” and his uncle, a “red hat Republican.” “This might be hard for people to understand out there, but they were absolutely best friends,” he recounted, explaining that his father told him there were hundreds of things they did agree on and only a few they didn’t.”
“Politicians and algorithms make an absolute fortune convincing us that the person across the street from us is the reason our life is hard,” Jelly Roll concluded. “I just want us to remember that the person across the street is a human being before they’re a voter.”
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