Jelly Roll’s Unrecognizable Childhood Photos Highlight His Dramatic Transformation Over the Years.Linh

The singer has lost nearly 300lbs in recent years

Jelly Roll is famous for his incredible vocals and heavily tattooed appearance but long before he was a household name, he was just a kid.

The 39-year-old has been vocal about his difficult upbringing and gave insight into his life in his documentary, Jelly Roll: Save Me. 

In addition to talking about his brushes with the law and his challenging childhood, Jelly Roll, shared photos of himself as a kid.

In one snapshot, he was pictured smiling in his family kitchen, wearing a pair of stone-washed jeans and a sweatshirt.

The other photo from 1994 showed him shirtless and striking a pose for the camera. He had a big grin plastered across his face.

While the star was all smiles in the images, growing up as the youngest of four children wasn’t always easy.

He was born Jason Bradley DeFord and was raised near Nashville, Tennessee.

His dad, Buddy, worked in a wholesale meat business and his mom, Donna, struggled with her mental health and addiction.

Speaking on Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist, Jelly Rolls said: “My father was a really hardworking blue-collar man. He ran a meat business that he got from his father. It was a family-owned business.

“My mother was a woman who fought extreme anxiety and depression and because of that, she struggled with drugs at times.

“My relationship with music kind of came through her because when she would come downstairs, it would be for music,” he said. “She’d come downstairs and cook us dinner, and play songs. I always used the expression: I would watch my house go from kind of dreary to a nightclub like as soon as you could snap your fingers.”

Donna gave her son the nickname, Jelly Roll, as a kid due to his “chubby” appearance.

“My mother named me that whenever I was a little, chubby kid,” Jelly Roll said on an episode of The Bobby Bones Show. “Been fat my whole life. I spent the next 30 years trying to grow into the name. I think I’ve done it. I obviously look the part. It just stuck.”

Jelly Roll — who spent time behind bars before fame — has lost nearly 300lbs in recent years and has credited his weight loss to “water and sleep,” and his desire to see his two children grow up.

Jelly is married to podcaster Bunnie XO, and he is dad to two children; daughter Bailee Ann and son Noah Buddy, both from previous relationships.