Country singer Jelly Roll has opened up about a significant setback in his weight loss journey, revealing that a broken collarbone forced him to pause his fitness routine just as he was celebrating a major milestone.
In a recent YouTube vlog, the artist—whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord—shared that after appearing on the cover of Men's Health magazine last fall, he decided to take a break during the holidays. "I've been working hard for the last three years losing this weight," he explained. "I'm going to enjoy the holidays."
But the setback came in December when he broke his collarbone in an ATV accident. "That set me down where I had to quit running, quit walking, quit exercising for some extended period of time," Jelly Roll said. "I said all that to say that I have to some degree lost my way."
The injury also affected his appearance at the Grammy Awards in February. "I was out there running all over the Grammys with a broken collarbone," he recalled. "Every time I hugged somebody that week, I wanted to scream."
Despite having lost nearly 300 pounds over three years, Jelly Roll admitted he's now avoiding the scale. "I'm afraid to see what the scale is going to say from what my actual goal is," he confessed, estimating he's still 40-60 pounds away from his maintenance weight target.
To regain momentum, the singer has set two ambitious new goals: running the 2026 New York City Marathon and eventually appearing shirtless on a major magazine cover.
"I want to get these last 40 or 50 pounds off and then I eventually want to cut my skin," he revealed, "and I eventually want to be on the cover of something crazy like GQ or Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair or Forbes or Time with my shirt off."
He added, "I know this is getting real silly now, but I don't know. I just believe there's this story that a guy can go from 560 pounds to a shirt off picture."
Reflecting on his ATV accident, Jelly Roll emphasized the importance of perseverance. "Sometimes, the machine does more than the user thinks it can and this was all user error," he concluded. "Anyways, moral of the story: get back on that pony, baby."