Jelly Roll’s Weight Loss Taught the World Something Incredible

There is no doubt that Jelly Roll‘s star is shining brightly today, but there once was a time where nobody knew who the former 500+ pound singer was.

Jelly was already becoming a major player in country music before he lost the weight, but if you look at the timeline of his mainstream crossover success, it proves that Jelly boosted into the mainstream, in a “my grandma knows who he is” kind of way, once he completed his 275 pound weight loss.

Before he proved to the world how relatable and driven he is through his weight loss journey, country music already knew all about those traits of Jelly’s. He’d already been an underdog who proved he could win, several times over.

When Did Jelly Roll Have His First Hit Song?

Jelly Roll’s first No.1 song on country radio was his 2022 hit, “Son Of A Sinner.” That was followed by “Need A Favor” and “Save Me,” his duet with Lainey Wilson.

After having major success on country radio, Jelly Roll started getting mainstream eyes once people started to see him and hear his story and what he has overcome.

Then, even more eyes appeared on him when he won the New Artist of the Year award at the 57th Annual CMAs, in November of 2023.

Not just the fact that he won, the speech that he gave that got quoted so much that it ended up on the tip of most tongues the next morning.

Jelly showed off how big his heart was again after that, in 2022, when he sold out his first Nashville show at Bridgestone Arena and then donated all the money to the detention center where he was once incarcerated.

Read More: Jelly Roll’s Giving $250K to Bring Music to Incarcerated Youth

Then, when he began his weight loss journey around the start of 2024, after showing off he had lost around 70Lbs and was going to attempt a 5K race later that year, even more eyes started focusing on Jelly.

What Did Jelly Roll Do on American Idol?

In February 2025, it was announced that Jelly Roll would be American Idol’s first-ever Artist in Residence for Season 23 of the show.

This role isn’t a judge seat, but a season-long position in which he works closely with contestants, offering guidance, support, and inspiration as they compete.

With the whole world watching him on Idol and rooting for him, his mainstream success grew even larger, as his body shrank.

Jelly Roll suddenly started to become not only a household name, but a whole conversation in American homes.

Everyone loves a success story. His success story started to become larger than life and even arguably his music career.

There are likely people out there who know of Jelly from his massive weight loss rather than his actual country music.

From there, Jelly Roll’s 2025 kept getting even bigger as he got the cover of Men’s Health magazine, a mainstream honor that he certainly would not have gotten without his weight loss.

To cap off his mainstream success post dramatic weight loss, Jelly Roll was cast to be a judge on the Netflix reboot of ‘Star Search,’ which kicks off on 1/20.

Read More: Jelly Roll Will Be a Judge on the Netflix Reboot of ‘Star Search’

Take a look at Jelly Roll’s weight loss for yourself, its quite remarkable.