Singer Jelly Roll has opened up about the “horrible week” he had while on his recent tour of Australia, saying he was physically and mentally unwell and just wanted to go home.
The Save Me singer arrived in Australia in October for his first ever Australian tour, which took him to Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sydney and Townsville, but things soon went wrong.
During the recent No Filter with Kate Langbroek podcast, the singer said he started to suffer stomach problems soon after he arrived in Australia, which in turn affected his mental health.
Jelly Roll has opened up about his tour of Australia. (Richard Clifford)
“When my stomach’s not right, nothing’s right. My mind’s not right. Everything. I’m just not thinking clear,” he said.
“I’m having to be super isolated. I don’t like it.
“I’m spending a lot of time in my hotel room by myself, just in my head. I miss my family a tonne.
“Everybody wants to go home when they’re sick. That’s just in us, I just don’t feel good, so I just want to go home.”
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The singer described his time in Australia as ‘horrible’. (Today)
“I’m falling apart. It’s a horrible week. I’m doing the worst mentally I’ve done in a long time,” he continued.
“I’m really far from home and it’s really hitting me that I’m really far from home, like in an anxious way… I’m not having fun and I want to go home.”
The singer, who is married to Bunnie Xo, and has two children from previous relationships, got through the Australian leg of his tour but was forced to cancel a planned show in Auckland, New Zealand, due to ill health.
But it was not his only gripe with Australia, with the singer also taking to social media to air his frustrations after visiting a designer store in Sydney.
“Hey man, the Louis Vuitton in Sydney, legitimately just treated us like we were finna (sic) come in and rob that place,” he said in an Instagram Story.
“I have never been looked at more like a ‘crim’.
“Listen, the last time I was looked at like a criminal this bad… I was an actual criminal – this bad.”
The singer called out a Sydney store for treating him like a criminal. (countrytown_au/Instagram)
It was an unfortunate end to the tour, which is one of only a handful he has been permitted to do because of his past.
Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord, showed musical promise as a child, learning both the guitar and piano, before he started using drugs at 14 in his native Nashville, Tennessee.
He spent his teenage years and some of his 20s in jai for various offences, including possession and aggravated robbery, before turning his life around.
After enjoying some success as a hip hop artist, he reinvented himself as a country music star, but his criminal past meant he was at one stage unable to leave the US, while some other countries would not allow him to enter.
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The singer met Pope Leo XIV in September. (Instagram/@jellyroll615)
While he did not enjoy his time in Australia, he had a better experience when he travelled to Rome in September, where he met Pope Leo XIV.
The now devout Christian was among stars who took the stage at the Grace For The World concert at St Peter’s Square to mark the end of a two-day summit at the Vatican, where he performed Hard Fought Hallelujah, his song with Brandon Lake.
Jelly Roll was among entertainers to perform in perform in Rome recently. (Getty Images for Grace For The W)
He shared a video of the performance on Instagram, as well as a photo of his meeting with the pontiff, writing “From rock bottom to holy ground,” and a Bible passage, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
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