Jelly Roll's meteoric rise to fame has been a redemption story for the ages, and the celebrated country artist is getting candid about his past struggles with drug abuse, the extent of his addiction, and how he's changed his life around.
"I had to learn that you could drink alcohol without doing cocaine," Jelly Roll recently told People. "It took me a long time to learn that."
"There was a long time where I just assumed, when people told me they drank without doing cocaine, I was like, 'I thought we only drank to do cocaine,'" he explained. "I thought [drinking] was to make us not feel like drug addicts. Nobody wants to snort cocaine sober, then you're a drug addict.
"But I had to re-look at my relationship with alcohol like that," he added.
Before breaking into the music scene, the "Save Me" singer was arrested over 40 times for different drug charges, and struggled with the use of cocaine for years, until finding a path to kicking the vice after his daughter, Bailee -- now 15 -- was born while he was locked up for crack cocaine possession.
Now, Jelly Roll says that he hasn't quit drinking all together -- but he no longer sees drinking just as a prerequisite for drug use.
"I never really had a problem with alcohol, so I'll still have a cocktail, but very, especially this year, very seldomly," he shared. "Like, special night kind of stuff, like the night of the CMAs, of course we partied. But I just try to stay away from drugs."
Jelly Roll also explained that he's found help through AA meetings and support groups, but hasn't used them frequently.
"Because I do drink and smoke weed, I will attend meetings occasionally," he said. "If I'm really struggling with thinking of my behavioral pattern, I'll go to a meeting."
"[However], out of an abundance of respect for the people who really got off the drugs completely -- and the alcohol and the weed -- I don't necessarily claim to be a part of the program," he added. "Because I respect their work and I would never want to diminish it with some of my actions, but AA has done a lot for me."
Jelly Roll spoke with ET back in June and opened up about his debut country album, Whitsitt Chapel, and his emotional, raw Hulu documentary, Jelly Roll: Save Me. The celebrated, burgeoning artist said he's always look to music to be his lifeline and close friend during some of the tremendous trials and challenges in his life.
"I think at some point in life, everything in life has let me down. But music was always my constant," he shared. "Like, when I had nothing else, I had a boombox. When I was incarcerated, I had a set of headphones and a little radio."
Jelly Roll's lived a textured life -- from addiction and life on the streets as a thief to time behind bars -- and it's not something he's shied away from. He buries his emotions in his music.
"I'm constantly writing songs to show people that it's okay to be a work in progress," Jelly Roll said. "It's okay to still meet yourself in the middle."
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