“I’m the one dude that’s just singing songs of the broken,” Jelly Roll says in the film. “This community has allowed me to speak on our behalf — on behalf of the depressed, the stressed, the anxious and the addicted. I’m just documenting what I see and what I know. I have been a drug addict. I’ve been a loser. I’ve been a stealer.”

It’s fitting that the first song in the documentary is “Son of a Sinner.” The country rock song spent 20 weeks on the Hot Rock and Alternative Songs list. The song details the struggles of a “long-haired son of a sinner” dealing with addictive ways and God’s judgment:

Might pop a pill and smoke and maybe drink.

Talk to God and tell Him what I think.

At first He’s gonna hate me.

But eventually He’ll save me.

Jelly Roll is a Nashville native and from a very young age ran the streets with the wrong crowd. By the time Jelly was 15 years old, he had tried hardcore drugs. Because of that life, he spent many of his younger years in jail. A pivotal moment for him was when he found out he had a daughter while in jail. He decided to make a change and turn to music. 

“I just hope that people judge the music and not the man” Jelly Roll says in the film. “I no longer have a deadly addiction to pain pills or codeine. I no longer have a deadly addiction to cocaine. But I still smoke a little weed to keep my head straight, and I will still get blackout drunk. Every now and then, we’ll do something wild.” 

Although he is a breakout country star, his music is a combination of many styles. It’s infused with rock, rap, soul and even gospel. Many of Jelly’s songs mention God or spirituality, which isn’t surprising seeing as he has a big cross tattooed underneath his right eye.