Jelly Roll was "on the brink of death" before his weight loss transformation

He told E! News: "The biggest change I made was food.

"Man, I was on the brink of death. I'm not trying to stand on a soapbox, I'm just passionate about it, knowing how upside down our system is with food. "And as an addict, it was hard for me to get away from it, so I did a lot of work with food."

The country music star also turned to cardio to get himself in shape, and even spent time training with WWE before his first match at SummerSlam in August 2025.

He said: "Running's been my real healer. [I] wake up and run every day - I mean every day, seven days a week - even if it's a recovery run, it's one mile and it's a 15 minute jog, really slow.

"I run every day."

Jelly paid tribute to his wife Bunnie XO for helping inspire him to transform his life and health.

The father-of-two - who has Bailee Ann, 17, and Noah, nine, from past relationships - added: "Bunnie played the [biggest] role to even get me here.

"Every part of me that gets better is just another attempt to be a better husband and a better father.

"Losing the weight was the next part of that, but I still gotta find a way to be a better husband and a better father tomorrow. So I gotta keep evolving."

Jelly - whose real name is Jason DeFord - recently admitted he was "too big" to throw a football with his son, and realised how much his weight, like his drug addiction, was having an impact on his family.

He told The Joe Rogan Experience: "I think about my son. My brother would have to go throw football with him. I was too big to throw the football. I was like, 'That's what my addiction has done to these people.'

"I realised that in addiction, the family will kind of cater to the addict. It's nature.

"Like if somebody in your family was a drug addict, you would help with their kids, you would feel a need to help in their absence - it's what we do as a family, it's human nature.

"I realised then how much my addiction was hurting this family."