Jelly Roll Admits He ‘Went Off the Rails’ Before NYC Marathon Goal

Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, recently admitted that during the holidays, he “went off the rails” when it came to his weight loss journey, but now he’s back on track as he plans to run the New York City marathon this November.

The “Somebody Save Me” singer, 41, admitted in an April 17 video that after he hit one of his main goals, which was to be on the cover of Men’s Health, he wanted to “enjoy the holidays.”

“I ate a big Thanksgiving meal, and I had a big birthday meal,” continued Jelly Roll, who was born on December 4.

He added that right before Christmas, he broke his collarbone.

“That set me down where I had to quit running, quit walking, quit exercising for some extended period of time,” the Star Search judge explained, adding that “to some degree, I lost my way.”

All of that combined led Jelly Roll to put off checking in on his weight.

“I haven’t weighed in. I’ve been avoiding the scale,” he shared. “I’m afraid to see what the scale is going to say from what my actual goal is.”

However, the “Son of a Sinner” artist already has a new goal in mind that the New York City marathon will play a part in helping him achieve.

“I want to get these last 40 or 50 pounds off, and then I eventually want to cut my skin,” Jelly Roll said in the video. “I eventually want to be on the cover of something crazy like GQ or Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair or Forbes or Time with my shirt off.”

The Grammy winner has been open about his weight loss journey since the start and in December 2025, he told Joe Rogan during an episode of his eponymous podcast that it was around his 39th birthday that he realized he had to make a change.

“I thought about it around my birthday ’cause I knew my next [birthday] was 40,” Jelly Roll said during the December 10, 2025 episode. “I was like ‘I don’t think I’ve ever met a 500-pound 40-year-old.’”

Since 2022, Jelly Roll has dropped more than 200 pounds.