Jelly Roll living Nashville farm dream while preparing for city’s first-ever rodeo
Country music singer Jelly Roll isn’t afraid to tackle the “uncomfortable stuff” in his marriage to TikTok star Bunnie XO up front in order to keep their marriage strong, the “Son of a Sinner” musician shared with Fox News Digital.
Jelly Roll is ready to make history.
The country star, along with Reba McEntire and Tim McGraw, will be headlining Nashville’s first-ever rodeo.
“As a Nashville native, this felt like a chance to be a part of a history-making event for the city,” Jelly Roll said in a press release. “I have vivid memories when it was announced in Nashville that we were getting a hockey team with the Predators, or a football team with the Titans…and I watched Bridgestone Arena be built from the ground up. Headlining Music City Rodeo in my hometown as a part of the first rodeo brought to town feels like the same type of milestone.”
COUNTRY STAR JELLY ROLL IS ‘PETRIFIED OF LOSING’ SUCCESS AFTER YEARS OF STRUGGLING
Jelly Roll, Reba McEntire and Tim McGraw will be headlining Nashville’s first-ever rodeo. (Theo Wargo/Peacock via Getty Images; Trae Patton/NBC via Getty Images; Jason Kempin/Getty Images for ABA)
In a promotional video for the rodeo, Jelly Roll is seen behind a bar talking to a group of cowboys. “Ain’t your usual stop, is it boys?” he says.
“Right here in the heart of Broadway where honky tonk neon meets daredevil grit, rodeo and country music collide,” McEntire says in a voiceover, followed by McGraw adding, “Three nights of guts, glory and history in the making.”
Music City Rodeo is coming to Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena from May 29 to 31 in partnership with McGraw‘s Down Home entertainment group, Skydance Media and Humes Rodeo. This will be the Tennessee city’s first Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) event. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 7.
Performing at the rodeo seems to bring Jelly Roll full circle as he builds out his dream farm life with his family.
Jelly Roll and wife Bunnie Xo are building out their dream farm life as the country music star continues to find success. (Getty Images, Instagram: Bunnie Xo)
The 40-year-old singer’s wife shared videos of the family receiving three cows in January. Bunnie Xo’s video showcased three mini-cows named Crunch, Brownie and S’more. “Our lil’ farm is starting,” she captioned the clip.
The plan had been to have one farm animal, but they ended up with three cows and a donkey after Jelly Roll had been “jealous” he did not have his own animal. Jelly Roll and Bunnie added a donkey named Griz to their farm.
“I love the donkey,” Jelly Roll said in a video of the animal arriving at his Nashville, Tennessee, ranch. “I can’t believe he’s that small!”
A post shared by Bunnie Xo. (@xomgitsbunnie)
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Two weeks after getting the donkey, Bunnie shared a video of a “special” day.
She wrote that the animal hadn’t let anyone touch him since he first came to live with them, noting that she was talking to him every day to tell him he’s “loved & safe.” In the video, Bunnie pet the donkey for the first time and wrote that she told him “whenever he wants more loves, I’ll be here.”
“We kno, [sic] he needs a buddy- we’re working on it,” her caption read.
Jelly Roll’s wife has also been keeping fans updated with how things are going with their cows. “At least 5-10 times a day I go outside just to hug this big Lug,” she wrote on a video shared to Instagram Monday.
Bunnie Xo shared videos on Instagram of her giving love and affection to their cows and donkey. (Bunnie Xo Instagram)
Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo purchased a 500-acre property in Nashville to create their family home and dream farm life.
In a video shared to Instagram, Jelly Roll explained he visited his uncle’s farm in Tennessee growing up. There, he learned to ride four-wheelers, learned to shoot a gun and learned the “core traditional Southern values” of life.
“Our lil’ farm is starting.”
“I’ll never forget. We left there [once] when I was probably 12 years old, and I talked to my father about it, said, ‘How come we never got a farm?’ He said, ‘Son, it’s probably one of the mistakes I regret the most, is that I didn’t buy dirt,'” Jelly Roll said in a video posted to Instagram.
“He said, ‘They’re never gonna make no more of it, and if you don’t listen to no advice from me, buy dirt. Go get you some land.'”
Jelly Roll says he will never forget what his father told him about his biggest regret being that he “didn’t buy dirt.” (JOHN LAMPARSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
While Jelly Roll had purchased the land to build his family home, he spent much of the last two years touring. The “Save Me” singer shared a video of the property as he became emotional while visiting it for the first time in October.
“I came here today to pray over it,” he said at the time. “I came here today to vision-cast in it. I came here today to just walk barefoot in it. And most important, I came here today to pull this phone out of my pocket and look y’all in the eye and say thank you, man. I never would have dreamed that this could have been anything about my story.”
JELLY ROLL ‘HAD A LOT OF TIME’ TO WRITE SONGS IN PRISON BEFORE FINDING MASSIVE SUCCESS
“Thank y’all for just changing my life, man,” he continued, speaking to his fans. “Generational curses were broke because of y’all. I’m standing on it. I am standing here breaking a generational curse right now, and I hope that inspires one of y’all to do the same thing.”
Jelly Roll poses in the Winner’s Circle during the CMT Music Awards. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for CMT)
Jelly Roll began his headlining tour in August 2024. The last few years have been a wild ride for the country singer, who won new artist of the year at the 2023 CMA Awards. He took home three awards that night and another three awards at the 2024 CMAs.
He first performed at the Grand Ole Opry in 2021 and released his hit singles, “Son of a Sinner” and “Need a Favor,” in 2022.
Jelly Roll earned three awards, including new artist of the year, at the 2023 CMA Awards. (Getty Images)
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Jelly Roll, known formally as Jason DeFord, began his singing career in 2003. However, he did not become mainstream until 2022 with the release of “Need a Favor” and “Son of a Sinner.”
“I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it wasn’t for what I went through. I think it empowered me. I think it gave me my voice,” he told Fox News Digital at the 2023 CMAs. “It taught me a lot about overcoming. It taught me a lot about changing and the ability to change.
Jelly Roll gained fame in 2022 for his singles, “Son of a Sinner” and “Need a Favor.” (Getty Images)
“I was a horrible human for decades, and to just be able to turn that around and give a message in the music and help people … and just try to give back as much as I can in every way I can is very indicative of where I came from and how important it is to me to always reach back.”
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Throughout his early life, Jelly Roll struggled with substance abuse. The country music star also spent time behind bars for aggravated robbery and possession with intent to sell.
The “Somebody Save Me” singer testified to Congress in January 2024 about the use of fentanyl.
Musician Jason “Jelly Roll” DeFord, center, during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Jan. 11, 2024. Fentanyl was the focus of the committee hearing, as senators explored public awareness and legislative solutions to stop the flow of the synthetic opioid. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It is important to establish earlier that I am a musician and that I have no political alliance. I am neither Democrat nor Republican. In fact, because of my past, my right to vote has been restricted,” Jelly Roll testified. “Thus far, I have never paid attention to a political race in my life. Ironically, I think that makes me the perfect person to speak about this because fentanyl transcends partisanship and ideology.”
He further explained, “I was a part of the problem. I am here now standing as a man that wants to be a part of [the] solution.”
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‘Save Me’ singer Jelly Roll bought a Nashville ranch with wife Bunnie Xo in 2023
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Tim McGraw, Jelly Roll, Reba McEntire to headline inaugural professional Music City Rodeo
This summer, Music City will embrace rodeo culture with more star power than ever before.
Music City Rodeo, Nashville’s first-ever Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo, will come to Bridgestone Arena May 29, 30 and 31.
By day, the arena will feature bull riding, barrel racing, team roping and broncs, with cowboys and cowgirls competing for over $200,000 in prizes. Music City Rodeo founding members Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw and Jelly Roll will headline a concert at the venue each night.
Tickets for Music City Rodeo go on sale March 7. A select amount of pre-sale tickets, including VIP packages, will be available beginning March 5, starting at $50.
Additionally, Music City Rodeo is joining Nashville’s Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt to benefit the patients and families it serves. A portion of all event proceeds will support their mission of providing world-class pediatric healthcare and research.
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Jelly Roll said having a role in the Music City Rodeo’s debut “felt like a chance to be a part of a history-making event for the city.”
He likened the announcement to major moments in Nashville’s history such as Bridgestone Arena’s turn-of-the-21st-century construction and, for him personally, the 2025 renovation of his newly-opened Goodnight Nashville bar and honky-tonk. The native Nashvillian “vividly” recalled the National Football League’s Tennessee Titans and National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators arriving in town.
“Headlining the Music City Rodeo in my hometown as a part of the first rodeo brought to town feels like the same type of milestone,” said the Grammy-nominated Billboard chart-topper.
Louisiana native and Nashville country music icon Tim McGraw continues to expand his Music City footprint as part of a well-funded celebrity ownership group seeking to bring a WNBA expansion to town.
Over the past three decades, McGraw has played at nearly two dozen rodeo events nationwide. The “Don’t Take The Girl” singer said Nashville’s country stars are frequently booked to play these events but lack a PRCA event close to home.
“Country music and rodeo go hand in hand,” he said, adding that it “was time to bring the magic of the rodeo home to Nashville.”
This will be lifelong rodeo cowgirl Reba McEntire’s first headlining performance at Bridgestone Arena since Oct. 2022. The McAlester, Oklahoma native’s concert then was described in The Tennessean as an “indefatigable showcase of mastery of stage, voice and (country music).”
Regarding her rodeo involvement, the “Fancy” vocalist has often noted that performing the National Anthem at the 1974 National Finals Rodeo launched her mainstream country music career.
“The rodeo is in my blood. My daddy and grandpap were world-champion steer ropers. I dreamed of being a barrel racer, but I wasn’t that great at it,” offered McBride, exclusively to The Tennessean. “Instead, I found my place singing at the rodeo. Singing the National Anthem at the National Finals Rodeo started my career, and being a part of this historic event in Nashville feels like coming full circle.”
Nashville’s rodeo industry involvement is not limited to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) event coming in May.
Bridgestone Arena has hosted the three-decade-old Texas-based Professional Bull Riders (PBR) League’s Championship series since July 2022. Those events feature country music concerts before and during PBR matches.
The 90-year-old Colorado Springs, Colorado-based PRCA schedule includes its national championship at the previously-mentioned National Finals Rodeo held yearly in the first week of December.
Rodeo culture’s expansion in Nashville seems only natural.
The annual month-long Livestock Show in Houston attracted 2.5 million people to its rodeo events and nightly concerts at NRG Stadium in 2024.
The Music City Rodeo will add to the city’s already busy tourism season, coming before CMA Fest in June and Fourth of July celebrations.
The Rodeo generated a total economic impact of $326 million and total economic activity worth $597 million in Greater Houston, according to the Rodeo’s 2024 Economic Impact Study, conducted by Economics Analytics Consulting, LLC.
In 2024, CMA Fest generated an estimated $77.3 million in direct visitor spending, a 3.5% increase from 2023. The city’s July 4 event generated $17.5 million in visitor spending.
Conceptually, Music City Rodeo was founded in 2023 by Humes Rodeo’s Pat Humes and Down Home co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Brian Kaplan, both Nashville residents.
Down Home, also founded in 2023, is McGraw’s country-meets-Hollywood media development venture created alongside Skydance Media’s David Ellison to focus on what the performer said in a press statement are “honest vignettes of life and family and community.”
According to company partner and social media content development company Shareability, Down Home’s forthcoming content could share values in common with existing McGraw projects. Those include Paramount+’s “1883,” the film “Friday Night Lights” and songs like “Humble and Kind.”
Down Home already has two scripted series in development with Skydance, with more plans for features, animation and to establish a Nashville-based social content studio.
“Having been involved in rodeo my entire life, inside and outside the arena, I know no other city is built better for rodeo than Nashville,” Humes said, in a statement. “I knew it from the moment my boots first hit the ground here. You can feel it. The people here are genuine, kind, polite and they like to have fun. They act and live like cowboys. The city breathes country music. It’s woven into the fabric of life here. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced.”
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s Music City Rodeo, featuring concerts by Jelly Roll, Tim McGraw and Reba McEntire, will take place May 29-31.
Inaugural Music City Rodeo: Jelly Roll, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw
Nashville’s recent rodeo history
Rodeo’s larger national economic impact coming to Music City
Who’s behind the Music City Rodeo?
Reba McEntire, Jelly Roll, Tim McGraw to Perform at Nashville’s First Music City Rodeo
Nashville, home to the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Honky Tonk Highway, is bringing a professional rodeo into town, Tim McGraw’s entertainment group Down Home announced Tuesday. Music City Rodeo, the city’s first rodeo held by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, will bridge rodeo and country music. The event will include bull riding, barrel racing, and performances by founding members of the pro rodeo event Reba McEntire and McGraw, and Jelly Roll. Jelly Roll, the newest “artist in residence” on American Idol, called the rodeo “a history-making event for the city.”
“I have vivid memories when it was announced in Nashville that we were getting a hockey team with the Predators, or a football team with the Titans…and I watched Bridgestone Arena be built from the ground up,” Jelly Roll said in a statement. “Headlining Music City Rodeo in my hometown as a part of the first rodeo brought to town feels like the same type of milestone.”
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The three-day event will take place May 29 through May 31 at the Bridgestone Arena, with Reba, Jelly Roll, and McGraw headlining the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday shows. Although rodeos have been held in Nashville before, it marks the country music capital’s first event hosted by PRCA. McGraw has performed at more than a dozen rodeos, and said those experiences inspired him to host his own.
“For eight decades, Nashville’s music stars have been the soundtrack to America’s iconic rodeos — country music and rodeo go hand in hand,” McGraw said. “So, it was time to bring the magic of the rodeo home to Nashville and I’m thrilled to be bringing it here.”
Attendees can also anticipate rodeo queen pageant shows and mutton bustin, a kid-friendly, sheep-riding event. Over the course of the rodeo, cowboys and cowgirls will compete for $200,000 in prizes. McEntire, who gave an emotive rendition of the national anthem at Super Bowl LVIII, also expressed her excitement to perform at the rodeo.
“It’s no secret that rodeo is in my blood, and I’m thrilled to be a part of starting a new Nashville tradition,” McEntire said. “Country music and rodeo coming together in Music City, what a perfect combination…I just knew I had to be part of it.”
General sale tickets are available March 7 at 10 a.m. CT, starting at $50, with pre-sale tickets available on March 5 at 10 a.m. CT. Along with Down Home, the three-day event is in partnership with Humes Rodeo and Skydance Media.
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