Country music sensation Jelly Roll traveled back to the Nashville juvenile detention center where he once served time to open a new songwriting program that will help incarcerated youth find their musical voices.
Helping with the unveiling was fellow country music singer ERNEST and Nashville Hall of Fame songwriter Jeffrey Steele.
Jelly Roll kicked off the opening of a series of new studios with a gathering on April 18 that included Nashville mayor Freddie O’Connell (D) as well as other country music artists.
Jelly Roll spoke about his own time spent at the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center.
“When I was in juvenile, we never got a visitor. We never had a mentor, nobody ever came to see us,” he said, according to a Country Now report. “To be able to come back on these terms is a dream that I have and this is only the beginning.”
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For the opening, Jelly Roll teamed up with the Beat of Life Organization, the Nashville-based non-profit that aims to create songwriting and music programs for vulnerable populations around the country.
Board president Casey LeVasseur told Breitbart News that Beat of Life will work in the juvenile detention center on a regular basis.
“We are going into the JDC two days a week to work in the studios. We are providing music production education, rap classes, songwriting and studio time as well as music business classes to those interested to help guide, mentor and encourage the participants,” she said.
“We will also be producing songs from the program and helping to continue to support the inmates through music mentorship once they are 18 and are released from the JDC.”
Jeffrey Steele — who is Casey’s father — was on hand at the opening, performing along with Jelly Roll and country music star known as ERNEST. Steele also teamed up with an inmate to write one of the numbers.
Casey LeVasseur, Jeffrey Steele, Jelly Roll, and Ernest. (Photo credit: Nathan Chapman)
Steele also helped sponsor the even through his family’s charity fund The Alex LeVasseur Memorial Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
Beat of Life Organization board president Casey LeVasseur. (Photo courtesy of Hadley Lewis)
Jelly Roll reportedly became emotional at the event.
“I never would’ve dreamed when I was sitting right there that I would one day come back and introduce the studio and partner with the Beat of Life and all these songwriters would come out to support the cause and the fucking mayor would introduce me. I would never guess this,” Jelly Roll said.
“It wasn’t in my bingo card in life.”
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