The Governor and the Ex-Con Turned Music Star: Two Resurrection Stories Collide

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Bill Lee is a 7^th generation Tennessean, raised on the 1,000 acre cattle farm his grandparents started in Franklin, Tennessee. He knew great success by any earthly measure, rising to become the CEO of his family construction company, growing it to over 1,200 employees. Years later, he’d become CEO of the state he calls home, sworn in as Governor in 2019. But years before, a tragic event – the death of his wife Carol Ann - would drive Lee to the edges of despair.

Jason DeFord was born in Antioch, a blue-collar suburb of Nashville. His father was a meat salesman, part-time bookie, and dedicated Methodist believer. His mother struggled with mental health and addiction issues, and gave her son the nickname the world knows him by – Jelly Roll. DeFord was never comfortable in his skin, taunted for his size, clothes, and background as a boy. By his teens, he was doing and selling drugs. At 16, he was charged as an adult for aggravated assault while armed. For nearly a decade, he drifted in and out of prison on charges that included possession of cocaine with intent to sell.

Unlike Lee, a tragic death didn’t alter the course of DeFord’s life: it was instead a birth. While serving a stint in prison at 23, he learned he was the father of a baby girl, news that propelled a radical change in his life.

Along their very different spiritual journeys, these two Nashville area men would cross paths. It would take Lee’s moving address at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., earlier this year for the world to know the story.

“I heard it said that there are days in our lives that can be described by a simple sentence,” Lee began. “Then there are days that chapters are written about.” That day chapters are written about came in July of 2000.

“I drove home from work and saw my son fishing and my other son playing, my daughter was on a mission trip, and my 4-year old son was on a horse with my wife,” Lee explained. “And I drove up the drive of my home and thought about the fact that I must be the most blessed man ever.”

Mere minutes later, Lee heard the screams of his 4-year-old and raced to the scene to find his wife’s lifeless body on the ground, the victim of a fall from her horse. “That day, my life took a very dark turn,” Lee said.

In the weeks to follow, Lee’s life reached depths of despair he could never have imagined. His oldest daughter attempted suicide. His business began to falter. But months after his wife’s death, Lee experienced an unexpected spiritual breakthrough at, of all places, his family burial grounds.

“I knew I would have a tombstone beside her one day,” Lee lamented. “As I stood there contemplating that, I wondered what she would say to me. And what she would say is what God would say and is saying: ‘There are very few things in life that matter, and we should be about them.’”

The audience was as still as an audience could be, not expecting such a profound and personal story from a politician.

Lee left the grave site knowing he could trust God to show him a way out of the abyss. “God became real,” Lee confessed. “I began to know Him in a way that I’d never known Him before. He became a healer and a redeemer and a dispenser of hope. The most tragic days of my life were strangely becoming the most transformational days of my life.”

His family would go on mission trips to Haiti, Mexico, and Uganda, building houses and working in orphanages, doing what Lee described as “getting out of ourselves.” He also worked in inner-city programs for at-risk kids and education reform, work that prompted him to run for governor.

As time passed, Lee’s life was resurrected. He remarried, his family and his business flourished, his belief in God’s goodness forged not just in prosperity, but adversity too.

Lee then told the story about his recent pardon of Deford, who had become a worldwide, Grammy Award-winning music superstar. It turns out Lee had met DeFord back in 2008 while sharing his personal testimony with inmates at a local prison. Though Lee didn’t remember DeFord, DeFord remembered Lee.

“In 2008, you were not the governor, and I was not Jelly Roll,” Deford told Lee when the two met in the governor’s office after the pardon. “And here we are, 17 years later.”

Lee ended his speech talking about a very different kind of pardon power. “I have a belief that within every human being, there’s this innate sense that we all need a pardon. And there is only one who can grant that pardon, and He has to be asked. And His name is Jesus. And I, for one, am glad He summoned me and I asked Him, and He pardoned me forever.”

DeFord would rise to music superstardom as Jelly Roll, his success propelled by the birth of his daughter, his marriage, and his faith in God. It wasn’t an easy rise: His music was too country for rap, too rock for country, and too rap for rock. Record labels weren’t sure he’d connect with mass audiences given his obesity, criminal record, and tattoos. “[I was told] nobody’s gonna buy a 400-pound man singing sad songs,” he told reporters.

The turning point in his career came in 2020 with Save Me, a raw cry for help with addiction. YouTube views in the hundreds of millions piled up, as did record label offers.

His 2023 album Whitsitt Chapel, named after the Tennessee church he’d attended as a boy, became a #1 hit on the rock and country charts.

At the 2026 Grammys, Jelly Roll took the stage to accept the award for Best Contemporary Country Album. He didn’t hide the source of his success. “Jesus, I hear you, and I am listening, Lord,” he said with conviction. He thanked his wife, crediting her — and her faith in Jesus — with saving his life. “I would have been dead or in jail,” he gushed. “I would have killed myself if it wasn’t for you and Jesus.”

Like Lee, Jelly Roll was unapologetic about his faith and the role it played in his resurrection. “There was a moment in my life that I thought all I had was a Bible this big [holding up that small Bible] and a radio the same size in a six-by-eight foot cell,” he said, describing how Scripture and music became his lifelines. “I believed that music had the power to change my life, and God had the power to change my life.”

He ended his acceptance speech with words that resonated deeply with Christian viewers – and some non-Christian viewers, too. “Jesus is for everybody,” he declared. “Jesus is not owned by one political party. Jesus is not owned by any music label. Jesus is Jesus, and anybody can have a relationship with Him. I love you, Lord.” The audience roared, Jelly Roll’s words cutting through political and cultural divisions.

They’re remarkable faith stories, Lee’s and DeFord’s. And better resurrection stories: Two men who grew up in different worlds mere miles apart, forever bonded by an earthly pardon. And a spiritual pardon available to all who seek it.

Originally published on Newsweek.com; shared with permission

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Lee Habeeb is a Newsweek Columnist, Vice President of Content at Salem Media Group and host of "Our American Stories"