The rapper-turned-singer whose legal name is Jason Deford has spoken for years about his redemption arc before diverse audiences, from people serving time in correctional centers to concert crowds and even in testimony before Congress.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee issued the pardon after friends and civic leaders of the Grammy-nominated musician joined in an outpouring of support.

Jelly Roll’s convictions include robbery and drug felonies. He has said a pardon would make it easier for him to travel internationally for concert tours and to perform Christian missionary work without filling out burdensome paperwork.

He was one of 33 people to receive pardons Thursday from Lee, who for years has issued clemency decisions around the Christmas season. Lee said Jelly Roll’s application underwent the same monthslong thorough review as other applicants. The state parole board gave a nonbinding, unanimous recommendation for Jelly Roll’s pardon in April.

“His story is remarkable, and it’s a redemptive, powerful story, which is what you look for and what you hope for,” Lee told reporters.

Jelly Roll and Lee meet at the governor’s mansion

Lee said he never met Jelly Roll until Thursday, when the musician visited the governor’s mansion over the pardon news. The two hugged in front of a lit Christmas tree and a fireplace decorated with holiday garlands.

Unlike recent high-profile federal pardons, which let people off the hook for prison, a Tennessee pardon serves as a statement of forgiveness for someone who has already completed a prison sentence. Pardons offer a path to restoring certain civil rights such as the right to vote, although there are some legal limitations, and the governor can specify the terms.

Jelly Roll broke into country music with the 2023 album “Whitsitt Chapel” and crossover songs like “Need a Favor.” He has won multiple CMT Awards, a CMA Award and also picked up seven career Grammy nominations.

Much of his music deals with overcoming adversity, like the song “Winning Streak” about someone’s first day sober. Or the direct-and-to-the-point, “I Am Not Okay.”

“When I first started doing this, I was just telling my story of my broken self,” he told The Associated Press in an interview. “By the time I got through it, I realized that my story was the story of many. So now I’m not telling my story anymore. I’m getting to pull it right from the crevices of the people whose story’s never been told.”

Jelly Roll: ‘‘I was a part of the problem’

Before the parole board, Jelly Roll said he first fell in love with songwriting while in custody, calling music a therapeutic passion project that “would end up changing my life in ways that I never dreamed imaginable.”

Outside of sold-out shows, he’s testified before the U.S. Senate about the dangers of fentanyl, describing his drug-dealing younger self as “the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemist with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about.”

“I was a part of the problem,” he told lawmakers at the time. “I am here now standing as a man that wants to be a part of the solution.”

Jelly Roll’s most serious convictions include a robbery at 17 and drug charges at 23. In the first case, a female acquaintance helped Jelly Roll and two armed accomplices steal $350 from people in a home in 2002. Because the victims knew the female acquaintance, she and Jelly Roll were quickly arrested. Jelly Roll was unarmed, and was sentenced to one year in prison plus probation.

In another run-in 2008, police found marijuana and crack cocaine in his car, leading to eight years of court-ordered supervision.

Sheriff whose jail held Jelly Roll urged a pardon

Friends and civic leaders cited his transformation in backing a pardon.

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall, who runs Nashville’s jail, wrote that Jelly Roll had an awakening in one of the jails he managed. Live Nation Entertainment CEO and President Michael Rapino cited Jelly Roll’s donations from his performances to charities for at-risk youth.

“I think he has a chance and is in the process of rehabilitating a generation, and that’s not just words,” Hall said in a phone interview Thursday. “I’m talking about what I see we need in our country, is people who accept responsibility, accept the fact that they make mistakes and accept the fact that they need help.”

The parole board began considering Jelly Roll’s pardon application in October 2024, which marks the state’s five-year timeline for eligibility after his sentence expired. Prominent Nashville attorney David Raybin represented Jelly Roll in the pardon case.

Lee’s office said no one was pardoned Thursday who had a homicide or a sex-related conviction, or for any crime committed as an adult against a minor.

Los Angeles-based Create Music Group (CMG), which was valued at $1 billion last year following a $165 million investment round, has acquired again.

The company revealed today ( December 18) that it has snapped up Cr2 Holdings Group, adding the UK dance music label and its subsidiaries to its portfolio.

The deal brings Cr2 Records, MBMB Publishing, and music education platform Sample Tools by Cr2 under CMG’s ownership.

CEO Mark Brown, who founded Cr2 in 2004, will stay on as President. CMG Co-founder Jonathan Strauss and Senior Vice President Eric Nguyen will join the company’s board.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Create said in a press release that it “will back Cr2 and Mark with capital, technology and a global infrastructure to drive the label’s growth strategy with further investments into independent dance artists, catalogs, labels and publishers”. 

Los Angeles-headquartered CMG has been on an acquisitive streak in recent months. In February, it announced a strategic catalog acquisition and joint venture with Pack Records of New York and New Orleans.

In March, CMG acquired the catalog of electronic music producer and DJ Deadmau5, along with that of his label Mau5trap. Create said the deal is valued at “over $55 million” and includes the “master recordings and copyrights” of more than 4,000 songs. The deal also includes the formation of a joint venture, under which Deadmau5 and Mau5trap will release new music via CMG.

It also acquired Berlin-headquartered indie music company !K7 this year.

Elsewhere, it formed joint ventures with Ty Dolla $ign and Shawn Barron’s EZMNY Records and Star Trak Entertainment (launched in 2001 by Rob Walker and producer duo Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes).

Last month, CMG invested $500 million in a new fund by Circuit Group, which owns management firms Ayita and Seven20. The fund is focused on the acquisition of music assets and other cultural IP.

CMG, which distributes music generating over 150 billion streams monthly across digital platforms, will provide capital, technology infrastructure and global distribution capabilities to support Cr2’s expansion plans, it said.

The acquisition further expands CMG’s roster of electronic music. Cr2 has spent two decades releasing tracks from DJs and producers including David Guetta, Avicii, Eric Prydz, Camelphat, Fedde Le Grand and Steve Angello. The label has charted multiple dance hits in the UK, US, and Australia.

“We’re huge believers in Cr2 and Mark’s ability to identify, nurture and develop talent and entrepreneurs in the dance music space. We look forward to getting him the tools to fuel the company’s future growth.”

Jonathan Strauss, Create Music Group

Commenting on the deal, CMG Co-founder Jonathan Strauss said: “Mark has established one of the most exciting labels in the UK, consistently delivering hit after hit.”

“We’re huge believers in Cr2 and Mark’s ability to identify, nurture and develop talent and entrepreneurs in the dance music space. We look forward to getting him the tools to fuel the company’s future growth.”

Cr2 Founder and CEO Mark Brown added: “Jonathan, Eric Nguyen, Kyle Bartelman and the entire Create team are building an operating platform for label entrepreneurs that will help position Cr2 for significant investments into artists and labels and help us deliver global hits.

“Create’s ethos of backing the founder’s vision, along with their significant investments into data and technology, together with potent capital resources, make them the perfect partners for Cr2’s next phase of growth.”

“Create’s ethos of backing the founder’s vision, along with their significant investments into data and technology, together with potent capital resources, make them the perfect partners for Cr2’s next phase of growth.”

Mark Brown, Cr2 Holdings Group

Eric Nguyen, Create Music Group’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and M&A, said: “Cr2 represents the type of entrepreneurial and culturally influential label we seek to invest in.

“This deal with Mark is yet another important step in our effort to build a premier global platform for dance artists and label teams, and I look forward to working with Mark to expand our footprint.”

Music Business Worldwide

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The mega retailer, which has claimed the top spot on the Fortune 500 for the past 13 years, has increased its number of in-house truck drivers by 33% over the past three years in part thanks to better wages and benefits.

In 2022, it boosted drivers’ starting pay to around $115,000 from an average salary of $87,000 previously. At the high end, drivers can make $135,000 per year, according to a Walmart spokesperson. The 2024 median pay for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers was $57,440 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Apart from a pay increase, Walmart also uses technology that allows for more reliable schedules compared to other companies. While some in the trucking industry are away for weeks at a time, Walmart gives its drivers consecutive days off of work and assigns them regional delivery territories to allow them to be home every week, a Walmart spokesperson told Fortune.

These perks, along with the better-than-average pay, have increasingly helped the company expand its pool of drivers and include more women. Just 9.5% of truck drivers in the U.S. are women as of 2024, according to the Women in Trucking Index—that’s compared to an estimated 18% of drivers at Walmart, according to a study by workforce intelligence company Revelio Labs that was viewed by Fortune. Bloomberg first reported on the study.

Through a 12-week training program that helps store associates transition to the trucking industry, Walmart has also increased its number of women drivers, a spokesperson said. Around 1,000 people have gone through the program, Bloomberg reported, representing about half of the company’s new drivers.

Possibly due to its efforts, Walmart has a five percentage point oversupply of truck drivers compared to its demand, according to the study by Revelio Labs. 

Walmart’s efforts to bring in more drivers, including those with less experience, is pivotal as the broader trucking industry faces a driver shortage that is expected to bring a shortfall of 160,000 drivers by 2028, according to the American Trucking Association. The broader category of U.S. retail, currently faces a shortfall of drivers, with demand for drivers exceeding supply by seven percentage points, according to Revelio Labs.

Older truck drivers are retiring and younger people aren’t keen to jump into trucking partly due to the long hours and time away from home. A 1,000-person survey from heavy-duty truck parts company FinditParts found that a quarter of Americans would not become truck drivers no matter what pay they were offered. 

For Walmart, any disadvantage in its supply chain, including a driver shortfall, could put it at a disadvantage with Amazon, with which it has been increasingly competing with in recent years, especially with its Walmart+ membership.

Without enough drivers, supply chains are delayed and prices go up. Finding and retaining drivers is thus of the utmost importance for companies like Walmart, Paul Bingham, a director of transportation consulting at S&P Global Market Intelligence, told Bloomberg.

“Trucking companies will need more drivers,” he said. “and they’ll have to attract them from the non-traditional population cohorts.”