Jelly Roll’s Warning to Australia: ‘Treated Like a Criminal’ at Louis Vuitton

US singer Jelly Roll has issued a stark warning for Australia, expressing his concern over the growing fentanyl crisis in his home country and the potential for it to take a hold Down Under.

The hitmaker has been candid in the past about his personal battles with drugs and testified before US Congress in January 2024 about the toll the drug is taking on the US.

Appearing on the Hit Network’s Hot Hits with Nic & Loren this week, the Save Me hitmaker pleaded that Australia take a different path from his home country.

‘Something y’all should know about is that it’s [fentanyl] sneaking into Australia very quickly – we should talk about this.’

He added that while the source of fentanyl hasn’t reached the same scale here as in the US, it is a problem that can creep up rapidly.   

‘I think it’s on the lower side to the point that maybe the average Aussie is overlooking it a little bit,’ he said.

‘I preach to you as an American who now is watching this kill over 300 people a day. It’s over double the number it was when I spoke at Congress. So think about that perspective – how fast that all happened to us.’

He continued: ‘Don’t look up here, my Australian brothers and sisters, and let this thing have a hold on five per cent of your country. It’ll happen so much faster than y’all think.’

The singer then spoke about his personal experience with drugs, adding that the illicit substances he was once addicted to do not ‘hold a candle’ to fentanyl. 

‘This thing is the plague, dude. I was alive for the crack era. I was alive for the pill mill era. I was alive and I was a participant in both eras,’ he said.

‘I was a street kid – I was actively cooking and selling crack. I was the problem.’

‘I was actively going to the pill mills and buying thousands of pills at a time from doctors shadily, and then going back and marking them up and putting them into the community. But none of them hold a candle to what’s in fentanyl.’

Jelly Roll opened up about his drug dealing past in an emotional testimony before US Congress in January 2024 to urge the passing of an anti-fentanyl bill.

Admitting that he had once been ‘part of the problem’, Jelly Roll went on to detail the personal toll the US drug and mental health crisis had taken.

‘I’ve attended more funerals than I care to share with y’all. This committee, I could sit here and cry for days about the caskets I’ve carried of people I loved dearly, deeply in my soul,’ the Grammy-nominated artist said.

‘Good people. Not just drug addicts. Uncles, friends, cousins, normal people — some people that just got in a car wreck and started taking a pain pill to manage it. One thing led to the other…how fast it spirals out of control.’

‘It’s hard to move forward when your past is in your back pocket,’ he said about his previous felony convictions for drug-related offences.’

He said he considered himself a perfect spokesperson for the fentanyl epidemic because he’s not a politician and does not consider himself political.

‘I am a musician and I have no political alliance. I am neither Democrat nor Republican,’ he stated.

He also lamented his past criminal activities that have forever taken away his right to vote. 

‘I have never paid attention to a political race in my life,’ he said.

‘Ironically, I think that makes me the perfect person to speak about this because fentanyl transcends partisanship and ideology.’

Jelly Roll’s sobering words come after he claims he was ‘treated like a criminal’ at a Louis Vuitton store in Sydney.

He posted a video on Wednesday to rant about his experience at the swanky store.

Wearing a baseball cap backwards and dressed in his trademark sweats, Jelly Roll – real name Jason DeFord – was photographed outside the shop in the CBD. 

Appearing angry after the experience, the heavily tattooed Tennessee-born artist began: ‘Hey man, the Louis Vuitton in Sydney, legitimately just treated us like we were finna (sic) come in and rob that place.

‘I have never been looked at more like a crim… Listen, the last time I was looked at like a criminal this bad… I was an actual criminal this bad.’

Jelly Roll, who arrived Down Under last month for a series of shows, did not offer any details about what happened inside the store.

Daily Mail has reached out to Louis Vuitton and Jelly Roll for comment.