We can add Jelly Roll to the list of people who have had enough of the Elon Era of Twitter. The singer, fed up with how sh-tty people are on the platform, has decided to peace the F out, calling Twitter “the most toxic negative app to exist ever.” He also called it a “safe place for everyone to say mean sh-t to each other.” Well, he’s not wrong! Just prior to Jelly’s decision to leave, people had been giving him a hard time over pictures he posted with Jack Black while backstage at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Over the weekend, he had to contend with crazy conspiracies after he complained about the music industry and earlier this year, he took a social media break after commenters were bullying him about his weight.
“This is for sure the most toxic negative app to exist ever — PERIOD. Lol,” Jelly Roll wrote on X Oct. 20. “This place is different man, I always heard it was the Wild West on here but man it’s insane. It’s a safe place for everyone to say mean s–t to each other with no consequences. I’m out lol.”
Shortly before the “Save Me” singer’s announcement, he had been posting photos from his appearance at the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, where he performed “Mama, I’m Coming Home” as a part of his Ozzy Osbourne tribute. After sharing a backstage photo with his band and Jack Black with the caption, “This is crazy,” one commenter replied, writing, “Jack Black looking real uncomfortable.”
“Jack Black hung out with us for 10 hours in the green room,” Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord, replied, “Coolest most comfortable dude I’ve ever met in my life lol.”
The singer’s announcement comes just days after an Oct. 18 tweet of his gained attention when he wrote, “Learned a lot about how slimy the music business is this week, don’t worry yall know I’m going to expose it soon. This whole thing is smoke and mirrors yall. All that s–t Russ be talking about is REAL!”
He later replied to the tweet on Oct. 19, adding, “Man yall made a mountain out of a molehill with this one. All these weirdly over dramatic comments about selling souls and satanic weird s–t is just weird . lol. I’ll be talking about all this on my wife’s podcast soon.”
Jelly Roll’s Instagram account is still active with the singer boasting 3.4 million followers.
This isn’t the first time Jelly Roll has taken a break from social media.
“My husband got off the Internet because he is so tired of being bullied about his f–king weight,” Jelly Roll’s wife Bunnie XO said in an April 22 TikTok promoting her April 24 episode of her Dumb Blonde podcast. “That makes me want to cry because he is the sweetest angel baby.”
Bunnie, whose real name is Alisa DeFord, shared that the online critics affect her husband.
“He doesn’t show it to you guys but I’m gonna have a very vulnerable moment here,” she continued. “It hurts him. The Internet can say whatever the f–k they want about you and they say ‘well you’re a celebrity, you’re supposed to be able to handle it,’—no the f–k you’re not.”
First off, I had no idea that Jelly Roll was married to Bunnie XO, so I learned something new today. Anyway, I don’t blame him! His fans can still interact with him through other platforms, so why does he need to deal with all of that negativity? I still check in with accounts that I respect and follow because I like to read what they have to say, but I don’t engage very much anymore beyond just “liking” a Tweet. It’s not worth the headache of the bots or the Blue Check Bro a-holes who apparently have literally nothing better to do all day beyond harassing strangers online. And a lot of the protections against harassment have been lessened or taken away. It’s easy for someone like me to make my account private to help prevent unwanted engagement and just lurk. I can only imagine how annoying it is for journalists or celebrities (the ones who manage their own social media accounts) to have to deal with the constant toxicity. I don’t blame Jelly for leaving. Good for him.
Photos credit: Jerry Perez/Avalon, Getty and via Instagram