Jelly Roll is still paying for sins and transgressions he committed when he was just a child. The 38-year-old was charged with aggravated robbery, a felony, when he was just 16 years old. At the time, Jelly Roll — already in and out of incarceration — was charged as an adult, all but sealing his fate as a permanent fixture in the judicial system.

“I never want to overlook the fact that it was a heinous crime,” Jelly Roll tells Billboard. “This is a grown man looking back at a 16-year-old kid that made the worst decision that he could have made in life and people could have got hurt and, by the grace of God, thankfully, nobody did.”

After his conviction, Jelly Roll was facing a potential 20-year sentence for the crime, and while he has never shied away from admitting his guilt, the Nashville native does give himself grace for participating in the crime, at least now.

“They were talking about giving me more time than I’d been alive,” Jelly Roll, who served over a year for the charge, says.  “I hadn’t hit my last growth spurt. I was charged as an adult years before I could buy a beer, lease an apartment, get a pack of cigarettes … I feel like the justice system at that point kind of parked me on my only set path.”

It’s a conviction that still carries weight today. Only recently able to gain a passport, several countries — countries he would like to perform in and where he is already considered a superstar — won’t allow convicted felons across their borders. An avid golfer, he also was recently unable to buy his dream house on a golf course, not because of his finances, but because of his criminal record.

“Imagine changing your life in such a way that you can afford the kind of house in this community I was looking at,” Jelly Roll reflects. “My money was welcome, but I wasn’t, all because of something I did [almost] 24 years ago.”

It’s hard to deny all of the positive changes Jelly Roll has made in his life, including donating all of the proceeds from his sold-out Bridgestone Arena show last year to building a recording studio inside the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center. He also just bid on a $4 million building in Nashville, which if he acquires, would become a community center. But with Tennessee’s zero-forgiveness policy for violent offenders, Jelly Roll hopes to someday receive a pardon from Governor Bill Lee, Tennessee’s governor, which is the only way he can truly move forward with his life.

“A pardon would change my whole life,” Jelly Roll says, quickly adding that if he did indeed receive a pardon, he would only accept if it if also came with a policy for incarcerated youth, like he was once.

“Maybe we’re disciplining an age group that should be rehabilitated,” Jelly Roll suggests. “I just want to have that conversation, and if it can end in a pardon … let’s go.”

Jelly Roll has certainly beaten every odd stacked against him, finding a way out that very few people ever do. The singer-songwriter hopes his life can be a reminder to others, including his friends who still call him collect from inside the prison walls.

“I want to be a guidepost of hope for people to know that losers can win,” Jelly Roll says. “That who you were isn’t who you are.”

Jelly Roll’s Save Me documentary is out now. His Whitsitt Chapel album is out on June 2. He will kick off his Backroad Baptism Tour in July, joined by a rotating list of opening acts, including Ashley McBryde, Chase Rice, Struggle Jennings, Caitlynne Curtis, Elle King, Merkules, Three 6 Mafia, Yelawolf and Josh Adam Meyers. Find all of Jelly Roll’s music and upcoming shows at JellyRoll615.com.

Photo Credit: Getty Images for CMT