Jelly Roll may be one of the fastest rising country stars in America, but to his kids Bailee Ann and Noah, he’s just dad. And like any other dad out there, he’s got to be a parent sometimes and lay down the law.

This can be difficult at times — given his own checkered past — but the country singer doesn’t let his kids use that as an excuse to get out of trouble.

His daughter Bailee is now 16, which is the age Jelly Roll was when he was incarcerated. While he knows she won’t make the same mistakes he did, he is committed to keeping her on the straight and narrow path.

“‘I don’t judge you based on what you do. I judge you based on what I know you’re capable of,'” he says, recounting a conversation he had with her to People. “‘You’re so much smarter than I was at 16. You’re so much better, so much more emotionally intelligent. You can read a room so much better. So don’t try to talk your way out of getting in trouble, Miss Sassy, by weaponizing my past.’”

The “Liar” singer is proud of his daughter has already accomplished in her life and the woman she is becoming. It’s because of her potential that he pushes her.

“When I look at what she does that I consider horrible, I look back at what I was doing at 16, and I’m like, ‘Oh man…’” he explains. “When I’m hard on her about stuff or a little pushy, she knows it’s from love.”

“She’s special. She’s different. She’s totally ahead,” he says of Bailee in comparison to himself as a teen.

His teenage daughter recently revealed she has aspirations to study law at Columbia University after high school. Bailee specifically wants to focus on criminal defense.