Making dreams come true is all in a day’s work for Jelly Roll. The star has visited prisons and hospice centers, surprised fast food works with enormous tips and even cried with fans as they share their most heart-wrenching personal tragedies.
For his latest good deed, the singer is helping one listener achieve her dreams of higher education. During a mid-June show in downtown Nashville, he spotted a young woman holding up a sign on her phone that read “Please pay my tuition.”
Jelly didn’t bat an eye: “We’re gonna talk about what college you go to, what your GPA is, and if all of that checks out, we will help you get through school,” he promised her from the stage.
“‘Cause I tell you what, I didn’t have to pay for my college, so I didn’t go,” he joked, after sending someone from his team over to discuss logistics with the fan.
Jelly offered his support without knowing anything about the fan’s story, but the details of her journey to higher education make his promise even more powerful.
According to Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN, the fan who held up the sign is Joy Gadalla — a first-generation Egyptian immigrant who grew up in Antioch, Tenn., just like Jelly himself. Now 18 years old, Gadalla says she moved to online school after facing bullying in the seventh grade, but she graduated with a GPA of 3.8.
Jelly’s music and life story inspired Gadalla to enroll at Nashville’s Belmont University with hopes of becoming a criminal justice lawyer. He also helped her decide to quit drinking: At the time of the concert she was a year and seven months sober.
After spending the last month caring for her grandmother in the hospital, Gadalla simply wanted to enjoy a night out with friends, and she spent five hours waiting in line for the free Jelly Roll show. She made a last-minute decision to ask for help, and when the singer answered the call, she says she was “in incredible shock.”
Carena Liptak is an Associate Editor and staff writer at Taste of Country. She specializes in breaking country music news, interviews and lists. In particular, she’s got a soft spot for sad songs — check out her roundup of the 50 Saddest Country Songs of All Time!