After sparking headlines all week through his Jimmy Kimmel Live monologues while standing in as the guest host, due to his numerous jokes about President Trump, Jelly Roll has opened up in a heartfelt speech about where he stands politically.

Jelly has faced accusations of being “MAGA” throughout his career, with many claiming this because he was once seen shaking hands with the President at a wrestling event, while others have assumed his political allegiance simply because he is openly Christian and regularly talks about God and Jesus in his acceptance speeches.

Now, during his final Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue, Jelly shares some impassioned words about not wanting to be tied to any political party, stressing that he instead wants to be the voice “for the voiceless”, representing those “without representation”.

He also addresses his GRAMMY furore earlier in the year, where he refused to be drawn on the controversial ICE raids during a conference after winning three coveted gongs. While the ‘Need a Favor’ hitmaker maintains that he is glad he took time to gather his thoughts first, Jelly expresses regret at not speaking out at that moment.

The Nashville native does, though, underline that he did not appreciate the way in which people were “projecting their beliefs” onto him, quipping, “I guess now that I've lost all this weight, folks can finally see I have balls. It is funny that before this week, everybody thought I was MAGA, and now they think I'm some sort of liberal snowflake”.

A recurring theme throughout the powerful speech was his father, Buddy DeFord, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 75, and the advice he gave him about doing “the right thing”.

Fighting back tears, Jelly shared the guidance he'd given him, “But my Daddy always told me. It is never too late to do the right thing. So I'm going to try to do the right thing right now, because human dignity isn't Republican nor Democrat, compassion isn't left wing and mercy isn't right wing. Pain and healing knows no partisanship. Hurting hearts are more important than poll numbers, and there are no boundaries or borders for broken families. I am a man of second chances”.

There's no question that Jelly's speech was deeply moving, and presumably serves as the moment he teased at the GRAMMYs when he said, “Everybody’s going to hear exactly what I have to say in the most loud and clear way I’ve ever spoken in my life”. Well, it's safe to say it doesn't get much louder and much clearer than this.

While we've never known - and quite frankly, still don't really know - what side of the political fence Jelly exists on, one thing we've always known was abundantly evident in this speech: that what draws people to Jelly has always been his heart, which radiates through his philanthropy, his campaigning, his music and beyond.

As he gears up for a new album roll, it feels like Jelly's sincere speech - although it will draw flak from some who want him to be more politically partisan - has served its purpose in clearing the air after all the speculation about his views.

Read Jelly Roll's monologue from his final Jimmy Kimmel Live show below:

“I did learn a lot about myself this week. For instance, did you know I'm the new mouthpiece for the left-wing lunatics in Hollywood? Now, of course, that's not true. I don't speak for Hollywood. I frankly hate it here. Have you seen Hollywood? Hollywood Boulevard is the most depressing and disgusting place on earth.

A lot of people seem to think these Jimmy Kimmel writers have secretly been pulling the strings and forcing this good old country boy to poke fun at our Commander-in-Chief. But let's be real about this, y'all. Do you think I would take orders from some sweaty little dork named Josh? No, I was just telling it like it is, and for some reason that seemed to freak a lot of people out. I guess now that I've lost all this weight, folks can finally see I have balls. It is funny that before this week, everybody thought I was MAGA, and now they think I'm some sort of liberal snowflake. I guess I'm just not used to people projecting their beliefs onto me. Although a few years ago I was so fat you could project a movie onto me!

But I will say nobody has overreacted more to my monologues this week than the talking heads on cable news...

First of all, I didn't do this for the check. I'm rich, y'all. And listen, I don't want to throw my buddy under the bus, but Jimmy Kimmel is cheap as hell...! And secondly, do y'all know why I was raving about the UFC fight at the White House? Because it was awesome. Justin Gaethje pulled off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, y'all. Just because I watch the fight on TV doesn't mean I support everything this administration does. Just like hosting Jimmy Kimmel's show doesn't mean I have all of Jimmy Kimmel's politics. Sure, I lean left on some things, but like most folks, I'm pretty down the middle. I am a Christian. I am a country music singer. I'm a farmer. I'm a bow hunter, and most of the things I eat, I prefer to get with a stick and a string. That's the truth. In fact, in fact, the second I leave here, I'm going elk hunting, and I'm going to send the vegan producer Aaron her own elk steak...!

But I also spent this past week working in a building with the kindest, most talented group of chihuahua-hugging, oat milk latte-loving lefties on God's green earth, and it was a blast, y'all. dAnd I truly am gonna miss all of my communist Antifa friends here on the staff of Jimmy Kimmel Lab. You guys are like family to me.

And on a serious note, this was the first place that I ever got to sing a song on national TV. My first single, even before it went big on Country Radio. Jimmy believed in me. He brought me here. I got to do my first skit here. I sat on the couch for the first time here. I got to sing with Cleto, God rest his soul. And last year they gave me a chance to host this thing for the first time, y'all. Thank y'all. And just so we're clear, this year it wasn't the hosting gig that I was looking forward to. It was the platform to get some very personal stuff off of my chest. So if y'all don't mind, can I get serious for a moment?

For the last six months, I've watched people decide who I am, what I am, what I believe, what I support, and what I don't support, and I felt that even more this week just because I told a couple of jokes. And honestly, this goes back further for me, y'all. This goes back to February this year.

I won my first GRAMMY. Actually, somehow on that night, I won three of them. It was the single greatest moment and the greatest honor of my career. I got called on that stage. I got handed an award that I've been dreaming about since I was a child, and immediately after, I was asked to make what I felt at the time was a political stance. I fumbled my words. Looking back, I don't necessarily regret asking for more time before I spoke. I wish more people took more time before they spoke. But I do wish I had found the words to express my heart just a little bit sooner. But I was afraid that anything I was going to say was going to be immediately taken as a political statement. And ironically, by trying so hard not to make a political statement, I became one. I spent my entire career trying not to belong to a political party, partly because until March of this year, I wasn't even allowed to vote. But now that I have that right, it's one I plan to exercise this coming November. It's simple for me, y'all. I always wanted the recovering addict, the felon who is trying to change his life, the single mama working a double hard for her family, and everybody else that ever felt forgotten to know that I represent those without representation. And speaking for those people is what I believe my calling is. I've always tried to be a voice for the voiceless because I know those people; those are my people. I try to speak for the unspoken.

And that night at the GRAMMYs, I had an opportunity to speak up for people who were scared, hurting, and felt like nobody was speaking for them. I had a microphone, and I didn't use it the right way. But my Daddy always told me...“It is never too late to do the right thing”. So I'm going to try to do the right thing right now, because human dignity isn't Republican nor Democrat, compassion isn't left wing and mercy isn't right wing. Pain and healing knows no partisanship. Hurting hearts are more important than poll numbers, and there are no boundaries or borders for broken families. I am a man of second chances.

I have joked all week long on this show about how I'm a convicted felon who was given the opportunity to change his life, and the fact is that wasn't a joke, y'all. This country gave me room and a chance to become something more than the biggest and worst mistake I ever made. I got to build a life, I got to make music. I got to take care of my family, and I got to stand on that stage that night and win a GRAMMY. And that is the American Dream. And here's what I know: the American Dream can't just be for people like me. It can't be for just people like me. Second chances, grace, dignity, opportunity - it can't just be for people like me. Redemption, empathy, decency, and hope - it can't just be for people like me.

The American Dream should be for everybody. And I want y'all to know that, despite the fact that I cuss and I tell jokes, I truly am a man of faith, and I can't read the Gospels without being confronted by the words of Jesus Himself when He said, “When I was hungry, You gave me food. When I was thirsty, You gave me a drink. When I was a stranger, You welcomed me in”. That's what Jesus said. He also gave us two commandments: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. And that's what I should have said that night.

There wasn't an asterisk after neighbor. There wasn't a political party exemption. It did not require us to know what country you were born in. There wasn't a sentence afterward that said, “Unless you're afraid of them””. It just said love your neighbor. And I don't know about y'all, but that's the standard I want to be held to, and there's one more thing I want to clear up. I want you to know that my father was one of my best friends. He was a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, and he died in 2009. This might be a hot take, but out of respect for him and everybody who has ever served and continues to serve this country, I will always shake the hand of the sitting President of the United States when asked. My father would have been disappointed had I done anything other than that. I'm proud that I was able to shake the President of the United States' hand. I'm also proud that I live in a country where I can make jokes about him. Ain't that's what great about being an American - the democracy, the freedom, the freedom of speech? And y'all know what I'm talking about - the same freedom of speech that both sides of the aisle claim they want, until they hear something they don't want to hear. And I will shake the hand of any President that occupies that office because a handshake is not an endorsement, a conversation is not an allegiance, and a joke is not a political point of view. And in my business, taking a picture with a political figure, anybody else for that matter, doesn't mean you agree or disagree with their policies or politics. More often than not, I don't.

I want to leave y'all with this because I was scared to tell this story. It's so personal. My father, Buddy DeFord - God rest his soul - was a blue-backed Democrat, and his brother was a red-hat Republican, and this might be hard for people to understand out there, but they were absolutely best friends. And when my father was in hospice, on his deathbed, and I had the opportunity to ask him everything I wanted to know, I said, “Dad, how are you and your brother so tight when y'all didn't agree about anything?” And he looked at me and said, “Son, we agreed about hundreds of things. We only didn't agree about a few things, and we were not going to let the few things we didn't agree about define our entire relationship”.

I've been thinking about that a lot. Because here's the truth and the fact of the matter: politicians and algorithms make an absolute fortune, convincing us that the person across the street from us is the reason our life is hard. And transparently, I don't know how qualified I am to be standing up here talking about this. I don't have any qualifications at all. But something I've learned about God over the years is He doesn't have much of a history of waiting around for perfect people. So if being imperfect is the only qualification I need, hell, I might be the best people.

And I just want us to remember that the person across the street from us is a human being before they're a voter. And what I want to ask of myself is to defend human dignity, even when it could cost me something. It hasn't been easy being on this show this week. I knew what kind of a s***storm I was going to cause, and I was okay with that, because I told myself I would never be so afraid of being called political again, that I didn't say what I know is right. And while everything else I've said this week has been a complete joke, this is not. Our leaders on both sides of the aisle are doing an absolute s*** job of trying to bring us together, y'all.

And this is what we need to remember. That doesn't mean that responsibility disappears. That means that responsibility then falls on us. And when I say “us”, I mean the old school "we the people. There's a famous quote I live by. There's a famous quote that I think about all the time that says, "While we are fighting monsters, we must be careful not to become a monster ourselves”. We may disagree, we may argue, we may vote completely differently, but let's try not to let the couple of things we disagree about. Forget the hundreds and hundreds of things we have in common. My Daddy was right about that, and he was right about something else.

It is never too late to do the right thing. And I hope that tonight, while he's looking down from heaven, I made him proud. And tomorrow, I'm gonna try a little harder than I did today to love my neighbor because sometimes they're not all the way lovable. And I hope y'all will do the same thing. I'm gonna go back here and cry”.