Jelly Roll says he was so nervous when he met Taylor Swift he couldn’t think — or talk — straight

Like Taylor Swift, Jelly Roll is a chart-topping country star who’s crossed over to pop. But he says when he actually got to meet Taylor earlier this year at the Grammys, he couldn’t even form a proper sentence.

Jelly tells People that what he wanted to share with Taylor is that when his daughter Bailee — who’s now 16 — was a little girl, he used to take her to a playground in Tennessee that Taylor had donated money to rebuild and push her on the swing set there.

But when Taylor came over to say hello to him at the Grammys, Jelly laughs, “I was so nervous I couldn’t even remember what a swing set was.”

“I’m looking at Taylor Swift and I have a reason to explain to her why I like her so much,” he continues. “And I’m going, ‘You built the swing set somewhere, my daughter, I pushed her on it.’ I did so bad! Definitely was at a loss for words in that moment.”

Jelly also tells People that so far this year, he’s lost 110 pounds and is winning the battle against his childhood food addiction.

“It’s cool because there was once a time in life that the culture I built on tour was the opposite. It revolved around alcohol and drugs,” he says. “And now our tour culture is around good eating and around exercising and doing emotional check-ins with our crew every day.”