♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ this is "nightline". tonight, cheating death. >> my spleen was shattered. my stomach had two holes in it and my diaphragm had two holes in it. >> the texas cheerleader shot on the way home from practice two weeks ago one of a spade of recent shootings during everyday encounters, from the icu to high school graduation, peyton washington shares her harrowing ordeal and recovery in an exclusive interview. >> it hurt to walk or stand.

i will never take all those small things for granted. >> plus, jelly roll. ♪ somebody save me ♪ >> a the save me country music sensation's unlikely road to success. >> jelly before the music was a scum bag. i was a horrible human. >> the former rapper who went from behind bars to a billboard magazine cover. ♪ >> why hits like son of a sinner are creating a unique and emotional bond with his fans. >> i represent overcoming. i represent the guy that wasn't supposed to make it making it. ♪ "nightline" will be right back. ♪ just a number, and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. boost® high protein. now available in cinnabon® bakery-inspired flavor. learn more at boost.com/tv i used to pre-rinse dishes cause my old detergent

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♪ ♪ >> juju: thanks for joining us. we begin tonight with our exclusive interview with the texas high school cheerleader who was shot after her friend accidentally opened the wrong car door. just one in a rash of shootings during a series of random and ordinary encounters earlier this year. according to data from every town, 300 people are shot every day in this country. peyton washington was one of them. here's abc's michael strahan. ♪

>> reporter: it's a rite of passage for any high school senior. >> we took good pictures that day. >> yeah. >> reporter: a cap and gown marking four years of hard work. >> this for track? >> uh-huh. we're winners. >> reporter: and a lifetime of possibilities ahead. it's graduation day for peyton washington. but this moment was almost stolen from her. just over six weeks ago you were shot three times. is that hard to believe? >> it's kind of unreal but i'm just trying to do whatever i can to be normal and do everything a senior in high school would do. >> reporter: just six weeks ago, 18-year-old peyton washington was fighting for her life in the icu after being shot three times while car-pooling home from cheerleading practice. >> he pulled out a gun and then he just started shooting at all of us. >> reporter: star woodland's elite cheerleading team washington and three teammates

were at their carpool point at an atb grocery store outside austin texas just after midnight on april 18th. tell me what you remember. >> i was actually texting and eating twizzlers. >> reporter: you were being a teen-ager. >> exactly. >> reporter: that's when the unimaginable happened. >> when i heard the first shot i turned immediately with my blanket. i didn't know where it was coming from or anything but it being so loud my ears were ringing i knew to turn and do something. >> reporter: heather roth, her teammate, says she went to get into a car she thought was her own. when she opened the door, she saw strangers sitting in the passenger's seat. rob backed away and returned to her friend's car. then she said the stranger, who police say was 25 year old pedro taylor rodriguez jr. approached them. >> reporter: were you afraid when he approached your car. >> i didn't see him, honestly i was still looking at my phone and heard in the background what was happening but i didn't think it was going to be as big of a deal as it was, she kept saying

i'm sorry, i'm sorry. that's the last thing they said. >> reporter: roth said the stranger pulled out a gun and began firing multiple shots the cheerleaders driving off fleeing the scene trying to get to safety. >> we were trying to get away as fast as we could. all the other girls were screaming. i was telling myself to breathe it was hard to breathe because of my diaphragm. >> reporter: safe to say you didn't know who shot you. >> not at all i didn't know if it was a man or a woman. >> reporter: roth was grazed by a bullet washington was shot three times. >> i was trying to stay as calm as possible for the other people in the car. i could tell how sad and scared they were. the more calm you are, like your body will stay calm as well. so of course it was scary but i wasn't going to act like i was scared. >> so you're shot and you're keeping everyone else calm. >> i tried. i saw blood on my passenger' seat so i knew somewhere i was

bleeding and then we pulled over and i was like i have to throw up. and i was throwing up blood and i thought that's not normal. that's when i knew something somewhere was wrong. >> reporter: peyton's brush with death part of a spate of disturbing shootings across the country all happening within the span of a week this past april. >> 20 year old kaylin gillis shot to death police say after turning into a wrong driveway. >> an urgent man hunt in north carolina for a man police say opened fire on neighbors. >> a homeowner charged in the shooting of 16 year old yarl. >> shot for pulling into the roc driveway, the 65 year old was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty. in north carolina 6-year-old kensly white and her father were among those shot after a basketball rolled into a neighbor's yard. the 24 year old charged with

attempted murder along with other charges sfremg the incident and has not yet entered a plea. in kansas city missouri 16 year old ralph yarel was shot at point blank range when he showed up at the wrong address to pick up his brother. the 84 year old who will shot hitch pleaded not guilty. yarel making progress attending a walk run event for tram i can brain injuries just six weeks after getting shot. his aunt saying the road to recovery is still long. >> some days it's really hard for him to get out of bed because his head hurts so bad. he's a shell and that's the problem. there is something that is missing within him and that's the hardest point. >> reporter: peyton, a walking miracle herself, also overcoming her own share of injuries. >> where were you shot? >> my right butt twice and then my back, and it shot through -- i only felt pain in my left ab,

i was like why is my ab sore we didn't even work out that hard. why is it hurting but that's why it went through. >> and do you have permanent damage? >> yes my spleen was shattered my stomach has two holes in it my diaphragm had two holes in it and then they had to remove lobe from my pancrease. i had 32 staples. >> doctors forced to remove her spleen. washington had intense rehab. >> the hardest part was after surgeries. >> reporter: as a result of a lung condition you had when you were an infant you had one of your lungs removed. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: has that affected your recovery. >> i would say a little bit because of my diaphragm. for a while i couldn't yawn because my diaphragm couldn't expand or sneezing hurt. the weirdest thing you wouldn't imagine feeling having feel. >> how does it look and go i can't do some of the things i used to do and i have to build

myself back? >> it was hard. hurting to walk or stand is really weird when a week before you were doing a bunch of flips, running the track and doing long jump and all this stuff. can't get out of bed by yourself, can't roll off the couch can't stand by yourself. going up the stairs i would get winded. just stuff you never thought of before. it watts hard. >> authorities taking the alleged gunman into custody and charging him with tedly conduct a third degree felony. the incident is still under investigation and the police have not revealed if the suspect had a moift. he was released on $100,000 bail. still an open and active case. how do you feel about that. >> he did what he did and i'm just going to troy and get through it. there's no point in me really thinking about what he did. . any questions?

>> reporter: now in therapy and heading to college in the fall with goals to continue cheering, she's committed to getting her life back. >> i will never take all those small things for granted, being able to take a nap, not having a step stool to get out of bed or being able to use a wheelchair to go to prom, all those things i will never take advantage of again. >> reporter: so are you feel stronger every day? >> oh, definitely >> juju: our thanks to michael. coming up, jelly roll, the son of a sinner artist, taking the country music by ♪ ♪

is an elegant ev. yeah, with 389 horsepower. ♪ and all-wheel drive. ♪ it's beautiful. it's a beast. it's electric. with an edge. oh, let's go with that. ♪

♪ >> juju: now to the improbable rise of jelly roll. the former inmate turned country music sensation, his soul stirring lyrics and hard knocks life inspiring countless fans to hold on, seek help, and begin to heal. here's nightline's sawr austin. >> what is happening? whose shoes am i wearing? >> so much history in this room for me. >> there's not another place on earth that would be more special than playing in your home town arena ♪ i'm a long haired son.

>> for this proclaimed son of a sinner, jelly roll, none of this was ever supposed to happen. ♪ ♪ if you ever wonder why we ♪ ♪ >> i'm surprised i don't get killed, to be honest. but even deeper than my own personal struggle with addictions, i thought everybody just knew tons of people that died of overdoses. >> a kid from the streets of antioch tennessee with a big build and face tats is now the second coming of country music with hits like need a favor. ♪ if i only talk to god when i need a favor ♪ >> now taking the country music stage by storm and landing on the cover of billboard magazine. >> how many times were you told this space isn't for you? >> you know, i was told by every label in nashville that this place wasn't for me but i wanted to play the grand ole opry i was a nashville kid that grew up loving country music.

i wanted to meet tim mcgraw. >> somebody save me ♪ >> jelly roll found his voice when he released saved me reaching platform. >> overnight success story, you know, it was crazy. >> because he doesn't shy away from his story of pain, prison and addiction, that vulnerability striking a i deep cord with his ♪ ♪ >> in the middle of the pandemic we put it on youtube, we never spent a dollar writing an ad. i just looked up and it was at a million views, and then five million and then 20 and then we broke a hundred. every record label in america started calling. >> when you realize all that you've done, that kid from antioch who couldn't get the studio time, right, in nashville and now he's selling out the grand ole opry and bridgestone arena what does it mean to you man. >> i stop every day and try to think about it. i couldn't even have told myself in my juvenile cell this would

happen. i could have never guessed. >> reporter: what would 15-year-old you think man? if he's seeing you right now. >> it's insane dude it's becoming a land slide. >> big tours baby, big [bleep] tours. >> reporter: fir topping record charts as an emerging artist jelly roll has racked up three cmt awards debuting his country album his life at its rawest the subject of a new abc studios documentary. >> i've been in jail 40 times in my life. i never made it out of the ninth grade. i'm really a street kid that had absolutely nothing going for him. >> you're awesome. >> reporter: why do you think you mean so much to people. >> i represent overcoming. i represent the guy that wasn't supposed to make it making it. and that's how we all feel sitting at home, right, there's a glimmer of hope when a guy like me makes it threw threw the

cracks. when i was that kid in that juvenile cell i thought that's all i would be, that inmate for the rest of my life. that's what i assumed. >> his songs come from a real place. ♪ see the sunrise in her eyes ♪ >> yes, new music, y'all. >> jelly roll, who was born jason defort drawing on his past pain with his mother and troubled childhood with a song like she, song about drug addiction. >> the first time my aunt heard it she texted me and said, this is your mother. >> ♪ see the sunrise in your eyes. >> before the cold november rain if you ever knew her smile you would never know she's in pain ♪ never know that she's in pain ♪ it's these moments that i'm capturing that i'm envisioning watching the life leave someone's eyes. you know what i mean? i would see this in my mother when she would get in her dark

places >> reporter: for jelly roll sharing his struggles provided an outlet for hearing and that's why he visits rehab centers for those fighting addictions. >> hey how are you? sobriety is always hard but this is theered thatest part. how are y'all? >> hi. >> how are y'all. >> for those that don't know me my name's jelly role i'm a musician not a. >> my child' mother was a recovering heroin addict, my mother struggles with addiction, a cousin that struggles with addiction. i was surrounded by so much addiction in my life. >> reporter: you choose to go to these recovery centers and continually give back and i'm curious why. >> imagine god puts you in a situation where he brings you through what he brought me through and you have a heart to do anything but help people that were in the same situation you were in. >> reporter: who is jelly before the music. >> oh, dude, jelly before the music was a scum bag. i was a horrible horrible human. i was a less than desirable

human, that's why i have a heart for service and to help people because i was a taker for so long that i wanted to be a giver for the rest of my life. >> what's up pa how are you. >> paul wooden junior works security guard at the world famous grand ole opry in tennessee and when jelly roll was invited to play the new face caught paul's attention. he told his wife donna who was in a recovery home for drug addiction at the time. >> they play his music all the time, they did a story of his life and his one song he has save me, is a big song they played, but they told the life story of how he recovered. where he wales at one point and where he's at now. >> you made it, you made it baby and you made it more importantly. >> we've been talking about you for a year. >> i know, i know. >> we finally got to do it. >> i know. >> stop it. >> i got you, i got you.

>> i want to hear save me. that's what she's saying save me. thank you. oh, my god. >> this is awesome. >> i'm always trying to speak for those who are unspoken for. i just want to continue to be a voice of voiceless people because i was a voiceless person. i'm writing songs about stuff i know about and i think that comes across to the >> he's a super star and the underdog. his story, one of redemption and triumph. >> let's go! >> reporter: jelly roll is a walking contradiction. he was never supposed to be here but he is and he's taking over. >> i couldn't have dreamed this. i realize, and that's a message i have to kids, is that not only can you come out of your situation and do better. whatever you're dreaming of right now could be too small.

you might be too small. you've got to dream big. ♪ >> juju: our us that. jelly role save me now streaming on hulu. up next tragedy to triumph, the graduation walk years in the making. ♪ somedays, i cover up because of my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now i feel free to bare my skin, thanks to skyrizi. ♪(uplifting music)♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ i'm celebrating my clearer skin... my way. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin, even at 5 years. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses.

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accept it in person. the 25-year-old walking across the stage receiving a standing ovation. which seems fitting. that's "nightline". you can watch all of our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here same time monday. thanks for staying us with us. good night america. have a great weekend.