Jelly Roll has been open about his weight loss, but according to his health coach, Gary Brecka, the road to losing 200 pounds started with a much more personal conversation.

On an episode of the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast, Brecka shared what it was like to first hear the struggles Jelly Roll faced at his highest weight — including the fear he might not wake up each morning.

As a human biologist and performance coach who’s worked with celebrity clients, Brecka said he was struck by how the singer described his day-to-day reality before starting his transformation.

“He would say, ‘I have to sleep on my side and wedge myself in with pillows, because if I roll on my back at night, I’ll suffocate,’” Brecka shared on the podcast. “I’ll vomit.”

“I never turn the radio down in the car, because when I pull up to a stoplight, I can hear myself wheezing,” Jelly also told him.

And the fear ran deeper than that. “Every morning that he would wake up, he said as soon as he would wake up, he would thank God that he didn’t die that night. Because he felt like he was gonna die every night when he went to sleep,” the trainer recalled.

As for how they connected, Brecka said it all began with a direct message from the country star that simply asked, “Do you work with fat people?”

Jelly Roll has spoken openly about how his relationship with food began in childhood, shaped by a lack of healthy eating habits and a long-standing struggle with food addiction.

“Nobody in my house ever had [a healthy relationship with food], so that was the hard part, really fighting that demon at first and getting into that discipline and that commitment,” he told People.

This time, though, he took a different approach — building a team that included Brecka and a personal chef to help support his lifestyle changes.

“He’s like, ‘I’m ready to commit to changing, because God’s given me this opportunity to have my music serve the world, and I feel like I’m gonna die,’” Brecka recalled.