George Jones
George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for a long list of hit records, and is well known for his distinctive voice and phrasing. For the last two decades of his life, Jones was frequently referred to as "the greatest living country singer",[1][2] "The Rolls-Royce of Country Music",[3] and had more than 160 chart singles to his name from 1955 until his death in 2013.
For other people named George Jones, see George Jones (disambiguation).
George Jones
April 26, 2013 (aged 81)
- Singer
- songwriter
- musician
1953–2013
4
King George, Thumper Jones, The Possum, No Show Jones, "The Rolls-Royce of Country Music"
- Acoustic guitar
- vocals
United States
1951–1953
His earliest musical influences were Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe, although the artistry of Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell helped to crystallize his vocal style. He served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953. In 1959, Jones recorded "White Lightning", written by The Big Bopper, which launched his career as a singer. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones".[4] Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure.
Life and career[edit]
Early years (1931–1953)[edit]
George Glenn Jones was born on September 12, 1931, in Saratoga, Texas, and was raised with a brother and five sisters in Colmesneil, Texas, in the Big Thicket region of southeast Texas.[5] His father, George Washington Jones, worked in a shipyard and played harmonica and guitar; his mother, Clara (née Patterson), played piano in the Pentecostal Church on Sundays.[6] When Jones was born, one of the doctors dropped him and broke his arm.[6] He heard country music for the first time when he was seven, when his parents bought a radio. Jones recalled to Billboard in 2006 that he would lie in bed with his parents on Saturday nights listening to the Grand Ole Opry, and would insist that his mother wake him if he fell asleep so that he could hear Roy Acuff or Bill Monroe.
In his autobiography I Lived To Tell It All, Jones recalled that the early death of his sister Ethel worsened his father's drinking problem, which caused him to be physically and emotionally abusive to his wife and children. In his biography George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend, Bob Allen recounts how George Washington Jones would return home drunk in the middle of the night with his cronies, wake up his terrified son and demand that he sing for them or face a beating. In a CMT episode of Inside Fame dedicated to Jones's life, country music historian Robert K. Oermann said, "You would think that it would make him not a singer, because it was so abusively thrust on him. But the opposite happened; he became ... someone who had to sing." In the same program, Jones admitted that he remained ambivalent and resentful towards his father until the day he died. He observed in his autobiography, "The Jones family makeup doesn't sit well with liquor ... Daddy was an unusual drinker. He drank to excess, but never while working, and he probably was the hardest working man I've ever known." His father bought him his first guitar at age nine and he learned his first chords and songs at church. Several photographs show a young George busking on the streets of Beaumont.
Duets[edit]
Jones was one of the greatest harmony singers in country music, and released many duets over the course of his long career. While his songs with Tammy Wynette are his most celebrated, Jones claimed in his autobiography that he felt his duets with Melba Montgomery were his best. Jones also recorded duet albums with Gene Pitney and his former bass player Johnny Paycheck. George's record with Paycheck, 1980's Double Trouble, is one of his most atypical records, and features him giving credible performances on numbers such as "Maybelline" and "You Better Move On". Jones also recorded the duet albums My Very Special Guests (1979), A Taste of Yesterday's Wine with Merle Haggard (1982), Ladies Choice (1984), Friends In High Places (1991), The Bradley Barn Sessions (1994), God's Country: George Jones And Friends (2006), a second album with Merle Haggard called Kickin' Out The Footlights...Again (2006), and Burn Your Playhouse Down (2008).