George Jones

George Glenn Jones was born on 12 September 1931 at Saratoga, Texas, in the Big Thicket, and grew up in and around Beaumont, where as a boy he sang for tips in the streets. He was nine when his father bought him his first guitar. Hank Williams, Roy Acuff and Lefty Frizzell were his early models, and Frizzell the one he sounded most like. In the late 1940s he made his radio debut on KTXJ in Jasper, Texas, and then worked with the husband-and-wife team Eddie & Pearl on KRIC in Beaumont, where he met Hank Williams on the singer’s one visit to the station. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1951 to 1953.

In January 1954, back in civilian life, he made his first record, his own “No Money in This Deal,” in the home studio of Jack Starnes, a co-owner of Starday. Starnes’s partner, the Houston jukebox operator H.W. “Pappy” Daily, became his producer and manager and stayed in those roles until 1970. “Why Baby Why,” which Jones co-wrote and recorded at Gold Star in Houston on 27 August 1955, was his first Top Five hit, and in 1956 he also cut a handful of rockabilly sides under the name Thumper Jones. He then moved to Mercury and began recording in Nashville, and the hits continued: “Color of the Blues,” “White Lightning,” written by J.P. Richardson, the Big Bopper, which became his first No. 1 in 1959, “Who Shot Sam,” and his own “The Window Up Above,” recorded at Bradley’s studio in Nashville on 13 April 1960, the same day as “Family Bible.” “Tender Years” followed in 1961.

He signed with United Artists in 1962, recording “She Thinks I Still Care” that January with Grady Martin on guitar and Tommy Jackson on fiddle, and “The Race Is On” in 1963. United Artists also paired him with Melba Montgomery: their first duet, “We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds,” was cut in January 1963, and on 13 and 14 January 1964 they recorded Bluegrass Hootenanny, with Shot Jackson on Dobro and Curtis McPeake on banjo, singing “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “House of Gold” and “I’d Jump the Mississippi.” He moved to Musicor in the mid-1960s, still with Daily, and recorded “Old Brush Arbors” in 1965, a gospel album in May 1966 that included “Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown” and “I’ll Fly Away,” “Walk Through This World with Me” in 1966, “Milwaukee, Here I Come” with Brenda Carter in 1968 and “A Good Year for the Roses” in February 1970.

He married Tammy Wynette in 1969, and in 1971 he left Musicor for Epic and the producer Billy Sherrill, who was already producing her. Their duets, among them “The Ceremony,” “We’re Gonna Hold On,” “Golden Ring,” “Near You” and “Two Story House,” continued long after their divorce in 1975, and “We’re Gonna Hold On” (1973) and “Golden Ring” (1976) both reached No. 1. With Sherrill he also recorded “A Picture of Me Without You,” “The Grand Tour,” cut in January 1974, “The Door” and James Taylor’s “Bartender’s Blues,” on which Taylor sang with him in October 1977. In the same years he missed so many shows that he was nicknamed “No-Show Jones.”

“He Stopped Loving Her Today,” by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, was assembled from vocal takes Sherrill recorded between 1978 and February 1980, with Pete Drake on steel, Charlie McCoy on harmonica, Pig Robbins on piano and the Jordanaires. It reached No. 1 in 1980, became his first million-seller and won the Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance, and the CMA named him Male Vocalist of the Year in 1980 and 1981. “Tennessee Whiskey,” recorded in December 1982, came out on Shine On in 1983.

He signed with MCA in 1990. His records there drew little country radio play after Walls Can Fall (1992), which included “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair,” but he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992. The Bradley Barn Sessions (1994) remade his older songs with guests, among them a new “Golden Ring” with Wynette backed by Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas, and his autobiography, I Lived to Tell It All (1996), was a best-seller. The CMA named his “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me” with Patty Loveless Vocal Event of the Year in 1998, and his collaboration with Brad Paisley, Buck Owens and Bill Anderson won the same award in 2001. On Asylum, “Choices,” recorded in December 1998 for Cold Hard Truth (1999), won him a second Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance, and in 2003 he released a double album of sacred songs, The Gospel Collection.

He received the National Medal of Arts in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2008 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. Late in 2012 he announced a farewell tour that was to end at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena in November 2013, but he died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville on 26 April 2013, aged 81.

• 1980: Grammy, Best Male Country Vocal Performance (“He Stopped Loving Her Today”); CMA Male Vocalist of the Year (again 1981)
• 1992: Country Music Hall of Fame
• 1998 and 2001: CMA Vocal Event of the Year
• 1999–2000: Grammy, Best Male Country Vocal Performance (“Choices”)
• 2002: National Medal of Arts
• 2008: Kennedy Center Honors
• 2012: Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award