75 Facts About George Jones

George Glenn Jones was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter.

George Jones achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song "George Jones Stopped Loving Her Today", as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing.

George Jones has been called "The Rolls-Royce of Country Music" and had more than 160 chart singles to his name from 1955 until his death in 2013.

George Jones married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951.

George Jones served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953.

In 1959, George Jones recorded "White Lightning", written by The Big Bopper, which launched his career as a singer.

George Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure.

George Glenn Jones was born on September 12,1931, in Saratoga, Texas, and was raised in Colmesneil, Texas, with his brother and five sisters in the Big Thicket region of southeast Texas.

George 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 insist that his mother wake him if he fell asleep so he could hear Roy Acuff or Bill Monroe.

George Jones drank to excess, but never while working, and he probably was the hardest working man I've ever known.

George Jones left home at 16 and went to Jasper, Texas, where he sang and played on the KTXJ radio station with fellow musician Dalton Henderson.

George Jones was enlisted in the United States Marines until his discharge in 1953.

George Jones was stationed in San Jose, California, for his entire service.

George Jones worked at KTRM in Beaumont around this time.

George Jones had a possum's nose and stupid eyes, like a possum.

That same year, while touring as a cast member of the Louisiana Hayride, George Jones met and played shows with Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.

George Jones was invited to sing at the Grand Ole Opry in 1956.

In early 1957, George Jones teamed up with singer Jeannette Hicks, the first of several duet partners he would have over the years, and enjoyed yet another top-10 single with "Yearning".

Starday Records merged with Mercury that same year, and George Jones scored high marks on the charts with his debut Mercury release of "Don't Stop the Music".

Meanwhile, George Jones was travelling the black-top roads in a 1940s Packard with his name and phone number emblazoned on the side.

In 1959, George Jones had his first number one on the Billboard country chart with "White Lightnin'", ironically a more authentic rock and roll sound than his half-hearted rockabilly cuts.

In I Lived To Tell It All, George Jones confessed that he showed up for the recording session under the influence of a great deal of alcohol and it took him about 80 takes just to record his vocals.

George Jones signed with United Artists in 1962, and immediately scored one of the biggest hits of his career, "She Thinks I Still Care".

George Jones's voice had grown noticeably deeper during this period, and he began cultivating the singing style that became uniquely his own.

George Jones was well on his way to gaining a reputation as a notorious hell-raiser.

On tour, George Jones was always backed by the George Jones Boys.

George Jones always made five syllables out of one word.

George Jones's binge drinking and use of amphetamines on the road caught up to him in 1967, and he had to be admitted into a neurological hospital to seek treatment for his drinking.

George Jones would go to extreme lengths for a drink if the thirst was on him.

George Jones recalled Shirley making it physically impossible for him to travel to Beaumont, located 8 miles away, to buy liquor.

George Jones did not hide the keys to the lawn mower.

Upset, George Jones walked to the window and looked out over his property.

George Jones parodied the episode in the 1993 video for "One More Last Chance" by Vince Gill and in his own music video for the single "Honky Tonk Song" in 1996.

George Jones looked up and saw me and said, 'Well, fellas, here she is.

We started out trying to record the vocals together, but George Jones drove Tammy crazy with his phrasing.

George Jones could make a five-syllable word out of 'church.

In October 1970, shortly after the birth of their only child Tamala Georgette, Jones was straitjacketed and committed to a padded cell at the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, Florida, after a drunken bender; he was kept there to detoxify for 10 days before being released with a prescription for Librium.

George Jones managed longer stretches of sobriety with Wynette than he had enjoyed in years, but as the decade wore on, his drinking and erratic behavior worsened, leading to the couple's divorce in 1976.

George Jones summoned for Jones the symphonies of sighing strings that almost made the misery of albums like 1974's The Grand Tour and 1976's Alone Again sound better than happiness could possibly feel.

George Jones was often penniless and acknowledged in his autobiography that Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash came to his financial aid during this time.

George Jones began missing shows at an alarming rate and lawsuits from promoters started piling up.

George Jones appeared incoherent at times, speaking in quarrelling voices that he would later call "the Duck" and "the Old Man".

George Jones weighed under a hundred pounds, and his condition was so bad that it took him more than two years to complete My Very Special Guests, an album on which Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis Costello, and other famous fans came to his vocal aid and support.

George Jones often displayed a sheepish, self-deprecating sense of humor regarding his dire financial standing and bad reputation.

George Jones's interpretation, buoyed by his delivery of the line "first time I'd seen him smile in years," gives it a mournful, gripping realism.

The success of "He Stopped Loving Her Today" led CBS Records to renew George Jones's recording contract and sparked new interest in the singer.

George Jones was the subject of an hour-and-a-quarter-long HBO television special entitled George Jones: With a Little Help from His Friends, which had him performing songs with Waylon Jennings, Elvis Costello, Tanya Tucker, and Tammy Wynette, among others.

George Jones continued drinking and using cocaine, appearing at various awards shows to accept honors for "He Stopped Loving Her Today" obviously inebriated, like when he performed "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" with Barbara Mandrell at the 1981 Country Music Association Awards.

George Jones was involved in several high-speed car chases with police, which were reported on the national news, and one arrest was filmed by a local TV crew; the video, which is widely available online, offers a glimpse into Jones's alter ego when drinking, as he argues with the police officer and lunges at the camera man.

Conversely, when sober, George Jones was known to be friendly and down to earth, even shy.

In 1981, George Jones met Nancy Sepulvado, a 34-year-old divorcee from Mansfield, Louisiana.

George Jones eventually cleaned up his finances, kept him away from his drug dealers, and managed his career.

George Jones always gave her complete credit for saving his life.

Mostly sober for the rest of the 1980s, George Jones consistently released albums with Sherrill producing, including Shine On, George Jones Country, You've Still Got A Place In My Heart, Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes, Wine Colored Roses, Too Wild Too Long, and One Woman Man.

In 1990, George Jones released his last proper studio album on Epic, You Oughta Be Here With Me.

However, two singles, "You Couldn't Get The Picture" and "She Loved A Lot In Her Time", did not crack the top 30 on the charts, as George Jones lost favor with country radio, as the format was altered radically during the early 1990s.

On February 17,1998, The Nashville Network premiered a group of television specials called The George Jones Show, with Jones as host.

The program featured informal chats with George Jones holding court with country's biggest stars old and new, and of course, music.

The song was at the center of controversy when the Country Music Association invited George Jones to perform it on the awards show, but required that he perform an abridged version.

On March 6,1999, George Jones was involved in an accident when he crashed his sport utility vehicle near his home.

George Jones was taken to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was released two weeks later.

George Jones appeared at a televised Johnny Cash Memorial Concert in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 2003, singing "Big River" with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.

In 2008, George Jones received the Kennedy Center Honor along with Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who, Barbra Streisand, Morgan Freeman, and Twyla Tharp.

George Jones served as judge in 2008 for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

On March 29,2012, George Jones was taken to the hospital with an upper respiratory infection.

George Jones was scheduled to perform his final concert at the Bridgestone Arena on November 22,2013.

However, on April 18,2013, George Jones was taken to VUMC for a slight fever and irregular blood pressure.

George Jones's death made headlines all over the world; many country stations abandoned or modified their playlists and played his songs throughout the day.

George Jones was a kind of singing method actor, creating an illusion of the real.

George Jones was the subject of the second season of the podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones, which contends George Jones is the greatest country music singer ever.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, George Jones painstakingly adhered to country music.

George Jones never reached the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 and almost never had any of his music played on mainstream popular music stations in his career, but, ironically, without even trying, Jones's unabashed loyalty to strictly country arrangements attracted the admiration of musicians and songwriters from a wide range of genres.

Dust all over the place, a bunch of cowboys, but when George Jones got up, we went whoa, there's a master up there.

George Jones was one of the greatest harmony singers in country music, and released many duets over the course of his long career.

George Jones recorded duet albums with Gene Pitney and his former bass player Johnny Paycheck.