74 Facts About George Jones

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

George Jones achieved international fame for a long list of hit records, and is well known for his distinctive voice and phrasing.

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 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.

When George Jones was born, one of the doctors dropped him and broke his arm.

George Jones heard country music for the first time when he was seven, when his parents bought a radio.

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 would insist that his mother wake him if he fell asleep so that 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.

Several photographs show a young George Jones busking on the streets of Beaumont.

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 moved to the KRIC radio station, and during an afternoon show there met his idol, Hank Williams.

George Jones was enlisted in the United States Marines and until his discharge in 1953 was stationed in San Jose, California.

Around this time George Jones worked at KTRM in Beaumont.

Deejay Gordon Baxter told Nick Tosches that George Jones had acquired the nickname "possum" while working there.

In 1996 George Jones recalled to NPR that the quality of production at Starday was poor.

In 1994, George Jones told Nick Tosches that Presley "stayed pretty much with his friends around him in his dressing room".

George Jones remained a lifelong friend of Johnny Cash, and was invited to sing at the Grand Ole Opry in 1956.

George Jones reluctantly agreed, but his heart was not in it and he quickly regretted his decision.

George Jones moved to Mercury in 1957, teamed up with singer Jeannette Hicks, the first of several duet partners he would have over the years, and had another top-10 single with "Yearning".

Starday Records merged with Mercury that year, and George Jones was rated highly on the charts with his debut Mercury release, "Don't Stop the Music".

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

George Jones wrote or co-wrote many of his biggest hits during this period, several of which became standards, such as "Window Up Above" and "Seasons of My Heart".

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 deeper during this period, and he began cultivating his own singing style.

George Jones's singing style had by now evolved from the full-throated, high lonesome sound of Hank Williams and Roy Acuff on his early Starday records to the more refined, subtle style of Lefty Frizzell.

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 trying to prevent him from travelling to Beaumont, 8 miles away, to buy liquor.

George Jones said she hid the keys to all their cars, but she did not hide the keys to the lawn mower.

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 said she woke at one in the morning to find her husband gone.

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

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.

George Jones was kept there for 10 days to detoxify, before being released with a prescription for Librium.

George Jones managed to stay sober with Wynette for long periods, but as the decade wore on, his drinking and erratic behavior worsened and they divorced in 1976.

George Jones accepted responsibility for the failure of the marriage, but denied Wynette's allegations in her autobiography that he had beaten her and fired a shotgun at her.

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.

George Jones earned the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1980.

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.

George Jones released many duets over the course of his career.

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