I love REAL COUNTRY music, (sometime in the 90s it got lost between POP & sort rock & hasn't been seen since) George Jones's "Who's Going To Fill Their Shoes" (to me) was not just a song but a foreboding glimpse into the future of Country music. The world could really us a George Jones,Cash,Jennings & a Hank SR.these days.
His alcohol and drug use is legendary. Seriously I really don't know why his liver didn't say screw this i quit!!! How he lived into his 80s is mind boggling.
At one point the manager got George hooked on Coke. The guy had connection to some Mafia types. George Jones book is a crazy but great book. Definitely read it.
The possum was something else. I saw interviews that said George loved to buy pickup trucks,his road manager said he would come up missing while on tour and they would find him several miles away not knowing how he got there. Only to find out later that he would leave and go to a dealership and buy a brand new pickup truck and then loose it somewhere.Or give it away.
Saw George & Tammy in concert in 1969 or 70. Tammy opened and filled until George arrived. I got both their autographs as they were getting in their limo.
George lived in north Alabama at the time. He would drive to Nashville, pull into Tammy's driveway, and then drive back to Alabama. He did this all day long, while drinking.... Tammy really tore his heart up something good. But Nancy saved him for sure!! I've read his book 5 times, and joined the Marines bc George was a Marine. While stationed in Okinawa, I got drunk that afternoon and got No Show tattooed on my arm.
I got to see George in concert about a dozen times in the 80's & 90's . He was the greatest country singer of all time. The sad part about this is the lawyers will drag this out until they are the only ones getting paid. I'd like to see George's sons get the money not some crooked attorneys.
Wow this is a good story I'd never heard before ya know, George Jones was like a family member to all of his fans because we felt his songs where he wrote and sang them from The Heart we can never reach out and touch him again but George Jones touches us every time we hear one of his songs
Arguably? There is no argument about it- the man lived 100 times harder than even Hank Williams, and it took Hank from us at the age of 29. Jones epic drug and alcohol abuse made a lot of even of the most notorious hardcore rockers look like school girls. The fact that he came through that and could still walk and talk, let alone sing like he did was nothing short of a miracle. One addiction specialist told Mrs Jones that the fact that his memory was still mostly intact was medically impossible- so it could ONLY be a devine intervention. "God must of wanted Jones to keep singing" he told her.
Ol' George could party down with the best of them, but I think Jesco White and the whole White family probably made George look like a Girl Scout at Sunday school..
@@cynthianaslim When that book was released, I got a hardback copy at Waldenbooks in our local mall, got in the car to leave but decided to glance over the first page before I started the car... I sat there for a long time and read the first chapter right there in the parking lot, the shock value was there immediately starting on the first page- you just couldn't set that book down! It starts off if I remember right with Jones finding one of his CMA awards at a garage sale... Because he had probably traded it for booze or drugs. That book was a NY TImes #1 best seller immediately after its release! I saw an interview with Jones promoting the book on Ralph Emery's show around that time, and Jones said "there was a bunch of stuff we just couldn't fit in there, so maybe we'll do another" and I thought "REALLY?? THERE IS MORE??" haha. Jones released an album to go along with the release of the book also called "I lived to Tell it All" that was so damned good that it would give me chills as I listened- still does!
@@KLUNKET Wow! I'll have to check it out! I'm searching for his exact words I think on his opinions on those early Starday records. He said something to the affect of "We would do a verse, a chorus, another verse, chorus, then tag it with a fiddle. And they said, 'don't worry, George. They won't notice it.' Well, maybe they did notice it because they didn't sell." Or something like that. Always thought that was funny.
lived harder than hank senior . buddy i dont know about that .i know georges story .i am a massive fan . i saw him 5 times between 1983 n 2005 . but hank lived out in the 40 s n 50 s . times were harder back the n .he was travelling in cars more so than buses .hotels were better in georges time . food etc. Hank was a hard drinker with a drug problem too . George went hard ,but you cant diminish Hank sr . to not comparable . 100x? ? medically impossible .well ole George broke all those rules too . i guess .
There was only ONE lawnmower incident. George said so himself. It was when he was married to Shirley. He was too much of a gentleman to tell everyone Tammy lied!
WATCH GEORGE & TAMMY ON SHOWTIME- THEIR DAUGHTER SAW THIS SERIES MADE & YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED! BTW, GEORGE WAS SOBER LONG BEFORE HE PASSED & HE DID NOT WRITE THE SONGS BUT HE SURE MADE THEM HIS WHEN HE SANG THEM! ALSO, HE HATED THE SONG " HE STOPPED LOVING HER TODAY" IT WAS TOO SAD HE SAID. 💜
March 23 2002 POSSUM GAVE A FREE CONCERT at our local EXPO CENTER. I had no idea 🤷♂️ it was going down, I was driving a taxi 🚕 for a living . Call Best West time call Going to Expo 5 passengers pilled in DRUNK FEELING NO PAIN, we’re going to GEORGE JONES CONCERT 🎶 I NOTICED HEAVY TRAFFIC 3 miles out THEN IT CAME TO A STAND STILL 1 mile out , then people started fighting to cut inline during traffic jam cussing obscene gestures beer cans . YEP ALL THIS OVER THE POSSUMS CONCERT HERE COMES FIRE 🔥 TRUCKS 🛻 THEN THE POLICE 👮♂️ IT WAS AN EXPERIENCE ILL NEVER FORGET. 😂😂😂😂 🪦 RIP MR JONES
...furthermore, always think it's fucked up thinking to tackle drug and pill abuse by landing him in a mental hospital, UK approach was not much better at the time
He may have done this to keep the songs he wrote copyrighted and just thought we might as well cut what we can cut at the time. Copyrights can run out in 10 year period. 😅
The tapes that are the topic of this video have been circulating since the late 1970's, being issued/bootlegged on every compilation label that wanted to use them. Here is one of the tracks from one of said tapes ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7JtaD1BoxKs.html
Most of the best music stars are druggies, there must be something in them drugs, George, Tammy, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Whitney, MJ and Prince are just a few that comes to mind, they didn't help me much but were sure good fun at the time.
My uncle use to drive the old tractor to the beer store when he had a suspended license he even brought me fishing a couple times with the tractor and if he got too drunk I would drive the tractor lol!
Hope this makes it into one of the two biopics currently in production. I also hope that Micheal Shannon and Josh Brolin don't try to sing since neither of them are capable of doing justice to even high-on-Shug Knight-supplied-blow-and three-fifths-of-whiskey George Jones.
