Jones George - The grand tour : the life and music of George Jones

Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, Tennessee

October 12, 1981

W ould he or wouldnt he show up?

That was the overriding question the night of the annual Country Music Association Awards, set to be a second triumphal year for George Jones. Though he was considered the greatest living country singer by both fans and the music industry, nearly three decades of self-destructive alcoholism, a trait inherited from his daddy, had taken a personal and professional toll, earning him a reputation for unreliability and the derisive nickname No Show Jones. His more recently acquired taste for cocaine had left behind a growing trail of missed concerts, angry fans, incoherent performances, arrests, multiple lawsuits, and growing debt, much of it from endless purchases of vehicles and homes he couldnt afford. The media who began following him during his turbulent six-year marriage to fellow star Tammy Wynette continued to chronicle a seemingly endless stream of legal issues, incidents, arrests, and failure to appear at concerts. Those who knew the simple, decent, and painfully humble man beneath it all feared the worst.

Through it all, the one thing that enduredand kept the vast majority of fans and fellow performers in his cornerwas the music. The previous year, George was honored for a hit single he didnt even want to record, one that took his producer, Billy Sherrill, nearly three years to cobble together, starting with multiple rewrites on the song itself. He Stopped Loving Her Today was the sorrowful tale of a man whose obsessive love for a woman ended only with his death.

The record was a bolt from the blue, a moving, jarring reminder of the raw power of traditional country in an era dominated by lushly orchestrated countrypolitan hits by Kenny Rogers, T.G. Sheppard, and Dolly Parton and the outlaw sound of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. It summarized the raw, emotive, and searing vocal passion and interpretive genius on which Joness reputation stood for nearly a quarter century. His performance packed such a visceral wallop that one knew, even on first hearing, that the song would endure as an example of what country music, freed of any showbiz facades, was always supposed toexpected toembody. A year before, the CMA had honored He Stopped Loving Her Today as Song of the Year, and George as Male Vocalist of the Year. Unbelievably, it was his first CMA Award in that category. This year, he was up for his second Male Vocalist award. The public, even those beyond the country audience, were well aware of the travails of George Jones.

Tonight, Rick Blackburn, vice president and general manager of CBS Records in Nashville, parent to Georges label, Epic Records, hoped for the best. After all, hed been telling everyone whod listen that George had turned things around. The Associated Press had recently run a story brimming with hope, George declaring that after the bad times, hed turned a corner.

The truth was quite the opposite. George was to be at the Opry House, site of the broadcast, at 7:30 central time. Hed sing He Stopped Loving Her Today onstage and join Barbara Mandrell, the shows cohost, on her recent hit I Was Country When Country Wasnt Cool. Hed added a brief vocal contribution on her recording. They were longtime friends. Mandrell first toured with him when she was a thirteen-year-old singer and pedal steel guitarist. This year, she was nominated for the CMAs top honor: its Entertainer of the Year Award.

Georges handlers, Blackburn and his latest manager, Alabama-based Gerald Murray, had ample hurdles just getting him fit to appear. Hed drained most of a fifth of whiskey and, totally out of it, was ready to battle, a stance he often assumed when he was drunk. They ran the kicking, cursing star through cold showers, pumped him full of coffee, and got him dressed, to a car, and to the Opry House. Even in a fancy brocaded show outfit, he looked raw and dissolute, at least twenty years older than his fifty years. He was flanked in his seat by road manager Wayne Oliver on one side, Murray on the other. Hostile toward his girlfriend, Linda Welborn, hed demanded she sit in the balcony. Blackburn had the unenviable task of warning the shows producers the star would be in no shape to sing He Stopped Loving Her Today. The TV folks were not happy, and had to do some quick shuffling.

The show began running through awards and performers until Rosanne Cash, clad in a country-girl getup that didnt reflect her more cutting-edge musical style and joined by fellow singer Gail Davies, read the Male Vocalist nominees: George, Ronnie Milsap, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, and Don Williams. When Georges name was announced as the winner, he strode unsteadily up the aisle, shaking a few hands along the way. When he got there, he embraced Cash and Davies, accepted the award from a tall blonde, and then, blinded by the stage lights and totally looped, walked toward the mike. Looking out from the podium, he could recognize only fellow performers and friends: singer Johnnie Wright and his wife, Kitty Wells, whod opened the door for female country artists with her 1952 hit It Wasnt God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.

Well, Im one of the Jones Boys, and I just wanna say one thing. He momentarily stared at the artillery-shell-shaped award. Well, Im very proud. I still love Johnnie Wright and Kitty Wells. He pointed toward the crowd, then continued, Thank you very much. We love country music and its bout time it got back to Nashville!

There was nothing to do but continue. Mandrell, whod been through two wardrobe changes, came out to sing I Was Country prior to the Entertainer Award announcement. A cameraman stood in the aisle next to Georges seat in the audience. It was precisely what George, knowing he couldnt pull anything off, had feared. Whatever you do, hed grumbled to Murray, dont you let her come down here and try to get me to sing that part. During a guitar break, she called, Are you out there, George? You are there! Come on up here, George!

Someone slipped George a hand mike. He looked toward the stage, smiled, made a noise, then, pointing to his throat, silently begged off.

Mandrell wasnt having it. Ill come get ya! she amiably hollered from the stage.

As she went into the next verse, she floated down the steps to the aisle.

George, still smiling, growled to Murray, I told you!

With a microphone cord that had only so much line, she implored, Meet me halfway, George! He fumbled down the aisle and behind his smile had totally forgotten the two lines he sang on the record.

Cueing off Mandrell, he barely sang the lines country... from my hat down to my boots. Trying to save the moment, Mandrell remarked, I love the way you do that.

Thats country! he quipped unsteadily.

He tried but could barely squeak out the tag line I was country when country wasnt cool before pecking Mandrell on the cheek and the lips. As he walked back to his seat, she exclaimed, The greatest... George Jones! as applause swelled.

Her decades of stage experience allowed her to smooth, but not totally save, the moment. Millions of viewers saw the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year, for the second year in a row, too fucked up to do the thing he did better than nearly anyone in the world. Those who followed the tabloid coverage of his exploits saw the latest installment, live, on network TV. Given the steady stream of scandal, even as he made the greatest music of his career, it was little wonder much of Nashville and many fans concluded that any day, George would follow his longtime idol, Hank Williams Sr., whom hed met when he was eighteen and who died drunk and drugged up in the backseat of his Cadillac, into the darkness.