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Generations Later, George Jones's Music Lives On

After the death of country music's George Jones, fans of the legend reflect on the impact he had on his genre.

By Molly Faris

Country singer George Jones, 81, died Friday in
Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Photo Courtesy of Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
“I remember growing up to George Jones’s music. My dad would play ‘White Lightning’ so often that it quickly became one of my favorite songs as a kid,” said Cathleen Faris, a longtime fan of the country music legend.

George Jones is known to many as the greatest voice in the entire country genre. He is a two-time Grammy Award winner and a Country Music Hall of Famer.

“I’ve been listening to him for decades. He started making music before I was even born. He definitely led an incredible career that will be remembered for decades to come,” Cathleen said.

Jones died at the age of 81 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennesee on Friday at 5:22 a.m. from hypoxic respiratory failure. This came after he was hospitalized a little over a week ago when he developed a fever and irregular blood pressure, CNN reported.

“The world has lost the greatest country singer of all time,” Merle Haggard, his friend and fellow country music legend said in a report to Rolling Stone.

Jones was born on September 12, 1931 in east Texas to a devastatingly poor household and a violently alcoholic father. As a boy, Jones taught himself how to play the guitar. Not long after, he was playing on the streets and in clubs by the time he was a teenager. After his discovery in 1954 by Starday Records, Jones’s voice quickly became one envied by many.

“If we could all sing like we wanted to, we’d all sound like George Jones,” Waylon Jennings once sang in his 1980 song “It’s Alright”.

Jones went on to earn over 140 Top 40 country hits, fourteen of which went to Number One, and worldwide success.

Much of Jones’s career was marked by his rocky marriage to Tammy Wynette, his fourth wife who was also famous in country music. The couple recorded albums together that received a lot of recognition throughout the 1970s and the early eighties. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1976, largely due to Jones’s inability to stay sober. Despite their divorce, the two continued to perform together.

His excessive drinking reached a highly destructive level in the late seventies and by February 1979, he was homeless and destitute. In January 1980, he was entered into a psychiatric hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.

He earned the nickname “No Show Jones” as he would simply not show up to scheduled performances. His career was seriously becoming obsolete.

After six years of no number one singles, many thought Jones’s run in the country music world was done.

“He said I’ll love you ‘til I die / She told him you’ll forget in time / As the years went slowly by / She still preyed upon his mind,” begins the song that turned it all around for the singer.

In April of 1980, “He Stopped Loving Her Today” was released and the country music world was shocked back into their love for Jones. The song tells the story of a man who pines after a love who left him a long time ago. He continued to love her until his last living day.

Jones credited this song as being the savior of his music career, writing in his autobiography that “a four-decade career had been salvaged by a three-minute song.”

Jones married again for the fourth time in 1983, this time to his now-widow, Nancy Jones. With this marriage, Jones fortunately became mostly sober and his career reaped the benefits, as he continued on with more success.

Today, his music is no less important. Alison Kudlick, a young country music fan, acknowledges the huge impact Jones left on the popular genre.

“George Jones’s music can still be heard on country music radio. I always love when ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ comes on my favorite station at home,” Kudlick said.

His music is proving to transcend time as many young listeners are able to appreciate the impact that he has left behind on his genre.

“It’s obvious that many current country stars are influenced by George Jones in their songs. I would certainly consider myself a fan,” Kudlick said.

Jones is survived by his wife Nancy Jones, his sister Helen Scroggins, and by his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. His music however, touched millions more.

“George Jones is not a name that will be forgotten any time soon,” Kudlick said.

If you’d like to know more about George Jones, visit these sites:

http://georgejones.com

http://www.cmt.com/artists/george-jones/biography/

Here are just a few of the many tweets from fellow country music singers, honoring their friend and hero:









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