Playboy's 20Q: George Jones

George Jones shouldn't be alive today. He should have used up all his luck. Yet here he is at 68 years old, 40 years after his first number one record. He's healthy and happy, with a splendidly landscaped 150-acre spread south of Nashville, a beautiful wife who is the love of his life, and an album climbing the charts and wowing a new generation of country music fans.

He's had more chart singles than any artist in any kind of music. But the man who, according to The New York Times, is "the finest, most riveting singer in country music" nearly blew it on numerous occasions. During decades of alcohol and drug abuse, he endured four failed marriages, hundreds of lawsuits from missed bookings, bankruptcy, car accidents, bus accidents, voices in his head, gunfire, bar fights, overdoses and near-fatal heart trouble.

After growing up poor in Beaumont, Texas, Jones got his start singing on the Texas honky-tonk circuit. Soon he was recording, and he had his first number-one hit in 1959 with White Lightning. He married Tammy Wynette in 1969, and—although their six-year marriage was stormy—their musical collaborations were wildly successful.

After their divorce in 1975, Jones began a bender that lasted years and almost killed him. In 1979 he was committed to Hill Crest Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. The doctors there measured his IQ at 74 and said his capacity to reason was gone. Yet the hits continued. Jones' 1980 epic sad song He Stopped Loving Her Today won a Grammy and stayed number one for 18 weeks.

Then, in 1981, he met Nancy, who would become his fourth wife. Although she would ultimately help him recover from his addictions, it took years to begin that process. In 1992 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Two years later, he nearly died of heart disease because he refused to go to the doctor. In 1996 he told the amazing story of his life in the book I Lived to Tell It All, which reached number six on the New York Times best-seller list.

Last spring everything seemed to be going great for Jones. He had signed with AsylumRecords and had just recorded a new album (called Cold Hard Truth) that was the best he had done in years. But, in March, while driving near his home, he hit a bridge. The injuries almost killed him. Police found an open bottle of vodka under the seat. "That wreck put the fear of God in me," he said. And it motivated him to get well—for good.

Julie Bain met with Jones at his home near Nashville. She reports: "I wasn't sure what to expect of this bad-boy legend. I knew he doesn't like doing interviews. But he was funny and thoughtful and straightforward. And when he sang for me to demonstrate the Lefty Frizzell style that used to drive women wild, I got goose bumps."

1

[Q] Playboy: Your life is one of the most amazing stories of survival in show-business history. Who could top your exploits?

[A] Jones: I don't believe anybody could. My favorite singer in the whole world is Hank Williams. Bless his heart, he wasn't even in the business that long. In a period of just three years he had all those tremendous hits, but he also drank and got into trouble with the law. He had something wrong with his spine from falling off a horse, so he was in pain all the time. And I think he had a quack doctor who overdosed him. Of course, there were others. Lefty Frizzell was a big drinker. Just about all the old-timers were pretty wild. But none of them ever hit the headlines with the types of things that I got in trouble for.

2

[Q] Playboy: A psychologist might say that your troubles began during your poor childhood in Texas. How do you remember those years?

[A] Jones: Well, we didn't have nothing, and not the best food in the world to eat. But my daddy worked hard and he was never mean to us. He drank on the weekends, and sometimes he would come home late and get my sister Doris and me up to sing. He loved music, and he wanted to hear us sing in harmony. So we'd get up at one or two o'clock in the morning and say, "All right, Daddy, one song and then can we go back to bed?" He never beat his kids. But he was always fussing at my mother. She wasn't a pushover. She was strong. That was her biggest problem. If she wouldn't have to get the last word in, he probably would have shut up, had another drink and passed out. I didn't have a lot when I was a kid. The only thing my seven brothers and sisters and I ever had under our Christmas tree was fruit. There were hard times, naturally, sad times. But we had a lot of love in our family.

3

[Q] Playboy: when you were 11 years old you took your Gene Autry guitar and headed, barefoot, to downtown Beaumont, Texas where you sang. When people started throwing money at you, what was your reaction?

[A] Jones: I had never seen so much money in my life. I couldn't believe it. It was nearly $25. A Sunday-school teacher had taught me the basic chords, and I picked up the rest real fast. I was down there sitting on a shoeshine stand on a Sunday, and a few people were coming out of the big downtown churches. They walked by while I was singing a Roy Acuff song. Pretty soon I had a crowd. But did I take that money home with me? No. I went inside the penny arcade, and I blew every bit of it.

4

[Q] Playboy: You started your singing career when you were very young. When did the drinking start?

[A] Jones: I've always gotten nervous before shows. It's something that's been with me my whole career. I started off in honky-tonks, and in those days you had to go out and mingle with the crowd. They're blowing their breath on your face and slobbering all over themselves wanting to buy you a drink. I was drinking Coca-Colas at the time, but pretty soon I started having a beer backstage. That would calm me down a little bit. But it's right there in your face, you know, and being offered to you every few minutes, and the next thing you know, you're drinking.

5

[Q] Playboy: You earned the nickname No Show Jones for being too drunk to show up at your bookings. One time in Ohio you ditched your crew and went and sang for two old ladies on their front porch while the fans were starting to riot nearby. Why go to such lengths to avoid your shows?

[A] Jones: Well, I couldn't get off the booze, and I knew I was in bad shape. I didn't want the people to see me that way. I'd hope the booking agents would cancel my shows. But they didn't, and that made it worse for me. I got so bad as a no-show that a manager I had would book me in two or three different places at once to get the front money in, and then all the blame would come to me. It got to the point that the no-show thing was really only about 50 percent my fault. Sometimes I didn't even know where I was supposed to go.

6

[Q] Playboy: When you added pills and cocaine to the drinking, things got much worse. Most of the anecdotes in your book from that time are heartbreaking, but some are also funny. Like the time you incorrectly decided Porter Wagoner was after Tammy Wynette, then your wife. So you grabbed him by the penis at a urinal in the Grand Ole Opry and said, "I want to see what Tammy's so proud of!" You caused him to pee on himself in his sequin suit. But the most amazing thing is, he forgave you. Why did so many people forgive you for the terrible ways you treated them during those years?

[A] Jones: It is amazing to me, because I did treat people in some pretty bad ways. I said a lot of harsh words to people. I'm really and truly thankful I still have the friends and fans I have. Country fans are the most forgiving fans in the world. They're great people. They say, "Well, he's just a human being."

7

[Q] Playboy: What's your stance on spangles on men's suits?

[A] Jones: Porter, now, he just wouldn't be Porter without his look. He's a legend. Maybe it's too much today, but back in the Sixties and Seventies, just about all of us wore those rhinestone suits. But in the Eighties, some singers went too far with the slouchy look. It looked like they'd slept in their clothes for a week in the car and hadn't washed their hair or beards in a month. I've always had to be neatly dressed. I've gone to jeans and a nice shirt now because you've got to join them a little bit. I still like the rancher type of suits.

8

[Q] Playboy: If Porter Wagoner has the most distinctive clothes in country music, who has the most distinctive hair?

[A] Jones: I guess I do [laughs]. Back when I had that flattop, oh boy, I looked like a possum then! That's where I got my nickname "Possum." But now, Mel Tillis' daughter Pam says you can always see George Jones coming. There's not a hair out of place.

9

[Q] Playboy: You and Tammy Wynette had such magic together onstage. Why didn't it work in your marriage?

[A] Jones: We fell in love with each other's talent. When we were singing, we were happy as can be. Maybe we were more fascinated with each other than we were in love. It doesn't take long for that part to wear off, though. But I was glad that we did become friends again before Tammy died. And we got to do one last album and a short tour together. I was really happy about that. We did have a sweet little girl out of the marriage—Georgette—and she's singing now and trying to get a record deal. She sang with me in Andalusia, Alabama, the first night I came back after the accident. That helped me a lot, because I was really weak. Of course, she was raised apart from me, and they were telling her all this stuff about me. I always hoped that someday she would see through all the smoke and come over to my way. She did. So everything's fine now.

10

[Q] Playboy: Alcohol is often an enemy of love. Is it possible to drink that much and still get the bus rocking?

[A] Jones: Oh, no problem whatsoever! I was active, believe me. That was in my younger days, in my 20s, 30s, 40s. There's a difference in the later years. About 60 is when the sex starts slowing down. It finally catches up with you.

11

[Q] Playboy: What do you think all those female fans found most appealing about you?

[A] Jones: I don't know, I suppose it was the heart and soul I put into my ballads. I live the song at the moment I'm singing it. I just feel it, and I'm all into it. I've got my voice, but I got a lot of my style from three different artists: Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams and Roy Acuff. They were my favorite singers all during my young years. Every time I'd sing I'd think of these people. In certain songs you'll hear a little Roy Acuff and in certain songs you'll hear a little Hank Williams. But in just about all of them you'll hear Lefty because I love to do all them wiggles and what have you. He would make five syllables out of one. The women would go crazy when he did that. So I did it, too. I really admired Lefty because he was the Elvis Presley of country music. That's when they wore a lot of fringe. And the women would tear the fringe right off of Lefty's clothes, just like they did with Elvis. And I've never seen them do that to any other country artist. They'll try to get around you and you'll be pushed and shoved, but tearing your clothes off—that's wanting a piece of you.

12

[Q] Playboy: In your book you say, "Money has just never been that important to me, but I always suspected that love was." Were your troubles really because of a search for love?

[A] Jones: Probably. I had a lot of luck finding the right woman, the one who could endure me long enough to get me straight. When Nancy and I met in 1981, we had $20 between us. I was capable of making more money, but not in the shape I was in. She didn't marry me for the money, because there was none. But we've come a long way. She has been a jewel. She stuck with me through thick and thin when most women wouldn't hang around. It was her being so strong that really made this work out. And it's paid off for her, thank God—finally.

13

[Q] Playboy: As you were getting ready to release Choices as the first single on your new album, you made a choice on March 6 that almost cost you your life. Any idea what possessed you?

[A] Jones: When I bought that bottle of vodka before I had my wreck, that was the first strong thing I had to drink in about 13 years. I felt like having a drink. It was my choice, and I guess I made the wrong choice. A lot of people say, "Well, he just don't want to admit it," but honestly, I hadn't drunk that much out of the bottle. But it didn't really take a lot, since I'd been off of it. But really and truly, I was very alert. It happened on the bridge only about a mile (concluded on page 140)George Jones(continued from page 124) from home. My biggest problem was that I was leaning over toward the middle of the vehicle trying to rewind a tape. I'd just picked up the rough mix copy of our new album. We had picked Choices the day before to be the first single. I had my stepdaughter, Adina, on the speaker-phone, so I was trying to run the thing back to find Choices to play it for her. I took my eyes off the road just that one second, and you can't do that when you're driving a vehicle. You have to watch every minute. I was in a Lexus 470 SUV, up real high, you know, and they said if I'd been in a car, lower, I'd be dead. It's a miracle that I survived.

14

[Q] Playboy: You suffered a punctured lung, a ruptured liver and internal bleeding. You were unconscious and in critical condition. What was the toughest thing about your recovery?

[A] Jones: My biggest problem was that for about two months I couldn't eat. Nothing sounded good, and I was so weak. The main thing, they said, is just to get back to singing. It's going to be rough for a while. It was nerve-racking when I tried to sing at first. I couldn't hit a high note, I couldn't hit a low note. It really had me scared to death, even though I should be happy because my life was saved. But my voice came back. In June I worked two days in Texas and one day in Louisiana. We beat the record for ticket sales at all three places. We beat Merle Haggard and a bunch of other artists. And I wish you could have heard the young people there screaming. I felt like Elvis Presley. I said, "I love what's goin' on out there!"

15

[Q] Playboy: Has the publicity from your accident helped your comeback?

[A] Jones: At 68 years old, I've got a hit. If you had told me before my car wreck that I'd ever have a record on the Billboard charts again, I would have said you're crazy. Maybe they can give me an award for being the oldest artist ever on the charts. This is the best album I've had in ten or 15 years. Before then there were a lot of mediocre songs and "let's get in there and just get an album done." That's the way you feel about it when you know you're not going to get radio play. So you get to thinking, Oh what the hell. This gives me new hope. If we keep this kind of good material out there, maybe they'll stick with it. I don't think you're ever too old to sing. I don't know what they've got against age. All it's ever been is age discrimination.

16

[Q] Playboy: If you could summarize your life in a song title, what would it be?

[A] Jones: My life in a song title? The song Choices tells the story. We picked it to be the first single off the album before the car crash. But the truth is, Choices fits everybody. I don't think there's anybody walking around on two feet who hasn't done something they would change if they could. It's just the type of song that fits people in general.

17

[Q] Playboy: Country fans say there will never be another voice like yours. Is there anybody who can carry on your style?

[A] Jones: I can't see where my voice is that good. I'm not trying to be modest; I'm serious. But a lot of my voice probably comes from the way I was raised and the way I've lived. When I'm singing, whether I'm in a recording studio, onstage or at home, I'm in another world. I forget everything going on and I just feel it.

18

[Q] Playboy: Which country artists do you listen to these days?

[A] Jones: I was a real fan of LeeAnn Rimes when she first came out, before they put her in that pop vein. I'm a fan of Kenny Chesney and Alan Jackson. I liked Mark Chestnut until he cut those last two pop-rock things. But if that's what they want to do, well, that's good. He was probably told he'd have a huge crossover hit. No telling what they've been told. Often they don't have any control over what they do. Back in my day nobody told us what music we had to record. We found our own songs and we recorded them.

19

[Q] Playboy: With whom would you like to work that you haven't?

[A] Jones: Can't think of anybody. They'd probably be hard to get along with. But put me with Keith Richards and I'm all right. He can play! When he did a session with me [The Bradley Barn Sessions], we really enjoyed being together. He's quite a character. I'll bet he thought I was, too. It takes one to know one.

20

[Q] Playboy: On your A&E Biography show, Wynonna Judd said your 1980 hit He Stopped Loving Her Today is "stone butt country. It's so sad I go into a trance when I listen to it." Educate the city folk: What is "stone butt country"?

[A] Jones: Some call it hard-core. They've called me hard-core country all my life. I call it traditional. You may call it old-timey, but there are still people out there who love it. It's American music.