Photo by Mark Humphrey/Associated Press
George Jones
During the 54th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, the Recording Academy will take a moment to honor a man whom many consider one of the greatest voices not just in country music, but in music, period.
But once again, George Jones, one of the recipients of the academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in a class that includes soul sidemen The Memphis Horns, Georgia jam-rock pioneers The Allman Brothers Band, and Arkansas-born country singer Glen Campbell, will be "No Show Jones." True to a life spent belting out some of the most tear-in-your-beer-worthy laments in honky-tonks big and small, he'll be on the road.
"On the actual night of the Grammys, I will be performing in Jackson, Miss.," says Jones, who will attend an invitation-only ceremony the day before honoring the lifetime recipients as well as Trustee and Technical Grammy Award honorees. "I was so honored by this award. To be acknowledged by your peers is humbling and means so much to me," Jones says in an e-mail interview.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is just the latest in a string of honors for Jones, 80, who will perform Saturday at Sam's Town Casino in Tunica. Perhaps most significant to the man himself was his 1992 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
In 2007, his iconic 1980 chart-topper "He Stopped Loving Her Today," widely considered the greatest song in country music, was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The song won the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music's record of the year awards and garnered the singer his first Grammy.
(Ironically, Jones didn't want to record the song at first, proclaiming, "Nobody will buy that morbid SOB." Producer Billy Sherrill bet him $100 that he was wrong.)
The next year found Jones keeping unlikely company with actor Morgan Freeman, dancer Twyla Tharp, guitarist Pete Townshend and fellow vocalists Roger Daltrey and Barbra Streisand at the Kennedy Center Honors.
"I couldn't believe I was picked from so many talented performers to be given that award," Jones recalls. "The best part was Alan Jackson, Randy Travis and Brad Paisley all surprised me by appearing and each one performing one of my songs."
The accolades seem to come almost as much in spite of Jones' long career -- one marked by years of substance abuse, broken contracts and substandard performances -- as because of it.
Jones grew up in Depression-era Texas, part of a large brood born to an alcoholic father and a church-piano-playing mother. As a child, Jones busked for money on the streets of Beaumont. After a stint in the Marines during the Korean War, Jones returned to Texas and started his music career in earnest.
Starting with the Houston, Texas, label Starday in 1955, he put together a run of now-classic singles, including "Why Baby Why," "White Lightning," "The Race Is On," and "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds" with Melba Montgomery.
In the beginning, Jones was an acolyte of Hank Williams Sr., emulating both his sound and his hard living. Eventually, Jones came into his own on both scores. He developed a unique vocal style, emotive and pliant, that has never failed even when other parts of his life and career were in shambles. And his rowdy lifestyle took on mythic proportions when he wed his third wife, country singer Tammy Wynette, in 1969. The pair's stormy relationship was mirrored in their hit duets such as "We're Gonna Hold On" and "Golden Ring."
Jones' already legendary drinking reached new heights during this period, with tales of Jones driving his riding mower to the nearest bar after Tammy took away his car keys. His substance abuse problems intensified with his introduction to cocaine in the '70s. All the personal problems began to take their toll, and Jones began to miss shows, lots of them. So many that he soon earned the sobriquet "No Show Jones."
"My biggest regrets are the time periods when my addictions caused me to miss so many shows and let my fans down," Jones says. "Surprisingly, most of them don't hold it against me and they still come to see me."
Jones cleaned up his act in the '80s, thanks largely to the efforts of his fourth wife, Nancy. Together, they have done much to rehabilitate his image, with the hard-touring singer seemingly trying to make up for every one of those missed shows.
At his dual 80th birthday parties back in September -- a private fête at Nashville barbecue joint Rippy's and a Grand Ole Opry broadcast celebration that featured performances by Jackson, Lee Ann Womack and Jamey Johnson -- Jones did hint that he would like to record another album, perhaps a collection of duets. But for now, he seems content to split his time between his Biloxi, Miss., condo and the road, with the octogenarian scheduled to play at least 35 dates this year.
"I can honestly say it is the fans that keep me going," Jones says. "It is so great to look out over an audience, young and not so young, and have them singing along to every song. It is the greatest feeling. I could never repay all my fans have done for me."
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George Jones
8 p.m. Saturday at Sam's Town Casino, 1477 Casino Strip Blvd. Tickets: $40 and $50, available at the box office and through Ticketmaster. For more information, call (800) 456-0711, or visit samstowntunica.com.
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