No Show Jones Finally Shows Up

A Biography of George Jones

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What are country music stars like today? George Jones summed it up truthfully when he said that many of today’s young country singers are not country, but clones. Many got their recording contracts because they sound like someone else. (Carter) Yes many young country singers have tried to be the carbon copy of George Jones. I guess they have seen through history what a huge country music star he was, and still is today. George Jones is considered to be from the old school, and has worked with many of the same caliber. Stars like Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, and his ex-wife Tammy Wynette. (Cox) He also sung with Johnny Paycheck, and Johnny Cash. (Carter) The list could go on, but I think the point is clear as why many young country music singers would try to fashion their acts after George Jones and others who have contributed in making country music big. Yet they never seem to look at the dark side of things only the glitter and glory. Let’s look into George Jones life as if we are wearing sunglasses to avoid the glare of his singing success, and peer into the darkness that he crawled out of.

           George Jones was and still is a great country music singer, but was plagued with substance abuse. Mostly it was with alcohol, but drugs were involved as well. It got to be public knowledge, and anywhere he went whether performances or personal appointments he was either drunk or would not show up. Thus that is how he became known as “No Show Jones”(Carter) How did he fall into this way of life? To learn why we have to go back when he was a boy. He was born September 12,1931 inside an old fashioned hand made log cabin. He was the last of eight children two brothers and five sisters. His father’s name was George Washington Jones, and he was a hard working loving father when sober, but a tyrant when he got drunk which happen to be a habit. George Jones said, “We were our daddy’s loved ones when he was sober, his prisoners when he was drunk.”(Carter) Yes I personally believe George Jones was influenced by his father’s example early in life a entrapment he could not shake loose until late in life.

          What helped him shake the drink and drugs? George Jones said his change from “No Show Jones” to someone who shows up came not from groups like Alcohol Anonyms, or some religious experience, but love from a good woman. He was referring to his current wife Nancy Jones. (Carter) Having a good supportive wife really helped him, but I believe it was also from the loss of a good friend that got him thinking about leading a new life. His older sister Helen married W.T. “Dub” Scroggins when she was sixteen. Helen was ten years older than George, and as a boy would go visit them thru the summer months. It was at these times George would help Dub work cotton, and became very close friends. George Jones trusted him like no other often giving Dub large sums of cash to hold for him. Dub died in June of 1993, and George felt a deep sense of personal loss. (Carter) To me it seems after this event that George Jones began to show up in life. On September 11.1994he had a successful open-heart surgery, and began performing after only ten weeks of recovery. He also gave up cigarettes after fifty years of smoking. In 1995 he was able to record with Tammy Wynette for the first time in seventeen years. (Carter) Although she/he never wanted to renew their past romance she no doubt could see the new George Jones, and wanted to support an old friend. I honestly feel that George Jones change came from within just wanting to quit old habits. He said, “I quit drinking and using drugs because I got sick and tired of being sick and tired.”(Carter) Yes I hope the young generation of country singers are careful not to copy the bad habits of country greats like George Jones, and he would be the first to agree with that. They say an old dog cannot learn new tricks, but George Jones proved this saying wrong. 1996 he said, “At sixty-four I’ve turned twenty-one I have found peace, and peace has found me.”(Carter) Yes “No Show Jones” finally showed up!