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George Jones: Voices, Vices, and a Comeback for the Ages · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
0:03
Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
0:08
Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. This is a story about
0:21
Speaker 1: a country singer, a country singer who heard voices, a
0:24
Speaker 1: country singer with the greatest voice in country music history,
0:29
Speaker 1: and a country singer with demons. It's also a story
0:33
Speaker 1: of a shooting, an escape, a crash, and of course
0:38
Speaker 1: redemption sort of. This is the story of George Jones,
0:43
Speaker 1: a man who made great music, some of the greatest
0:47
Speaker 1: music of all time. You're still on my mind. Anyone
0:50
Speaker 1: seriously find me a better country song than George Jones
0:53
Speaker 1: is You're Still on my mind. That song is great music,
0:57
Speaker 1: and that music at the top of the show wasn't
1:00
Speaker 1: great music. That was a preset loop for my melotron
1:03
Speaker 1: called playing Possum MK two. I played you that loop
1:07
Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to Buggie OGGI Ugi
1:10
Speaker 1: by a taste of honey, And why would I play
1:13
Speaker 1: you that specific slice of nose candy cheese? Could I
1:16
Speaker 1: afford it? Because that was the number one song in
1:20
Speaker 1: America on September thirteenth, nineteen seventy eight, and that was
1:24
Speaker 1: the day that the demons in George Jones's head try
1:27
Speaker 1: to convince him to murder his best friend, Earl Peanut Montgomery.
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Speaker 1: On this episode a shooting, an escape, a crash, and
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Speaker 1: the greatest singer of all time, No show, George Jones.
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Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this this disgrace slam.
2:07
Speaker 1: George Jones took a snort of powder lined up on
2:10
Speaker 1: the back of the toilet tank. Then he took a
2:12
Speaker 1: slug of whiskey from the flask in his coat pocket.
2:16
Speaker 1: He looked at the airline ticket to New York City
2:18
Speaker 1: resting on the sink, and then he stared out the
2:21
Speaker 1: bathroom window to his truck out in the parking lot
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Speaker 1: just ten feet away. It was September nineteen seventy seven
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Speaker 1: and George Jones was standing in the Nashville offices of
2:32
Speaker 1: his record label, Epic Records. He was meeting with the
2:35
Speaker 1: label's vice president, Rick Blackburn. They were going over travel
2:39
Speaker 1: plans for George's upcoming two nights stand at the bottom
2:42
Speaker 1: Line in Manhattan. The tiny nightclub was Greenwich Village's destination
2:48
Speaker 1: for intimate performances from a who's who of stars from
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Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen to Linda Ronstadt to lou Reed. With a
2:55
Speaker 1: four hundred person capacity, the room was a fraction of
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Speaker 1: the size of George's usual audience, But this might have
3:02
Speaker 1: been the most important show, not just of George Jones's life,
3:06
Speaker 1: but in country music history. For years, the country music
3:10
Speaker 1: industry had been looking for ways to break the genre
3:13
Speaker 1: with audiences beyond the South. Lately, it had been decided
3:17
Speaker 1: that the best way to do this would be to
3:19
Speaker 1: send George Jones to enemy territory to play for a
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Speaker 1: room packed with critics from Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, Newsweek,
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Speaker 1: and more. One good George Jones concert would make them
3:29
Speaker 1: all country music fans for life. At least, that was
3:33
Speaker 1: the plan, as Rick Blackburn explained it to George Jones
3:37
Speaker 1: just a few minutes ago in his office. But when
3:39
Speaker 1: George contemplated the expectations that had just been laid on
3:42
Speaker 1: his shoulders, he felt his heart start beating faster, sweat
3:46
Speaker 1: began beating on his forehead, and he heard a voice
3:49
Speaker 1: whisper in his ear. You're a hack. You're a fraud, George.
3:53
Speaker 1: If you go on stage, you'll just let them all
3:55
Speaker 1: down because you're nothing. You better run, George, you better
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Speaker 1: run while you can. George closed his eyes to shut
4:03
Speaker 1: out the voice, but it kept growing louder while Rick
4:06
Speaker 1: droned on in the background. George had to stop this
4:09
Speaker 1: intrusive voice. He had to make it go away. George
4:12
Speaker 1: let out a loud, squawking noise. It sounded like a
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Speaker 1: duck call. Rick stopped talking in mid sentence and stared
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Speaker 1: at him. George excused himself, said he needed to hit
4:22
Speaker 1: the head. Rick looked at him strangely, but just nodded.
4:27
Speaker 1: Now sitting in the bathroom, George was looking out the
4:30
Speaker 1: window with a flask and plane ticket in his hand,
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Speaker 1: trying to decide his next move. The windowsill was old,
4:37
Speaker 1: but in good condition. The white paint was slightly faded
4:40
Speaker 1: where some of the wood grain peeked through. It reminded
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Speaker 1: George of the window in the last apartment he lived
4:45
Speaker 1: in with his parents in Beaumont, Texas. He remembered lying
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Speaker 1: in bed staring at the window sill, waiting for his
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Speaker 1: father to come home. Some nights, the door would open
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Speaker 1: gently and click shut, and he would hear his father's
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Speaker 1: feet shuffle across the floor and pick up the guitar
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Speaker 1: he had given George for Christmas, strum a few chords,
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Speaker 1: and then head to bed. Other nights, it felt like
5:09
Speaker 1: an entirely different man came home. This man still looked
5:14
Speaker 1: like George's father, but his eyes were wild and his
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Speaker 1: breath burned, and his voice turned raspy and mean. He
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Speaker 1: would slam the door open, sometimes with three or four
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Speaker 1: friends behind him, and he would pound his feet across
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Speaker 1: the living room. George would throw a blanket over his
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Speaker 1: head and pretend that he was asleep, but it never
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Speaker 1: did any good. George would hear his door open, then
5:36
Speaker 1: seconds later, two rough hands would yank him out of bed.
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Speaker 1: This demon, who had control of his father's body, would
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Speaker 1: scream down at him to grab his guitar. He was
5:45
Speaker 1: having a party and he needed music. If George didn't
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Speaker 1: move fast enough, his father would cuff him. If he
5:52
Speaker 1: didn't sing well enough, his father would punch him. And
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Speaker 1: if George tried to quit playing too soon after his
5:57
Speaker 1: father passed out. Sometimes father that would wake up in
6:00
Speaker 1: a fury, and then his old man would beat everyone
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Speaker 1: in the family. So George would race across the living
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Speaker 1: room and strap on his guitar, and even though his
6:12
Speaker 1: hands were shaking and his heart was pounding. He learned
6:14
Speaker 1: to quickly focus on a tune in his mind. He
6:17
Speaker 1: would close his eyes, open his mouth and let out
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Speaker 1: the words of Gene Autry or Ernest Tug blue songs
6:24
Speaker 1: or a gospel he could sing at all, but when
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Speaker 1: he did, for a few moments, he would be transported
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Speaker 1: to his favorite place in the world, out under a tree,
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Speaker 1: with no one else in the world, just him and
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Speaker 1: a guitar singing a song. After a dozen or so songs,
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Speaker 1: George would open his eyes and he would find himself
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Speaker 1: back in the living room. His father's head would be
6:46
Speaker 1: drooping with his hands still clutching the neck of a
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Speaker 1: whiskey bottle, and this was the most dangerous time. George
6:53
Speaker 1: learned to keep playing the guitar softly as he edged
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Speaker 1: towards the front window without missing a beat. He would
7:00
Speaker 1: use his knee to slide the window up a little
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Speaker 1: bit at a time, and he keeps singing as he
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Speaker 1: slid one leg out the window, and then another, and
7:08
Speaker 1: then as quietly as possible, he would slide the window shut,
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Speaker 1: humming the tune the whole way. He would creep across
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Speaker 1: the porch, climb through his bedroom window and finally fall asleep.
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Speaker 1: At least that's what happened on good nights. On other nights,
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Speaker 1: George wasn't so lucky. Thirty years later, the memory still
7:30
Speaker 1: made him freeze with fear as he recalled his first
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Speaker 1: live performing experience. He thought again about New York City
7:36
Speaker 1: and the collection of fancy, college educated critics from the
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Speaker 1: magazine sitting in the front row. There was no way
7:42
Speaker 1: in hell he was going to make this trip. George
7:44
Speaker 1: crumpled the plane ticket and tossed it into the trash. Then,
7:48
Speaker 1: just like when he was a boy, he eased the
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Speaker 1: window open, crept out onto the porch, and made a
7:54
Speaker 1: mad dash for his truck in the parking lot, leaving
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Speaker 1: Rick in, his record label and the plans for New
7:59
Speaker 1: York City behind him. A few days later, on September sixth,
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Speaker 1: a group of journalists including Dan Rather and Walter Cronkive,
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Speaker 1: plus half the cast of Saturday Night Live and many
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Speaker 1: other celebrities were packed themselves into the bottom line. George's band,
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Speaker 1: the Jones Boys, were there, and the team from George's
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Speaker 1: record label, Epic Records, was there too, but George Jones
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Speaker 1: was nowhere to be seen. In fact, no one would
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Speaker 1: find him for another two weeks before he washed up
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Speaker 1: in a cheap motel in Florida. Even though George Jones
8:34
Speaker 1: never even showed up for the gig at the bottom
8:35
Speaker 1: Line and ended up having the effect that his label
8:38
Speaker 1: had hoped for. Instead of being just another performer, his
8:41
Speaker 1: no show made George Jones a legend. There were dozens
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Speaker 1: of media reports about this real life rebel who did
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Speaker 1: as he pleased and didn't give a damn when anyone cared.
8:51
Speaker 1: Just two months later, he was voted Country Artists of
8:54
Speaker 1: the Year in Rolling Stone's year end Critics poll. But
8:58
Speaker 1: while the legend of George Jones was growing stronger, so
9:01
Speaker 1: were the voices whispering in his ear. Those voices wanted
9:05
Speaker 1: more more cocaine, more whiskey, and more control of George's body,
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Speaker 1: of George's mind, of George's voice, and within a year
9:15
Speaker 1: they would try to seize control permanently. George Jones eased
9:46
Speaker 1: his car to a stop beneath a massive pair of
9:48
Speaker 1: long weaf pines. From the passenger's seat, the old man
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Speaker 1: looked at George, and he shook his head in disgust.
9:56
Speaker 1: He raised up the thirty eight revolver in his hand
9:58
Speaker 1: to remind George why they were there. George stared back,
10:03
Speaker 1: but he just turned the keys and cut the car's engine.
10:07
Speaker 1: From the silence, a voice piped up from the back
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Speaker 1: seat and told the old man to shut the fuck up,
10:13
Speaker 1: but the words came out like some demonic impersonation of
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Speaker 1: Donald Duck. The old man turned toward the back seat
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Speaker 1: and sneered, do you doodle? He explained, I'm just making
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Speaker 1: sure he knows the plan. The doodle reached for the gun,
10:27
Speaker 1: but the old man held it just out of his reach.
10:30
Speaker 1: They tussled for a minute before they got bored, and
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Speaker 1: then they turned their gaze towards George. Well, they both asked,
10:37
Speaker 1: with questioning eyes. Oh yeah, George knew the planet. He
10:41
Speaker 1: snatched the gun from the old man and with shaky hands,
10:44
Speaker 1: he opened the cylinder of the revolver and loaded a
10:47
Speaker 1: bullet in each chamber. He snapped it shut and pulled
10:50
Speaker 1: back the hammer. George knew the plan all right. He
10:54
Speaker 1: was going to kill Peanut Montgomery. It was September of
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, barely a year after his no show
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Speaker 1: at the bottom Line, and George had lost everything. His mother,
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Speaker 1: Clara who died in nineteen seventy four, still praying her
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Speaker 1: son could get clean. The love of his life, Tammy
11:15
Speaker 1: Wynette new story book romance, which played out in tabloids
11:19
Speaker 1: and on hit records, ended in divorce in nineteen seventy five,
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Speaker 1: But Tammy had always left the door open to reconciliation.
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Speaker 1: They even recorded a number one album together the year
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Speaker 1: after they divorced. But a few weeks earlier, she'd slammed
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Speaker 1: the door shut by marrying her new manager, George Ritchie.
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Speaker 1: It's all your fault, the old man reminded George, with
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Speaker 1: a hard look in his eye. It cut George to
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Speaker 1: the core. He knew it was true. His first few
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Speaker 1: years with Tammy was some of the happiest in his life.
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Speaker 1: Taking the stage with Tammy by his side made him
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Speaker 1: feel confident and energetic, and Tammy made the paralyzing stage
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Speaker 1: fright that he usually beat back with alcohol just a
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Speaker 1: little bit less parallel. For a while, he barely drank
12:03
Speaker 1: more than a glass of wine or a beer here
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Speaker 1: in there. But a few days after Tammy gave birth
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Speaker 1: to his daughter, George. Yet the demons inside George whispered
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Speaker 1: in his ear till they couldn't ignore them anymore. He
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Speaker 1: went off on a bender that ended up with him
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Speaker 1: being forcibly admitted for ten days to a mental institution
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Speaker 1: in Florida. The marriage never recovered. After that, George began
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Speaker 1: spending more time on the road without Tammy, and without
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Speaker 1: her by his side. The stage fright came back with
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Speaker 1: a vengeance, and so did the drinking. Just when George
12:34
Speaker 1: thought his body couldn't take any more of the travel,
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Speaker 1: the bad food, and the constant need to be the
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Speaker 1: life of the party. At every roadhouse along the highway,
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Speaker 1: he found something to take Tammy's place, something to make
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Speaker 1: him feel energetic and confident. Unlike Tammy, it didn't care
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Speaker 1: how much he drank. And this something was cocaine. Dedoodle
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Speaker 1: hoot it from the back seat. Salivating at the mention
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Speaker 1: of the drug, George pulled out a baggie. Couldn't resist
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Speaker 1: a little taste. Only the old man abstained. He just
13:07
Speaker 1: shook his head in Disgusted With cocaine and alcohol coursing
13:13
Speaker 1: through George's system, it didn't take long for his marriage
13:16
Speaker 1: to unravel. Tammy filed for divorce in nineteen seventy five,
13:20
Speaker 1: and George let her take everything, the house, the money,
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Speaker 1: their fans, even his band, the Jones Boys. They went
13:28
Speaker 1: with Tammy. It seemed like everyone had a bandoned George,
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Speaker 1: everyone that is, except his best friend, Peanut Montgomery. Hearing
13:37
Speaker 1: the name again, Didoo reached for the gun, but the
13:40
Speaker 1: old man slapped his hand away. He smirked at George
13:43
Speaker 1: and reminded him of the old saying a friend in
13:46
Speaker 1: need is a friend indeed, and Peanut was no friend
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Speaker 1: in need. Earl Peanut Montgomery was an Alabama native, a
13:57
Speaker 1: man who got his start as a session guitarist at
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Speaker 1: the legend Mary Fame Studios in Florence, Alabama. His sister
14:03
Speaker 1: Melba have been George's duet partner of choice before Tammy,
14:07
Speaker 1: but even after Tammy kicked Melburne of the curb, Peanut
14:10
Speaker 1: stayed on as George's number one drinking buddy. It didn't
14:13
Speaker 1: hurt that he played a mean guitar and wrote killer
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Speaker 1: songs like George and Tammy's number one hit. Working to
14:18
Speaker 1: hold on, especially after Tammy left, George and Peanut raised
14:22
Speaker 1: hell in every bar room from Nashville to Alabama, until
14:26
Speaker 1: suddenly Peanut found himself a new running buddy, Jesus Christ.
14:30
Speaker 1: Peanut got religion. He gave up drinking, and he gave
14:34
Speaker 1: up torn with George. For George, it seemed doubly unfair.
14:38
Speaker 1: George had turned to God so many times in his
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Speaker 1: darkest hours, begging for salvation, but God always ignored his prayers.
14:45
Speaker 1: God left him living in hell day after day, and
14:48
Speaker 1: just when he was at his lowest, God took the
14:50
Speaker 1: only friend George had. George seethes with rage as he
14:56
Speaker 1: felt the cold steel the revolver in his hand. Since
14:59
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to get to the man upstairs, he
15:02
Speaker 1: would have to settle for taking a shot at the
15:04
Speaker 1: man upstairs, this newest fan. Just then, George, Dee Doodle,
15:08
Speaker 1: and the old Man saw headlights cresting over the top
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Speaker 1: of a hill. It was Peanut's car. As they watched
15:14
Speaker 1: the car creep nearer, the old man warned George to
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Speaker 1: stick to the plan. Dee Doodle cackled with a wild
15:20
Speaker 1: look in his eye. Peanut pulled his car up next
15:23
Speaker 1: to George. There was no one else in sight. He
15:26
Speaker 1: rolled down his window and slowly put his hands up
15:28
Speaker 1: on the car door while George glared daggers at him.
15:32
Speaker 1: Peanut gave his friend a sad look. He told George
15:35
Speaker 1: he'd been praying for him. Just hearing the word praying
15:39
Speaker 1: was enough to twist George's face into a scowl. The
15:42
Speaker 1: old man, indeed Doodle, whispered to him it was almost time.
15:47
Speaker 1: Peanut said he loved George. He asked why George was
15:49
Speaker 1: persecuting him. Dee Doodle and the old man looked at George.
15:53
Speaker 1: Both nodded their heads. Now now was the time. George
15:58
Speaker 1: suddenly lifted the revolver up into view. He aimed it
16:01
Speaker 1: straight at Peanut's head, and he asked the question. The
16:03
Speaker 1: Dee Doodle and the old man were screaming in his ear.
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Speaker 1: Do you think your God is gonna save you? Now?
16:09
Speaker 1: And before Pena could answer, George closed his eyes and
16:12
Speaker 1: squeezed the trigger. A gunshot echoed through the creek bed,
16:18
Speaker 1: and then everything went silent. When George opened his eyes,
16:25
Speaker 1: he saw smoke rising from a bullet hole in peanuts car,
16:28
Speaker 1: just an inch below the window. Dee Doodle and the
16:31
Speaker 1: old man screamed at him to fire again. George pulled
16:34
Speaker 1: back the hammer and lined up his shot. He held
16:36
Speaker 1: the gun on Peanut for a long moment while Pinut
16:39
Speaker 1: just stared back at him without moving. Finally, George lowered
16:43
Speaker 1: the gun. He said, well, Pinat, I guess God answered
16:47
Speaker 1: the call, and then George drove off into the darkness,
16:51
Speaker 1: with smoke still curling around the bullet hole in Peanut
16:54
Speaker 1: Montgomery's car. Peanut visited the district attorney immediately after the shoot,
17:00
Speaker 1: but after learning that George could get fifteen years in
17:02
Speaker 1: jail for attempted murder, he decided not to press charges.
17:08
Speaker 1: Despite almost murdering his friend, George Jones did not slow
17:12
Speaker 1: down on his drug and alcohol consumption. The demonic voices
17:16
Speaker 1: of Dedoodle and the old Man demanded more, more cocaine,
17:20
Speaker 1: more whiskey, more control. Within a year, George's weighted plummeted
17:25
Speaker 1: to less than one hundred pounds. He declared bankruptcy and
17:28
Speaker 1: was reduced to living in a car parked in an
17:30
Speaker 1: alley in downtown Nashville, where he went days without eating
17:34
Speaker 1: solid food, Arguing with the voices in his head. He
17:37
Speaker 1: was near death when Peanut finally convinced the judge to
17:41
Speaker 1: have George committed. In late nineteen seventy nine, George Jones
17:45
Speaker 1: landed at Hillcrest Psychiatric Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. He spent
17:50
Speaker 1: forty days drying out before he was released in January
17:53
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty. The first thing he did on his
17:56
Speaker 1: way out of rehab was stopped by a six pack.
18:00
Speaker 1: By this point, nearly everyone had written off George Jones,
18:03
Speaker 1: Tammy Wynette, Peanut Montgomery, his family, his record label, his fans.
18:09
Speaker 1: It seemed like there was only one person who still
18:11
Speaker 1: believed in George Jones, and that was his producer, Billy Charrell.
18:17
Speaker 1: Billy had seen George at his worst, arguing back and
18:20
Speaker 1: forth in the voices of Ddoodle and the Old Man
18:22
Speaker 1: in the middle of the recording sessions. Billy could hear
18:25
Speaker 1: the damage that cocaine had done to George's vocal cords.
18:29
Speaker 1: But Billy knew one song, one song, could change everything.
18:34
Speaker 1: For years, Billy Charell had perfected the art of finding songs,
18:38
Speaker 1: had played off of George and Tammy's real life relationship.
18:41
Speaker 1: Now that relationship was over, and Billy had once again
18:44
Speaker 1: found the perfect song, a finale for love Gone Wrong,
18:48
Speaker 1: the kind of song only George Jones could sing if
18:52
Speaker 1: he could just get him sober and in the studio
18:54
Speaker 1: for three minutes and fifteen seconds, Even if no one else,
18:59
Speaker 1: not even George J. Jones believed it. Billy Charrell knew
19:02
Speaker 1: that this was the song that could put George Jones
19:05
Speaker 1: back on top. We'll be right back After this word,
19:13
Speaker 1: word word, a Vivaldi concerto swallowed to life, filling the
19:25
Speaker 1: room with the sounds of violins, music sweet enough to
19:28
Speaker 1: soothe even the most savage beast. The melody kept rising
19:32
Speaker 1: to a thunder and climax when suddenly a needle scratched
19:36
Speaker 1: across the record and the music suddenly cut out. George
19:41
Speaker 1: Jones shot straight up off the couch. He yelled and
19:44
Speaker 1: started swinging wildly at anything within arm's reach. Fortunately, he
19:48
Speaker 1: only made contact with a few empty mic stands, which
19:51
Speaker 1: crashed harmlessly into the floor. He looked across the room
19:55
Speaker 1: and saw his producer, Billy Charrell, holding the needle above
19:58
Speaker 1: the record that was still spinning on the turnt. Billy
20:01
Speaker 1: gave George a look that said it was time to
20:02
Speaker 1: get to work, Time to finish this piece of shit song.
20:06
Speaker 1: George glared at Billy's for waking him up before he
20:10
Speaker 1: could say anything, though, De Doodle the duck squawked out
20:13
Speaker 1: rock yell in Billy's direction. The old man just rolled
20:16
Speaker 1: his eyes from where he sat on the couch. George
20:20
Speaker 1: stared at Dee Doodle until he sat down quietly on
20:22
Speaker 1: the couch next to the old man, and with everything quiet,
20:26
Speaker 1: George nodded toward Billy, rubbed his temples, and walked up
20:29
Speaker 1: to the mic. It was February nineteen eighty. George was
20:35
Speaker 1: only a month out of rehab, but he was already
20:38
Speaker 1: sliding back into familiar patterns. There was one nice thing
20:41
Speaker 1: about drying out for forty days, though it punctured a
20:44
Speaker 1: hole in his cocaine induced haze. De Doodle and the
20:47
Speaker 1: old Man was still hovering over his shoulder, but at
20:50
Speaker 1: least their voices weren't quite as loud. George had spent
20:53
Speaker 1: the last four hours passed out on a couch in
20:55
Speaker 1: the corner of the main tracking room at Columbia Studio
20:58
Speaker 1: B on Nashville's music Row, which meant he hadn't taken
21:01
Speaker 1: a drink in four hours, which meant he was probably
21:04
Speaker 1: the most sober Billy Cherill had seen him in months.
21:07
Speaker 1: If they're ever going to finish this downer of a song,
21:09
Speaker 1: this was probably their best chance. As Billy rewounded the
21:16
Speaker 1: tape in the control room. George looked around the galvanized
21:19
Speaker 1: steel hut that made up Columbia's Studio B. Most artist
21:24
Speaker 1: these days like tracking in Colombia's more modern Studio A,
21:27
Speaker 1: but George and Billy still liked the old Quantcet hut
21:30
Speaker 1: on the back of the property. The room had history.
21:35
Speaker 1: When producer Owen Bradley opened the studio in the nineteen fifties,
21:39
Speaker 1: it was the first music business on the street. By
21:42
Speaker 1: the time he sold it a decade later, they were
21:44
Speaker 1: calling the block Music Row. The room had personal history
21:49
Speaker 1: for Billy and for George too. Here Billy had charted
21:53
Speaker 1: the ups and downs of George and Tammy's love affair
21:55
Speaker 1: from the rosy early days with ballads like take Me
21:58
Speaker 1: to the Hints of Stormy Weather and We're going to
22:00
Speaker 1: Hold on and on through the fading Love of Golden Ring.
22:05
Speaker 1: Now Billy was trying to get George to finish the
22:07
Speaker 1: song that he was convinced would be the perfect finale
22:10
Speaker 1: for the George and Tammy saga. Even if no one else,
22:13
Speaker 1: not even George Jones, believed it. Billy kept saying it
22:17
Speaker 1: was the song that would put George back on top.
22:20
Speaker 1: They have been working on the song for a year.
22:22
Speaker 1: George was sick of it. The song was too sad,
22:26
Speaker 1: too cheesy, and the melody was too much like Chris
22:28
Speaker 1: Christockerson's Helped Me Make It Through the Night, which George
22:32
Speaker 1: kept mistakenly singing whenever he showed up sober enough to sing.
22:35
Speaker 2: That is.
22:36
Speaker 1: Billy kept having his songwriters rewrite the song over and over,
22:40
Speaker 1: and that was another thing that was bugging George. Now
22:43
Speaker 1: Billy had him doing a spoken word section in the
22:45
Speaker 1: middle of the song. George hated it. No matter how
22:48
Speaker 1: stone or how drunk he was, he could always sing,
22:51
Speaker 1: but speaking was a different story. Every time he tried
22:55
Speaker 1: to record the middle section, his words came out slur
23:01
Speaker 1: George slipped on his headphones as Billy queued up the
23:04
Speaker 1: first notes of the song. He turned back to the
23:06
Speaker 1: couch and saw that the doodle and the old man
23:09
Speaker 1: were gone, And as the song began to play, George
23:12
Speaker 1: closed his eyes. He imagined he was out in the
23:15
Speaker 1: field all along, just him and the song, and he
23:19
Speaker 1: opened his mouth and let all of his pain and
23:21
Speaker 1: sorrow pour into the microphone. He sang about love, love
23:25
Speaker 1: that lasts a lifetime, love that brings only pain, until
23:29
Speaker 1: the very end. He gritted his teeth and made it
23:32
Speaker 1: through the spoken words section and finished the song with
23:34
Speaker 1: a chorus that raised goosebumps on Billy's arms. Billy knew
23:39
Speaker 1: they'd captured it. After nearly eighteen months, he stopped Loving
23:44
Speaker 1: Her Today was finally finished. Billy knew it would be
23:47
Speaker 1: a number one hit. George, however, felt differently. As soon
23:53
Speaker 1: as he finished singing, he heard the voice of the
23:55
Speaker 1: old man return. No one wants to hear another, said
23:58
Speaker 1: George Jones' song. It hurt, but George knew the old
24:02
Speaker 1: man was right. He looked at Billy and set his peace.
24:06
Speaker 1: Ain't nobody going to buy that morbid son of a bitch?
24:09
Speaker 1: And then he walked out the door. It turned out
24:12
Speaker 1: George could not have been more wrong when he stopped
24:17
Speaker 1: Loving Her Today came out on April fourteenth. There was
24:20
Speaker 1: a huge response right out of the gate. Radio DJs
24:23
Speaker 1: and critics were thrilled to hear something approaching the George
24:26
Speaker 1: Jones of old. Fans rushed out to buy the record.
24:29
Speaker 1: Just as Billy Cherrelle predicted, the song went to number
24:32
Speaker 1: one on the Country chart July nineteen eighty, George won
24:36
Speaker 1: a Grammy for Best Country Male Vocal for he Stopped
24:39
Speaker 1: Loving Her Today, and that song was named the Academy
24:42
Speaker 1: of Country Music Song of the Year not once but twice,
24:44
Speaker 1: in both nineteen eighty and in nineteen eighty one. Over
24:49
Speaker 1: the next two years, George's comeback continued. He was nowhere
24:52
Speaker 1: near as low as the days when he was living
24:54
Speaker 1: in a car and screaming at the voices in his head,
24:56
Speaker 1: but his demon still found ways to whisper to his ear.
25:00
Speaker 1: There was a drunken Award Show performance in nineteen eighty
25:02
Speaker 1: one and an embarrassing dui stop that ended up on
25:05
Speaker 1: the local news in nineteen eighty two. Fortunately for George Jones, however,
25:10
Speaker 1: that year he also began dating Nancy Savvado, the woman
25:14
Speaker 1: who would become his fourth and final wife. Through her
25:17
Speaker 1: love and dedication, she managed to slowly put George back
25:21
Speaker 1: towards the land of the living. He quit missing tour dates,
25:24
Speaker 1: he got his debts in order, he became more present
25:26
Speaker 1: in the lives of his children, and George Jones was
25:29
Speaker 1: finally able to give up drugs and drinking. George performed
25:34
Speaker 1: sober for the first time in decades in nineteen eighty four,
25:37
Speaker 1: fans were delighted to hear that his singing voice, once
25:40
Speaker 1: ravaged by cocaine, was coming back stronger and stronger with
25:44
Speaker 1: each new release, and with a run of hit singles
25:46
Speaker 1: like She's My Rock. George gave all the credit for
25:49
Speaker 1: his turnaround to Nancy. It was a happy ending that
25:53
Speaker 1: no one could have predicted just a few years earlier.
25:55
Speaker 1: George Jones was finally able to move on past Tammy Wynette,
26:00
Speaker 1: finally able to leave his demons behind for good. And
26:03
Speaker 1: that's how the story went in all the songs. But
26:06
Speaker 1: that's the thing about a song, it doesn't always tell
26:09
Speaker 1: the whole truth. George Jones weaved his Lexus SUV through
26:35
Speaker 1: a busy stretch of I sixty five in Nashville. He
26:38
Speaker 1: had his cell phone pressed to his ear as early
26:40
Speaker 1: mixes from his latest album blasted from the car speakers.
26:44
Speaker 1: It was just after one pm on March sixth, nineteen
26:47
Speaker 1: ninety nine. Over the sound of the music, George could
26:50
Speaker 1: hear a faint whisper. He glanced in the rear view mirror,
26:54
Speaker 1: but the back seat was empty. He changed lanes and
26:57
Speaker 1: passed the sedan. He looked back again and nearly jerked
27:00
Speaker 1: the wheel into a guard rail. When he saw a
27:02
Speaker 1: d doodle and the old man staring back at him,
27:06
Speaker 1: George shook his head and tried to focus on the road. Suddenly,
27:10
Speaker 1: a second d doodle was sitting across from him in
27:12
Speaker 1: the passenger seat. He yelled at George to pull onto
27:15
Speaker 1: the shoulder and pass the minivan in front of him,
27:18
Speaker 1: and then he reached under his seat and pulled out
27:20
Speaker 1: a half empty bottle of vodka and took a swig.
27:23
Speaker 1: George tried to ignore the voice he heard, but they
27:25
Speaker 1: yelling kept getting louder and louder. Finally, he slammed his
27:29
Speaker 1: foot on the gas and jumped onto the shoulder. As
27:32
Speaker 1: soon as he swerved to the left. He saw the
27:33
Speaker 1: traffic cones construction on the bridge ahead, but he was
27:37
Speaker 1: going too fast. He clicked two of them before swerving
27:40
Speaker 1: back to the right and nearly ramming into the van.
27:43
Speaker 1: He slammed on the brakes and pulled the wheel back
27:44
Speaker 1: to the left, and the heavy sport utility vehicle groaned
27:48
Speaker 1: and nearly tipped before slamming back to the ground. It
27:51
Speaker 1: spun around once and then slammed directly into a concrete pillar.
27:57
Speaker 1: George could hear d Doodle cackling. As the airbags ashed
28:00
Speaker 1: into his face. He felt the pain ripped through his side.
28:03
Speaker 1: He was pinned in the car, and he couldn't move,
28:06
Speaker 1: and it hurt to breathe, George wondered at this time
28:09
Speaker 1: he was finally dying for real. Stuck in his seat
28:13
Speaker 1: waiting for the ambulance to arrive, George could still see
28:16
Speaker 1: the half empty Voga bottle spinning around like a top
28:19
Speaker 1: before it came to rest on the floor under the
28:21
Speaker 1: passenger seat. After George and Nancy married in nineteen eighty three,
28:29
Speaker 1: George's demons disappeared. He quit drinking, except for the occasional
28:33
Speaker 1: beer or a glass of wine. That's the story, he
28:36
Speaker 1: told reporters or radio DJs when they asked, But the
28:40
Speaker 1: truth was, well, it was more complicated. With Nancy's help,
28:44
Speaker 1: George clearly became a more dependable performer in the nineteen
28:47
Speaker 1: eighties and nineties, judging from the improvement in his singing voice.
28:51
Speaker 1: He'd pulled back from cocaine. But George never fully left
28:55
Speaker 1: his demons behind. He just got better at hiding them.
29:00
Speaker 1: As he listened to the ambulance sirens approaching from the distance,
29:03
Speaker 1: George could feel himself hovering at the edge of unconsciousness.
29:07
Speaker 1: He wondered if his father felt this way when he
29:09
Speaker 1: passed on. The old man died thirty years ago. Later
29:13
Speaker 1: in life, he'd supposedly quit drinking too. He and George
29:17
Speaker 1: had patched up their fractured relationship the best they could.
29:20
Speaker 1: It was a happy ending, but George remembered a few
29:23
Speaker 1: days after his father's funeral in Texas, there were burning
29:27
Speaker 1: some brush to clear it from the farmland where his
29:29
Speaker 1: parents spent their final years. A few minutes after they
29:32
Speaker 1: set the fire, they were surprised by a series of
29:34
Speaker 1: explosions that rattled the windows inside the house. Apparently George's
29:39
Speaker 1: father had been stashing bottles of liquor out in the
29:42
Speaker 1: field so he could grab a quick drink, but back
29:46
Speaker 1: in the suv. It took two hours, but the paramedics
29:50
Speaker 1: eventually pulled George out. He'd suffered a punctured lung and
29:53
Speaker 1: a torn liver, and although his voice never returned to
29:56
Speaker 1: full strength, he was able to return to the stage
29:59
Speaker 1: in the studio within a year's time. The police found
30:02
Speaker 1: the half empty bottle of walk in the car, but
30:04
Speaker 1: they never charged him with any crime. Afterward, George Jones
30:10
Speaker 1: claimed that the crash was the wake up call he
30:12
Speaker 1: needed to go completely sober for the remainder of his life,
30:15
Speaker 1: and who knows, maybe that's exactly what he did. Regardless, though,
30:20
Speaker 1: it seems clear that just like his father, George Jones
30:23
Speaker 1: was haunted until the day he died. He found love,
30:27
Speaker 1: but he never found peace, no matter how many number
30:31
Speaker 1: one records he made, no matter how many concert tickets
30:34
Speaker 1: he sold, no matter how far he traveled from a
30:36
Speaker 1: living room in Beaumont, Texas, George Jones's demons kept whispering
30:40
Speaker 1: in his ear for the whole ride. And that's a disgrace.
30:46
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgrace.
30:49
Speaker 3: LFE all right, George Jones my favorite.
31:07
Speaker 1: Country singer of all time, Elvis Costello's favorite as well.
31:10
Speaker 1: Who's your favorite country singer? That's this week's question of
31:14
Speaker 1: the week. Who is your favorite country singer? And why
31:16
Speaker 1: do you love the sweet, sad sound of their voice
31:18
Speaker 1: so much? Let me know? Six one seven nine oh
31:20
Speaker 1: six six six three eight, Leave me a voicemail, send
31:23
Speaker 1: me a text, let me know. You can also reach
31:25
Speaker 1: me at Disgrace lampod as well on Instagram. X and Facebook.
31:29
Speaker 3: Leave a review for the.
31:30
Speaker 1: Show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and win some free merch.
31:32
Speaker 1: All right, here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created by
31:38
Speaker 1: Yours Truly. It is produced in partnership with Double Elvis,
31:41
Speaker 1: The Exactly Right Network, and iHeart Podcasts. Credits for this
31:46
Speaker 1: episode can be found on the show notes page at
31:48
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31:52
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32:16
Speaker 3: Rock a robot, He's the bed Don Man.