Born in Texas, Jones first heard country music when he was seven, and was given a guitar at the age of nine. He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. In 1959, Jones recorded "White Lightning", written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones". After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999. Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure.
George Jones has been called "The Rolls Royce Of Country Music" and had more than 160 chart singles to his name from 1955 until his death in 2013. Johnny Cash once said, "When people ask me who my favorite country singer is, I say, 'You mean besides George Jones?'"
Jones tirelessly defended the integrity of country music, telling Billboard in 2006, "It's never been for love of money. I thank God for it because it makes me a living. But I sing because I love it, not because of the dollar signs." Jones also went out of his way to promote younger country singers that he felt were as passionate about the music as he was. "Everybody knows he's a great singer," Alan Jackson stated in 1995, "but what I like most about George is that when you meet him, he is like some old guy that works down at the gas station...even though he's a legend!"
Shortly after Jones' death, Andrew Mueller wrote about his influence in Uncut, "He was one of the finest interpretive singers who ever lifted a microphone...There cannot be a single country songwriter of the last 50-odd years who has not wondered what it might be like to hear their words sung by that voice." In an article for The Texas Monthly in 1994, Nick Tosches eloquently described the singer's vocal style: "While he and his idol, Hank Williams, have both affected generations with a plaintive veracity of voice that has set them apart, Jones has an additional gift—a voice of exceptional range, natural elegance, and lucent tone. Gliding toward high tenor, plunging toward deep bass, the magisterial portamento of his onward-coursing baritone emits white-hot sparks and torrents of blue, investing his poison love songs with a tragic gravity and inflaming his celebrations of the honky-tonk ethos with the hellfire of abandon." In the New Republic essay "Why George Jones ranks with Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday," David Hajdu writes:
"Jones had a handsome and strange voice. His singing was always partly about the appeal of the tones he produced, regardless of the meaning of the words. In this sense, Jones had something in common with singers of formal music and opera, though his means of vocal production were radically different from theirs. He sang from the back of his throat, rather than from deep in his diaphragm. He tightened his larynx to squeeze sound out. He clenched his jaw, instead of wriggling it free. He forced wind through his teeth, and the notes sounded weirdly beautiful."
David Cantwell recalled in 2013, "His approach to singing, he told me once, was to call up those memories and feelings of his own that most closely corresponded to those being felt by the character in whatever song he was performing. He was a kind of singing method actor, creating an illusion of the real." In the liner notes to Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country Rich Kienzle states, "Jones sings of people and stories that are achingly human. He can turn a ballad into a catharsis by wringing every possible emotion from it, making it a primal, strangled cry of anguish". In 1994, country music historian Colin Escott pronounced, "Contemporary country music is virtually founded on reverence for George Jones. Walk through a room of country singers and conduct a quick poll, George nearly always tops it." In the wake of Jones's death, Merle Haggard pronounced in Rolling Stone, "His voice was like a Stradivarius violin: one of the greatest instruments ever made." Emmylou Harris wrote, "when you hear George Jones sing, you are hearing a man who takes a song and makes it a work of art - always," a quote that appeared on the sleeve of Jones' 1976 album The Battle. In the documentary Same Ole Me, several country music stars offer similar thoughts. Randy Travis: "It sounds like he's lived every minute of every word that he sings and there's very few people who can do that"; Tom T. Hall: "It was always Jones who got the message across just right"; and Roy Acuff: "I'd give anything if I could sing like George Jones". In the same film, producer Billy Sherrill states, "All I did was change the instrumentation around him. I don't think he's changed at all."
On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed George Jones among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
Half as Much
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You wouldn't worry me half as much as you do
You're nice to me when there's no one else around
You only build me up to let me down
If you missed me half as much as I missed you
You wouldn't stay away half as much as you do
I know that I would never be this blue
If you loved me half as much as I loved you
You wouldn't worry me half as much as you do
You're nice to me when there's no one else around
You only build me up to let me down
If you missed me half as much as I missed you
You wouldn't stay away half as much as you do
I know that I would never be this blue
If you only loved me half as much as I loved you
In George Jones's "Half as Much," the singer is lamenting that his significant other doesn't seem to love him as much as he loves her. He's saying that if she loved him even half as much as he loves her, she wouldn't worry him or let him down. He goes on to say that if she missed him half as much as he missed her, she wouldn't stay away so much, and he wouldn't be so sad.
The song is full of emotion and heartache, as the singer is clearly devoted to his love interest but feels unappreciated and neglected. He's essentially saying that he's willing to put in twice as much effort and emotion as she is, but he can't be happy in the relationship if the love isn't mutual.
The lyrics are simple but effective, conveying a message that many people can relate to - the feeling of giving your all to someone who doesn't seem to care as much as you do.
Line by Line Meaning
If you loved me half as much as I loved you
The singer desires their significant other to reciprocate their love equally.
You wouldn't worry me half as much as you do
The singer is concerned that their significant other's lack of reciprocated love causes unnecessary worry for their relationship.
You're nice to me when there's no one else around
The singer feels that their significant other is only affectionate when no one else is present.
You only build me up to let me down
The artist believes their significant other only shows affection to ultimately disappoint them.
If you missed me half as much as I missed you
The artist misses their significant other greatly and desires the same level of longing in return.
You wouldn't stay away half as much as you do
The singer is frustrated with their significant other's absence and wishes they would spend more time together.
I know that I would never be this blue
The singer acknowledges that their significant other's lack of reciprocation contributes to their emotional distress.
If you only loved me half as much as I loved you
The artist wishes for their significant other to love them with the same intensity that they feel.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: WOUT VAN DESSEL, REGINALD PAUL STEFAN PENXTEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind