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.
I AM
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There's been times I've been walkin' tall
I have loved and I have lost
I have lived and I've paid the cost
I guess the good Lord made me a man
And I am.
I have dreams and I have soul
I've seen heaven and I've known hell
I've been told things that I never tell
Yeah, the good Lord made me a man
And I am.
This old world keeps on turnin'
And I have no regrets
Every night I know I got a good hand to hold
When I lay down my head.
I'll keep on till I die
I'll just do it and never ask why
See the good Lord made me a man
And I am.
Yes, the good Lord made me a man
And I am...
The lyrics to George Jones's song, "I Am," reflect on his life experiences and the realization that his identity as a man is shaped by both the good and the bad times he's had. The first verse reveals that he has gone through both good and bad years, and has been both successful and unsuccessful in his life. He has loved and lost, and understands that life comes with a cost. Regardless, he sees himself as a man because of it all. The second verse speaks to his inner self; he has dreams, a soul, and has been blessed more than anyone he knows. Even though he has seen both good and bad, he acknowledges that these experiences have made him who he is, and he wouldn't be changing them. The final verse goes into the metaphysical - he sees the world as always turning, and he has no regrets about his life, regardless of how it has played out. He knows he has someone to love and hold, and he will keep living his life and never question why. To him, he is a man because he has lived through it all.
This song is a reminder that our life experiences, whether happy or not, shape us into who we are. The good, the bad, and the ugly are necessary to make us who we are, and as we look back at our life and see how we’ve managed to overcome the obstacles, we recognize the value of each and every experience. Although we cannot change the past, we can learn from our experiences and build a stronger future. George Jones uses his past experiences and growth as a way to show that life is not always perfect, but the choice to keep going is what defines us as men and women.
Line by Line Meaning
There's been good years and there's been walls
I have experienced times of prosperity and times of hardship.
There's been times I've been walkin' tall
I have had confidence and felt successful.
I have loved and I have lost
I have experienced both joy and pain in relationships.
I have lived and I've paid the cost
I have experienced the consequences of my choices and actions.
I guess the good Lord made me a man
I am grateful for my existence and identity as a human.
And I am.
This is who I am, and I accept it.
I have dreams and I have soul
I have aspirations and depth of character.
I've been blessed like no one I know
I have been fortunate in ways that are unique to me.
I've seen heaven and I've known hell
I have experienced both good and bad in life.
I've been told things that I never tell
I have been entrusted with secrets that I will not disclose.
Yeah, the good Lord made me a man
I attribute my existence and identity to a higher power.
And I am.
I accept and embrace my identity as a man.
This old world keeps on turnin'
Life continues to move forward, regardless of my experiences.
And I have no regrets
I have no major feelings of remorse about my life choices.
Every night I know I got a good hand to hold
I have someone special to share my life with.
When I lay down my head.
I find comfort and rest at the end of each day.
I'll keep on till I die
I will continue to live my life to the fullest, until the end.
I'll just do it and never ask why
I will follow my instincts and make decisions without dwelling on their justification.
See the good Lord made me a man
My essence and identity as a man are divinely ordained.
And I am.
I embrace my identity as a man, without reservation.
Yes, the good Lord made me a man
I attribute my existence and identity to a higher power.
And I am...
This is who I am, and I accept it.
Contributed by Ian J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Charlotte Wadkins
Always loved this song- a fitting tribute for him- RIP- Fly Easy George....
Derran Raymond
G.O.A.T OF COUNTRY MUSIC...SIMPLY THE BEST.... HIS MUSIC JUST NEVER GETS OLD
Dorothy Fox
Just 💕 the music by the possum it will live on 🇦🇺❤️✝️
Born Again
So true. I’ve never heard another artist pour their soul into a song the way George did.
vestalgoodman101
By Far, George Jones is the everlasting king of country music and the lifelong queen will always be Dolly Parton. Thank God for both of these wonderful and amazing performers
Shelbie Baumann
What can we say jones listed as one of three best singers in US history
Rodney Newbury's Newfoundland Adventures!
how in the hell can you get any better than this?
bleSSed rose
WoW... i thank the Lord for makin' George the man he is... he's lived so much of his songs n lives to tell it all... thanx for this awesome post my friend!! luv it soooo much!
Rosetta Mccorkle
I love George Jones.
madd871
George Jones is king country legend nobody reach his level music