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.
The King Is Gone
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
On a Jim Beam decanter that looks like Elvis
I soaked the label off a Flintstone Jelly Bean jar
I cleared us off a place on that one little table
That you left us
And pulled me up a big ole piece of floor
I pulled the head off Elvis
Yabba-Dabba-Doo, the King is gone
And so are you
'Round about ten we all got to talking
'Bout Graceland, Bedrock and such
The conversation finally turned to women
But they said they didn't get around too much
Elvis said, "find 'em young" and Fred said "old-fashioned girls are fun"
Yabba-Dabba-Doo, the King is gone
And so are you
Later on it finally hit me
That you wouldn't be a-comin' home no more
'Cause this time I know you won't forgive me
Like all of them other times before
Then I broke Elvis' nose
Pouring the last drop from his toes
Yabba-Dabba-Doo, the King is gone
And so are you
Yabba-Dabba-Doo, the King is gone
And so are you
Last night, I broke the seal on a Jim Beam decanter
That looks like Elvis
I soaked the label off a Flintstone Jelly Bean jar
In George Jones's song, The King Is Gone, the singer reminisces on a night where he drank heavily and engaged in conversation with two inanimate objects, a Jim Beam decanter that looks like Elvis and a Flintstone Jelly Bean jar. He and his companion drank from the decanter and the jar, eventually emptying them both, and as they do, Elvis and Fred Flintstone come to life in their intoxicated state. They reminisce about Elvis's legacy and the Bedrock community, and as the conversation takes a turn towards women, Elvis advises to "find 'em young" while Fred suggests that "old-fashioned girls are fun". As the night goes on and the alcohol takes an even greater hold, the singer realizes that his partner will not return home again, and in his drunken state, he breaks Elvis's nose while pouring out the last bit of alcohol.
The song is a metaphor for the loss of two Kings, Elvis Presley and George Jones’s own life partner, Tammy Wynette, and how the singer is coping with them both being gone. The mention of Flintstone Jelly Bean jars could represent the character's attempts to grasp onto his childhood memories in the face of adulthood and the inevitability of loss. Drinking from Elvis's decanter could symbolize seeking comfort in the memory of a beloved figure. The song is an expression of Jones's grief and his way of coping with the pain.
Line by Line Meaning
Last night, I broke the seal
Last night, I opened a bottle of Jim Beam whiskey
On a Jim Beam decanter that looks like Elvis
The bottle was shaped like Elvis Presley
I soaked the label off a Flintstone Jelly Bean jar
I removed the label from a container that used to hold Flintstones jelly beans
I cleared us off a place on that one little table
I made room for myself and my thoughts at a table you left behind
That you left us
You are gone and we are left with your memories
And pulled me up a big ole piece of floor
I sat down on the floor alone, feeling sad and empty
I pulled the head off Elvis
I opened the bottle of whiskey shaped like Elvis and drank from it
Filled Fred up to his pelvis
I also drank another drink to fill myself up
Yabba-Dabba-Doo, the King is gone
Elvis Presley, also known as the King of Rock and Roll, has passed away
And so are you
And you are gone too, in a different way
'Round about ten we all got to talking
We started talking around 10 pm
'Bout Graceland, Bedrock and such
We talked about places like Graceland (Elvis' home) and Bedrock (the Flintstones' hometown)
The conversation finally turned to women
Eventually, we began talking about women
But they said they didn't get around too much
But my friends said they weren't too experienced with women
Elvis said, 'find 'em young' and Fred said 'old-fashioned girls are fun'
Elvis and Fred had different opinions on what type of women they preferred
Later on it finally hit me
Later on, I finally realized what your absence meant
That you wouldn't be a-comin' home no more
That you were never coming back home again
'Cause this time I know you won't forgive me
I knew that this time you wouldn't forgive me for what I had done
Like all of them other times before
Because you had already forgiven me for my mistakes in the past
Then I broke Elvis' nose
I finished off the whiskey, pouring the last drops out of the bottle
Pouring the last drop from his toes
I even turned the bottle upside down to make sure I got every last drop
Yabba-Dabba-Doo, the King is gone
Once again, I acknowledge that Elvis is no longer with us
And so are you
And neither are you, my love
Yabba-Dabba-Doo, the King is gone
A repeated acknowledgement of Elvis' passing
And so are you
A repeated acknowledgement of your passing as well
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Roger Ferris
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Andrew Hampson
George's voice is like the perfect whiskey buzz.
S Riddle
Or smooth as Tennessee Whiskey
j j 2021
@S Riddle think I will look up Tennessee whiskey song now ty sir !
jawja100
This song came out the week I left my 30 yr. marriage. I had a good laugh at the situation. At last, we had a song we could call "our song". Thank you George for all the years of entertainment. Your songs will live on. RIP
MSB
Love that story. Taking ownership you are.
TheRageBadger
And that's what country music is for, life.
James Roberts
"then I broke Elvis's nose pourin' the last drop from his toes" Greatest line ever sung.
Michael Stine
What a well written country song! The singer wasn't to shabby neither!😉
Chirality Raven
My dad requested this at his memorial service. I laugh and cry everytime I hear it. RIP Dad.
Darrell Somers
I'm sorry for your loss ,he had great taste in music