“THE JONES’ BOY” – By Des Kelly

Hot on the heels of Ray Price, is another confirmed favourite of mine, incidentally, the favourite of millions of Country Music Fans, throughout this planet, the name of George Jones stands out like a beacon, and yet, there was not “much” of this Music Legend, nicknamed “the possum” for this very reason. A “little guy”, huge “rebel” & “Super-Star”, served in the American Marines, making it obvious to those around him, that here was another “classic Country Star, in the making, and proving, beyond doubt that this was the case indeed.

In an Era when there were so many Country Music Geniuses to contend with, it must have been something of a nightmare to try to figure out which songs to record, in order to have a “hit”in the business known as “Country”. American Country Music has always been noted for being far ahead of all others, not because it is BETTER, but simply because it is “better-presented”, has far more ” followers”, perhaps, because, even TODAY, they have more Radio-Stations, State-wide that “play Country-Music 24/7.

At the same time, when “Stars” of the calibre of Gene Watson, another of my top-favourites, was struggling to reach the top rungs of the “Country-ladder” of fame (he was 70 years old, singing like an angel, with the devil on his back), one does tend to wonder what it is all about.

Back to George Jones. He proved that it didn’t matter what size you were, it didn’t matter that you loved your liquor with a vengeance, it didn’t matter how many times you got married (& he was an absolute “sucker for punishment”, God bless him, George Jones went on to prove that, when he died at 82, EVERYONE knew that George Jones, Country Music Star, had passed-on. No more, would the “Possum” have to “ride” on his motorised lawn-mower, into Town, to buy his “drinks”, after the wife, at the time,(2nd time), had to hide the keys of his famous “Corvette”to try and stop George from getting to the liquor store.

Tammy Wynette tried and failed, other wives tried & failed, but the JONES’ BOY always did what he wanted to do, and that was that!.

Here he is, Ladies & Gentlemen, the “Possum” George Jones