See also George Jones (disambiguation) for other people with similar names.
George Glenn Jones (born September 12, 1931), nicknamed The Possum, is an American country singer known for his distinctive voice and phrasing that frequently evoke the raw emotions caused by grief, unhappy love, and emotional hardship. He has had more individual songs than any other singer on the country charts but, according to a formula derived by Joel Whitburn, is second to Eddy Arnold in his overall ranking for hits and their time on the charts. Since at least the early 1980s he has frequently been referred to as "the greatest living country singer." Almost as often he is called "the Rolls-Royce of country singers." Frank Sinatra once called him "the second best white male singer."
Jones was born with a broken arm in Saratoga, Texas and grew up in the settlements north of Beaumont around the Big Thicket. By age 24, he had been married twice, served in the Marines, and developed his skills as a country musician and singer. "Why Baby Why" was his first top-five hit in 1955.
Jones' drinking was legendary and for a great part of his life he woke up to a Bloody Mary and spent the rest of the day drinking bourbon. In the mid 1970s he added cocaine to whiskey. His self-destructive bent brought him close to death and from the height of fame in the '70s to the inside of a mental hospital in Alabama at the end of the decade. During this period, he missed so many booked engagements that he was known as "No-Show" Jones.
His third wife, Tammy Wynette, was the passion of his life. The pair were married in 1969 and performed a string of duets together but Tammy could not keep him off the booze and after a turbulent relationship the couple divorced in 1975. It was his fourth (and present) wife, Nancy Sepulvado, whom Jones credits for rescuing him from the bottle. The pair were married in 1983 in Ringgold, Georgia, and they live outside the town of Franklin, Tennessee.