Superstar country singer, George Glenn Jones, born September 12, 1931, in Saratoga, Texas, 
is known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice, and his bad behavior.

Throughout his long career, Jones made headlines often as much for the tales of his 
drinking, stormy relationships with women, and violent rages, as for his prolific 
career of making records and touring. Jones had more than 150 hits during his career, 
both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists.

Early life:
Jones, raised in Vidor, Texas, along with his brother and five sisters (another sister 
died young before George was born), was exposed to music from an early age through his 
parents record collection and from listening to the gospel music he heard in church. 

When George was seven the Jones family bought a radio which introduced George to the 
country music that would become his life. When he was nine, his father bought him his first 
guitar. Soon, his father had Jones playing and singing on the streets and earning spare 
change. At 16, he ran away to Jasper, TX, where he sang at a local radio station. 

Marriages:
In 1950, before he was out of his teens he married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, 
but their union didn't even last a full year. They had one daughter, Susan. 

After divorcing Dorothy, Jones joined the Marines. Despite the Korean War being 
fought at the time Jones was not sent overseas, instead, he was stationed in California 
where he managed to get away from the base often enough to sing in some of the local 
bars. After leaving the Marine Corps he began pursuing his music career in earnest 
but still had time for the ladies.

In 1954, Jones married Shirley Ann Corley. This marriage lasted until 1968 
and they had two sons, Jeffrey and Bryan. 

He next married fellow country musician, Tammy Wynette, in 1969. They were married 
until 1975, and had one daughter, Tamala Georgette. Georgette Jones, now a published 
country singer in her own right, has performed on stage with her famous father. 

He married his current wife, Nancy Sepulveda, on March 4, 1983, in Woodville, Texas. 
Sepulveda also became his manager and Jones credits Nancy for rescuing him from 
his alcohol and drug abuse. The couple currently live in Franklin, TN.

Substance abuse:
Jones' alcohol consumption was legendary. For a great part of his life he woke up 
to a screwdriver and spent the rest of the day drinking bourbon. He became notorious 
for his intoxicated rampages, often involving both drugs and shotguns. Jones 
would disappear for days at a time. 

Perhaps one of the best known stories of Jones' drinking days occurred while 
he was married to Shirley Corley, his second wife. Jones resorted to some 
desperate measures to get his booze. As he tells it, "Once, when I had been 
drunk for several days, Shirley decided she would make it physically impossible 
for me to buy liquor. We lived about eight miles from the nearest liquor store 
and she knew I wouldn't walk that far to get booze, so she hid the keys to every 
car we owned. But she forgot about the lawn mower. I can vaguely remember my 
anger at not being able to find keys to anything that moved and while I was 
looking out a window... There, gleaming in the glow, was that ten-horsepower 
rotary engine under a seat. A key glistening in the ignition. I imagine the 
top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken 
an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did."

The riding mower doesn't seem to be a one-time event either. Wife Tammy Wynette, 
told her riding mower story in her 1979 autobiography, Stand by Your Man : 
"... one night, about 1:00 a.m., I woke up and looked over to find George 
was gone. I got into the car and drove to the nearest bar... Shen I pulled into 
the parking lot there sat our rider-mower right by the entrance. He'd driven 
that mower right down a main highway. He looked up and saw me and said, 
'Well, fellas, here she is now. My little wife, I told you she'd come after me.'"

Later, Jones jokingly sang of the lawn mower incident in his 1996 single, 
"Honky Tonk Song," and parodied his own arrest in the song's music video. 

In the 1970s, Jones was introduced to cocaine by a manager before a show in 
which he was too tired to perform. This, along with his self-destructive 
behavior, brought him close to death and to the inside of a psychiatric hospital 
in Alabama at the end of the decade. By the of the decade he was so broke that 
friends Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash often came to his aid financially.

Although somewhat celebrated by some of his fans as the hard-drinkin', fast-livin' 
 bon vivant, in 1979 alone, Jones reportedly missed over 50 booked performance 
engagements, which caused him to be known by the nickname, "No-Show Jones."

In 1982, Jones co-wrote a tongue-in-cheek song by the same name. 1 A good-natured, 
self-deprecating song about his reputation for missing his gigs. It's hilarious 
and sad at the same time, referencing all the country legends with their talents 
and reputations. He has recorded the song both on his own, and as a duet, with, 
most notably, Merle Haggard, Vince Gill and Alan Jackson. 1 

Poking fun at his past, two country music videos feature Jones arriving on a 
riding lawn mower. The first was Hank Williams, Jr's 1984, "All My Rowdy 
Friends Are Coming Over Tonight," while the second was Vince Gill's 1993, 
"One More Last Chance." In fact, Gill's song mentioned the riding lawn mower 
with the lines "She might have took my car keys, but she forgot about my old 
John Deere." At the end of Gill's video, Gill is leaving the golf course on 
a John Deere tractor and greets Jones with "hey possum." Jones, arriving at 
the golf course driving a John Deere riding lawn mower with a set of golf 
clubs mounted behind him, would reply back to Gill "Hey sweetpea."

Recent life:
Jones lives in Franklin, Tennessee with his wife, Nancy , and despite being 
in his seventies, Jones is still an active recording artist and still tours 
extensively on the North American continent as well as overseas. His other 
projects include the George Jones "University" which is a twice-yearly training 
program for those wishing to learn about a career in the music business. 

Jones also endorses his own brand of sausages which are produced for him by 
the Williams Sausage Company of Tennessee, using Jones's own recipe. The 
product boxes feature stories from Jones's colorful life. In a another food-related 
business, he markets a line of barbecue sauces. And if those activities don't keep 
him busy enough, Jones and wife Nancy run a diner near their home, which is 
decorated with memorabilia from Jones's long career in the country music business.

Jones is also a partner in Bandit Records, an independent record company set 
up by Jones and his partners, other country music personae. Bandit Records' philosophy 
is to "create unique, interesting projects with artistic integrity that can operate 
free from the constraints of the corporate music industry."

In 2006, he was treated in a Nashville, Tennessee hospital for pneumonia but 
made a full recovery and continued with his prolific touring schedule.

In August 2008 Jones was named Artist of the Month by Great American 
Country, which produces TV shows, newsletters and concerts featuring country 
music entertainers. 

On December 7, 2008, he was one of the annual recipients of the prestigious 
 Kennedy Center Honors, along with vocalist Barbra Streisand, choreographer 
Twyla Tharp, actor Morgan Freeman, and musicians Pete Townshend and Roger 
Daltrey from the British rock band, The Who. The gala, hosted by President 
Bush and Mrs. Bush, and taped in Washington, D.C., was aired on CBS 
television December 30, 2008.

In 2009, he was a judge for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards to 
support independent artists and he appeared on the Mike Huckabee show 
to talk about his life and share a few of his hits.

Also in 2009, artist Wayne White created an installation at the Rice 
University Art Gallery devoted to Jones. It featured "a giant puppet head 
like an overturned whiskey bottle that lies in a stupor, with bloodshot eyes 
popping open with faintly audible creaking sounds as if the figure (based on 
Jones) was having a recurring nightmare every fifteen seconds."

Number one country hits:
* "White Lightning" (1959)
* "Tender Years" (1961)
* "She Thinks I Still Care" (1962)
* "Walk Through This World With Me" (1967)
* "We're Gonna Hold On" (with Tammy Wynette) (1973)
* "The Grand Tour" (1974)
* "The Door" (1975)
* "Golden Ring" (with Tammy Wynette) (1976)
* "Near You" (with Tammy Wynette) (1977)
* "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (1980)
* "(I Was Country) When Country Wasn't Cool" (with Barbara Mandrell) (1981)
* "Still Doin' Time" (1981)
* "Yesterday's Wine" (with Merle Haggard) (1982)
* "I Always Get Lucky With You" (1983)
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 1 You can see the lyrics to "No-Show Jones" by George Jones & Alan Jackson 
on mp3lyrics.org at:
http://www.mp3lyrics.org/g/george-jones/no-show-jones/