The Possum
I can't think of many rock legends that are as rock and roll as George Jones. Not that you'd know it on first listen to his music: a smooth, sensitive balladeer washed in the Nashville sound, singing songs about love gone wrong. But listen a little bit closer and you'll hear the heartbreak, the pure sadness in the voice, the I'm-trying-to-kill-my-sorrows-in-this-bottle-of-whiskey desperation, because nobody feels it like George Jones, or at least sounds like he feels it. If you can listen to He Stopped Loving Her Today, a song that appears to be about a jilted lover but slowly reveals itself as a song about death, and not be moved then Hank Williams said it best, you have a cold, cold heart. There's a reason Gram Parsons and Keith Richards worshipped Jones and Elliott Smith once described his idea of heaven as a place where "George Jones is played all the time".
Jones' life has been as eventful and full of heartbreak as any of his songs. Married four times, including a tumultuous marriage to fellow country superstar Tammy Wynette, by the early 80s his addictions to drugs and booze had almost led to his ruin. You all know the stories: riding lawnmowers to get to the local bar when Tammy hid the keys to all his cars; earning the nickname of No Show Jones due to his failure to turn up to his own gigs and on a rare occasion when he did show up proceeding to treat the audience to a rendition of one of his songs in the voice of Daffy Duck; arrested numerous times, he even spent a stint in a psychiatric hospital and, despite once being one of the most popular country singers in the world, found himself broke and rescued from financial ruin by his friends Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. Thankfully his fourth wife Nancy helped him to clean up and now, aged 78, he still regularly performs (although annoyingly he hasn't been to the UK since the mid 90s).
Which brings us to the point of this post: I've always thought his incredible life story would make for a fantastic movie and apparently at long last it's in the works. George's wife Nancy told The Boot that plans were afoot to make a movie. Nancy suggests Johnny Depp to play George (I think he's maybe a little too pretty for the part). "Wynonna's sister, Ashley Judd, she could play me," she adds more plausibly. George himself suggests country singer Lee Ann Womack to play Tammy. Folks on George's messageboard seem to want Jim Carrey because they think he resembles a young Jones. Whoever they get I just hope the filmmakers get it right, because if done right a George Jones biopic could be up there with Coal Miner's Daughter and Walk The Line. I also hope they feature this awesome green suit in the movie somewhere. It doesn't get much cooler than this:
Jones' life has been as eventful and full of heartbreak as any of his songs. Married four times, including a tumultuous marriage to fellow country superstar Tammy Wynette, by the early 80s his addictions to drugs and booze had almost led to his ruin. You all know the stories: riding lawnmowers to get to the local bar when Tammy hid the keys to all his cars; earning the nickname of No Show Jones due to his failure to turn up to his own gigs and on a rare occasion when he did show up proceeding to treat the audience to a rendition of one of his songs in the voice of Daffy Duck; arrested numerous times, he even spent a stint in a psychiatric hospital and, despite once being one of the most popular country singers in the world, found himself broke and rescued from financial ruin by his friends Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. Thankfully his fourth wife Nancy helped him to clean up and now, aged 78, he still regularly performs (although annoyingly he hasn't been to the UK since the mid 90s).Which brings us to the point of this post: I've always thought his incredible life story would make for a fantastic movie and apparently at long last it's in the works. George's wife Nancy told The Boot that plans were afoot to make a movie. Nancy suggests Johnny Depp to play George (I think he's maybe a little too pretty for the part). "Wynonna's sister, Ashley Judd, she could play me," she adds more plausibly. George himself suggests country singer Lee Ann Womack to play Tammy. Folks on George's messageboard seem to want Jim Carrey because they think he resembles a young Jones. Whoever they get I just hope the filmmakers get it right, because if done right a George Jones biopic could be up there with Coal Miner's Daughter and Walk The Line. I also hope they feature this awesome green suit in the movie somewhere. It doesn't get much cooler than this:
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