"If we all sounded like we wanted to, we'd all sound like George Jones" This line from Waylon Jennings is a fair epitaph for George Jones, the American folk legend that people often called the Rolls of country music. At the start of his career, his voice was deeply rooted in the tradition of honky-tonkers like Hank Williams, but as the years went by it became more the voice of a crooner, and Jones would excel in ballads to break the hearts of Yankee housewives and their macho husbands. Hits that never left the top of the country charts in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s; domestic upsets with his colleague and ex-wife Tammy Wynette from 1969 to 1975; tabloid headlines about his struggles with drink and cocaine, his run-ins with the law or just his classically rock'n'roll behaviour, George Jones, with his autobiographical lyrics, for two or three minutes at a time, had no peer in the art of song. Nicknamed No Show Jones (for his many last-minute cancellations of concerts), but also the Possum (for his possum features), he was an American folk icon, and an artist venerated by the greats, from Bob Dylan to Frank Sinatra, not to mention Elvis Costello or Pete Townshend...
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