George Jones
"He Stopped Loving Her Today" stands as the notable work most directly associated with George Jones, a country singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose career earned him recognition from several of the most significant cultural institutions in the United States.
Born on September 12, 1931, in Saratoga, Jones worked throughout his life as a country musician and recording artist, writing and performing in the English language. His profession placed him within the country music genre, where he operated as both a singer and a songwriter, contributing to a body of recorded work that drew sustained institutional attention over the course of his career.
That attention resulted in formal honors from multiple bodies. Jones received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, an acknowledgment of his contributions as a recording artist. He also received the Kennedy Center Honors, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts. These three distinctions, taken together, represent a range of formal recognition that crossed the boundaries of the recording industry and the federal government's own cultural programs.
Jones died on April 26, 2013, in Nashville. The National Medal of Arts, among the honors he received during his lifetime, stands as one concrete measure by which his work as a country singer and songwriter was formally acknowledged.
Quotes by George Jones
George Jones's insights on:
After the first couple of years recording, I did a lot of praying. I said, 'Lord, please give me a hit.' I want one so bad.
There's nothing prettier in the world than a melody. I can get lost in a song with a melody. A lot of times I have, and the song wasn't that good, but I would get lost in that melody, and I'd want to do the song.
A new artist today has to get their teeth fixed, has to tighten their jeans up, and they have to get ’em the right kind of hat, and if anything’s wrong with their nose, if it’s a little crooked, it’s got to be straightened up.
After the first couple of years recording I did a lot of praying. I said, ‘Lord, please give me a hit.’ I want one so bad.
I’ve always said that if I could have made a living someway in gospel music, I would have loved to had that break, but it never was offered to me, a job in that field, so naturally, I got lost on that other road.
Anybody who loves country music loves gospel. Even they are competing with the same type of problem that I’m competing with. We older artists are competing with the new style of country, with their new modern style of gospel, with the young people.
Everybody knows in the business how I feel about country music. I’m an old traditionalist. Then they just call me an old man and stuck in my old ways, but with all the fans I’ve got out there, I can’t be all that wrong. I do love traditional country music. I love the good stuff.
There’s nothing prettier in the world than a melody. I can get lost in a song with a melody.
Me and the bottle have always been friends, we’ve had a few old nasty fights but the bottle would always win, so when I go to answer that final curtain call, I can hear these words being whispered by all... Ol’ George stopped drinking today.
Different people have their ways of measuring success, maybe it’s not the right way but wrong’s what I do best.