It may be dependent on who you talk to but ask anybody with half a lick of sense about country music, and they’ll tell you that George Jones belongs on the Mount Rushmore of country music. Just an all-time country music legend.
And approaching 11 years ago this spring, country music icon George Jones took the stage for the final time.
A career that spanned nearly 60 years, and produced some of country music’s most memorable hits like “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” “White Lightning,” “Tennessee Whiskey” and more, George wanted to die on stage… and he nearly did.
At 80 years old, fresh off a vicious respiratory infection, George announced his farewell tour knowing full well that he probably wouldn’t make it to the end of it. Dubbed The Grand Tour, the 60-city tour was supposed to culminate in a big farewell performance at Nashville’s Bridgestone Area.
In an old interview with The Tennessean , George’s wife Nancy said begged him to come off the road and stop performing, but he wouldn’t.