Country music superstar George Jones, who was to appear in concert at the Fox Theatre this spring, has died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville at age 81.
He’d been hospitalized April 18 with a fever and irregular blood pressure, moving his April 19 date at the Fox to May 10. Tickets for the Fox show will be refunded. Customers who bought tickets online or by phone will receive a refund to the credit card used within five to 10 business days. Tickets purchased at the Fox box office or Fox Theatre outlets must be presented at the box office with ID and the credit card used to buy the tickets. The box office, at 660 Peachtree St. N.E., is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.
Jones was a legendary figure in country music, known as much for his drinking and drugging as his ballads and honky-tonk hits. He may be best known for the songs “She Thinks I Still Care” (1962) and “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (1980), a heartbreaking Grammy Award-winning ballad about unrequited love.
Jones’ career spanned five decades, beginning in 1956, when he was named the “most promising new country vocalist.” He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame, a Kennedy Center honoree in 2008 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award winner in 2012. He recorded solo and duetted with Tammy Wynette (his third of four wives), Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck, Linda Ronstadt, Keith Richards and Gene Pitney, among others.
Hits include “Why Baby Why,” “Things Have Gone to Pieces,” “We Can Make It,” “Loving You Can Never Be Better,” “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes” and “Still Doing Time,” among dozens of honors.
Jones, who was married four times, most famously to Wynette, was born and raised in Texas.
“With other country singers, it’s almost about what they hold back,” country music historian Bob Allen once said. “With Jones, it’s almost a cry for help, pure emotion. He could bring a palpable anguish to a song.”
