Great book about George Jones "Playin' Possum My Memories of George Jones is out!

Wow! Nancy Jones, George Jones widow, has written a great book about her life with George Jones. Thought you knew everything about George? Wrong here is the truth! Bob visits with Mrs. Jones in this interview

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's Bob Picketa. You know thatI am a big George Jones fan.
Right, Well, there's a brandnew book. It's called Plain Possum,
My Memories of George Jones, writtenby Nancy Jones, George's widow, and
also Ken Abraham. I finished thebook last night. Totally fascinating book.
You guys have put a lot intothis book and it's very something to be
proud of because it's exactly what wewant to see to remember the legacy of

(00:24):
George Jones. Thank you, Bob, Thank you. Nancy wanted to tell
the truth and she sure did.My golly, I'm gonna tell you.
I'm glad somebody did because I gota little upset watching the TV show last
year, which I was just tome was just trash and that's my I'm
saying that. You guys aren't sayingthat so you can't get in trouble,
Okay, you're right, Yeah,well I can say, well, according

(00:46):
to the book, missus Jones,you you let people know exactly what is
on your mind. I tried,Well, that's you just call it like
you see, and that's what Ilove about you, right there. I
guess right, you know the firsttime I met mister Jones was nineteen eighty
four, and then a good friendof mine, Sammy All, read every

(01:07):
time mister Jones would come to town. You know, he would appear at
the station a couple of times.But I never saw the bad side of
George Jones. And of course I'dbeen in love with his voice since I
got involved in country radio nineteen seventyseven. But really, after reading the
book, man, can I callyou Nancy? You sure a game?

(01:30):
Okay? After reading the book,I believe that you were sent here by
God to bring mister Jones over andto redeem him, and you really did
save his life. Well, Ibelieve that God bought me to save his
life, and that's what the bookis about. You know, I died
from COVID and I was in thehospital of sae You for months and months

(01:53):
and at time to really think aboutwhat was going on and things I wanted
to set great about George and thetruth, and even if it hurt,
I had to tell the truth,and I did not sugarcoat anything. I
wanted the truths out there so thatpeople to know what I went through,
what George went through, and howGod helped us both fight those demons.

(02:16):
Well, it sounds like pure hellwith some of the instances that you talked
about in the book Pure hell.Why did you answer this to the book?
But I want you to our listenerswhy you stayed? Why did you
stay with him? Why didn't youleave? Most people would have left.
That's right, Well, that isa good question. But the thing about
it is that I loved him andI saw a good man, and I

(02:40):
knew that there was a good manin there. And it was like God
was leading me in, helping mewith these demons and getting him out of
there and getting this man to heaven. And that's what I worked on so
hard, was to get them goneand get him to heaven because I knew
that there's no way that anybody thatwas as charming and as sweet as George

(03:02):
when he wasn't drinking and doing allof that stuff, he needed to go
to heaven. Well, you exercisethose demons, and what a great journey.
The book give a book is calledplaying Possum. My memories are George
Jones. Any coincidence of the bookcame out on mister jones birthday would have
been his birthday, not a coincidence. At all. No, that was

(03:23):
purpose. That was on purpose,okay, And he wanted to honor George
every way we could. And howabout that for a birthday present. I
think it's a great legacy, greatpresent. Now, getting towards the end
of the book, you wrote aline and I thought, well, this
would have been a great second titlefor the book. Jesus and Jones.
Oh, thank you, thank you. This is all about. That's what

(03:46):
I wanted to name the book.But it's just that I, like,
I said, there's so many peoplethat need to come to Jesus right now.
And if you put that out there. They were like, I don't
know if we can put you onour show with that on there, So
can you come up with another name? So I said, okay, play

(04:09):
it impossible, but I'm will mentionJesus all the way through this book.
You know that's right, And youknow, well, thanks for picking up
on that, because that really wasour working title all the way through the
book. That's what we were wantingto get across. We wanted to tell
about George Jones. We wanted totell some things that the fans had never
ever heard of about George before.But the ultimate goal for Nancy was to

(04:29):
point people in the right direction sothey could find the Lord. Well,
I'm glad you pointed us all inthe right direction. There's a lot of
us that need to be pointed inthe right direction. But I think you
need to talk to your friend AlanJackson, because I can hear Alan Jackson
write a song called Jesus and Jonesand singing it, can't you? That's
right? Oh? Yeah, Iwas. I read mister Jones book a
long time ago. I lived totell In fact, I've got an autograph

(04:50):
copy of that book to the autographfor me one time when he was in
Austin. Were you around when hewas writing that book, I live to
tell it all? Yes, yes, yes, every single day. How
accurate is that book? Well,that book is very accurate. It's just
that I think George wanted more ofthe music in there, more of what

(05:14):
he lived in country music, andTom Carner kept drifting off on something else,
and George would say, well,Son, you need to talk about
my music. That's what I livedfor, is country music. So but
it was it was pretty accurate.I mean there was some funny things that
he did in there too. Yeah, it really got your tention. I
know you talked about it in yourbook, also about the old man in

(05:35):
the duck and that he had inthat. But I really enjoyed that book.
But I really enjoy your book morebecause I think it's a different side.
It's the side that not everybody hasheard about it not everybody. Everybody
knows about the demons, but nobodyknows about the redemption, the story of
the redemption and how you brought himto the lights, so to speak,

(05:56):
if I can well a lot ofthat with the demons and stuff in George.
I did not share a lot ofwhat I went through with the music
people and my friends and Nashville andthe fans because I didn't want them to
know any of that until I gotthe demons out of him, and I
didn't and that's why I shared it. And I think that's what God wanted

(06:18):
me to do, is show whatyou went through to get those demons out.
And you did not run, andI would not run. I was
determined to save this man. Ithink a lot of us wish that you
had found George Jones about twenty yearsearlier than you did. Boy, that's
the truth, that is so true, Bob. You know Tammy's saying about
it. I stand by, standby your man. But Nancy actually did

(06:41):
it thirty good bye George through thethink and that then and all the rest
of that. She did it well. We were married thirty years together thirty
two years, So who would knowGeorge any better than I do? That's
right, that's right because you werethere all the time. I had never
known about the Patsy kline Fried chickenstory until I read that book. Yeah,
that was that was something else.So I used to tell George,

(07:05):
what do you want for supper tonight? Chicken? Yeah, I'd saved my
life story. I think most fansdon't know that chickens saved the life of
George Jones from being on that planewith Patsy Klein and never heard that sort
of Also, you also talk aboutthe Christmas decorations. I remember when that
was a talk at the country musicindustry. How yeah, if you ever

(07:28):
in Nashville, No, it's notthe opera line. You got to go
by and see the Jones house withall the Christmas decorations UF. Oh true,
that's right. Oh go ahead,go ahead. I was gonna say,
Bob. I used to when mykids were small. We used to
drive our kids by Nancy's house.I didn't know Nancy back then, but
it was the biggest attraction around here. We drive you stay in line for
a long long time just to driveby Nancy and George's house because there was

(07:51):
that big old rocking chair out there, and they'd have Santa rocking chair.
They'd be giving out presents, andthen Nancy had a great idea of actually
taking in some some collections, somedonations for some of the children's ministries here
in Nashville, And so it wasnot only fun with the lights, but
it was helpful to a lot ofyoung kids here in this town. And
it takes one grouchy neighbor who needsto get cold for Christmas to just spoil

(08:13):
everything, wasn't it? And Igot one. He moved in, and
when he started gripping and complaining andtrying to get a petition signed in all
of this, I'm like, youknow, watch, thank you. My
last trist is very high, sothat he was the Grinch of Christmas?
You know what about that? Ididn't know before Nancy and I started working

(08:35):
on the book. I didn't knowthat it was Nancy Jones out there putting
those lights in all of those trees. She and a couple of the folks
that worked with there. I figuredthey just hired somebody or the town or
the government or somebody. No,it was Nancy Jones doing that. George
credits, well, I started inSeptember so they would be ready for the

(08:58):
night of the Thanksgivings when I turnedhim on. And what's so funny is
it started a smile and then theygot bigger and bigger and bigger, and
so you know, there were likethree ways to get out of our property.
So George, he said, I'mgoing out the back door. This
is the back go way. Thisis embarrassing. But we'd go to go

(09:18):
to Cracker Barrel to eat and they'dsay, mister Jones, man, your
lights are beautiful. He'd say,well, thank you, and they'd leave
that you dirty dog. You talkabout my lights and you say thank you.
You guys were the perfect couple,now, do you. I also
like how you dealt in the book, how you talked about when people complained

(09:39):
that he did not play a fullsixty minutes show. You have the audio
tapes to prove that, do you. What are you gonna do with all
the audio tapes. Will they eventuallybe a release of the public. Do
you know? I have every oneof them? And you know how that
got started is promoters because him beinga no show, they'd say, well,
he only did forty five minutes,he's us to do sixty. I'm

(10:01):
like, okay, So they'd endup suing us, and so I just
started recording everything. And so oneguy, he one promoter, said well,
he only did forty three minutes.I said, no, he didn't.
He did sixty minutes. So bythe time I got it to my
lawyer, he said, Nancy justsettled with him. I said, no,
I am not. I am not. I haven't recorded. And so

(10:22):
that's how why I started recording it, because I knew that he had done
sixty minutes. And she has them, Bob, she has them into storage
from here, I've seen them.She's got all those records. A lot
of them are cassette recordings, andwe probably need to get those to digital.
So yeah, yep, it wouldbe nice to hear that, to
hear that voice again, Nancy.You've you've heard of the expression in Texas

(10:46):
don't mess with Texas. Uh huh. I think they probably got that don't
mess with Nancy Jones. Frohen everythingI've heard in the book, that's right,
oh Bob, do not mess withNancy Jones. And she's somebody that
you want to have your neighbor.If you haven't picked up the book again,
it's called Plain Possum. My memoriesare George Jones, by the lady
who knew the person who knew GeorgeJones better than anybody, Nancy Jones.

(11:11):
Can you repeat your audience what George'slast words were and what you think that
means, because that's I want tohear it in your words. You have
tissue. I've got one prepared rightnow. All right. He hadn't talked,
he was in a coma and hadn'ttalked in lard three or four days.
And I'm sitting there rubbing his feetand talking to him, and you

(11:35):
know, knowing that he's not hearingand not knowing what I'm saying. And
I heard this voice. You know, he had a voice that it walked
in a room. You knew itwas George Jones, and it was his
deep voice. And he said,well, hello there, I've been looking
for you. My name is GeorgeJones. And he dad Hills. I

(11:58):
think it was my I think itwas God telling me that you did a
good job, Metcy. George wasintroducing himself to God. That's his memories.
I would have been George's mannerism,sure of introducing himself to God,
like the God didn't know who hewas. They to be a theater event

(12:20):
on October seventeenth. The concert thatwas held in Huntsville, Alabama, back
in April is going to be afilm for one night only in theaters around
the country in October seventeenth, andPosts can still get tickets if they like
at Fathom Events dot com. Ijust want to make sure you knew that
my good again. Who appeared atthat show. Thirty two artists, thirty

(12:43):
two artists Jamie Johnson and Brad Paisleyand so many way there's such a love
for George Jones. We miss him, we miss his music. And if
anybody's a big George Jones fan,you've got to pick up the book Playing
Posts and My Memories of George Jones, such a great book. Stating your
theaters there and see this event.You will be so surprised how thirty two

(13:05):
people sitting up there singing George Jones'ssongs and they all picked the ones that
they wanted to sing, and itwas just amazing, still playing Possum,
playing Possom,