0062309919 (N) by Rich Kienzle

Author:Rich Kienzle
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-02-18T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

1975–1983

The home on Franklin Road had a circular driveway, and he would occasionally enter, drive around a few times, and then leave. After his two prior divorces, this one left George dealing with pain and remorse, harboring hopes of reconciliation. Clearly both parties were at fault in the marriage. George’s drunken, irresponsible, and impulsive behavior cast a pall, as did Tammy’s own issues—her legitimate health problems, need for pharmaceuticals, and obsessive focus on surgery, sometimes of questionable medical value. She tried to maintain a civil relationship with her ex for Georgette’s sake and soon she was dating, first Tommy Neville of the New England Patriots, then Rudy Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers.

George unloaded the Nashville home on Tyne Boulevard he’d received in the settlement and began to spend increasing time with the Montgomerys in northern Alabama, specifically the area around Muscle Shoals and Florence. For George it became a haven from Nashville. He, too, found a new companion: Charlene Montgomery’s sister, Linda Welborn. The two met in 1974. Welborn’s earthy country-girl simplicity, free of Tammy’s ego, appealed to George the same way Melba’s had. George and Linda began living together.

Billy Wilhite was handling George’s Nashville business at this point. He was present when George met another pivotal figure in his career, one who generated greater and darker controversies than Pappy ever did: Alcy Benjamin Baggott, nicknamed Shug.

A longtime Nashville nightclub owner, Baggott ran a rock club in town, steering clear of anything country because he simply never cared for the music. His change of heart, he claimed, came after he saw George and Tammy’s 1974 performance at the Opry House at a benefit for Ivory Joe Hunter, a veteran R&B singer (“Since I Met You Baby”) pursuing a country music career in Nashville before he was stricken with cancer. Shug first encountered George and Wilhite at the Hall of Fame Motor Lounge at a time George was too blitzed to talk. When they finally connected, Baggott proposed reviving the Possum Holler club in a building he owned in Printer’s Alley downtown. When the two visited the location, George’s decorator mind-set kicked in and he began to visualize colors and layout. With little money, he’d have no ownership stake, but he was to receive a royalty from Baggott for the use of his name. The new George Jones Possum Holler opened on March 22, 1975, ten days after his divorce was final. George and the Jones Boys were present to entertain. At some point later on, during a night when George was too besotted to perform at the club, Shug introduced him to the substance that became his new best friend and worst enemy (aside from himself) over the next eight years: cocaine.

In April, Peanutt, after years of keeping pace with George in the boozing/partying department, became a born-again Christian, giving up his bad habits. He and Charlene remained close to George, though Peanutt’s new sobriety and George’s growing dissolution would alter the dynamics of their friendship, with George initially skeptical of his friend’s conversion.

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