George Jones was battling a crippling addiction to alcohol when he fell deeper into a rabbit hole.
It was March 1977, two years after his divorce from Tammy Wynette, when he appeared on stage, knowing he couldn’t sing. But a doctor who was present had “an easy solution,” one that came in a syringe. After this so-called “energy shot,” Jones did a whole week of shows, feeling better than ever. But his problems would only worsen.
“The first time that he did cocaine, it was a doctor who gave it to him,” Tyler Mahan Coe, author of “Cocaine & Rhinestones: A History of George Jones and Tammy Wynette,” told Fox News Digital.
“[The doctor] injected him with a shot of liquid cocaine,” said the author. “He showed up to this concert broke and very hung over. And the only reason he showed up was for [people] to see the state that he was in so that they would realize that he was in no condition to get on stage and perform.”
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“There happened to be a doctor there who said he could get him in shape to perform,” Mahan Coe shared. “[He] shot him up with cocaine. And then the next thing Jones knew, he is out on stage feeling amazing, feeling incredible and singing great.
“After that, once [he] settled back into the old routine of him just getting drunk and being exhausted, he had someone go find out what was in that syringe that the doctor gave him. They found out it was cocaine. So he just started getting cocaine.”
“At first, he probably thought of it as a useful tool,” he pointed out. “But cocaine addiction doesn’t work that way. And everything got dark pretty fast.”
Mahan Coe, an acclaimed country music podcaster, said he wanted to debunk rumors about the couple’s tumultuous relationship – and its aftermath.
“The story that [producer Billy Sherrill] told and sold fans is what millions of people still believe, which is that George Jones and Tammy Wynette were perfect for each other,” he said. “And then when they got divorced, the story that he was telling was that they were still in love with each other.”
Mahan Coe said that to this day, many believe that Jones’ biggest hit, “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” is the late star’s declaration of his “undying love” for Wynette. Mahan Coe said it couldn’t be further from the truth.
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Another rumor he wanted to put to rest was that Jones, who died in 2013 at age 81, started using cocaine during his marriage to Wynette.
As for his notorious battle with alcoholism, it was even more debilitating than what was known.
“Alcoholic doesn’t seem to cover the behavior,” Mahan Coe explained. “It seemed like he was trying to kill himself by drinking. He would just chug whiskey until it made him vomit, and then chug more to get it back inside his body.
“He had intense stage fright, so he would disappear for weeks at a time, not showing up to concerts that he was supposed to do. So he showed up to the concert broke and very hung over.”
“There are dozens and dozens of stories of his outlandish behavior,” Mahan Coe continued. “While he was drunk, he would fire guns off inside his tour bus. One of the most famous scenes is that at times he would destroy money . . .he would light it on fire and flush it down toilets. But there’s an interesting thing that happens in the ‘70s when he gets addicted to cocaine.
“A lot of fans in the audience did not have much experience with cocaine. . . . So once cocaine was introduced to the equation, his behavior became so much more insane… But he had already gained a reputation for being an alcoholic. So people thought that what they were seeing was just a problem of him being an alcoholic. They didn’t realize what cocaine addiction can produce . . . a lot of the worst things that he did were . . . in the cocaine years.”
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According to the book, Jones kept an ounce of cocaine in his pants pocket “at all times.” He kept another baggie in his shirtfront pocket with a plastic straw. All he needed to do was tilt his head to the side whenever he needed a quick fix. One time when he was riding with Waylon Jennings around Nashville, he pulled out a vial of coke to snort while they waited for the red light to turn green.
Jones became increasingly paranoid and was never without a firearm by his side. According to the book, he also had two alternate personalities named DeeDoodle and Old Man, with one of them sounding like “a psychotic duck.”
“There’s a famous incident where he may have attempted to murder his best friend,” said Mahan Coe. “He certainly fired a gun at him. . . . Just anyone who happened to be there would become the target of his abuse.”
According to the book, Jones was so deep in his addiction that at one point, he reportedly shot at his pal and fellow musician Earl “Peanutt” Montgomery.
“One day, he asked Peanutt to meet in a remote location and, after Peanutt pulled up in a car with the window rolled down to talk, Jones screamed something about finding out if God could save Peanutt from a bullet and then fired a pistol at him,” Mahan Coe wrote.
“In a photo the media ran of Peanutt standing by the car he was driving, it looks like the bullet lodged in the car door, maybe two or three inches beneath the open window. Jones was arrested but Peanutt dropped all the charges after learning Jones would face a criminal trial for attempted manslaughter. Peanutt instead took out a restraining order, which Jones regularly ignored without consequence.”
Jones wasn’t the only one to struggle with substance abuse.
For much of her life, Wynette was plagued with health problems, including chronic intestinal pain. She underwent multiple surgeries, which resulted in an increasing dependence on painkillers.
In 1998, Wynette died at age 55. The cause of death was listed as a blood clot in her lungs.
Jones and Wynette were married from 1969 to 1975. Her death affected Jones “very deeply,” said Mahan Coe.
“He was not romantically in love with her in the way that a lot of fans still believe,” said Mahan Coe. “But he did share a lot of history with her. He shared a child with her. . . . And she was younger than him. So for her to die before him, I’m sure it felt like it wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. . . . But on the other hand, it certainly forced him to confront his mortality in a way that he maybe never had before.”
“It’s a brave thing to do, to poison yourself and prove that the poison can’t kill you,” Mahan Coe reflected. “But when someone who’s that close to you passes away, perhaps it causes you to realize how foolish that is.”
In 1999, Jones, once coined “No Show Jones,” found faith and sobriety after suffering a car crash that nearly killed him. He survived and lived for another 14 years. He passed away in 2013 at age 81.
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“I aim to tear down a lot of these mythological constructs that we have about George and Tammy,” said Mahan Coe. “I hope that by tearing them down, we can look at the truth of what happened. . . . What we’re left with is far more interesting.”
