US country singer George Jones dies aged 81

George Jones, a classic country singer with a voice full of raw honky-tonk emotion and a life full of honky-tonk turmoil, died today at the age of 81, his spokesman said.

Jones, whose career spanned more than six decades and included hits such as He Stopped Loving Her Today and Window Up Above, died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He had been hospitalised since April 18th with fever and irregular blood pressure, spokesman Kirt Webster said.

Like his idol, Hank Williams, Jones battled addiction. Alcohol and cocaine frequently derailed his career and at one point his reputation for cancelling performances earned him the nickname No-Show Jones.

But when Jones did show up and was in good form, listeners were treated to a powerful and evocative voice.

Jones was at his best with cry-in-your-beer songs and his masterful phrasing made them extra mournful.

As his late contemporary Waylon Jennings put it, "If we could all sound like we wanted to, then we'd all sound like George Jones."

Born in Saratoga, Texas, on September 12th, 1931, Jones first began performing for spare change as a boy on the streets of nearby Beaumont.

Under the influence of Williams, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell, he graduated to the rough roadhouses of East Texas.

Jones had an early marriage, a divorce and a stint in the Marines before his first hit, Why Baby Why in 1955. His first number one song, White Lightning, came in 1959, followed by Tender Years in 1961.

The next two decades brought a string of top 10 songs - ’If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will), Window Up Above, She Thinks I Still Care, Good Year for the Roses, The Race Is On and He Stopped Loving Her Today, which Jones said was his favorite. He also had a successful run of duets with Melba Montgomery.

Jones, who was known as The Possum, divorced his second wife in 1968 and the next year married one of country's most popular singers, Tammy Wynette. The pairing was an enormous professional success for both as they recorded and toured together and Jones also began working with Billy Sherrill, Wynette's producer.

During his time with Sherrill, Jones refined his honky-tonk voice and sang more ballads, often with the lush string accompaniment that had become a trend in the country music capital of Nashville.

The marriage to Wynette went bad as Jones’s addiction problem escalated and Wynette claimed he once came at her with a gun. They divorced in 1975 but later resumed recording together.

Jones continued to put out hit songs in the early 1980s, even as cocaine compounded his personal tumult. Amid a string of hospitalisations and arrests, he disappeared for days at a time, missed shows and recording sessions and took police on a drunken chase through Nashville.

Jones credited fourth wife Nancy, who he married in 1983, with helping him clean up. But in 1999 he was seriously injured after driving drunk and crashing into a bridge, leading to another stay in rehab.

At one point Jones was so incorrigible that one of his four wives cleared the alcohol from their home and hid all the car keys so he could not go for more.

Jones responded by cranking up his riding lawn mower and driving it to a bar - an escapade he chronicled in Honky Tonk Song.

Although he was heard infrequently on mainstream country radio in the later years of his career, Jones was a sought-after duet partner and won a Grammy for the song Choices in 1999. He also won a Grammy for best country performance in 1980 for He Stopped Loving Her Today.

Jones was still touring last year, although an upper respiratory infection and other health problems forced him to postpone shows.

Reuters