George Jones Puts Down His Guitar

Posted by Amber Garner on 07/07/2008
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Legendary artist George Jones got an unexpected surprise last month when a guitar that had been stolen from him over 40 years ago was returned. The guitar, ’57 acoustic Martin-00018, was stolen from Jones’ dressing room when he played Panther Hall in Dallas in 1962-said gactv.com.  Jones says he may have used this guitar on such hits as “The Window Up Above,” “Tender Years,” or “She Thinks I Still Care.” “I’m pretty sure I did [use it on those hits], because I played guitar on my sessions for the first 10 or 12 years. They told me I was a bad rhythm player finally, so I gave it up and just stuck to singin’,” said Jones. As happy as Jones was to receive the guitar back he was unable to play it, or any guitar for that matter. In October 2006 Jones broke his right wrist when he fell going into producer Keith Stegall’s Nashville studio.  Jones had surgery a week later, but at his next performance at Carnegie Hall in New York he appeared on stage without a guitar in hand. While Jones had intended to start playing again he discovered that his spine was healing when he wasn’t playing. “My lower back got better when I worked without the guitar. I go out now and don’t play the guitar, and my back’s been doin’ a lot better,” said Jones. You can expect a lot of great singing on his next album George Jones: Burn Your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets. The album will be available Aug. 19.