Cocaine and Rhinestones
A History of George Jones and Tammy Wynette
1 of 1 copy available
By the early 1960s nearly everybody paying attention to country music agreed that George Jones was the greatest country singer of all time. After taking honky-tonk rockers like "White Lightning" all the way up the country charts, he revealed himself to be an unmatched virtuoso on "She Thinks I Still Care," thus cementing his status as a living legend. That's where the trouble started. Only at this new level of fame did Jones realize he suffered from extreme stage fright. His method of dealing with that involved great quantities of alcohol, which his audience soon discovered as Jones more often than not showed up to concerts falling-down drunk or failed to show up at all. But the fans always forgave him because he just kept singing so damn good. Then he got married to Tammy Wynette right around the time she became one of the most famous women alive with the release of "Stand by Your Man."
Tammy Wynette grew up believing George Jones was the greatest country singer of all time. After deciding to become a country singer herself, she went to Nashville, got a record deal, then met and married her hero. With the pop crossover success of "Stand by Your Man" (and the international political drama surrounding the song's lyrics) came a gigantic audience, who were sold a fairy tale image of a couple soon being called The King and Queen of Country Music. Many fans still believe that fairy tale today. The behind-the-scenes truth is very different from the images shown on album covers.
Illustrated throughout by singular artist Wayne White, Cocaine & Rhinestones is an unprecedented look at the lives of two indelible country icons, reframing their careers within country music as well as modern history itself.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 3, 2024 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781797181646
- File size: 751612 KB
- Duration: 26:05:50
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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July 8, 2024
Debut author Coe draws on his eponymous podcast for a digressive and bloated account of the rise and fall of one of country music’s most legendary couples. George Jones found early success in Nashville with such hits as 1958’s “White Lightnin’,” while Tammy Wynette got her start in Memphis honky-tonks before moving to Nashville in the 1960s and teaming up with producer Billy Sherill for songs like “Apartment #9” and “D-I-V-O-R-C-E.” When Wynette signed with Jones’s booking agency in 1967, the two began touring together and became romantically involved, giving Jones’s fans hope that the “King of Broken Hearts”—so-called for his 1965 album of the same name—might find a “fairy-tale ending.” But after the couple married in 1969, Jones’s addiction to drugs and alcohol and volatile psychological states caused their relationship to splinter. The years that followed their 1975 divorce saw both of their careers decline. Coe aims to put Wynette and Jones’s story in the context of larger shifts within country music, such as the development of a pop-inflected “Nashville Sound,” but tangents on moonshine, bullfighting, and other far-flung topics fail to enrich the narrative. Readers will be frustrated.
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