Tales from the Tour Bus - The Vickery Family

George & Tammy Part 2

Narrator: Now let's get back to the story of George and Tammy.

Wayne: Tammy was a beautiful lady, and George was a great man. He just had some demons. You knew when he was messed up when he didn't have that hair sprayed down. That hair would get all over his face, I mean, everywhere. But when he was straight, he was so particular. He would use a whole can of hairspray. It would be so stiff, I said, "George, a bug couldn't even fly on your head." We were playing up in Washington, DC, and we were headed to Logan, Ohio. I said, "George, let's go.Let's go to the hotel, spend the night. We'll fly there in the morning." He said, "No, I wanna ride the bus." I said, "Uh-oh." When he said he wanted to ride the bus and didn't fly, I knew something was going on. So I told the bus driver and the band, I said, "Don't let him off the bus till you get to Logan, Ohio." So the next morning, all the band members were standing around the bus, and I said, "What's wrong?" They said, "George is gone." I said, "What?" They said, "Yeah, we woke up and he was gone." I said, "Shit, we've got this show out here, and it's gonna be 25,000 to 30,000 people." And they said, "Well, he was walking down that away." So I went down there, walking, and I seen two little ladies out in the front yard. And I said, "Ma'am, have y'all seen George Jones?" She said, "Well, he just left. Nicest man in the world. Fact, we had two bottles of wine." I said, "What?" She said, "Yeah," said, "He come by, and he was thirsty." And I said, "Can you tell me where he went?" She said, "Well, he was gonna go right down here to the cab stand." I said, "Thank you very much." So I went down there and the cab driver said, "Yeah." He said, "George got in a cab about an hour ago. Said he's headed to Nashville." I said, "Holy shit. George is gone." I said, "I don't know what we're gonna do." And you seen those people had been out there all day, drinking. And we'd seen some pretty nice fights, and I said, "Look, we've got a little problem." I said, "George is gone." And there was a DJ standing over on the other side. He heard me say that, and he went up on the stage and said, "George Jones is gone. There's not gonna be a show." And I said, "Damn it." People were tearing the stages down.They were throwing rocks at the bus, cutting the tires on the bus. Lucky, I had a .38 with me in my briefcase. And just happened, a lot of Hell's Angels come to the show. And I recognized one of 'em, and I motioned for him to come over. And he come to the side of the bus, I said, "Spook, you gotta get our ass out of here. They're gonna kill all of us." He come over on the motorcycles. We went out of there on the rims. The tires had come off. A little later on, I got a phone call that he was checked in the Holiday Inn there in Panama City. George always thought I had a bug on him, because I could find him anywhere he went. And he would love to go to some cheap hotel, just stay in there and eat fried chicken and drink two or three fifths of Evan Williams Whiskey. I'll never 'get. I went and knocked on the door, and I said, "Room Service." And he says, "I knew you'd find me." So I got him washed and got that hair sprayed down, and we come back to Logan, Ohio. And he went out there and done about a two and a half hour show. He apologized to the crowd he missed. He said, "You know how I am." Said, "I wanna thank those two little old ladies for giving me those two bottles of wine we dranked." I mean when Jones turned it on, there was nobody could touch him, brother.

Narrator: George's talent was giant, indisputable. His commitment was another thing. His wife, Tammy, and all those who worked with him were enamored by his voice, but also living at the mercy of his drinking.

Nanette: She would laugh about it then but it was so horrendous that he was so drunk, and he was wrecking the house. And she was afraid he was gonna go out and get in the car, and have a car accident or whatever. This was probably during the gypsy shag era. This would be a little up-do for her. This is called a page boy.

Narrator: The Smith sisters weren't allowed to touch George's hair. That was Tammy's job.

Janette: I'd say, "George, do you want me to do your hair?" "No, I'll wait on my hairdresser.