"As you can imagine, I have had occasion to feel the blues."

Clarence Thomas wrote on Supreme Court letterhead to George Jones in 1993. (Jones had sent letters and cassettes to Thomas.)

I have listened to your music for over a decade. The lyrics so often captured just how I felt....

You may be interested to know that I used one of your songs to allay the concerns of my bride's mother. Prior to our wedding, she expressed some concern about this being my second marriage. At that time, I had been listening repeatedly to one of your albums which unfortunately is packed away. I believe it was entitled Wine Colored Roses. I apologize in advance if that is wrong. One of the songs contained the lyrics: 'I put a golden band on the right left hand this time; and the right left hand put a golden band on mine.' As I said before, your music has captured so much of my own feelings.

"Hank Williams may have set country music's mythology and Johnny Cash its attitude, but [George] Jones gave the genre its ultimate voice...."

Goodbye to George Jones.

With recordings that spanned 50 years, including Number One singles White Lightning, She Thinks I Still Care and He Stopped Loving Her Today, Jones influenced generations of country singers and was considered by many to be the greatest of them all.

Jones' life also included legendary battles with substance abuse, mostly alcohol, and four marriages, including one to fellow singer Tammy Wynette and another, his last and longest, to Nancy Sepulvado.

Despite all that abuse, the man lived to the age of 81.