Critics, fans, and peers have all called George Jones the greatest country singer of all time. His story is woven out of the richest American fabric: He was born to a God-fearing mother and booze-loving father in East Texas, one of eight children who grew up in the kind of poverty written about in many a country song. Whether he was singing hymns with a husband-wife evangelical team at ten, gigging in Beaumont’s rowdy honky-tonks at nineteen, producing spectacular, bestselling duets with Tammy Wynette at forty, or receiving the Kennedy Center Honors at seventy-seven, music and music alone drove him.

His voice—raw, emotive, and passionate—made him a star and an influence on other singers. But as his star ascended, Jones wrestled with the demons that plague many artists—alcohol, divorce, drugs, debt, arrests, and violence. In this definitive biography, called by critics “unflinching” and “dazzling,” country music critic and historian Rich Kienzle paints a rich portrait of a modest man who overcame his darkest moments to create a lasting legacy.