Posted By Jesse Owens on Feb 11, 2019 | 6 comments

I still remember the first time I heard “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” It was one of the saddest songs I’d ever heard. It’s the story of a heartbroken lover who can’t get over the woman he loves and is estranged from. He reads over letters from a bygone era of their relationship and notes all of the times she wrote “I love you.” The punchline of the song is powerful: It isn’t until he dies that he’s finally able to stop loving her.

Part of what makes the song so sad is that it’s descriptive of Jones’s own life: he was a self-professed alcoholic and drug user who married four times and divorced three. Jones had garnered the nickname “No Show Jones” because of all of the shows he had missed due to alcohol and substance abuse. This lifestyle is borne out in much of Jones’s music. Its predominate themes are substance abuse and heartbreak, followed by more substance abuse and more heartbreak. If you were to listen through “George Jones 16 Biggest Hits,” you’d be hard-pressed to find more than a few songs that don’t address these themes. George Jones’s life was one of incredible success but also one of deep heartbreak.

I didn’t start listening to Jones’s music until probably ten years ago. Part of what I find so alluring about his music is that it provides direct insight into the sorrow of sin. Russell Moore noted several years ago that even though George Jones’s music is filled with references to alcohol and cheating, it never glorifies them.[1] In fact, his music really highlights the consequences of alcohol abuse and of unfaithfulness. It’s this human element, this form of honest lament, that draws the listener in.

George Jones’s Free Will Baptist Connection

Sometime last year I was surprised to learn that George Jones had a Free Will Baptist connection. The connection was with Tom Malone (always “Bro. Tom” to me) and took place during his time as pastor of the First Free Will Baptist Church in Florence, Alabama, where he served prior to becoming the president of Welch College in 1990. The topic arose unexpectedly in a conversation I was having with David Williford.[2] I’d known Tom Malone my entire life, butI’d never heard this story before. He immediately called Bro. Tom and verified the story. I was intrigued.

I eventually spoke with Bro. Tom a couple of months later because I wanted to know more about his encounters with the legendary country music star. The story involves two visits to the First Free Will Baptist Church by Jones, several visits by Bro. Tom to see Jones while he was in Florence, and the friendship of Peanutt and Charlene Montgomery.

Peanutt and Charlene Montgomery

Earl “Peanutt” Montgomery wrote over seventy songs for George Jones. He met Jones through his sister Melba who had been a backup singer for Jones and who also had an intimate relationship with him. Peanutt Montgomery and George Jones became the best of friends. Peanutt’s wife Charlene described them as being more like brothers than good friends.[3] Peanutt would occasionally have to wake up and bail Jones out of jail in the middle of the night. But Peanutt Montgomery had the same lifestyle as George Jones—regularly abusing alcohol to the displeasure of his wife Charlene.

That changed, though, when Peanutt Montgomery was saved at the First Free Will Baptist Church in Florence, Alabama, in 1976. After his conversion, Montgomery’s life drastically changed. He couldn’t continue drinking with George like they had done on so many occasions before. Montgomery told a reporter in 2009: “I couldn’t live that life no more. I couldn’t do that and then try to preach to people. It wouldn’t be right.”[4]

Montgomery wasn’t using “preach” in a metaphorical sense. He actually began traveling and preaching after he was saved. He wasn’t hesitant about talking to George Jones about the Lord. When I spoke with Montgomery on the phone recently, he recounted praying fervently with George Jones as tears rolled down Jones’s face. He even drove Jones up to the back of a tent revival one evening. As Jones heard the singing and then the invitation at the end, he got out of the car and fell on his knees in prayer. This wasn’t a conversion experience, but it was a sign of the great conviction Jones felt.

Tom Malone and First Free Will Baptist Church, Florence, Alabama

Peanutt and Charlene Montgomery became members at the First Free Will Baptist Church in Florence, Alabama. Because they desired to see Jones be saved, they invited him to church with them. He did, in fact, attend services with them on several occasions. According to Tom Malone, George always came on Sunday evenings.

On the first Sunday evening that Jones walked through the doors at the church in Florence, Dr. Stanley Outlaw, a Free Will Baptist pastor and theologian, was preaching. As Bro. Tom recalls, Jones was visibly moved and in tears during the invitation that followed the service, when he got up and walked out of the sanctuary. A similar experience occurred on at least one other occasion when Bro. Tom was preaching. Undoubtedly, the Lord was working in Jones’s heart but to no avail.

Bro. Tom visited George Jones a few times at his house there in Florence, which was near the church. During these visits, Jones was very careful to not let the conversation turn to spiritual matters. In an attempt to gain a hearing, Bro. Tom played one of Jones’s favorite board/marble games: Aggravation.[5] Peanutt Montgomery even recalls the three of them riding motorcycles together occasionally. But during this time, Jones was consistently resistant to hearing the gospel message or allowing Bro. Tom to pray for him during their visits.

According to Montgomery, Jones permanently moved away from Florence in 1982. Tom Malone became Welch College’s fourth President in 1990. I asked him if he ever interacted with Jones after he moved to Nashville since Jones lived in the area, but he did not. Their interaction was limited to their time in Florence when Bro. Tom had done his best to preach and share the gospel faithfully with Jones.

Conclusion

I’m well acquainted with the ministry of Tom Malone. He was my mother’s childhood pastor. My father served as his associate pastor for over a decade. He’s been like a grandfather to me. No one is ever too important or too insignificant for Tom Malone. His life has always been marked by faithfulness to preaching and sharing the gospel message. I’m a product of his faithful witness.

George Jones died on April 26, 2013. As I watched his televised funeral, I was deeply saddened as I considered the life that Jones had lived. He seems to have been an embodiment of what Flannery O’Connor called “the Christ-haunted South.” He was aware of the gospel message. He knew that he was a sinner. But he had spent the majority of his life resisting the Lord. Peanutt Montgomery is convinced that George Jones repented by the end of his life and believed the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope so. Only the Lord ultimately knows.

What I’m most moved by in these accounts is the work of a faithful pastor who longed to see people—including George Jones and Peanutt Mongtomery—repent of their sins and follow Jesus.

[1] Russell Moore, “George Jones: Troubadourof the Christ-Haunted Bible Belt,” https://www.russellmoore.com/2013/04/26/george-jones-troubadour-of-the-christ-haunted-bible-belt/; accessed February 11, 2019.

[2]If it were not for David Williford, whomentioned this connection one day, I likely never would have known about thisor have been able to track this information down.

[3]Charlene Mongomery and Earl PeanuttMongtomery, The Legend of George Jones (Monterey,CA: Heritage Builders Publishing, 2014), 37.

[4]Brian Hughes, “Former George Jones SongWriter Left Fame Behind,” Times Daily,August 24, 2009;https://www.timesdaily.com/archives/former-george-jones-songwriter-left-fame-behind/article_8f48c6b7-d6fa-588f-8942-180fd66d4f11.html; accessed February 7, 2019.

[5]Charlene Montgomery notes throughout herbook on George Jones just how much he loved to play the game.

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