George Jones had a long controversial history of addiction, but the singer may have gotten hooked on cocaine thanks to a doctor.
Videos by Wide Open Country
In March 1977, Jones struggled to sing following his high profile divorce from Tammy Wynette. A doctor offered him a solution in a syringe. He called it an energy shot. Jones ended up feeling more energetic than ever and did a whole week of shows.
"The first time that he did cocaine, it was a doctor who gave it to him," Tyler Mahan Coe, author of Cocaine & Rhinestones: A History of George Jones and Tammy Wynette told Fox News Digital.
"[The doctor] injected him with a shot of liquid cocaine," said the author. "He showed up to this concert broke and very hung over. And the only reason he showed up was for [people] to see the state that he was in so that they would realize that he was in no condition to get on stage and perform."
"There happened to be a doctor there who said he could get him in shape to perform," Mahan Coe shared. "[He] shot him up with cocaine. And then the next thing Jones knew, he is out on stage feeling amazing, feeling incredible and singing great.
"After that, once [he] settled back into the old routine of him just getting drunk and being exhausted, he had someone go find out what was in that syringe that the doctor gave him. They found out it was cocaine. So he just started getting cocaine."
George Jones And His Addiction
The author said Jones and his cocaine addiction went down hill fast.
"At first, he probably thought of it as a useful tool," he pointed out. "But cocaine addiction doesn't work that way. And everything got dark pretty fast."
Mahan Coe also said that the artist delt with an intense stage fright as well. That made his addiction worse.
"Alcoholic doesn't seem to cover the behavior," Mahan Coe explained. "It seemed like he was trying to kill himself by drinking. He would just chug whiskey until it made him vomit, and then chug more to get it back inside his body.
"He had intense stage fright, so he would disappear for weeks at a time, not showing up to concerts that he was supposed to do. So he showed up to the concert broke and very hung over."
