George Jones' "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair," a single from his 1992 album Walls Can Fall, allowed some of the country stars he influenced to share studio time and a CMA award with the Possum.
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In the same year Jones joined the Country Music Hall of Fame, he collaborated on this statement on old-age defiance with fellow country vocalists Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Clint Black, Mark Chesnutt, Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt, Joe Diffie, Alan Jackson, Pam Tillis and T. Graham Brown.
The Country Music Association (CMA) named this 11-person crew's song its 1993 Musical Event of the Year. In case you need a reminder of how amazing country music was in the '90s, Jones and friends won over four memorable duets: Black and Wynonna Judd's "A Bad Goodbye," Gill and Reba McEntire's "The Heart Won't Lie," Tanya Tucker and Delbert McClinton's "Tell Me About It" and Trisha Yearwood and Don Henley's "Walkaway Joe."
In one of the better awards show moments of the past 30 years, Jones was a no-show for an innocent enough reason. As his wife Nancy explains, the Nashville legend had a potty emergency, so she accepted the award on his behalf.
Jones won nine CMA awards overall, including Single of the Year (1980) and consecutive Song of the Year awards (1980 and '81) for "He Stopped Loving Her Today." His last two honors came for Musical Events of the Year: the Loveless duet "You Don't Seem to Miss Me" (1999) and the Brad Paisley, Buck Owens and Bill Anderson collaboration "Too Country" (2001).
All that's missing from the late country singer's trophy shelf is Entertainer of the Year: a prize he never won from the CMA or ACM (Academy of Country Music).
Despite Jones' CMA successes, he did not hesitate to call the organization out. He boycotted the 1999 awards show after being asked to perform a shortened version of his Grammy award-winning song "Choices."
"George believes that the fans and the public get frustrated over these very abbreviated songs," said Evelyn Shriver, head of Asylum Records, in the Sept. 13, 1999 issue of USA Today. "Rightly or wrongly, he doesn't believe he's like a baby act that has to do this."
Jackson famously stood up for Jones, a two-time CMA Male Vocalist of the Year (1980 and '81) by halting a planned performance of "Pop a Top" and singing "Choices."
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