title: Donovan

text: After this reunion, Donovan and Linda married on 2 October 1970 at Windsor register office and honeymooned in the Caribbean. Donovan dropped out of the round of tour promotion and concentrated on writing, recording and his family. The largely self-produced children's album "HMS Donovan" in 1971, went unreleased in the US and did not gain a wide audience. During an 18-month tax exile in Ireland (1971–72), he wrote for the 1972 film "The Pied Piper" in the title role, and for "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" (1972). The title song from the Zeffirelli film provided Donovan with a publishing windfall in 1974 when it was covered as the B-side of the million-selling US top 5 hit "The Lord's Prayer", by Australia's singing nun, Sister Janet Mead.


title: Donovan

text: After a new deal with Epic, Donovan reunited with Mickie Most in early 1973, resulting in the LP "Cosmic Wheels", which featured arrangements by Chris Spedding. It was his last chart success, reaching the top 40 in America and Britain. Late in the year, he released "Essence To Essence", produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, and a live album recorded and released only in Japan, which featured an extended version of "Hurdy Gurdy Man", including an additional verse written by George Harrison in Rishikesh. While recording the album, Alice Cooper invited Donovan to share lead vocals on his song "Billion Dollar Babies".


title: Donovan

text: "Cosmic Wheels" was followed up by two albums that same year: his second concert album, "", and the more introspective "Essence to Essence". His last two albums for Epic Records were "7-Tease" (1974) and "Slow Down World" (1976). In 1977, he opened for Yes on their six-month tour of North America and Europe following the release of "Going for the One" (1977). The 1978 LP, "Donovan" was on Most's RAK Records in the UK and on Clive Davis' new Arista Records in the US; it reunited him for the last time with Most and Cameron, but was not well received at the height of the new wave and did not chart.


title: Donovan

text: The punk era (1976–1980) provoked a backlash in Britain against the optimism and whimsy of the hippie era, of which Donovan was a prime example. The word "hippie" became pejorative, and Donovan's fortunes suffered. In this period he released the albums "Neutronica" (1980), "Love Is Only Feeling" (1981), and "Lady of the Stars" (1984), and guest-starred on "Stars on Ice", a half-hour variety show on ice produced by CTV in Toronto. There was a respite when he appeared alongside Sting, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck in the Amnesty International benefit show "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball". Accompanied by Danny Thompson, Donovan performed several hits including "Sunshine Superman", "Mellow Yellow", "Colours", "Universal Soldier" and "Catch the Wind". He was also in the performance of Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" for the show's finale. Donovan also appeared at the Glastonbury Festival on 18 June 1989 with the band Ozric Tentacles accompanying him onstage.


title: Donovan

text: In 1990 Donovan released a live album featuring new performances of his classic songs. In 1991, Nettwerk released a tribute album to Donovan, "Island of Circles". Sony's 2-CD boxed set "" (1992) continued the restoration of his reputation, and was followed by the 1994 release of "Four Donovan Originals", which saw his four classic Epic LPs on CD in their original form for the first time in the UK. He found an ally in rap producer and Def Jam label owner Rick Rubin and recorded the album "Sutras" for Rubin's American Recordings label.


title: Donovan

text: In 2000, Donovan narrated and played himself in the "Futurama" episode "The Deep South" on 16 April with a parody of the song "Atlantis".


title: Donovan

text: A new album, "Beat Cafe", on Appleseed Records in 2004, marked a return to the jazzy sound of his 1960s recordings and featured bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Jim Keltner, with production by John Chelew (Blind Boys of Alabama). At a series of "Beat Cafe" performances in New York, Richard Barone (The Bongos) joined Donovan to sing and read passages from Allen Ginsberg's "Howl".


title: Donovan

text: In May 2004, Donovan played "Sunshine Superman" at the wedding concert for the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Denmark. He released his early demo tapes, "Sixty Four", and a re-recording of the "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" soundtrack on iTunes. A set of his Mickie Most albums was released on 9 May 2005. This EMI set has extra tracks including another song recorded with the Jeff Beck Group. In 2005, his autobiography "The Hurdy Gurdy Man" was published. In May/June 2005, Donovan toured the UK (Beat Cafe Tour) and Europe with Tom Mansi on double bass, former Damned drummer Rat Scabies and Flipron keyboard player, Joe Atkinson.


title: Donovan

text: In spring/summer 2006, Donovan played British festivals and two dates at Camden's The Jazz Café, London.


title: Donovan

text: In January 2007, Donovan played at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, DC, at Alice Tully Hall, in New York City, and at the Kodak Theatre, in Los Angeles, in conjunction with a presentation by filmmaker David Lynch supporting the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and world peace. The concert at the Kodak Theatre was filmed by Raven Productions and broadcast on public television as a pledge drive. Donovan's partnership with the David Lynch Foundation saw him performing concerts through October 2007, as well as giving presentations about Transcendental meditation. He appeared at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, in May 2007, and toured the UK with Lynch in October 2007.


title: Donovan

text: In March 2007, Donovan played two shows at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. He had planned a spring 2007 release of an album, along with a UK tour, but announced the tour was cancelled and the album delayed. He said was in good health and gave no reason for the cancellation.


title: Donovan

text: In April 2007, Donovan presented a three-part series on Ravi Shankar for BBC Radio 2. In October 2007, he announced plans for the "Invincible Donovan University" focusing on Transcendental Meditation, to be near Glasgow or Edinburgh. In October 2007 the DVD "The Donovan Concert—Live in LA", filmed at the Kodak Theatre Los Angeles earlier that year, was released in the UK. On 6 October 2009, Donovan was honoured as a BMI Icon at the 2009 annual BMI London Awards. The Icon designation is given to BMI songwriters who have had "a unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers".


title: Donovan

text: In October 2010, Donovan's double CD set "Ritual Groove" was made available through his website. Prior to the release, he had described it as a multi-media album waiting for videos to be applied.


title: Donovan

text: On 10 May 2021, the day of his 75th birthday, Donovan released the new track "I Am the Shaman". The song is produced by David Lynch, who also directed the accompanying video.


title: Donovan

text: Donovan had a relationship with American model Enid Karl, and they had two children: actor-musician Donovan Leitch in 1967, and actress Ione Skye in 1970.


title: Donovan

text: In October of that year, Donovan married Linda Lawrence. They have two children together, Astrella and Oriole. Lawrence was the inspiration for "Sunshine Superman".


title: Donovan

text: Donovan is also the adoptive father of Lawrence's and Brian Jones's son, Julian Brian (Jones) Leitch.


title: Donovan

text: In November 2003, the University of Hertfordshire awarded Donovan an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. He was nominated by Sara Loveridge (a student at the university who had interviewed and reviewed Donovan for the university paper in 2001–2002); Andrew Morris, Sara's partner and Donovan researcher/writer; and Mac MacLeod.


title: Bob Chapek

text: Robert Alan Chapek (born 1960) is an American media executive who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from 2020 to 2022.


title: Bob Chapek

text: Before becoming CEO, Chapek had a 26-year career with The Walt Disney Company, beginning in the Home Entertainment division, and eventually rising to become Chairman of Parks & Resorts then to Chief Executive Officer. Chapek, who had a controversial tenure as CEO, was dismissed from the position on November 20, 2022, and then succeeded by his predecessor, Bob Iger.


title: Bob Chapek

text: Robert Chapek was born in 1960 in the suburbs of Chicago to a working mother and father, Marie (Lofay) and Bernard W. Chapek. He grew up in Hammond, Indiana. His father was a World War II veteran. His family went on annual trips to Walt Disney World.


title: Bob Chapek

text: Chapek graduated from George Rogers Clark Jr./Sr. High School in 1977. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology from Indiana University Bloomington and a Master of Business Administration from Michigan State University. He worked for the H. J. Heinz Company in brand management and in advertising for J. Walter Thompson before joining The Walt Disney Company in 1993.


title: Bob Chapek

text: Chapek began his Disney career in 1993 as the marketing director for the company's Buena Vista Home Entertainment division, which at that time was focused on VHS tapes. The CEO Michael Eisner described Chapek by saying, "He was always an executive that you knew would be on the rise... He knew how to grow the business while adjusting to the changing marketplace, which was intense." Chapek is credited for bringing Disney's home entertainment division into the digital age, by focusing on releasing properties on DVD and later Blu-ray discs. In 2006, he was promoted to become the president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment. In 2009, he became president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios. Since Chapek began his ascent to the top of the Walt Disney Company from its home video division, he has been called "the home entertainment industry’s single biggest success story."


title: Bob Chapek

text: Chapek was appointed president of Disney Consumer Products in September 2011. After the acquisition of Lucasfilm, Chapek integrated "Star Wars" merchandise into Disney's licensing program, ensuring that Disney became the world's largest licensor of intellectual property. In 2013, Chapek secured a deal with Hasbro, whereby the toy company paid Disney $80 million in royalties to extend the license for Marvel toys and an agreement for Hasbro to pay Disney up to $225 million for the rights to forthcoming "Star Wars" merchandise.


title: Bob Chapek

text: In 2014, Chapek launched the Disney Imagicademy, which was a suite of numerous tablet and smart-phone apps designed to give children high quality learning games. This was Disney's first full foray into the learning-app market. Chapek said he spearheaded this initiative after numerous parents told his department that they found it difficult to find high quality learning apps out of the thousands that were available online.


title: Bob Chapek

text: On February 23, 2015, Chapek was named chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts effective that day to replace Thomas O. Staggs, who was promoted to Disney chief operating officer earlier in the month. Chapek immediately began working towards the completion and launch of Shanghai Disneyland in 2016, which hosted over 11 million guests in its first year of operation. He also oversaw the completion and launch of Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney's Animal Kingdom in 2017. Chapek also directly managed the construction and opening of the new lands at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Disney said of Galaxy's Edge, "It's the most immersive land we have ever built," citing the themed restaurants, shops and roaming interactive characters. Disney reportedly spent $1 billion on the sprawling 14-acre land in Disneyland in Anaheim, prompting CNN to comment that "Disney spared no expense."


title: Bob Chapek

text: As Chairman of Parks and Resorts, Chapek invested over $24 billion into the theme parks, attractions, hotels and cruise ships. "The New York Times" noted that Chapek's spending was more money than Disney spent in acquiring Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm combined.


title: Bob Chapek

text: In the fall of 2017, after parks and resorts recorded at 14% increase in operating income, many in the media began to speculate that Chapek would likely succeed Bob Iger as the next Disney CEO.


title: Bob Chapek

text: During his time at parks and resorts, Chapek has received criticism from some within the Disney fan community due to the use of existing intellectual property in the parks.


title: Bob Chapek

text: In March 2018, after a reorganization of divisions in order to prepare for the launch of Disney+, Chapek was given back the consumer products divisions (including the Disney Stores), in addition to his responsibilities for all of the parks and resorts and related experiences. Then, CEO Bob Iger said, "Bob [Chapek] comes to this new role with an impressive record of success at both parks and resorts and consumer products, and he is the perfect leader to run these combined teams." This furthered speculation that Chapek would be Iger's successor.


title: Bob Chapek

text: In August 2019, Chapek announced that he had negotiated a retail collaboration to open 25 mini Disney Store shops within select Target department stores across the United States. Chapek stated that people who purchase Disney products were already likely to shop at Target, and the deal gives Disney the opportunity to expand its own footprint beyond traditional shopping malls. The Disney mini-shops will be an average of 750 square feet and be located near Target's kids clothing and toy departments. They'll have more than 450 items, including more than 100 products previously only available at Disney retail locations.


title: Bob Chapek

text: On May 18, 2020, Chapek announced Josh D'Amaro as his successor to the position of chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.


title: Bob Chapek

text: In February 2020, Chapek was named chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company replacing Bob Iger, who would remain as executive chairman until the end of 2021. This was considered a surprise to many Disney employees, who had seen Tom Staggs as the heir apparent to Iger. In April 2020, Chapek was elected to the Walt Disney Company's board of directors. It was later revealed, the same month, that while Chapek remained CEO, Iger had resumed control of the company's operational duties for the time being, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Bob Chapek

text: In numerous interviews with financial news outlets during the pandemic, Chapek has said he is focusing on opening Disney's theme parks. In May 2020, Shanghai Disneyland opened with limited guest capacity capped at approximately 24,000 visitors per day, pursuant to government regulations. Chapek acknowledged that this was a "baby step" but found the attendance figures encouraging, considering that the limited number of tickets were selling out. Chapek vowed to increase capacity in the weeks to come, albeit in a conservative manner.


title: Bob Chapek

text: Chapek stated that upon the reopening of Walt Disney World in July 2020, both employees and guests would be required to take temperature checks, wear face masks, and observe social distancing guidelines. He said that the company would continue to work with local government and healthcare professionals to open the parks responsibly. He added that when the parks reopened, the first attraction he will ride would be Pirates of the Caribbean. In October 2020, Chapek agreed to keep Disney World at only 25% capacity until the CDC issued new guidance, and also stated that with regards to reopening Disneyland in California, "It's not much of a negotiation. It's pretty much a mandate that we stay closed." In March 2021, after California eased COVID-19 restrictions, he then stated, "Here in California, we're encouraged by the positive trends we're seeing and we're hopeful they'll continue to improve and we'll be able to reopen our Parks to guests with limited capacity by late April." By July 2021, Walt Disney World had officially ended their mask mandate (except while on Disney transportation) and temperature checks, and were operating at higher capacity. That same month, fireworks shows at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland returned.


title: Bob Chapek

text: In October 2020, Chapek spoke about the company's decision to begin focusing on streaming media, including Disney+, and direct-to-consumer advertising. Multiple films that were originally slated for theatrical releases, including "Mulan" and "Soul", did not receive theatrical releases and instead debuted on Disney+. "Mulan" was offered on Disney+ for a premium fee, while "Soul" was offered for no additional cost.


title: Bob Chapek

text: In 2022, as Florida passed its Parental Rights in Education Act (known by critics as the "Don't Say Gay law"), reports rose that Disney funded the legislators who wrote and sponsored the bill; this conflicted with the company's pro-LGBT+ image. In a company memo, Chapek refused to criticize the legislation and played down the company's backing of anti-LGBT+ legislators. Chapek's statements and actions were heavily criticized, including by several members of Disney's creative talent. Following the criticism, Chapek reversed course claiming the company was "opposed to the bill from the outset" and would be donating to several LGBT+ organizations; while he had plans to meet with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who supports the bill. One of the organizations, the Human Rights Campaign, refused the funds from Disney until "meaningful action" is taken. The day after, Chapek formally apologized for his prior statements and announced that the company will be ceasing donations to all political parties in Florida while looking to further improve their support for LGBT+ causes.


title: Bob Chapek

text: In June 2022, Chapek signed a three-year contract extension to remain as Walt Disney Company CEO. However, on November 20, 2022, Bob Iger was reinstated as the CEO. According to Disney insiders through CNBC, Iger was formally requested to return as CEO on the previous Friday, and Chapek was notified of his ouster on Sunday night. The board, through chair Susan Arnold, cited Disney's negative earnings report released at the beginning of the month and believed that Iger was "uniquely situated" to lead Disney.


title: Bob Chapek

text: "The New York Times" further reported that Chapek had portrayed a "happy go lucky" mentality during the conference call held after the November 8th earnings report. Chapek was also criticized by the "NYT" for "implausibly" emphasizing the success of Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, which is not a major event for the parks or the company as a whole. Calls for Chapek's removal were emphasized that day by "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer, who particularly aimed criticism towards Disney's "balance sheet from hell".


title: Bob Chapek

text: Chapek has been married to his wife Cynthia since 1980 and together they have three children, including producer Brian Chapek, and four grandchildren.


title: George Jones

text: George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song "He Stopped Loving Her Today", as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing. For the last two decades of his life, Jones was frequently referred to as the greatest living country singer. Country music scholar Bill Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved." The shape of his nose and facial features earned Jones the nickname "The Possum". Jones has been called "The Rolls Royce of Country Music" and had more than 160 chart singles to his name from 1955 until his death in 2013.


title: George Jones

text: Born in Texas, Jones first heard country music when he was seven, and was given a guitar at the age of nine. His earliest influences were Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe, although the artistry of Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell would crystallize his vocal style. He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. In 1959, Jones recorded "White Lightning", written by The Big Bopper, which launched his career as a singer. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones". After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999. Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure.


title: George Jones

text: George Glenn Jones was born on September 12, 1931, in Saratoga, Texas, and was raised in Colmesneil, Texas, with his brother and five sisters in the Big Thicket region of southeast Texas. His father, George Washington Jones, worked in a shipyard and played harmonica and guitar, while his mother, Clara (née Patterson), played piano in the Pentecostal Church on Sundays. During his delivery, one of the doctors dropped Jones and broke his arm. When he was seven, his parents bought a radio, and he heard country music for the first time. Jones recalled to "Billboard" in 2006 that he would lie in bed with his parents on Saturday nights listening to the "Grand Ole Opry" and insist that his mother wake him if he fell asleep so he could hear Roy Acuff or Bill Monroe. In his autobiography "I Lived To Tell It All", Jones explains that the early death of his sister Ethel spurred on his father's drinking problem, and by all accounts, George Washington Jones could be physically and emotionally abusive to his wife and children when he drank. In the book "George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend", Bob Allen recounts how George Washington Jones would return home in the middle of the night with his cronies roaring drunk, wake up a terrified George Glenn Jones, and demand that he sing for them or face a beating. In a CMT episode of "Inside Fame" dedicated to Jones' life, country music historian Robert K. Oermann marveled, "You would think that it would make him not a singer, because it was so abusively thrust on him. But the opposite happened; he became a "chronic singer". He became someone who had to sing." In the same program, Jones admitted that he remained ambivalent and resentful towards his father up until the day he died and observed in his autobiography, "The Jones family makeup doesn't sit well with liquor...Daddy was an unusual drinker. He drank to excess, but never while working, and he probably was the hardest working man I've ever known." His father bought him his first guitar at age nine and he learned his first chords and songs at church, and several photographs show a young George busking on the streets of Beaumont.


title: George Jones

text: He left home at 16 and went to Jasper, Texas, where he sang and played on the KTXJ radio station with fellow musician Dalton Henderson. From there, he worked at the KRIC radio station. During one such afternoon show, Jones met his idol, Hank Williams ("I just stared," he later wrote). In the 1989 video documentary "Same Ole Me", Jones admitted, "I couldn't think or eat nothin' unless it was Hank Williams, and I couldn't wait for his next record to come out. He had to be, really, the greatest." He married his first wife Dorothy Bonvillion in 1950, but they divorced in 1951. He was enlisted in the United States Marines until his discharge in 1953. He was stationed in San Jose, California, for his entire service.


title: George Jones

text: Jones married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. His first record, the self-penned "No Money in This Deal", was recorded on January 19, and appeared in February on Starday Records, beginning the singer's association with producer and mentor H.W. "Pappy" Daily. The song was actually cut in Starday Records' co-founder Jack Starnes' living room and produced by Starnes. Jones also worked at KTRM (now KZZB) in Beaumont around this time. Deejay Gordon Baxter told Nick Tosches that Jones acquired the nickname "possum" while working there: "One of the deejays there, Slim Watts, took to calling him George P. Willicker Picklepuss Possum Jones. For one thing, he cut his hair short, like a possum's belly. He had a possum's nose and stupid eyes, like a possum." During his early recording sessions, Daily admonished Jones for attempting to sound too much like his heroes Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell. In later years, Jones would have little good to say about the music production at Starday, recalling to NPR in 1996 that "it was a terrible sound. We recorded in a small living room of a house on a highway near Beaumont. You could hear the trucks. We had to stop a lot of times because it wasn't soundproof, it was just egg crates nailed on the wall and the big old semi trucks would go by and make a lot of noise and we'd have to start over again." Jones' first hit came with "Why Baby Why" in 1955. That same year, while touring as a cast member of the "Louisiana Hayride", Jones met and played shows with Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. "I didn't get to know him that well," Jones said of Presley to Nick Tosches in 1994. "He stayed pretty much with his friends around him in his dressing room. Nobody seemed to get around him much any length of time to talk to him." Jones would, however, remain a lifelong friend of Johnny Cash. Jones was invited to sing at the "Grand Ole Opry" in 1956.


title: George Jones

text: With Presley's explosion in popularity in 1956, pressure was put on Jones to cut a few rockabilly sides, and he reluctantly agreed. His heart was never in it, however, and he quickly regretted the decision; in his autobiography, he joked, "During the years, when I've encountered those records, I've used them for Frisbees." He explained to "Billboard" in 2006: "I was desperate. When you're hungry, a poor man with a house full of kids, you're gonna do some things you ordinarily wouldn't do. I said, 'Well, hell, I'll try anything once.' I tried 'Dadgum It How Come It' and 'Rock It', a bunch of shit. I didn't want my name on the rock and roll thing, so I told them to put Thumper Jones on it and if it did something, good, if it didn't, hell, I didn't want to be shamed with it." Jones went on to say he unsuccessfully attempted to buy all the masters to keep the cuts from surfacing later, which they did.


title: George Jones

text: Jones moved to Mercury in 1957. In early 1957, Jones teamed up with singer Jeannette Hicks, the first of several duet partners he would have over the years, and enjoyed yet another top-10 single with "Yearning". Starday Records merged with Mercury that same year, and Jones scored high marks on the charts with his debut Mercury release of "Don't Stop the Music". Meanwhile, Jones was travelling the black-top roads in a 1940s Packard with his name and phone number emblazoned on the side. Although he was garnering a lot of attention and his singles were making very respectable showings on the charts, Jones was still playing the "blood bucket" circuit of honky-tonks that dotted the rural countryside.


title: George Jones

text: In 1959, Jones had his first number one on the "Billboard" country chart with "White Lightnin'", ironically a more authentic rock and roll sound than his half-hearted rockabilly cuts. In the "Same Ole Me" retrospective, Johnny Cash insisted, "George Jones woulda been a really hot rockabilly artist if he'd approached it from that angle. Well, "he was", really, but never got the credit for it." "White Lightnin'" was written by J. P. Richardson, better known as the Big Bopper. In "I Lived To Tell It All", Jones confessed that he showed up for the recording session under the influence of a great deal of alcohol and it took him about 80 takes just to record his vocals.


title: George Jones

text: One aspect of Jones' early career was his success as a songwriter; he wrote or co-wrote many of his biggest hits during this period, several of which have become standards, such as "Window Up Above" (later a smash for Mickey Gilley in 1975) and "Seasons of My Heart" (a hit for Johnny Cash and also recorded by Willie Nelson and Jerry Lee Lewis). Jones wrote "Just One More" (also recorded by Cash), "Life To Go" (a top-five hit for Stonewall Jackson in 1959), "You Gotta Be My Baby", and "Don't Stop The Music" on his own and had a hand in writing "Color of the Blues" (covered by Loretta Lynn and Elvis Costello), "Tender Years", and "Tall, Tall Trees" (co-written with Roger Miller). Jones' most frequent songwriting collaborator was his childhood friend Darrell Edwards.


title: George Jones

text: Jones signed with United Artists in 1962, and immediately scored one of the biggest hits of his career, "She Thinks I Still Care". His voice had grown noticeably deeper during this period, and he began cultivating the singing style that became uniquely his own. During his stint with UA, Jones recorded tribute albums to Hank Williams and Bob Wills, and cut an album of duets with Melba Montgomery, including the hit "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds". Jones was also well on his way to gaining a reputation as a notorious hell-raiser. In his "Rolling Stone" tribute, Merle Haggard recalls:


title: George Jones

text: On tour, Jones was always backed by the Jones Boys. Like Buck Owens' Buckaroos and Merle Haggard's Strangers, Jones worked with many musicians who were great talents in their own right, including Dan Schafer, Hank Singer, Brittany Allyn, Sonny Curtis, Kent Goodson, Bobby Birkhead, and Steve Hinson. In the 1980s and 1990s, bass player Ron Gaddis served as the Jones Boys' bandleader and sang harmony with Jones in concert. Lorrie Morgan (who married Gaddis) also toured as a backup singer for Jones in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Johnny Paycheck was the Jones Boys' bass player in the 1960s before going on to his own stardom in the 1970s.


title: George Jones

text: In 1964, Pappy Daily secured a new contract with Musicor records. For the rest of the 1960s, Jones would score only one number one (1967's "Walk Through This World With Me"), but he practically owned the country music charts throughout the decade. Significant hits include "Love Bug" (a nod to Buck Owens and the Bakersfield sound), "Things Have Gone to Pieces", "The Race Is On", "My Favorite Lies", "I'll Share My World with You", "Take Me" (a song he co-wrote and would later record with Tammy Wynette), "A Good Year for the Roses", and "If My Heart Had Windows". By this point, Jones' singing style had evolved from the full-throated, high lonesome sound of Hank Williams and Roy Acuff on his early Starday records to the more refined, subtle style of Lefty Frizzell. In a 2006 interview with "Billboard", Jones acknowledged the fellow Texan's influence on his idiosyncratic phrasing: "I got that from Lefty. He always made five syllables out of one word."


title: George Jones

text: Jones' binge drinking and use of amphetamines on the road caught up to him in 1967, and he had to be admitted into a neurological hospital to seek treatment for his drinking. Jones would go to extreme lengths for a drink if the thirst was on him. Perhaps the most famous drinking story concerning Jones occurred while he was married to his second wife Shirley Corley. Jones recalled Shirley making it physically impossible for him to travel to Beaumont, located 8 miles away, to buy liquor. Because Jones would not walk that far, she would hide the keys to each of their cars they owned before leaving. She did not, however, hide the keys to the lawn mower. Upset, Jones walked to the window and looked out over his property. He later described his thoughts in his memoir: "There, gleaming in the glow, was that ten-horsepower rotary engine under a seat. A key glistening in the ignition. I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did." Years later Jones comically mocked the incident by making a cameo in the video for "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" by Hank Williams Jr. He also parodied the episode in the 1993 video for "One More Last Chance" by Vince Gill and in his own music video for the single "Honky Tonk Song" in 1996. Curiously, in her 1979 autobiography "Stand By Your Man", Tammy Wynette claims the incident occurred while she was married to Jones, maintaining that she woke up at one o'clock in the morning to find her husband gone: "I got into the car and drove to the nearest bar 10 miles away. When I pulled into the parking lot, there sat our rider-mower right by the entrance. He'd driven that mower right down a main highway... He looked up and saw me and said, ‘Well, fellas, here she is now. My little wife, I told you she'd come after me.’"


title: George Jones

text: Jones became aware of Tammy Wynette because their tours were booked by the same agency and their paths sometimes crossed after Wynette's first minor hit "Apartment #9" in 1966, which was written by Johnny Paycheck. Wynette was married to songwriter Don Chapel, who was also the opening act for her shows at the time. The three became friends, but eventually Jones took more than a passing fancy to Wynette, who was 11 years his junior and grew up listening to all of his records. According to his autobiography, Jones went to their house for supper, and while she was fixing the meal, Wynette and Chapel got into a heated exchange with Chapel calling his wife "a son of a bitch." Jones wrote: "I felt rage fly all over me. I jumped from my chair, put my hands under the dinner table, and flipped it over. Dishes, utensils, and glasses flew in all directions. Don and Tammy's eyes got about as big as the flying dinner plates." Jones professed his love for Wynette on the spot and the couple married in 1969.


title: George Jones

text: They began touring together, and Jones bought out his contract with Musicor so he could record with Tammy and her producer Billy Sherrill on Epic Records (the singer had split with longtime producer Pappy Daily on acrimonious terms). Jones and Wynette became known as "Mr. & Mrs. Country Music" in the early 1970s, scoring several big hits, including "We're Gonna Hold On", "Let's Build A World Together", "Golden Ring", "Near You", and "(We're Not) The Jet Set". When asked about recording Jones and Wynette, Sherill told Dan Daley in 2002, "It did increase my scotch intake some. We started out trying to record the vocals together, but George drove Tammy crazy with his phrasing. He never, ever did it the same way twice. He could make a five-syllable word out of 'church.' Finally, Tammy said, 'Record George and let me listen to it, and then do my vocal after we get his on tape.' Tammy was a very quick study."


title: George Jones

text: In October 1970, shortly after the birth of their only child Tamala Georgette, Jones was straitjacketed and committed to a padded cell at the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, Florida, after a drunken bender; he was kept there to detoxify for 10 days before being released with a prescription for Librium. Jones managed longer stretches of sobriety with Wynette than he had enjoyed in years, but as the decade wore on, his drinking and erratic behavior worsened, leading to the couple's divorce in 1976. Jones accepted the responsibility for the failure of the marriage, but vehemently denied Wynette's allegations in her autobiography that he beat her and fired a shotgun at her. Remarkably, Jones and Wynette continued playing shows and drawing crowds in the years after their divorce, as fans began to see their songs mirroring their stormy relationship. In 1980, they recorded the album "Together Again" and scored a hit with "Two Story House". (In the 2019 Ken Burns documentary "Country Music", Sherrill remembered this time by comparing Jones and Wynette to "two wounded animals.") Jones also spoke publicly about his hopes for a reconciliation, and would jokingly reference Tammy in some of his songs - during performances of his 1981 hit "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will)" he would sing "Tammy's memory will" - but the recrimination continued unabated. After years of sniping, Jones and Wynette appeared to make peace in the 1990s, recording a final album, "One", and even touring together again before Wynette's death in 1998. In 1995, Jones told "Country Weekly", "Like the old saying goes, it takes time to heal things and they've been healed quite a while."


title: George Jones

text: Jones' pairing with Billy Sherrill at Epic Records came as a surprise to many; Sherrill and business partner Glenn Sutton are regarded as the defining influences of the countrypolitan sound, a smooth amalgamation of pop and country music that was popular during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, a far cry from George's honky-tonk roots. Despite a shaky start, the success that Sherrill had with Jones proved to be his most enduring; although "Billboard" chart statistics show that Sherrill had his biggest commercial successes with artists such as Wynette and Charlie Rich, with Jones, Sherrill had his longest-lasting association. In Sherrill, Jones found what Andrew Meuller of "Uncut" described as "the producer capable of creating the epically lachrymose arrangements his voice deserved and his torment demanded...He summoned for Jones the symphonies of sighing strings that almost made the misery of albums like 1974's "The Grand Tour" and 1976's "Alone Again" sound better than happiness could possibly feel." In 1974, they scored a number-one hit with the instant classic "The Grand Tour" and followed that with "The Door" ("I've heard the sound of my dear old mother cryin'/and the sound of the train that took me off to war"), another number-one smash. Unlike most singers, who might have been overwhelmed by the string arrangements and background vocalists Sherrill sometimes employed on his records, Jones' voice, with its at times frightening intensity and lucid tone, could stand up to anything. While Jones wrote fewer songs himself - songwriters had been tripping over themselves pitching songs to him for years - he still managed to co-write several, such as "What My Woman Can't Do" (also recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis), "A Drunk Can't Be A Man", the harrowing "I Just Don't Give a Damn" (perhaps the greatest "lost classic" in the entire Jones catalogue), and "These Days (I Barely Get By)", which he had written with Wynette.


title: George Jones

text: In the late 1970s, Jones spiraled out of control. Already drinking constantly, a manager named Shug Baggot introduced him to cocaine before a show because he was too tired to perform. The drug increased Jones' already considerable paranoia. During one drunken binge, he shot at, and very nearly hit, his friend and occasional songwriting partner Earl "Peanutt" Montgomery after Montgomery had quit drinking after finding religion. He was often penniless and acknowledged in his autobiography that Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash came to his financial aid during this time. Jones also began missing shows at an alarming rate and lawsuits from promoters started piling up. In 1978, owing Wynette $36,000 in child support and claiming to be $1 million in debt, he filed for bankruptcy. Jones appeared incoherent at times, speaking in quarrelling voices that he would later call "the Duck" and "the Old Man". In his article "The Devil In George Jones", Nick Tosches states, "By February 1979, he was homeless, deranged, and destitute, living in his car and barely able to digest the junk food on which he subsisted. He weighed under a hundred pounds, and his condition was so bad that it took him more than two years to complete "My Very Special Guests", an album on which Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis Costello, and other famous fans came to his vocal aid and support. Jones entered Hillcrest Psychiatric Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Upon his release in January 1980, the first thing he did was pick up a six-pack."


title: George Jones

text: Jones often displayed a sheepish, self-deprecating sense of humor regarding his dire financial standing and bad reputation. In June 1979, he appeared with Waylon Jennings on Ralph Emery's syndicated radio program, and at one point Jennings cracked, "It's lonely at the top." A laughing Jones replied, "It's lonely at the bottom, too! It's real, real lonely, Waylon." Despite his chronic unreliability, Jones was still capable of putting on a captivating live show. On Independence Day, 1976, he appeared at Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic in Gonzales, Texas, in front of 80,000 younger, country-rock oriented fans. A nervous Jones felt out of his comfort zone and nearly bolted from the festival, but went on anyway and wound up stealing the show. "The Houston Post" wrote, "He was the undisputed star of this year's Willie Nelson picnic...one of the greatest." "Penthouse" called him "the spirit of country music, plain and simple, its Holy Ghost". "The Village Voice" added, "As a singer he is as intelligent as they come, and should be considered for a spot in America's all-time top ten." Jones began missing more shows than he made, however, including several highly publicized dates at the Bottom Line club in New York City. Former vice president of CBS Records Rick Blackburn recalls in the 1989 video "Same Ole Me" that the event had been hyped for weeks, with a lot of top press and cast members from "Saturday Night Live" planning to attend. "We'd made our plans, travel arrangements, and so forth. George excused himself from my office, left - and we didn't see him for three weeks. He just "did not show up"." Much like Hank Williams, Jones seemed suspicious of success and furiously despised perceived slights and condescension directed towards the music that he loved so dearly. When he finally played the Bottom Line in 1980, the "New York Times" called him "the finest, most riveting singer in country music."


title: George Jones

text: By 1980, Jones had not had a number-one single in six years, and many critics began to write him off. However, the singer stunned the music industry in April when "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was released and shot to number one on the country charts, remaining there for 18 weeks. The song, written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, tells the story of a man whose lover leaves him, but he vows to love her until he dies in hopes that she returns; she eventually returns, along with the singer, at the man's funeral, described in poetic terms. Jones' interpretation, buoyed by his delivery of the line "first time I'd seen him smile in years" (a rictus grin), gives it a mournful, gripping realism. It is consistently voted as one of the greatest country songs of all time, along with "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" by Hank Williams and "Crazy" by Patsy Cline. Jones, who personally hated the song and considered it morbid, ultimately gave the song credit for reviving his flagging career, stating, "a four-decade career had been salvaged by a three-minute song." Jones earned the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1980. The Academy of Country Music awarded the song Single of the Year and Song of the Year in 1980. It also became the Country Music Association's Song of the Year in both 1980 and 1981.


title: George Jones

text: The success of "He Stopped Loving Her Today" led CBS Records to renew Jones' recording contract and sparked new interest in the singer. He was the subject of an hour-and-a-quarter-long HBO television special entitled "George Jones: With a Little Help from His Friends", which had him performing songs with Waylon Jennings, Elvis Costello, Tanya Tucker, and Tammy Wynette, among others. Jones continued drinking and using cocaine, appearing at various awards shows to accept honors for "He Stopped Loving Her Today" obviously inebriated, like when he performed "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" with Barbara Mandrell at the 1981 Country Music Association Awards. He was involved in several high-speed car chases with police, which were reported on the national news, and one arrest was filmed by a local TV crew; the video, which is widely available online, offers a glimpse into Jones' alter ego when drinking, as he argues with the police officer and lunges at the camera man. Conversely, when sober, Jones was known to be friendly and down to earth, even shy. In a 1994 article on Jones, Nick Tosches remarked that when he first interviewed the singer in April 1976, "One could readily believe the accounts by those who had known him for years: that he had not changed much at all and that he had been impervious to fame and fortune." In an unusually unguarded self-appraisal in 1981, the singer told Mark Rose of "The Village Voice", "I don't show a lot of affection. I have probably been a very unliked person among family, like somebody who was heartless. I saved it all for the songs. I didn't know you were supposed to show that love person to person. I guess I always wanted to, but I didn't know how. The only way I could would be to do it in a song." Years later he commented to the Christian Broadcasting Network's Scott Ross about himself, "I think you're mad at yourself, I think that you're sayin' to yourself 'You don't deserve this. You don't deserve those fans. You don't deserve makin' this money.' And you're mad at yourself. And you beat up on yourself by drinkin' and losing friends that won't put up with that...It's just one terrible big mess you make out of your life." In 1982, Jones recorded the album "A Taste of Yesterday's Wine" with Merle Haggard; while Jones, in the wake of his condition, appeared underweight on the album cover, his singing was flawless. His run of hits also continued in the early 1980s, with the singer charting "I'm Not Ready Yet", "Same Ole Me" (backed by the Oak Ridge Boys)", "Still Doin' Time", "Tennessee Whiskey", "We Didn't See a Thing" (a duet with Ray Charles), and "I Always Get Lucky with You", which was Jones' last number one in 1984.


title: George Jones

text: In 1981, Jones met Nancy Sepulvado, a 34-year-old divorcée from Mansfield, Louisiana. Sepulvado's positive impact on Jones' life and career cannot be overstated; she eventually cleaned up his finances, kept him away from his drug dealers (who reportedly kidnapped her daughter in retaliation), and managed his career. Jones always gave her complete credit for saving his life. Nancy, who did not drink, explained to Nick Tosches in 1994, "He was drinking but he was fun to be around. It wasn't love at first sight or anything like that. But I saw what a good person he was, deep down, and I couldn't help caring about him." Jones managed to quit cocaine, but went on a drunken rampage in Alabama in fall 1983, and was once again straitjacketed and committed to Hillcrest Psychiatric Hospital suffering from malnutrition and delusions. By that time, though, physically and emotionally exhausted, he really did want to quit drinking. In March 1984 in Birmingham, Alabama - at the age of 52 - Jones performed his first sober show since the early '70s. "All my life it seems like I've been running from something," he told the United Press International in June. "If I knew what it was, maybe I could run in the right direction, but I always seem to end up going the other way." Jones began making up many of the dates he had missed, playing them for free to pay back promoters, and began opening his concerts with "No Show Jones", a song he had written with Glen Martin that poked fun at himself and other country singers. Jones always stressed that he was not proud of the way he treated loved ones and friends over the years, and was ashamed of disappointing his fans when he missed shows, telling "Billboard" in 2006, "I know it hurt my fans in a way and I've always been sad about that, it really bothered me for a long time."


title: George Jones

text: Mostly sober for the rest of the 1980s, Jones consistently released albums with Sherrill producing, including "Shine On", "Jones Country", "You've Still Got A Place In My Heart", "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes", "Wine Colored Roses" (an album Jones would tell Jolene Downs in 2001 was one of his personal favorites), "Too Wild Too Long", and "One Woman Man". Jones' video for his 1985 hit "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes" won the CMA award for Video of the Year (Billy Sherrill makes a cameo as the bus driver).


title: George Jones

text: In 1990, Jones released his last proper studio album on Epic, "You Oughta Be Here With Me". Although the album featured several stirring performances, including the lead single "Hell Stays Open All Night Long" and the Roger Miller-penned title song, the single did poorly and Jones made the switch to MCA, ending his relationship with Sherrill and what was now Sony Music after 19 years. His first album with MCA, "And Along Came Jones", was released in 1991, and backed by MCA's powerful promotion team and producer Kyle Lehning (who had produced a string of hit albums for Randy Travis), the album sold better than his previous one had. However, two singles, "You Couldn't Get The Picture" and "She Loved A Lot In Her Time" (a tribute to Jones' mother Clara), did not crack the top 30 on the charts, as Jones lost favor with country radio, as the format was altered radically during the early 1990s. His last album to have significant radio airplay was 1992's "Walls Can Fall", which featured the novelty song "Finally Friday" and "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair", a testament to his continued vivaciousness in old age. Despite the lack of radio airplay, Jones continued to record and tour throughout the 1990s and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame by Randy Travis in 1992. In 1996, Jones released his autobiography "I Lived To Tell It All" with Tom Carter, and the irony of his long career was not lost on him, with the singer writing in its preface, "I also know that a lot of my show-business peers are going to be angry after reading this book. So many have worked so hard to maintain their careers. I never took my career seriously, and yet it's flourishing." He also pulled no punches about his disappointment in the direction country music had taken, devoting a full chapter to the changes in the country music scene of the 1990s that had him removed from radio playlists in favor of a younger generation of pop-influenced country stars. (Jones had long been a critic of country pop, and along with Wynette and Jean Shepard, he was one of the major backers of the Association of Country Entertainers, a guild promoting traditional country sounds that was founded in 1974; Jones's divorce from Wynette was a factor in the association's collapse.) Despite his absence from the country charts during this time, latter-day country superstars such as Garth Brooks, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, and many others often paid tribute to Jones, while expressing their love and respect for his legacy as a true country legend who paved the way for their own success. On February 17, 1998, The Nashville Network premiered a group of television specials called "The George Jones Show", with Jones as host. The program featured informal chats with Jones holding court with country's biggest stars old and new, and of course, music. Guests included Loretta Lynn, Trace Adkins, Johnny Paycheck, Lorrie Morgan, Merle Haggard, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Charley Pride, Bobby Bare, Patty Loveless, and Waylon Jennings, among others.


title: George Jones

text: While Jones remained committed to "pure country", he worked with the top producers and musicians of the day and the quality of his work remained high. Some of his significant performances include "I Must Have Done Something Bad", "Wild Irish Rose", "Billy B. Bad" (a sarcastic jab at country music establishment trendsetters), "A Thousand Times A Day", "When The Last Curtain Falls", and the novelty "High-Tech Redneck". Jones' most popular song in his later years was "Choices", the first single from his 1999 studio album "Cold Hard Truth". A video was also made for the song, and Jones won another Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. The song was at the center of controversy when the Country Music Association invited Jones to perform it on the awards show, but required that he perform an abridged version. Jones refused and did not attend the show. Alan Jackson was disappointed with the association's decision, and halfway through his own performance during the show, he signaled to his band and played part of Jones' song in protest.


title: George Jones

text: On March 6, 1999, Jones was involved in an accident when he crashed his sport utility vehicle near his home. He was taken to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), where he was released two weeks later. In May of that year, Jones pleaded guilty to drunk-driving charges related to the accident. (In his memoir published three years earlier, Jones admitted that he sometimes had a glass of wine before dinner and that he still drank beer occasionally, but insisted, "I don't squirm in my seat, fighting the urge for another drink" and speculated, "perhaps I'm not a true alcoholic in the modern sense of the word. Perhaps I was always just an old fashioned drunk.")


title: George Jones

text: The crash was a significant turning point, as he explained to "Billboard" in 2006: "when I had that wreck, I made up my mind, it put the fear of God in me. No more smoking, no more drinking. I didn't have to have no help, I made up my mind to quit. I don't crave it." After the accident, Jones went on to release "The Gospel Collection" in 2003, for which Billy Sherrill came out of retirement to produce. He appeared at a televised Johnny Cash Memorial Concert in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 2003, singing "Big River" with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. In 2008, Jones received the Kennedy Center Honor along with Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who, Barbra Streisand, Morgan Freeman, and Twyla Tharp. President George W. Bush disclosed that he had many of Jones' songs on his iPod. Jones also served as judge in 2008 for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. and "Rolling Stone" named him number 43 in their 100 Greatest Singers of All Time issue. An album titled "Hits I Missed and One I Didn't", in which he covered hits he had passed on, as well as a remake of his own "He Stopped Loving Her Today", would be released as his final studio album. In 2012, Jones received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award.


title: George Jones

text: On March 29, 2012, Jones was taken to the hospital with an upper respiratory infection. Months later, on May 21, Jones was hospitalized again for his infection and was released five days later. On August 14, 2012, Jones announced his farewell tour, the Grand Tour, with scheduled stops at 60 cities. His final concert was held in Knoxville at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum on April 6, 2013.


title: George Jones

text: Jones was scheduled to perform his final concert at the Bridgestone Arena on November 22, 2013. However, on April 18, 2013, Jones was taken to VUMC for a slight fever and irregular blood pressure. His concerts in Alabama and Salem were postponed as a result. Following six days in intensive care at VUMC, Jones died on April 26, 2013, at age 81. Former First Lady Laura Bush was among those eulogizing Jones at his funeral on May 2, 2013. Other speakers were Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, news personality Bob Schieffer, and country singers Barbara Mandrell and Kenny Chesney. Alan Jackson, Kid Rock, Ronnie Milsap, Randy Travis, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Travis Tritt, the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Wynonna, and Brad Paisley provided musical tributes. The service was broadcast live on CMT, GAC, RFD-TV, The Nashville Network and FamilyNet as well as Nashville stations. SiriusXM and WSM 650AM, home of the Grand Ole Opry, broadcast the event on the radio. The family requested that contributions be made to the Grand Ole Opry Trust Fund or to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.


title: George Jones

text: Jones was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville. His death made headlines all over the world; many country stations (as well as a few of other formats, such as oldies/classic hits) abandoned or modified their playlists and played his songs throughout the day. The week after Jones's death, "He Stopped Loving Her Today" re-entered the hot country songs at number 21.


title: George Jones

text: Jones tirelessly defended the integrity of country music, telling "Billboard" in 2006, "It's never been for love of money. I thank God for it because it makes me a living. But I sing because I love it, not because of the dollar signs." Jones also went out of his way to promote younger country singers that he felt were as passionate about the music as he was. "Everybody knows he's a great singer," Alan Jackson stated in 1995, "but what I like most about George is that when you meet him, he is like some old guy that works down at the gas station...even though he's a legend!"


title: George Jones

text: Shortly after Jones' death, Andrew Mueller wrote about his influence in "Uncut", "He was one of the finest interpretive singers who ever lifted a microphone...There cannot be a single country songwriter of the last 50-odd years who has not wondered what it might be like to hear their words sung by that voice." In an article for "The Texas Monthly" in 1994, Nick Tosches eloquently described the singer's vocal style: "While he and his idol, Hank Williams, have both affected generations with a plaintive veracity of voice that has set them apart, Jones has an additional gift—a voice of exceptional range, natural elegance, and lucent tone. Gliding toward high tenor, plunging toward deep bass, the magisterial portamento of his onward-coursing baritone emits white-hot sparks and torrents of blue, investing his poison love songs with a tragic gravity and inflaming his celebrations of the honky-tonk ethos with the hellfire of abandon." In the "New Republic" essay "Why George Jones ranks with Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday," David Hajdu writes:


title: George Jones

text: David Cantwell recalled in 2013, "His approach to singing, he told me once, was to call up those memories and feelings of his own that most closely corresponded to those being felt by the character in whatever song he was performing. He was a kind of singing method actor, creating an illusion of the real." In the liner notes to "Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country" Rich Kienzle states, "Jones sings of people and stories that are achingly human. He can turn a ballad into a catharsis by wringing every possible emotion from it, making it a primal, strangled cry of anguish". In 1994, country music historian Colin Escott pronounced, "Contemporary country music is virtually founded on reverence for George Jones. Walk through a room of country singers and conduct a quick poll, George nearly always tops it." Waylon Jennings expressed a similar opinion in his song "It's Alright": "If we all could sound like we wanted to, we'd all sound like George Jones." In the wake of Jones's death, Merle Haggard pronounced in "Rolling Stone", "His voice was like a Stradivarius violin: one of the greatest instruments ever made." Emmylou Harris wrote, "When you hear George Jones sing, you are hearing a man who takes a song and makes it a work of art - always," a quote that appeared on the sleeve of Jones' 1976 album "The Battle". In the documentary "Same Ole Me", several country music stars offer similar thoughts. Randy Travis: "It sounds like he's lived every minute of every word that he sings and there's very few people who can do that"; Tom T. Hall: "It was always Jones who got the message across just right"; and Roy Acuff: "I'd give anything if I could sing like George Jones".


title: George Jones

text: In the same film, producer Billy Sherrill states, "All I did was change the instrumentation around him. I don't think he's changed "at all"."


title: George Jones

text: Jones was the subject of the second season of the podcast "Cocaine and Rhinestones", which contends Jones is the greatest country music singer ever.


title: George Jones

text: Unlike some of his contemporaries, Jones painstakingly adhered to country music. He never reached the top 40 of the "Billboard Hot 100" and almost never had any of his music played on mainstream popular music stations in his career, but, ironically, without even trying, Jones' unabashed loyalty to strictly country arrangements attracted the admiration of musicians and songwriters from a wide range of genres. In an often-quoted tribute, Frank Sinatra called Jones "the second-best singer in America". In a "Rolling Stone" interview in 1969, Bob Dylan was asked what he thought was the best song released in the previous year, and he replied, "George Jones had one called 'Small Time Laboring Man'," and in his autobiography "Chronicles", Dylan states that in the early 1960's, he was largely unimpressed by what he heard on the radio, and admits "Outside of maybe George Jones, I didn't listen to country music either." Country rock pioneer Gram Parsons was an avid George Jones fan and covered Jones' song "That's All It Took" on his first solo album. In the documentary "Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel", famous rock groupie Pamela Des Barres recalls seeing Parsons singing Jones' song "She Once Lived Here" at an empty Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles: "It was my peak, "peak" moment, not sitting on Jimmy Page's amp...that was my peak moment." Parsons reignited Keith Richards' interest in country music in the early '70s, and after Jones' death in 2013, the guitarist wrote, "He possessed the most touching voice, the most expressive ways of projecting that beautiful instrument of anyone I can call to mind. You heard his heart in every note he sang." Richards recorded "Say It's Not You" with Jones for "The Bradley Barn Sessions" in 1994, and recalls in his autobiography hearing him sing for the first time when the Rolling Stones and Jones were on the same show in Texas in 1964: "They trailed in with tumbleweed following them, as if tumbleweed was their pet. Dust all over the place, a bunch of cowboys, but when George got up, we went whoa, there's a master up there." In the documentary "The History of Rock 'N' Roll", Mick Jagger also cites Jones as one of his favorite country singers.


title: George Jones

text: John Prine mentions Jones in his song "Jesus the Missing Years" and "Knockin' on Your Screen Door". Jones fan Elvis Costello had a surprise hit in the UK when he covered "A Good Year for the Roses" in 1981. Elliott Smith told an interviewer about his idea of Heaven: "George Jones would be singing all the time. It would be like New York in reverse: people would be nice to each other for no reason at all, and it would smell good." In a 2001 interview with Mark Binelli from "Rolling Stone", Leonard Cohen asked, "Have you heard George Jones' last record "Cold Hard Truth"? I love to hear an old guy lay out his situation. He has the best voice in America." The day Jones died, Cohen performed "Choices" on stage in Winnipeg, Canada, as a tribute to the country legend. In 2013, Robbie Robertson told "Uncut", "He was the Ray Charles of country music - the one who could make you cry with his voice...We wouldn't listen to country music, the guys in The Band, but we'd listen to George Jones..." Robert Plant told "Uncut"s Michael Bonner in 2014, "I now have to listen to George Jones once a day. Amazing singer. What a singer." James Taylor, who wrote "Bartender's Blues" with Jones in mind and sang background vocals with him on the recording, told "Rolling Stone", "He sounds like a steel guitar. It's the way he blends notes, the way he comes up to them, the way he crescendos and decrescendos. The dynamic of it is very tight and very controlled - it's like carving with the voice." Other disparate artists who recorded with Jones include Dennis Locorriere and Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook, Mark Knopfler, the Staples Singers, Leon Russell, B.B King, Blackberry Smoke, The Grateful Dead, and Linda Ronstadt. In 1995, Burt Reynolds wrote, "He is to country music what Spencer Tracy is to movies."


title: George Jones

text: Jones was one of the greatest harmony singers in country music, and released many duets over the course of his long career. While his songs with Tammy Wynette are his most celebrated, Jones claimed in his autobiography that he felt his duets with Melba Montgomery were his best. Jones also recorded duet albums with Gene Pitney and his former bass player Johnny Paycheck. George's record with Paycheck, 1980's "Double Trouble", is one of his most atypical records, and features him giving credible performances on numbers such as "Maybelline" and "You Better Move On". Jones also recorded the duet albums "My Very Special Guests" (1979), "A Taste of Yesterday's Wine" with Merle Haggard (1982), "Ladies Choice" (1984), "Friends In High Places" (1991), "The Bradley Barn Sessions" (1994), "God's Country: George Jones And Friends" (2006), a second album with Merle Haggard called "Kickin' Out The Footlights...Again" (2006), and "Burn Your Playhouse Down" (2008).


title: Cruise missile

text: A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high precision. Modern cruise missiles are capable of travelling at high subsonic, supersonic, or hypersonic speeds, are self-navigating, and are able to fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low-altitude trajectory.


title: Cruise missile

text: The idea of an "aerial torpedo" was shown in the British 1909 film "The Airship Destroyer" in which flying torpedoes controlled wirelessly are used to bring down airships bombing London.


title: Cruise missile

text: In 1916, the American aviator Lawrence Sperry built and patented an "aerial torpedo", the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, a small biplane carrying a TNT charge, a Sperry autopilot and a barometric altitude control. Inspired by the experiments, the United States Army developed a similar flying bomb called the Kettering Bug. Germany had also flown trials with remote-controlled aerial gliders "(Torpedogleiter)" built by Siemens-Schuckert beginning in 1916.


title: Cruise missile

text: In the Interwar Period, Britain's Royal Aircraft Establishment developed the Larynx (Long Range Gun with Lynx Engine), which underwent a few flight tests in the 1920s.


title: Cruise missile

text: In the Soviet Union, Sergei Korolev headed the GIRD-06 cruise missile project from 1932 to 1939, which used a rocket-powered boost-glide bomb design. The 06/III (RP-216) and 06/IV (RP-212) contained gyroscopic guidance systems. The vehicle was designed to boost to 28 km altitude and glide a distance of 280 km, but test flights in 1934 and 1936 only reached an altitude of 500 meters.


title: Cruise missile

text: In 1944, during World War II, Germany deployed the first operational cruise missiles. The V-1, often called a flying bomb, contained a gyroscope guidance system and was propelled by a simple pulsejet engine, the sound of which gave it the nickname of "buzz bomb" or "doodlebug". Accuracy was sufficient only for use against very large targets (the general area of a city), while the range of 250 km was significantly lower than that of a bomber carrying the same payload. The main advantages were speed (although not sufficient to outperform contemporary propeller-driven interceptors) and expendability. The production cost of a V-1 was only a small fraction of that of a V-2 supersonic ballistic missile with a similar-sized warhead. Unlike the V-2, the initial deployments of the V-1 required stationary launch ramps which were susceptible to bombardment. Nazi Germany, in 1943, also developed the Mistel composite aircraft program, which can be seen as a rudimentary air-launched cruise missile, where a piloted fighter-type aircraft was mounted atop an unpiloted bomber-sized aircraft that was packed with explosives to be released while approaching the target. Bomber-launched variants of the V-1 saw limited operational service near the end of the war, with the pioneering V-1's design reverse-engineered by the Americans as the Republic-Ford JB-2 cruise missile.


title: Cruise missile

text: Immediately after the war, the United States Air Force had 21 different guided missile projects, including would-be cruise missiles. All but four were cancelled by 1948, — the Air Materiel Command Banshee, the SM-62 Snark, the SM-64 Navaho, and the MGM-1 Matador. The Banshee design was similar to Operation Aphrodite; like Aphrodite, it failed, and was cancelled in April 1949. Concurrently, the US Navy's Operation Bumblebee, was conducted at Topsail Island, North Carolina, from c. 1 June 1946, to 28 July 1948. Bumblebee produced proof-of-concept technologies that influenced the US military's other missile projects.


title: Cruise missile

text: During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union experimented further with the concept, deploying early cruise missiles from land, submarines and aircraft. The main outcome of the United States Navy submarine missile project was the SSM-N-8 Regulus missile, based upon the V-1.


title: Cruise missile

text: The United States Air Force's first operational surface-to-surface missile was the winged, mobile, nuclear-capable MGM-1 Matador, also similar in concept to the V-1. Deployment overseas began in 1954, first to West Germany and later to the Republic of China and South Korea. On 7 November 1956, the U.S. Air Force deployed Matador units in West Germany, whose missiles were capable of striking targets in the Warsaw Pact, from their fixed day-to-day sites to unannounced dispersed launch locations. This alert was in response to the crisis posed by the Soviet attack on Hungary which suppressed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.


title: Cruise missile

text: Between 1957 and 1961 the United States followed an ambitious and well-funded program to develop a nuclear-powered cruise missile, Supersonic Low Altitude Missile (SLAM). It was designed to fly below the enemy's radar at speeds above Mach 3 and carry hydrogen bombs that it would drop along its path over enemy territory. Although the concept was proven sound and the 500 megawatt engine finished a successful test run in 1961, no airworthy device was ever completed. The project was finally abandoned in favor of ICBM development.


title: Cruise missile

text: While ballistic missiles were the preferred weapons for land targets, heavy nuclear and conventional weapon tipped cruise missiles were seen by the USSR as a primary weapon to destroy United States naval carrier battle groups. Large submarines (for example, Echo and Oscar classes) were developed to carry these weapons and shadow United States battle groups at sea, and large bombers (for example, Backfire, Bear, and Blackjack models) were equipped with the weapons in their air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) configuration.


title: Cruise missile

text: Cruise missiles generally consist of a guidance system, payload, and aircraft propulsion system, housed in an airframe with small wings and empennage for flight control. Payloads usually consist of a conventional warhead or a nuclear warhead. Cruise missiles tend to be propelled by jet engine, with turbofan engines in particular being preferred due to their greater efficiency at low altitude and subsonic speed.


title: Cruise missile

text: Guidance systems also vary greatly. Low-cost systems use a radar altimeter, barometric altimeter and clock to navigate a digital strip map. More advanced systems use inertial guidance, satellite guidance and terrain contour matching (TERCOM). Use of an automatic target recognition (ATR) algorithm/device in the guidance system increases accuracy of the missile. The Standoff Land Attack Missile features an ATR unit from General Electric.


title: Cruise missile

text: Cruise missiles can be categorized by size, speed (subsonic or supersonic), range, and whether launched from land, air, surface ship, or submarine. Often versions of the same missile are produced for different launch platforms; sometimes air- and submarine-launched versions are a little lighter and smaller than land- and ship-launched versions.


title: Cruise missile

text: Guidance systems can vary across missiles. Some missiles can be fitted with any of a variety of navigation systems (Inertial navigation, TERCOM, or satellite navigation). Larger cruise missiles can carry either a conventional or a nuclear warhead, while smaller ones carry only conventional warheads.


title: Cruise missile

text: These missiles travel faster than the speed of sound, usually using ramjet engines. The range is typically 100–500 km, but can be greater. Guidance systems vary.


title: Cruise missile

text: The United States, Russia, North Korea, India, Iran, South Korea, Israel, France, China and Pakistan have developed several long-range subsonic cruise missiles. These missiles have a range of over and fly at about . They typically have a launch weight of about and can carry either a conventional or a nuclear warhead. Earlier versions of these missiles used inertial navigation; later versions use much more accurate TERCOM and DSMAC systems. Most recent versions can use satellite navigation.


title: Cruise missile

text: These missiles are about the same size and weight and fly at similar speeds to the above category. Guidance systems vary.


title: Cruise missile

text: The most common mission for cruise missiles is to attack relatively high-value targets such as ships, command bunkers, bridges and dams. Modern guidance systems permit accurate attacks.


title: Cruise missile

text: , the BGM-109 Tomahawk missile model has become a significant part of the United States naval arsenal. It gives ships and submarines an extremely accurate, long-range, conventional land attack weapon. Each costs about US$1.99 million. Both the Tomahawk and the AGM-86 were used extensively during Operation Desert Storm. On 7 April 2017, during the Syrian Civil War, U.S. warships fired more than 50 cruise missiles into a Syrian air base in retaliation for a Syrian Sarin gas attack against a rebel stronghold.


title: Cruise missile

text: The United States Air Force (USAF) deploys an air-launched cruise missile, the AGM-86 ALCM. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is the exclusive delivery vehicle for the AGM-86 and AGM-129 ACM. Both missile types are configurable for either conventional or nuclear warheads.


title: Cruise missile

text: The USAF adopted the AGM-86 for its bomber fleet while AGM-109 was adapted to launch from trucks and ships and adopted by the USAF and Navy. The truck-launched versions, and also the Pershing II and SS-20 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles, were later destroyed under the bilateral INF (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces) treaty with the USSR.


title: Cruise missile

text: The British Royal Navy (RN) also operates cruise missiles, specifically the U.S.-made Tomahawk, used by the RN's nuclear submarine fleet. UK conventional warhead versions were first fired in combat by the RN in 1999, during the Kosovo War (the United States fired cruise missiles in 1991). The Royal Air Force uses the Storm Shadow cruise missile on its Typhoon and previously its Tornado GR4 aircraft. It is also used by France, where it is known as SCALP EG, and carried by the Armée de l'Air's Mirage 2000 and Rafale aircraft.


title: Cruise missile

text: India and Russia have jointly developed the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos. There are three versions of the Brahmos: ship/land-launched, air-launched and sub-launched. The ship/land-launched version were operational as of late 2007. The Brahmos has the capability to attack targets on land. Russia also continues to operate other cruise missiles: the SS-N-12 Sandbox, SS-N-19 Shipwreck, SS-N-22 Sunburn and SS-N-25 Switchblade. Germany and Spain operate the Taurus missile while Pakistan has made the Babur missile Both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) have designed several cruise missile variants, such as the well-known C-802, some of which are capable of carrying biological, chemical, nuclear, and conventional warheads.


title: Cruise missile

text: China has CJ-10 land attack cruise missile which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Additionally, China appears to have tested a hypersonic cruise missile in August 2021, a claim it denies.


title: Cruise missile

text: The French Force de Frappe nuclear forces include both land and sea-based bombers with Air-Sol Moyenne Portée (ASMP) high speed medium range nuclear cruise missiles. Two models are in use, ASMP and a newer ASMP-Ameliorer Plus (ASMP-A), which was developed in 1999. An estimated 40 to 50 were produced.


title: Cruise missile

text: India in 2017 successfully flight-tested its indigenous Nirbhay ('Fearless') land-attack cruise missile, which can deliver nuclear warheads to a strike range of 1,000-km. Nirbhay had been flight-tested successfully.


title: Cruise missile

text: The Israel Defense Forces reportedly deploy the medium-range air-launched Popeye Turbo ALCM and the Popeye Turbo SLCM medium-long range cruise missile with nuclear warheads on Dolphin class submarines.


title: Cruise missile

text: Pakistan currently has four cruise missile systems: the air-launched Ra'ad and its enhanced version Ra'ad II; the ground and underwater launched Babur; ship-launched Harbah missile and surface launched Zarb missile. Both, Ra'ad and Babur, can carry nuclear warheads between 10 and 25 kt, and deliver them to targets at a range of up to and respectively. Babur has been in service with the Pakistan Army since 2010.


title: Cruise missile

text: Russia has Kh-55SM cruise missiles, with a range similar to the United States' AGM-129 range of 3000 km, but are able to carry a more powerful warhead of 200 kt. They are equipped with a TERCOM system which allows them to cruise at an altitude lower than 110 meters at subsonic speeds while obtaining a CEP accuracy of 15 meters with an inertial navigation system. They are air-launched from either Tupolev Tu-95s, Tupolev Tu-22Ms, or Tupolev Tu-160s, each able to carry 16 for the Tu-95, 12 for the Tu-160, and 4 for the Tu-22M. A stealth version of the missile, the Kh-101 is in development. It has similar qualities as the Kh-55, except that its range has been extended to 5,000 km, equipped with a 1,000 kg conventional warhead, and has stealth features which reduces its probability of intercept.


title: Cruise missile

text: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the most recent cruise missile developed was the Kalibr missile which entered production in the early 1990s and officially inducted into the Russian arsenal in 1994. However, it only saw its combat debut on 7 October 2015, in Syria as a part of the Russian military campaign in Syria. The missile has been used 14 more times in combat operations in Syria since its debut.


title: Cruise missile

text: In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union was attempting to develop cruise missiles. In this short time frame, the Soviet Union was working on nearly ten different types of cruise missiles. However, due to resources, most of the initial types of cruise missiles developed by the Soviet Union were Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles or Submarine-Launched Cruise Missiles (SLCMs). The SS-N-1 cruise missile was developed to have different configurations to be fired from a submarine or a ship. However, as the time progressed, the Soviet Union began to work on air launched cruise missiles as well (ALCM). These ACLM missiles were typically delivered via bombers designated as "Blinders" or "Backfire". The missiles in this configuration were called the AS-1, and AS-2 with eventual new variants with more development time. The main purpose of Soviet-based cruise missiles was to have defense and offensive mechanisms against enemy ships; in other words most of the Soviet cruise missiles were anti-ship missiles. the 1980s the Soviet Union had developed an arsenal of cruise missiles nearing 600 platforms which consisted of land, sea, and air delivery systems.


title: Cruise missile

text: Currently cruise missiles are among the most expensive of single-use weapons, up to several million dollars apiece. One consequence of this is that its users face difficult choices in target allocation, to avoid expending the missiles on targets of low value. For instance, during the 2001 strikes on Afghanistan the United States attacked targets of very low monetary value with cruise missiles, which led many to question the efficiency of the weapon. However, proponents of the cruise missile counter that the weapon can not be blamed for poor target selection and the same argument applies to other types of UAVs: they are cheaper than human pilots when total training and infrastructure costs are taken into account, not to mention the risk of loss of personnel. As demonstrated in Libya in 2011 and prior conflicts, cruise missiles are much more difficult to detect and intercept than other aerial assets (reduced radar cross-section, infrared and visual signature due to smaller size), suiting them to attacks against static air defense systems.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Raphaël Xavier Varane (; born 25 April 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Manchester United and the France national team. Considered as one of the best defenders of his generation, Varane is known for his defensive prowess and speed.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane previously played for French club Lens and, ahead of the 2010–11 season, began training with the senior team and appeared on the bench in several league matches. Varane made his professional debut in 2010 aged 17, and after one season as a professional footballer, he joined Real Madrid. There, over the course of 10 seasons from 2011 to 2021, he won 18 trophies, including three La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey, four UEFA Champions League titles and four FIFA Club World Cups. In 2021, he left Real Madrid to sign with Manchester United.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane represented France at under-18, under-20 and under-21 level before making his full international debut in March 2013. He was part of France's FIFA World Cup squad in 2014, when he was nominated for the Best Young Player award, in 2018, when he played every minute of every game as France went on to win the title, and in 2022, when France finished as runners-up.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane was born in the city of Lille in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. He is of Martiniquais heritage through his father, Gaston, who is originally from Le Morne-Rouge, while his mother, Annie, was raised in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux. Varane began his football career in the Arrondissement of Lille playing for local club AS Hellemmes at the age of seven. After spending two years at the club, in July 2002, he joined professional club RC Lens, despite some interest from Derby du Nord rivals and hometown club Lille OSC. Similar to the development of the club's previous prized assets such as Gaël Kakuta and Timothée Kolodziejczak, Varane spent time at the Centre de Préformation de Football in nearby Liévin, a training center exclusively for players brought up in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. He spent two years at the center training there during the weekdays and playing with Lens on the weekends.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: After returning full-time to Lens, Varane quickly ascended up the club's youth ranks. In the 2008–09 season, alongside teammates Thorgan Hazard and Geoffrey Kondogbia, he played on the club's under-16 team that won the "Championnat National des 16 ans". In the following season, Varane was promoted to the club's under-19 team, despite being two years younger than several of his teammates. Ahead of the 2010–11 season, Varane signed his first professional contract. He was, subsequently, promoted to the club's reserve team in the Championnat de France amateur. Varane made his amateur debut in the club's opening league match of the campaign in a 2–0 victory over Drancy. He appeared as a starter in the club's next nine matches with the team losing only one of them.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: In late October of the campaign, Varane was called up to the senior team by manager Jean-Guy Wallemme to train ahead of the club's match against Montpellier on 6 November. He trained with the team for the entire week and, due to an injury to centre-back Alaeddine Yahia, Varane was, surprisingly, named to the starting lineup. In the match, he played the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 victory. The victory was only the club's third clean sheet of the season. Varane was praised by teammates, most notably captain Adil Hermach, defensive partner Éric Chelle, and striker David Pollet, as well as by the local media and coach Wallemme. In the next two matches, Varane, alongside several other youth players, sat on the bench as Lens faced two tough teams in Marseille and Lyon. He returned to the starting lineup on 30 November in a 4–1 defeat to Brest. Despite the firing of Wallemme following the Brest match, Varane remained a starter in the team under new manager László Bölöni. In December, with both Chelle and Yahia returning to action, Varane was placed in the defensive midfielder role in the team's match against Bordeaux. In the match, he acted as a roving third centre-back and made a blocked save in the 84th minute on a close range shot by Yoan Gouffran to preserve a 2–1 lead. However, in the latter stages of the match, Bordeaux equalized to draw the match at 2–2.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: In early 2011, Varane was the subject of transfer speculation linking him to several clubs. In an effort to quell the interest, on 3 February 2011, he signed a two-year contract extension with Lens until 2015. On 8 May, Varane scored his first professional goal in a 1–1 draw with Caen. In the team's following match against Monaco, he scored the equalizing goal in another 1–1 draw. Despite the goal, the stalemate condemned Lens to relegation back to Ligue 2 after two seasons in the top division. On 21 May, Varane captained Lens in its 1–0 defeat to Arles-Avignon.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: On 22 June 2011, Lens president Gervais Martel confirmed to a group of supporters at a club meeting that Varane would be joining La Liga club Real Madrid. Varane had previously visited Real Madrid's club facilities and also met with club advisor and compatriot Zinedine Zidane. On 27 June, the move was confirmed by Real Madrid after Varane successfully passed his medical. Varane signed a six-year contract with the club.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane was assigned the number 19 shirt and made his club debut for Real Madrid in the club's opening pre-season fixture against American outfit Los Angeles Galaxy in the 2011 World Football Challenge. He appeared as a half-time substitute as Real Madrid cruised to a 4–1 win. Varane made his first start for the club four days later in a 3–0 win over Mexican club Guadalajara. He finished the pre-season campaign appearing in seven of the eight pre-season matches Real Madrid contested.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane made his competitive debut for Real Madrid on 21 September in the team's league match against Racing de Santander. He started the match at centre-back alongside Ricardo Carvalho as the match ended 0–0. In the team's next league match three days later against Rayo Vallecano, Varane started and scored his first goal for the club after a flying back-heel shot following a Mesut Özil corner. Real Madrid won the match 6–2. Varane's goal made him the youngest foreign player at 18 years and 152 days to score a goal in a competitive match for Real Madrid. On 27 September, he made his UEFA Champions League debut in a 3–0 group stage win over Dutch club Ajax. Two months later, Varane made his second Champions League appearance against Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb. In the match, Varane started and assisted on the team's fifth goal, scored by José Callejón, in a 6–2 win. The victory ensured Real Madrid first place in its group.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Ahead of the 2012–13 season, Varane switched to the number 2 shirt. After failing to appear in Real Madrid's first four league matches, he made his season debut on 18 September in the club's opening UEFA Champions League group stage match against English club Manchester City. Varane started and played the entire match as Real Madrid won 3–2.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: On 30 January 2013, Varane made his "El Clásico" debut against Barcelona in the 2012–13 Copa del Rey. He stopped a group of dangerous attempts from Barcelona, including a shot from Xavi that he cleared from the goal line. He capped his performance with a headed goal in the game, which ended 1–1. He also became the second-youngest foreign player to score for Real Madrid in a Clásico match. In the return leg at the Camp Nou on 26 February 2013, Varane scored Madrid's third goal in a 3–1 away win with a header from a corner kick by Mesut Özil. Varane gained praise from former World Cup winner Bixente Lizarazu after his performances against Barcelona and Manchester United. He said, "We are talking about a kid at Real Madrid who has unseated Pepe, and Pepe, with all his stuff, is still a great centre-half. His performance against Manchester United and Barcelona was extraordinary". Varane continued to impress in the Champions League quarter final first leg against Galatasaray, where he helped Madrid keep a clean sheet in a 3–0 triumph. All of his 27 passes found his teammates without any interception, and all of his tackles succeeded, with most on Didier Drogba.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: In April 2013, Varane was named by "Marca" readers as a member of the "Best foreign eleven in Real Madrid's history". On 14 May 2013, Varane successfully underwent an operation on his right knee after an injury he had picked up during his last 2012–13 league match against Real Sociedad.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane came on as an injury-time substitute for Karim Benzema in the 2014 Copa del Rey Final which Real Madrid won 2–1 against Barcelona on 16 April. He played all 120 minutes of Real Madrid's 4–1 win over Atlético Madrid in the 2014 UEFA Champions League Final, in place of the more experienced Pepe. In added time at the end of extra time, after Cristiano Ronaldo scored the last goal, Varane kicked the ball towards Atlético manager Diego Simeone, causing him to run onto the pitch in anger. Simeone was sent to the stands and Varane booked for the incident. After the game, Atlético captain Gabi excused Varane due to his youth, while Simeone himself said, "I also made a mistake with my reaction. He's a young guy with a bright future." On 18 September 2014, Varane signed a new six-year contract to keep him at Real Madrid until 2020. He was a part-time starter when the team won the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Despite having a few injuries during the season, he made 23 appearances, when Madrid won the 2016–17 La Liga. He was starting in the final when Madrid won the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane's contract was extended until 2022 on 27 September 2017. During the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, he made eleven appearances, when Madrid won their third consecutive and 13th overall Champions League title. Following his club and international performances throughout the year, he was included in the 30-man shortlist for the 2018 Ballon d'Or, finishing in seventh place in the final ranking. He was also placed ninth in The Best FIFA Men's Player behind Kevin De Bruyne, and was elected as the starting centre-back for both the 2018 FIFPro Men's World11 and the UEFA Team of the Year.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: During the 2018–19 season, he made 43 appearances, while winning the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup. He was a regular starter during the following league season, as Real Madrid won the 2019–20 La Liga title. During the Champions League, Madrid were eliminated in the round of 16 by Manchester City. In the second leg at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, Madrid lost the game 2–1, with Varane being deemed to be at fault for both goals. The mistakes committed by the Frenchman were due to the high pressuring from Gabriel Jesus which led to Varane losing possession of the ball both times. He has since apologised for his mistakes.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: On 27 July 2021, it was announced that Manchester United and Real Madrid had reached an agreement for Varane's transfer, subject to a medical and to player terms being finalised. The transfer was completed on 14 August 2021, after Varane was announced in front of a packed Old Trafford crowd ahead of United's Premier League opener against Leeds United. He was given the number 19 shirt previously worn by Amad Diallo, which he also donned during his first season with Real Madrid. He made his debut on 29 August 2021 and contributed an assist to the winning goal in a 1–0 win away against Wolverhampton Wanderers.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: On 22 October 2022, Varane suffered a leg injury in a Premier League match against Chelsea. United manager Erik ten Hag said in a press conference on 26 October that the injury would rule Varane out of all of the club's matches ahead of the break for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, leaving his chances of being selected in the France squad for the tournament uncertain.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane was a France youth international having earned caps at under-18, under-20 and under-21 levels.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Prior to playing for the under-18 team, he was called up to the under-17 team, but did not make an appearance. Varane made his debut with the under-18 team on 24 August 2010 in a friendly match against Denmark. On his debut, he scored the final goal in a 2–0 victory. Varane turned down subsequent call-ups to the under-18 team because of his increased participation with the Lens first team and, as a result, missed the "Tournoi de Limoges" and a tournament in Israel. On 3 February 2011, he was called up to the under-21 team by coach Erick Mombaerts for the first time for a friendly match against Slovakia. Varane described the call up as "a huge surprise". He earned his first under-21 cap and start in the match against Slovakia playing the entire match in a 3–1 win. On 15 November, Varane scored his first under-21 goal in a 2–0 2013 Euro U-21 qualifying win over Slovakia. The victory ensured France qualification to at least the competition's qualifying play-offs.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: In August 2012, Varane was called to the full French national team squad for a friendly against Uruguay, but was an unused substitute. He started his first match for France on 22 March 2013 in a qualifier for the World Cup against Georgia, a 3–1 victory. On 13 May 2014, he was included in Didier Deschamps' squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: On 15 June 2014, he partnered Mamadou Sakho in central defence for "Les Bleus" first World Cup fixture – a 3–0 win over Honduras. He was also in the starting line-up for the second group match against Switzerland and the knockout matches against Nigeria and Germany, as France were eliminated at the quarter-final stage by the Germans 1–0. Varane took the blame for allowing Mats Hummels to hold him off at the critical set-piece which allowed the German defender to head the winning goal.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: In spite of this, Varane was named on the three-man shortlist for the tournament's Best Young Player award. On 14 October, Varane became the youngest player to captain France when he took over from Blaise Matuidi at half time in a 3–0 win over Armenia. He was then selected as the team's starting captain for a home friendly against Sweden on 18 November, where he scored his first international goal to give "Les Bleus" a 1–0 win.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: On 24 May 2016, he was ruled out of UEFA Euro 2016 with a thigh injury, and was replaced by Adil Rami.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: On 17 May 2018, Varane was called up to France's 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He would go on to start in all seven of France's games and play every minute. In the quarter-final against Uruguay, Varane he scored the opening goal with a header in France's 2–0 victory. France later went on to win the competition for the second time in history, and Varane became only the fourth player to be a World Cup champion and Champions League winner in the same year, after Christian Karembeu (in 1998), Roberto Carlos (in 2002), and Sami Khedira (in 2014). All the players, like Varane, were playing for Real Madrid at the time they won the World Cup.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: In May 2021, he was included in the squad for the UEFA Euro 2020. He played in every minute of France's four matches at the tournament, including the period of extra time at the end of their round of 16 match against Switzerland; that match went to penalties, but Varane was not selected to take one of the first five kicks as France lost 5–4.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane has been described by Lens youth coach Éric Assadourian as a "truly first-class player" who is "comfortable on both the tactical and technical level". On 30 January 2013, the then Real Madrid assistant coach Aitor Karanka talked about Varane in the press conference post-"El Clásico" of the Copa del Rey, saying, "It's obvious that Varane has a good head on his shoulders and will keep improving."


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Former France defender Frank Leboeuf believes that Varane has the potential to be better than Real Madrid legend Fernando Hierro, saying to reporters, "Many compare him to Hierro due to his technique, but on the physical level he is stronger and he is much faster." Fernando Hierro and José Mourinho have labelled Varane as one of the best defenders in world football.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: Varane is married to his long-time partner Camille Tytgat, and they have a son named Ruben and a daughter named Anaïs.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: When Zinedine Zidane called Varane about Real Madrid's interest in signing him in June 2011, Varane asked Zidane to call him back because he was in the middle of studying for his baccalaureate exam.


title: Raphaël Varane

text: His brother, Jonathan Varane, is a professional footballer who currently plays for Rodez AF. His sister, Annabelle Varane, was Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais 2018 and competed in Miss France 2019.