Jesus and Jones

Album: Something's Going On (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • This Tyler Farr, Jim McCormick and Casey Beathard penned song finds Adkins singing of being torn between the spiritual and the secular. "That's where I am. I've always been in that place. I started out singing gospel music and then found myself singing George Jones songs in a beer joint," he told Taste of Country. "So you have this kind of struggle there internally between those two things. Sometimes I'm a good boy, sometimes I'm not."
  • When Adkins performs this live, his band starts the groove, then he starts talking. He told Billboard magazine: "I tell the story of how I started out singing bass in a Southern gospel quartet, and I did that for several years. At the same time, I was playing guitar with all of my daddy's country records, like George Jones, Waylon Jennings, and Merle Haggard. At some point, I found myself singing George Jones songs in a beer joint. You have to try to find that middle ground between singing in a gospel quartet and in a beer joint. It's a weird thing."
  • Adkins recalled the first time he ever opened for George Jones. "I went out on stage to do the encore in his set. He was so gracious to do that for his opening acts. His big hit at the time was 'I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair.' He'd invite the opening acts to come out and sing it with him. That was around 1998, and I remember it being such an overwhelming feeling."

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