Jake Brennan

But the words came out like some demonic impersonation of Donald Duck.

The old man turned toward the backseat and sneered.

D-Doodle, he explained.

I'm just making sure he knows the plan.

D-Doodle reached for the gun, but the old man held it just out of his reach.

They tussled for a minute before they got bored, and then they turned their gaze towards George.

Well, they both asked with questioning eyes.

Oh yeah, George knew the plan.

He snatched the gun from the old man, and with shaky hands he opened the cylinder of the revolver and loaded a bullet in each chamber.

He snapped it shut and pulled back the hammer.

George knew the plan all right.

He was going to kill Peanut Montgomery.

It was September of 1978, barely a year after his no-show at the bottom line, and George had lost everything.

His mother, Clara, who died in 1974, still praying her son could get clean.

The love of his life, Tammy Wynette, and their storybook romance, which played out in tabloids and on hit records, ended in divorce in 1975.

But Tammy had always left the door open to reconciliation.

They even recorded a number one album together the year after they divorced.

But a few weeks earlier, she'd slammed the door shut by marrying her new manager, George Ritchie.

It's all your fault, the old man reminded George with a hard look in his eye.

It cut George to the core.