Jake Brennan

But the truth was, well, it was more complicated.

With Nancy's help, George clearly became a more dependable performer in the 1980s and 90s.

Judging from the improvement in his singing voice, he'd pulled back from cocaine.

But George never fully left his demons behind.

He just got better at hiding them.

As he listened to the ambulance sirens approaching from the distance, George could feel himself hovering at the edge of unconsciousness.

He wondered if his father felt this way when he passed on.

The old man died 30 years ago.

Later in life, he'd supposedly quit drinking too.

He and George had patched up their fractured relationship the best they could.

It was a happy ending.

But George remembered a few days after his father's funeral in Texas.

They were burning some brush to clear it from the farmland where his parents spent their final years.

A few minutes after they set the fire, they were surprised by a series of explosions that rattled the windows inside the house.

Apparently, George's father had been stashing bottles of liquor out in the field so he could grab a quick drink.

But back in the SUV, it took two hours, but the paramedics eventually pulled George out.

He'd suffered a punctured lung and a torn liver.

Although his voice never returned to full strength, he was able to return to the stage and the studio within a year's time.

The police found the half-empty bottle of vodka in the car, but they never charged him with any crime.

Afterward, George Jones claimed that the crash was the wake-up call he needed to go completely sober for the remainder of his life.