4 Country Songs and Videos Memorializing George Jones' Lawnmower-Driving Days to the Liquor Store (2024)

In the late 1960s, George Jones‘ then-wife Shirley Ann Corley would hide all the keys to their cars before leaving the house to prevent him from driving to nearby Beaumont, Texas to purchase more alcohol. Corley’s attempts proved futile one day when Jones spotted a lawnmower on their property and decided to take the “vehicle” for a drive to the nearest liquor store.

“I can vaguely remember my anger at not being able to find keys to anything that moved and looking longingly out a window at a light that shone over our property,” recalled Jones in his 1996 autobiography I Lived to Tell It All.“There, gleaming in the glow, was that 10-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.”

Jones also used a lawnmower to procure alcohol while married to Tammy Wynette. Jones’ lawnmower alcohol runs became a thing of legend and was later used as a humourous slant in country songs throughout the next few decades. Here’s a look behind four songs that memorialize the Jones’ John Deere-driving days—including one he recorded himself.

Videos by American Songwriter

In Hank Williams Jr.’s hit “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,” from his 1984 album Major Moves, he cites his father’s 1949 song “Lost Highway”—Now boys don’t start to ramblin’ round / On this road of sin, are you sorrow-bound? / Take my advice or you’ll curse the day / You started rollin’ down that lost highway.

On “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,” Williams Jr. talks about Kris Kristofferson moving to Hollywood to act, Waylon Jennings staying home with his wife Jessi Colter more, and George Jones getting straight.

Jones makes his first cameo on the lawnmower in the music video “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight.”

All my rowdy friends have settled down
And it seems to be more in the laid-back songs
Nobody wants to get drunk and get loud
Everybody just wants to go back home
I myself have seen my wilder days
And I have seen my name at the top of the page
But I need to find a friend just to run around

But nobody wants to get high on the town
And all my rowdy friends have settled down

And I think I know what my father meant
When he sang about a “Lost Highway”
And old George Jones, I’m glad to see he’s finally getting straight
And Waylon’s staying home and loving Jessi more these days
And nobody wants to get drunk and get loud
And all my rowdy friends have settled down

From 1989 to 2011, Williams Jr. reworked the song, “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night”) as theopening themetoMonday Night Football (MNF). The song went to No. 1 on the Country chart and remained theMNFtheme song through 2011 when ESPN dropped him after his political tirade on television. When the network reconnected with Williams Jr. in 2017, he revived his song forMNF, featuring Jason Derulo andFlorida Georgia Line. It remained the theme song through 2019 before the network severed ties with the outlaw a second time.

First, she hid my glasses
‘Cause she knows that I can’t see
She said you ain’t goin’ nowhere boy
‘Til you spend a little time with me
Then the boys called from the honky tonk
Said there’s a party goin’ on down here
Well she might’ve took my car keys
But she forgot about my old John Deere

So give me just one more last chance
Before you say we’re through
I know I drive you crazy baby
It’s the best that I can do
We’re just some good ol’ boys, a makin’ noise
I ain’t a runnin’ ’round on you
Give me just one more last chance
Before you say we’re through

In the music video for “One More Last Chance,” directed by John Lloyd Miller, Gill is seen driving a John Deere lawnmower to meet up with band members and Belmont basketball coach Rick Byrd, at the golf course. Jones also makes a cameo in the video on a lawnmower of his own.