George Jones: I’m proud to be a Christian, but I won’t tell others how to live their lives

As his band Clubsound hit the road in their 52nd year, the 77-year-old spoke to the News Letter about the highs and lows of his career as a musician and radio personality.

He said that five years ago his life was at a crossroads and it was his daughter that set him on the right path.

George said: “My daughter was born blind, she had various operations and they brought back sight to her. She’ll always be visually impaired. Even from a young age, she thanked God for that. She has done all her life.

“I’m a rock ‘n roller, I’ve just got on with my life. I’ve always believed in God through my mother’s teachings, but I watched my daughter grow up in strength, along with her husband, who’s also Christian.

“Five years ago I was at a crossroads in my life because I felt like many people growing old that their life was over.

“I’ve had a wonderful life but I didn’t want it to end, the same way as accepting Clubsound are too old to entertain the masses, you’re too old to be on the radio, coming down from that helter skelter is hard to accept at times.

“She said to me, ‘why don’t you go to church and maybe get some form of answers or peace in your life?’ because I was really depressed.”

George said that Christianity and his refound love of painting saved him: “It has lifted my depression to the point where I just take every day as it comes. For me, that’s what Christianity did. It gave me a purpose in life.

“I’d always have used my position, my fame, to help people when I could, but Christianity has given me that sense of thankfulness. Thankfulness for where I live, my home, my family – they’re all gifts I’ve been given.

“The turning point for me to Christianity was I suddenly realised that every talent I have was given to me by God.

“The ability to make people laugh, to make music, to entertain people on the radio, to broadcast – I suddenly realised that over the years they’d been given to me, it wasn’t created by myself.”

George is a member of Dundonald Elim Church: “The pastor there is the most incredible man. You leave church invigorated and inspired. I think that’s what church is all about.

“Our whole family are Christians now, but we’re not Bible thumpers. In the environment I work in, I kept it to myself, I’m not telling people how they should live, it’s a private thing for me.

“I will openly declare it. I don’t have any problems saying it, but I’ll not tell people that because I am a Christian they should be too.”

• Read more from the interview with George Jones in Monday’s News Letter

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