As he breaks ground on his second house, going up in Enterprise, Ala., George Jones is expanding his empire into real estate to slowly prepare for retirement.
“I am just getting into something else to have something to do in my spare time,” says George, 75. “I’m going to start slowing down 20 or 30 days this first year, and then I’ll probably cut down a few more days the second year and get ready for retirement.
“I’m a long ways from wanting to retire because I still get bored and don’t know what to do with myself when I’m off. This gives me something to do when I’m off, and I love it. I doubt I’ll ever completely stop touring, but I’m going to pick my dates.” He’d eventually like to do about two 15-day tours a year and then take the rest of the year off from the road.
George has joined forces with Ronnie Gilley Properties, a developer in Enterprise — a town of about 23,000 near Dothan in southeast Alabama — and Phoenix, Ala., and Panama City, Fla. George and his wife, Nancy, who also have a condo near Center Hill Lake, will buy a Panama City condo when that development is ready. He’s opening a bar/restaurant called Possum Holler in downtown Enterprise next year that will feature live music.
He says this is really a sweet time in his life. “Ever since I quit drinking and started living a cleaner life and having such a wonderful wife, Nancy, and people around me, it’s been great. It never was that way before. It’s just wonderful. It’s like being 70-something years old and waking up from a coma. But thank goodness the good Lord let me stay here to find out how it could be.”
He hasn’t spoken to Keith Urban since the Australian entered rehab, but he’ll be glad to do whatever he can to help. “If there is any way I can talk to him about anything, I would be more than glad to because I have been down that road and I know it’s not a good one,” he says.
He is now driving Keith’s former 1994 Chevy Impala, which Keith traded in for a Bentley. “I paid too much for it, but it was Keith Urban’s and I said, ‘I want it,’ ” he says. “He’s supposed to come by and autograph the dash for me.”The couple invites everyone to the gates of their Franklin house at 4025 Nestledown Drive from 5-8 p.m. Wednesday to see them, Santa and their 10,000 Christmas lights. “If anyone would like to come see Santa Claus and take their picture in front of the gate at George’s place, they can bring a toy for the kids who are in Bridges,” says Nancy, referring to Bridges of Williamson County, a domestic violence shelter. “Santa will deliver them to those children.”
From tennesean
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