George Jones Dead: Country Music Legend Dies at 81, Final 2013 Shows 'The Grand Tour' Cut Short

Country Music Hall of Famer George Jones has died at the age of 81 after being in the hospital since April 18. He passed away in Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical Canter after being admitted for irregular blood pressure and a fever. This hospitalization forced the country music star to cancel and postpone a few shows on his final outing, "The Grand Tour," but now it looks like the whole tour is done. Jones is survived by his latest wife, Nancy, and his four children.

George was a pioneer in the world on country music. Many have since copied his style of songwriting and singing, but there was only one George Jones.

His Country Music Hall of Fame biography web page states:

"Many attempts have been made to capture in words the immense, singular vocal gifts that have made George Glenn Jones one of the most influential singers in country music history. He is the undisputed successor of earlier primitive geniuses such as Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell-singers who, in turn, so heavily influenced him in his formative years.

"Jones launched his recording career in East Texas in the early 1950s, and as of the start of the twenty-first century he was still going strong. Yet it is more than sheer longevity, or the almost religious purity of his hard-core country instincts, that has made him such a towering, influential figure. In many ways Jones is one of country music's last vital links to its own rural past-a relic from a long-gone time and place before cable TV and FM rock radio and shopping malls, an era when life still revolved around the Primitive Baptist Church, the honky-tonk down the road, and Saturday nights listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. The fact that Jones himself has changed little over the years, and at times seems to be genuinely bewildered by the immensity of his own talent and the acclaim it has brought him, have merely enhanced his credibility."

George Jones was in the middle of his final tour, naturally entitled "The Grand Tour," which was set to end with a sold-out all-star show in Nashville on November 22. This epic good bye show was also set to include some guest performers including Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Rogers, Tanya Tucker, Cyndi Lauper, Kid Rock and seventeen more stars. Unfortunately this epic good-bye show has now been cancelled. No word on whether this will perhaps turn into a tribute concert for the late, great legend.