I'd like to start out this episode with a quote.

This is Merle Haggard talking about George Jones.

His voice was like a Strativarius violin, one of the greatest instruments ever made.

He could interpret any given set of words better than anybody I've ever heard.

You'd have to go back to Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb to compare, and he may have outdone them both.

Someone asked me recently, how did he do it?

George Jones went to the grave with that secret.

I get mad at him over the years because of his self-damage, but everything I said to him was out of love.

Imagine you're George Jones, and every night you're expected to sing as good as you did on a song like she thinks I still care.

He was a shy country boy from East Texas walking

around with that on his shoulders. He knew people expected him to be the

greatest country singer that ever lived. He was the Babe Ruth of country music.

The people expected a home run every time. Hi, friends, this is Otis Gibbs, and you're listening to Thanks for Giving a Dam.

I'm sitting here in my living room in East Nashville.

This is a personal journal. This is a bit of experiment. I like to say right up front that I haven't the slightest idea of what I'm doing, but I decided to do it anyway.

This show was founded with the idea that there are only two people in art that matter.

There's the creative individual and the person experiencing it.

And everything else is an artificial filter.

This is a way for me to share

things with you guys without any filters whatsoever. My guess this week is Lou Bradley.

Lou is a legendary recording engineer. He was the head engineer at the Kwanzut, where he

recorded some of the greatest songs in country music history. You can find out everything

...