One of the great legends of country music was George Jones, and one of the best legends about George Jones was the story about the lawnmower. See, Jones went through a long period where he had a serious drinking problem. When he wasn’t allowed to drive himself to the liquor store, he used his driver. And when he lost that option, he took the lawnmower all the way to the liquor store, which was a few miles from where he lived at the time. As he later recalled:
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.
The New Channel 5 story linked above claims his destination was Colonial Liquor Store, where the new mural is found. Or did this actually happen in Texas? There is a conflict in the sources, but Jones himself said it happened, so Texas or Nashville, it’s still a good story. Colonial Liquors has embraced the legend. Inspired by an episode of Mike Judge’s Tales from the Tourbus (you can catch a glimpse of Jones on the lawnmower in this short trailer), Colonial worked with local artist Shawn Catz, who got permission from Judge and Cinemax (who produced the series) to use Judge’s design on the mural. Jones’s widow was apparently not pleased. But then, the George Jones Museum does have the lawnmower in question on display (just scroll down a bit).
This mural, by the way, covers the mural featured in Mystery of the Spheres.
Located at 2401 Franklin Pike. The mural is on the north side of the building, facing Hillview Heights Road. There is parking at Colonial and across Hillview Heights.
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