On September 22, 1999, the CMA Awards were broadcast live on CBS from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Alan Jackson was booked to sing his current single, “Pop a Top.” He started it, sang it partway through, and then did something no producer had scripted: he turned it into George Jones’ “Choices,” a song by a man who had refused to show up that night.
Why George Jones Stayed Home
“Choices,” written by Billy Yates and Mike Curtis, was the lead single from George Jones’ 1999 album The Cold Hard Truth. It reads like his own life: the drinking, the bad turns, the price paid for them. Earlier that year, George had survived a near-fatal car wreck. The song barely reached the Top 30 on the country chart, yet it landed among the five nominees for Single of the Year.
The CMA invited George to perform it, with one condition. He would have to sing an abridged version. Accounts differ on how short. Some later reports say about a minute, others say 90 seconds. What is on record is that George said no and did not attend.
Evelyn Shriver, who headed his label, Asylum Records, explained his view to USA Today a week before the show. George felt fans got frustrated by heavily cut songs, she said, and added:
“Rightly or wrongly, he doesn’t believe he’s like a baby act that has to do this.”
According to a Nashville Scene report a few months later, what stung was the contrast. A handful of hot young stars were given the full three to four minutes their hits needed. A 68-year-old legend was asked to make do with less.
“Then I Hit That C Chord”
Alan Jackson heard what had happened and did not like it. His band knew what was coming, and nerves were high. Speaking to The New York Times a few months later, he remembered it this way: “We were all so nervous.”
In the middle of “Pop a Top,” his guitarist had a solo, and the song was supposed to climb into a new key at the end of it. Alan Jackson signaled that they were going ahead with the switch. The guitarist simply stopped playing. Alan later recalled looking over and seeing him sweating, looking as if he might bite his lip off. Then Alan hit a C chord and began singing the chorus of “Choices.”
The Opry House crowd understood right away. People rose to their feet and kept cheering. When the chorus ended, Alan Jackson walked off the stage without saying a word about it.
Shortly afterward, he explained himself plainly. Artists are often asked to shorten songs for television, he acknowledged. But he said George Jones “isn’t everybody” and “deserved a little more respect.”
In the Jones Living Room
George Jones’ widow, Nancy, later described that night in an interview with Whiskey Riff. George was in his room and told her he was not watching the show. She said she would watch it anyway. He told her to turn it down because he did not want to hear it.
When Alan Jackson came on, George joined her. When “Choices” started, Nancy said, “he liked to fell out of the chair.” He laughed and clapped. “That’s my boy,” she remembered him saying.
After the performance, Alan called George from his dressing room. By Nancy’s account, George worried that Alan would get in trouble with the CMA over it. Alan told him he did not care.
George Jones’ Answer
George Jones did not let it pass quietly. Talking to the Nashville Scene in early 2000, he praised Alan Jackson for singing traditional country music and said:
“What he did meant more to me than I could ever say.”
George said Alan had made a huge statement on his behalf, and that the performance moved him and Nancy to tears. Not long after, during a CBS special, George sang “Choices” himself and opened it with a thank-you to Alan, along with his own little snippet of “Pop a Top.” In February 2000, “Choices” won George Jones the Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
Why the Story Is Back Now
This month, the CMA is facing questions about how it treats another veteran voice. On November 5, 2026, Sammy Kershaw said the CMA had denied his request to walk the red carpet with his wife, Mendy, at this year’s awards. Kershaw has long called George Jones his hero, and in 2014 he released an entire album of George’s songs, Do You Know Me? A Tribute to George Jones. The CMA has since said it is in touch with his team.
Kershaw’s own words in his statement were simple: “I guess the next time I attend the CMA’s, it will be in tribute after I’m gone, if I’m lucky.”