Nashville Wives: Country Music's Celebrity Wives Reveal the Truth About Their Husbands and Marriages - Hardcover

Fairy-tale vignettes of love and sacrifice, sprawling homes in the Nashville suburbs, and the hardships of raising children on the road riddle the interviews of Mrs. George Jones with Nashvilles most talked-about spouses. Tempered by Joness dramatic spin and her polite nosiness, these true tales of southern celebrity claim a certain entertaining starknessthe same (very popular) starkness as country music. Ghostwriter and collaborator Carters invisible imprint may have helped to send each wifes account on a biographical turn; the chapters take a long-term look at these womens former lives before they became the luckiest women below the Mason-Dixon line. Revealed covertly beneath their stories of marriage, home, family, and fame is the society of Nashville, particularly the clash between music-industry executive thinking and the traditional southern roles of husbands and wives. Jones repeatedly describes how industry pressures often bring pain to the domestic arena. However, these womens stories are packaged to save the faces of Nashville heroines before the story inside the story is really delivered. In the chapter about Mrs. Billy Ray (Tish) Cyrus, for example, Tish is introduced alone in her bedroom in Kentucky, cryingwith her hand outstretched to the television screen. On the screen, far away in Nashville, her husband croons with sexuality and mystery, as if unattached, and only at the insistence of his managementwhich is looking, of course, for the next Elvis, and hopes he may be It. Ultimately, Billy Ray breaks with old management, makes millions, and everyone stops fighting. To top it off, Tish had given up a potential career in modeling to fit Billy Rays on-again/off-again tour scheduleand to act as the proudest president ever of the Billy Ray Cyrus fan club. The wives and the authora wife herselfwork hard to bring the Nashville myth to life. Sometimes, despite all the non-secrets unveiled here, the myth even seems genuine. (32 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Carter, who has co-written several autobiographies of country musicians (e.g., Rhinestone Cowboy), collaborated with Nancy Jones, wife of singer George Jones for the last 15 years, in this collection of 16 short memoirs by women who've married country music stars. Based on tape recorded interviews conducted by Jones or Carter, these pieces chart the turmoil of marriage as played out in the glare of billboard-topping success. Although a gossipy tone prevails and the writing oozes mawkish sentimentality?"nobody had more problems. But love prevailed, and the marriage survived. And it will survive forever," says Janine (Ronnie) Dunn?fans will delight in the details of the courtships and conflicts that many of these couples have overcome. Several, including Rozene (Charley) Pride, Sharon (Johnny) Paycheck and Jones herself, describe their husbands' drug and alcohol abuse. Others, such as Denise (Alan) Jackson, express bruised feelings arising from recurrent rumors of infidelity that spring up when their husbands are on the road. In contrast, Kim (Glen) Campbell and Gregg (Jeff) Foxworthy describe marriages that are substance-free and rooted in their family's strong religious faith. B&w photos. Agent, Dean Williamson. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.