Only George Jones… We’ve all heard the legendary stories of George Jones driving a lawnmower to the liquor store, but his 1970s trip to Chicago might be the most expensive “No Show” of his career. After purchasing a showroom-floor Lincoln to navigate the Windy City, “The Possum” went on a legendary bender that ended with him hopping a flight out of town with a group of strangers. The only problem? He hadn’t just forgotten his luggage… he’d forgotten the name of the bar where he’d parked his brand-new car. And believe it or not, what happened to that Lincoln remains one of country music’s greatest unsolved mysteries. During an appearance on the Drifting Cowboy podcast, Georgette Jones, who is the daughter of Tammy Wynette and George Jones, talked about her life and memories growing up with two of country music’s most famous musicians as parents. And as you can probably imagine, it led to some pretty unique moments and memories for her, as she obviously had an incredibly personal relationship with two legends, and so that means she also has a perspective that no one else one Earth has. A Trip To Chicago It happened back in the “bad old, good old days,” as he puts it, when George decided to take a trip to Chicago: “Back in what he called the bad old good old days, he had left some place he didn’t wanna be, so he said, and ended up in Chicago. He got out of the airport and went immediately to the car dealership, and bought himself a car so he could drive himself around in Chicago. So he found a bar that looked appealing to him, I suppose. When he got there, he said, ‘I met these people there that were just so much fun. We were having a great time, and we start talking about some other place.’ And he said, ‘We were talking about flying somewhere else and then coming back to Chicago later.'” He had just brought a brand new car on a whim, and then had to leave it behind to go take a trip somewhere else… it sounds crazy, and that’s because it was. Jones left the car in Chicago, right there at the bar where he parked it, took a three or four day trip with these strangers to somewhere else. Sounds incredible, right? The kind of thing that only a legendary music icon with “F You” money could pull off? But there was one big problem, and that was that George couldn’t remember the name of the bar he had been at before they left. If you’ve ever been to Chicago, you know that there is 5 bars on just about every block in the massive city. Assuming George wasn’t super familiar with the city, and knowing how much he liked to drink, it’s not a surprise that he couldn’t remember. So he tried and tried to find it, but he never could. Georgette said he eventually had to give up the search for his brand new Lincoln, and left it behind in the Windy City: “He said, ‘So I left with these people in their vehicle. I left my car there, so we went to the airport and flew to wherever it was.’ Three or four days later, he said, ‘I flew back to Chicago.’ And he said, ‘I couldn’t remember what the bar’s name was, or where I had left the car.’ To that day, I mean, decades later, Dad never found the car. He just had to just give up looking for it, he had no idea where it was. So somewhere in Chicago, there was an abandoned car, I think it was Lincoln. Dad never found it. I don’t know who ever got it. No telling.” She joked that her dad only owned the car for maybe half a day: “He only owned it for what, half a day? I’m not sure, but it wasn’t long.” It’s hard for us normal people to even imagine a situation like this happening, and I’m sure if it happened in the year 2026, it would be a lot easier to locate the vehicle. Then again, Chicago in 2026… the car would probably be stolen or towed before he could even get back to town. And if he did find it, we’re taking half a dozen parking tickets. The man and his vehicles, though… it’s made for some great stories, that’s for sure. I would just love to know what happened to that vehicle though… if any of our loyal Chicago readers have a tip (Whiskey Riff actually got started in Chicago), shoot us an email. The full podcast is available below. The post “He Just Gave Up” – Why George Jones Abandoned His Brand New Lincoln At A Chicago Bar & Never Saw It Again first appeared on Whiskey Riff.