George Jones: That’s not country music

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country Music Hall of Famer George Jones isn’t a big fan of where the genre has moved in recent years.

When asked about what he thought about music by today’s top country stars, the 78-year-old said though they are good, “they’ve stolen our identity.”

Jones made the comment during a recent interview when asked about music by artists such as Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift.

“They had to use something that was established already, and that’s traditional country music. So what they need to do really, I think, is find their own title, because they’re definitely not traditional country music,” he said.

“It’s good to know that we still do traditional country music. Alan Jackson still does it, so does George Strait. We still have it, and there’s quite a few of us that are going to hope that it comes back one of these days.”

Asked whether he’d ever branch out to a completely different genre of music, such as heavy metal or rap, Jones laughed and said: “Rap? That’s tacky.”