Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen

The first full-scale biography of the enduring first lady of country music

The twentieth century had three great female singers who plumbed the darkest corners of their hearts and transformed private grief into public dramas. In opera, there was the unsurpassed Maria Callas. In jazz, the tormented Billie Holiday. And in country music, there was Tammy Wynette.

"Stand by Your Man," "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," "Take Me to Your World" are but a few highlights of Tammy's staggering musical legacy, all sung with a voice that became the touchtone for women's vulnerability, disillusionment, strength, and endurance.

In Tammy Wynette, bestselling biographer Jimmy McDonough tells the story of the small-town girl who grew up to be the woman behind the microphone, whose meteoric rise led to a decades-long career full of tragedy and triumph. Through a high-profile marriage and divorce, her dreadful battle with addiction and illness, and the struggle to compete in a rapidly evolving Nashville, Tammy turned a brave smile toward the world and churned out masterful hit songs though her life resembled the most heartbreaking among them.

Tammy Wynette is an intimate portrait of a music icon, the Queen of Heartbreak, whose powerful voice simultaneously evoked universal pain and longing even as it belied her own.

"There's no mistaking McDonough's take on Tammy Wynette's artistry: of her first single, 'Apartment No. 9,' he writes, 'I don't know if there has ever been a more perfect debut.' But his adulation is not uncritical — he concedes that the first country musician to go platinum also released plenty of clunkers; more importantly, he gives voice to both Wynette's closest friends and the families of those like her first husband, Euple Byrd, who were cast aside in the formation of her legend. McDonough (Shakey) brings a passionate flair to his language, describing Wynette and her third husband (and frequent collaborator) George Jones as a pair of 'walking haunted houses,' but occasionally slips into sentimental excess, particularly in imaginary letters to his subject. 'Did anyone ever just let you be Wynette?' ends a typical missive. Long detours covering the lives of Jones and Nashville producer Billy Sherrill provide valuable context, but the emphasis is squarely on Wynette and her personal tragedies, including a long slide into drug addiction and a mysterious death some still suspect may have been foul play. Combining pop musicology and tabloid gossip, McDonough has crafted a fitting tribute to a country music icon. Black-and-white photo insert not seen by PW." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Wynette's tortured history is forcefully told, but her essence remains a mystery." Kirkus Reviews

"Tammy Wynette turns out to be superb — a well-researched and nimbly written tell-all. " Cleveland Plain Dealer

"[Mr. McDonough] combines a love of her overlooked and minor classics with a compelling big-picture life story." New York Times

In the first full-scale biography of the enduring first lady of country music, bestselling biographer McDonough tells the story of the small-town girl whose meteoric rise led to a decades-long career full of tragedy and triumph.

Jimmy McDonough is the author of The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan and Shakey: Neil Young's Biography.