By all accounts Texan country singer George Jones, who died last week aged 81, was a hard-living, rule breaking son of a gun.

A tale he became famous for telling of his drinking days, which has become known as ‘the lawn mower story’, he recounted in his 1996 autobiography, the (very) aptly named I Lived to Tell It All. He was still living in Southeast Texas and married to second wife (of four), Shirley Corley:

"Once, when I had been drunk for several days, Shirley decided she would make it physically impossible for me to buy liquor. I lived about eight miles from Beaumont and the nearest liquor store. She knew I wouldn't walk that far to get booze, so she hid the keys to every car we owned and left.

But she forgot about the lawn mower. I can vaguely remember my anger at not being able to find keys to anything that moved and looking longingly out a window at a light that shone over our property. There, gleaming in the glow, was that ten-horsepower rotary engine under a seat; a key glistening in the ignition.

I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did."

That story became country-music folklore, and Jones grew to have a sense of humor about it. Besides his own "Honky Tonk Song" (embedded below) he also appeared on a riding mower in the videos for Hank Williams Jr.'s "All My Rowdy Friends are Coming Over Tonight" and Vince Gill's "One More Last Chance."