The odds were stacked against Kris Jones from early in his life, but he chose to make his story one of redemption rather than succumbing to being a victim of the difficult circumstances of his life. Kris Jones is becoming known as something other than his name, however. Folks all over the world have fallen in love with a guy they know as “The Tennessee Whiskey Dad” after Kris’s daughter filmed him when he was singing in the car on the way to Home Depot. The song he was singing was “Tennessee Whiskey,” the Chris Stapleton hit. But behind a beautiful voice is an inspiring story. Kris hasn’t had the easiest life.
Born to a white mother and an African American father, Kris stood out in his predominantly black neighborhood where he grew up in Texas. Apparently, where he grew up, it wasn’t popular to be a “mix of black and white” at that time, he says. Kris explains that he had no friends and took a lot of heat from all sides. The bullying and violence were so bad that when he was in the fifth grade, Kris’s mom actually pulled him from school to try to get him away from the violence he was having to confront on a daily basis. However, his mother was working two jobs to support the family, so Kris’s education was neglected. When he was only 14 years old, he had to start working full-time.
By the time he was 17 years old, Kris moved out on his own, a decision that had a profound and negative effect on his life. He quickly got in with a bad crowd and made some poor decisions, eventually landing himself in prison for six years, off and on. After being locked up for four years, he decided that he wanted to turn things around, so he decided that he was going to be the exception to the rule and be one of the rare few who find success in the outside world after serving prison time. He told the Dallas Morning News that he found peace in the chaos of prison by singing in his prison cell. He says that the acoustics in there were phenomenal, and he frequently got requests from both prisoners and guards.
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When he got out of prison, he married his childhood sweetheart. She had long moved on and had two children while Kris was in prison, but they reunited and fell in love. One day on the way to Home Depot with his daughter Dayla, Kris was signing in the car. Dayla said that she wanted to film him so that she could show him off to her friends, and the video her mother later uploaded to Facebook went viral. What resulted was something that Kris had never even dreamed of before. He has released his debut album and it’s charting on the Top 40 iTunes Country Albums Chart. Below, you can watch the video that made this loving dad famous.
