Sherrill claims that Jones was in such bad physical shape during this period that “the recitation was recorded 18 months after the first verse was” and added that the last words Jones said about “He Stopped Loving Her Today” was “Nobody’ll buy that morbid son of a bitch”. Although he had disliked “He Stopped Loving Her Today” when it was first offered to him, Jones ultimately gave the song credit for reviving his flagging career, stating that “a four-decade career had been salvaged by a three-minute song.”