Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes? and George Jones

I had never paid much attention to George Jones, except when Dolly Parton sang, "I remember pulling into the drive-in theatre and turning down George Jones."  There's a cheer from the crowd at his name.  So then he died, so I went and bought some of his songs on Itunes, including an absolute gem, Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?  Like a lot of country music, he pulls on the heartstrings, hitting some fine notes and running through a list of the old great singers, from Hank Wms to Willie N to Johnny Cash to "ole Jerry Lee and Charlie" who "tore up the fifties."  My first love is rock music, but my mother loved country and taught me to love it, too.
 I'm old and I love the old singers, but then I noticed that George Jones put out Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes in 1985.  When I first heard him listing the greats of the early years of Country, I assumed it was a song from about 1968.  So the ironic thing is that George Jones creates this great song, basically saying that next to nobody could fill those old shoes, and by the time he writes the song, the answer to Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes is already all around him on the radio stations.  I ran a quick check of country singers from the 70s up to 1984 and it's a hall of fame list almost equal to the one in Who's Gonna Fill.  Here are some of the Shoe-Fillers:  Waylon Jennings, Barbara Mandrell, Hank Williams Jr, Patsy Cline, Ray Price, The Stadtler Brothers, Chris Christopherson, Kenny Rogers.  The list goes on and on--Loretta Lynn, Oak Ridge Boys, Crystal Gayle, Dolly Parton herself, Eddie Rabbit, Reba, Tanya Tucker, Glen Campbell.   Not to mention the likes of Shania Twain, Martina McBride and Alan Jackson and a dozen others from the years since 1985.
That's who filled their shoes.