Willie Jones (song)

Willie Jones is a country song, a minor hit for Bobby Bare as a duo with Charlie Daniels.

The singer tells of his friendship with the titular character, a prison inmate he befriended while working as a guard in Baltimore. During the three years the two were together, Jones would regularly talk about his Alabama home (and his plans to return upon release), making the singer think he was there. However, Jones had ten years still remaining on his sentence.

One hot night in July, about a year prior, Jones assaulted another guard and made a run for freedom; the singer had a clear shot to take him down but chose to fire only a warning shot, thus allowing Jones to successfully escape. Within the past week, he receives a "no return address/no reply" letter from Jones, who tells him that "nobody north of Birmingham" will hear from him again and invites the singer to visit him if he's ever in the state. (The guard's wording of the account - that he "lived" in Baltimore, implying past tense - yet somehow Jones knew where to send the invitation, and that the guard would know where to meet him despite the letter's form, implies that he may have had a part in the escape and knows of Jones' whereabouts.)