Trippy indeed… small world, eh?: George Strait and Jeff Bezos are related!

Ready for a fun fact that bridges together country music and the world of commerce?

It’s always interesting to find out that certain celebrities and high-profile individuals are related. Why? I don’t exactly know the answer to that question. But most regular, non-celebrity people have an unexplainable interest in family trees linking two people in the public eye together.

If that’s an errant, blanket statement, feel free to let me know.

And I’m not talking about nepotism in Hollywood, where actors like Kurt Russell and Ethan Hawke help their kids (Wyatt Russell and Maya Hawke, respectively) to success in acting. Instead, I’m talking about the weird, unexpected ties that sometimes randomly occur between two people that live in the spotlight.

Just in case you need an example before we dive in to this country music and commerce connection, I’ll throw out Al Roker and Lenny Kravitz. Yes, the longtime weather man on the Today show is a distant cousin of the Grammy-winning singer and actor. Someone told me that a while back and I’ve never forgotten it… and it’s really only useful information if I ever find myself at a pop-culture trivia night.

I suppose the same could be said about country music icon George Strait and Amazon founder Jezz Bezos being cousins.

Believe it or not, that’s actually true. Jeff Bezos – whose net worth is over $230 billion – is actually third cousins with Strait’s son, George “Bubba” Strait Jr.. Bezos’ mother, Jacklyn Gise, and the “Amarillo By Morning” singer are second cousins once removed. A little complicated, I know… but related nonetheless.

For those that want even more background info on the relation, it can all be traced back to George Strait’s great-grandfather, John Joseph Strait. He was the father to two sons, John Samuel (the country legend’s grandfather) and Yancy Clarence. John Samuel went on to be the dad of John Byron, who was Strait’s father.

Still following? Okay, good deal.

Yancy Clarence, on the other hand, was the father of Mattie Strait. She would go on to marry Lawrence Preston Gise, and they would have a daughter named Jacklyn Gise (A.K.A. Jeff Bezos’ mother). The founder of Amazon has even said in an interview that he used to spend summers in Texas with his maternal grandparents.

So did Jezz Bezos and George Strait ever cross paths? One might assume so if there was ever a family reunion, but neither of them have publicly commented on the relation. That’s actually understandable, considering both men have been fairly busy being incredibly successful in their own career paths.

There’s probably not a lot of time to talk about second and third cousins when you are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But at the end of the day, Bezos and Strait are related… and it’s pretty weird to think about that, am I right? This post best sums up the mind pretzel of the “King of Country” being related to the man that single-handedly changed the way people shop:

Trippy indeed… small world, eh?