Vince Gill and Patty Loveless provide background vocals on the album's closing tracks "When The Last Curtain Falls". "You Never Know Just How Good You've Got It" was originally recorded by Tracy Byrd on his 1994 album No Ordinary Man.
Cold Hard Truth reached number 5 on Billboard's country albums charts, the first Jones album to do so since Wine Colored Roses in 1986, and hit number 53 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Country Weekly said of the album, "At age 67, George is singing better than ever, and proves here that there’s no substitute for experience. Cold Hard Truth is easily his most emotional and moving music in ages."[citation needed]AllMusic writes that the album "returns to the sound of his classic Mercury and UA recordings, meaning that there's nothing but honky tonk ballads and ravers throughout...In short, it's the album hardcore fans have said they've always wanted Jones to make." Don McLeese of Amazon.com agrees: "Though George Jones suffered a near-fatal collision while recording this album, Cold Hard Truth has the vocal command of an artist with a new lease of life." In a 2001 interview with Mark Binelli from Rolling Stone, Leonard Cohen asked, "Have you heard George Jones' last record Cold Hard Truth? I love to hear an old guy lay out his situation. He has the best voice in America."[citation needed]
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