John Prine Artistfacts

John Prine song list

John Prine Artistfacts

October 10, 1946 - April 7, 2020
The country/folk singer-songwriter was born in Maywood, Illinois, where he began writing songs and playing the guitar at age 14.
Songwriting was a hobby for Prine, who was working as a mailman and only playing gigs to have fun and impress the ladies. But he caught Kris Kristofferson's eye instead. The singer recalls his first impression of Prine at a Chicago performance: "He's 24 years old and he writes like he's 220."
Prine was drafted into the Army and served in Germany for two years during the Vietnam War.
Songs like "Sam Stone," about a drug-addicted war veteran, came out of Prine's military experience, but also gave people the false impression that he was a protest singer. "A lot of people when I started out thought I was singing protest songs, only because I was singing about social issues, but it just so happened that was what was going on," said Prine. "At the time, things around were very political. It's not that I was trying to be political – but that was what people were talking about and that's what the songs were about. It turned me off when people labeled me a protest singer. As a matter of fact I thought there were very human things which people could relate to regardless of how they felt politically – I had a feller from the Young Conservatives Party [sic] come up to me after a show (this was one of the nicest compliments I ever got) – he said 'I really wish you were on our side.' I said 'I am, I am!' He didn't understand. He missed the whole show!"
In an interview with Bruce Pollock, Prine talked about songwriting: "A lot of stuff has come out of just writing a couple of pages and rambling on, going from one mood right into another. Then I put it away and if I wait long enough I pull it back out and the good lines stay there and the others just fall right off the page. You can't tell the good lines from the bad lines right at first sometimes - it's a matter of editing."
Bob Dylan has called Prine one of his favorite songwriters, telling the Huffington Post, "Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism."
He was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer in 1998 and underwent neck surgery that added a rough edge to his voice.
He was a good friend of the late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman, whom he met playing open mics in Chicago early in his career. Goodman would contribute guitar and backing vocals to many of Prine's albums.
After releasing an album, he would wait a few months before writing any more songs because he felt the need to perform songs as soon as they were written.
Prine died on April 7, 2020 at 73 after contracting coronavirus.
Prine always packed a selection of condiments on tours. "I take my own syrup, ketchup, and mustard, just in case of emergencies, in my suitcase. Whatever I can steal from the hotels," he told the New York Times. "It's usually Heinz ketchup and they give you weird mustard. You don't get French's or anything; you get some sort of Dijon or some mustard. That's just for hot dogs. I don't use mustard for anything else."

Comments: 4

Doug from WvWhen JP passed away, I cried like a baby for a man that I had never met, who had lived a great life & whose music is beloved by millions all over the world.
Terry.n from IllinoisThere's none better
Randy Pearson from OklahomaPrime is as good as anybody.He is on the same level as Dylan and Kristophersson. He just never got the credit...I play his songs on my guitar constantly...
Rod from Henrietta N.y.A song writing Genius with a soft and compassionate soul.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

I Ran (So Far Away)A Flock of Seagulls

"I Ran (So Far Away)" by A Flock Of Seagulls ends with an alien abduction.

StanEminem

Thanks to Eminem's song, the word "stan" was added to the Oxford American Dictionary in 2017. It means an obsessive fan.

Sloop John BThe Beach Boys

"Sloop John B" is a traditional West Indian folk song, and it was a huge hit for The Beach Boys in 1966. They tweaked the lyric, "This is the worst trip since I've been born" to "...I've ever been on" as a wink to acid culture.

3 AMMatchbox Twenty

The Matchbox Twenty song "3 AM" is about the difficult times lead singer Rob Thomas spent caring for his mother, who had cancer.

Nothin' On YouB.o.B

When "Nothin' On You" reached #1 on the Hot 100, B.o.B became the first American act whose name is a palindrome to top the chart. The other two who did so prior to the Atlanta rapper were both Scandinavian groups - ABBA and A-Ha.