Prine was hospitalized final week after falling ailing and placed on a ventilator Saturday evening, in accordance with a statement from his household.
Whilst a younger man, Prine — who famously labored as a mailman earlier than turning to music full-time — wrote evocative songs that belied his age. With a conversational vocal strategy, he rapidly developed a status as a performer who empathized along with his characters. His beloved 1971 self-titled debut options the aching "Hiya In There," written from the attitude of a lonely aged man who merely desires to be seen, and the equally bittersweet "Angel From Montgomery." The latter track is narrated by a middle-aged lady with deep regrets over the best way her life turned out, married to a person who's merely "one other baby that is grown previous."
Bestowing dignity on the missed and marginalized was a typical theme all through Prine's profession; he turned recognized for detailed vignettes about strange those that illustrated bigger truths about society. Certainly one of his signature songs, "Sam Stone," is an empathetic story of a adorned veteran who overdoses as a result of he has hassle readjusting to actual life after the struggle. (Prine has mentioned he based mostly the protagonist round associates who had been Vietnam Struggle veterans, and in addition troopers he encountered throughout his personal two-year stint as an Military mechanic.)
Like "Sam Stone," a lot of Prine's songs additionally had an uncanny means to deal with (if not predict) the societal and political zeitgeist. The understated 1984 track "Unwed Fathers" illustrates pernicious double requirements pertaining to gender: The titular group "cannot be bothered / They run like water, by a mountain stream," whereas the younger girls they impregnate are shamed and face penalties. Recorded for John Prine, "Your Flag Decal Will not Get You Into Heaven Anymore" criticizes individuals who use piety and patriotism as a canopy for supporting an unjust struggle — a theme he'd revisit on 2005's "Some People Ain't Human," which pulls no punches slamming each hypocritical individuals and the Iraq Struggle began by George W. Bush.
However like fellow songwriting iconoclast Shel Silverstein, Prine additionally cloaked his pointed commentary inside whimsical wordplay. "Some People Ain't Human" claims that inside the guts of those turncoats is "just a few frozen pizzas, some ice cubes with hair and a damaged Popsicle," whereas "Pricey Abby" has a lilting, rollicking rhythm to its verses, because it gently chides advice-column complainers to depend their blessings. "Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)" makes use of each absurdity (an altar boy struck by a prepare) and the mundane (a bench makeout) to encourage individuals to remain optimistic and have gratitude.
And "Christmas In Jail" boasts one in every of his greatest lyrics — "She jogs my memory of a chess sport with somebody I love" — whereas embodying his quiet irreverence. "It is about an individual being someplace like a jail, in a state of affairs they do not wish to be in, and wishing they had been someplace else," he wrote within the liner notes to 1993's Nice Days: The John Prine Anthology, including that "I used all of the imagery as if it had been an precise jail. ... And being a sentimental man, I put it at Christmas."
Prine was born on October 10, 1946, to folks with robust household ties to Paradise, Kentucky, a spot that later served because the backdrop to "Paradise," his cautionary story a few coal nation city destroyed and discarded by company pursuits.
Raised in Maywood, a suburb of Chicago,, the younger Prine devoured 45s from Buddy Holly, Johnny Money and Little Richard, and soaked up the nation music his father liked, similar to Hank Williams Sr., Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. Extra crucially, Prine discovered rudimentary guitar expertise from his oldest brother, Dave, a folks fan who memorably gifted him a Carter Household LP. "I discovered all these songs," he told NPR's Terry Gross in 2018. "And never too lengthy after that, I began writing once I was 14. And my melodies at all times got here out like old-timey nation stuff." Round this time, Prine additionally began to be taught finger-picking by taking part in songs by Elizabeth Cotten and Mississippi John Harm, he added: "I would sit within the closet at the hours of darkness in case I ever went blind, to see if I may play."
Though Prine additionally began taking guitar classes at Chicago's Outdated City Faculty of Folks Music beginning in fall 1963, he nonetheless wasn't contemplating pursuing music as a full-time profession. In actual fact, he was working as a mailman and taking part in gigs at evening on the aspect when a beneficiant stay evaluate from critic Roger Ebert in late 1970 boosted his status in Chicago's nascent folks scene. A document take care of Atlantic Information got here in early 1971, after then-executive Jerry Wexler noticed Prine carry out three songs throughout a Kris Kristofferson set on the Backside Line in New York Metropolis.
Prine obtained a Grammy nomination for Greatest New Artist in 1972, on the power of his debut, and began turning out data at a brisk tempo for the remainder of the 1970s. Virtually instantly, his songs had been lined by different artists: Bonnie Raitt did a model of "Angel From Montgomery" (as did John Denver and Tanya Tucker), whereas Bette Midler, Everly Brothers, Swamp Dogg and, later, the Highwaymen additionally recorded Prine-penned songs.
Being within the highlight did not come naturally. "I had a tough time listening again to them as a result of I used to be so nervous," he advised Recent Air about his early data. "I did not anticipate to do that for a residing, be a recording artist. I used to be simply taking part in music for the enjoyable of it and writing songs to ... that was sort of my escape, you understand, from the humdrum of the world."
However Prine's early success allowed him to begin approaching his profession on his personal phrases. With supervisor Al Bunetta, he fashioned the unbiased label Oh Boy Information in 1981, launching it with a Christmas single, "I Noticed Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Prine slowed down his output within the '80s and '90s however expanded his sonic purview, co-writing "Jackie O" with John Cougar Mellencamp for the latter's hit 1983 LP Uh-Huh and collaborating with members of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for his 1991 album The Lacking Years, which gained a Grammy for Greatest Modern Folks Album. (Prine additionally gained in the identical class for 2005's Truthful & Sq..)
Beginning within the mid-'90s, Prine additionally handled a number of severe well being points. He had a cancerous tumor in his neck eliminated in 1996, efficiently beat lung most cancers in 2013 and had a coronary heart stent implanted in 2019. In 2018, he admitted to NPR's Terry Gross that his 1996 most cancers surgical procedure modified his voice.
"It dropped down decrease, and it feels friendlier to me," he mentioned. "So I can truly sit within the studio and take heed to my singing play again. Earlier than, I would run the opposite means." He debuted his new voice — which did really feel a bit rougher of consolation, like a rock swathed in moss — with 1999's In Spite of Ourselves, which featured duets on covers with feminine artists similar to Iris DeMent, Patty Loveless and Lucinda Williams. He launched a kindred-spirit sequel in 2016, For Higher, or Worse, that additionally featured DeMent, along with duets with up to date artists Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and Morgane Stapleton.
Prine's profession obtained one other enhance extra just lately, too, after his work was championed by trendy Americana acts similar to Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires — two artists with whom Prine collaborated — Sturgill Simpson and Margo Worth. In 2019, he was inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame, the yr after releasing The Tree of Forgiveness, his first album of all-new authentic songs since Truthful & Sq.. The album featured co-writes with Dan Auerbach and long-time foils Pat McLaughlin and Keith Sykes, and debuted at No. 5 on Billboard's Prime 200.
The Tree of Forgiveness ends with a track known as "Once I Get to Heaven," an in depth take a look at what Prine mentioned he meant to do after he dies: begin a band, see dearly departed members of the family, order a cocktail, shake God's hand and encourage rampant forgiveness. (In a nod to his traditional wry streak, he additionally mentioned he'd take pleasure in a cigarette that is "9 miles lengthy.") The lyrics are sentimental and freewheeling, making it clear that Prine deliberate to maintain the great occasions going up in heaven. It is possible that the track was meant to be a winking little bit of foreshadowing about his personal mortality, though now, maybe it is higher interpreted as Prine offering a blueprint for find out how to stay life with gusto whilst you're nonetheless right here.
