Singer-songwriter John Prine died from complications related to COVID-19, his family said Tuesday night. He was 73.
The country-folk singer was at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville being treated for coronavirus when he passed, his family said.
His wife Fiona said last month that she had tested positive for COVID-19 and she has since recovered, but her husband was hospitalized on March 26 with coronavirus symptoms. He was put on a ventilator and remained in the intensive care unit for several days.
Prine said he was discovered by late film critic Roger Ebert in Chicago. In 1970 the journalist wrote a glowing review of the artist in the Sun-Times newspaper, and his career went from delivering mail to writing lyrics Bob Dylan would call “pure Proustian existentialism.”
He was a virtuoso of the soul, if not the body. Prine sang his conversational lyrics in a voice roughened by a hard-luck life, particularly after throat cancer left him with a disfigured jaw.
He joked that he fumbled so often on the guitar, taught to him as a teenager by his older brother, that people thought he was inventing a new style. But his open-heartedness, eye for detail and sharp and surreal humor brought him the highest admiration from critics, from peers and from such younger stars as Jason Isbell and Kacey Musgraves, who even named a song after him.
Singer-songwriter John Prine attends the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 10, 2019.Rich Fury / Getty Images file
Prine was particularly admired by his fellow singer-songwriters. Dylan called him one of his favorite songwriters, and Johnny Cash said he listened to Prine’s music for his own musical inspiration.
Kris Kristofferson was “one of his earliest advocates,” according to Prine’s bio, and the two were tourmates and friends for decades.
Prine received lifetime achievement recognition from the Grammy Awards this year. In 2015, he was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Kris Kristofferson was “one of his earliest advocates,” according to Prine’s bio, and the two were tourmates and friends for decades.
Prine was never a major commercial success, but performed for more than four decades, often selling his records at club appearances where he mentored rising country and bluegrass musicians.
“I felt like I was going door to door meeting the people and cleaning their carpets and selling them a record,” he joked in a 1995 Associated Press interview.
Many others adopted his songs. Raitt made a signature tune out of “Angel from Montgomery,” about the stifled dreams of a lonely housewife, and performed it at the 2020 Grammys ceremony. Bette Midler recorded “Hello in There,” Prine’s poignant take on old age. Prine wrote “Unwed Fathers” for Tammy Wynette, and “Love Is on a Roll” for Don Williams.
Others who covered Prine’s music included Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, John Denver, the Everly Brothers, Carly Simon, George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Norah Jones and Old Crow Medicine Show.
On Tuesday, late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert on Twitter dedicated “deep love and gratitude for his gift he gave us all.”
He is survived by his wife, Fiona, two sons Jack and Tommy, his stepson Jody and three grandchildren.
