Diffie dies of COVID-19, John Prine hospitalized
John Prine, by Ron Baker / Wikimedia
When I was in middle school, growing up in tiny Ft. Sumner, New Mexico, one of the relatively few channels we got was The Nashville Network, or TNN — long before we could access MTV or VH1. (It was channel 4.) As I got ready for school each day, I’d watch music videos. Country music videos.
During that time, I came to appreciate some country music.
In fact, my first radio job was doing the overnight show — midnight to 6 a.m. — on KGRT, the local country station. I later moved on to host the station’s request shows — the Friday Night Fiesta and Saturday Night Honky-Tonk.
I’m not proud to put this in writing, but I’d take calls and record them on a reel-to-reel in the studio, requests to be played back, on-air, in a physical feat that required a certain amount of acrobatics. (Getting requests on the air, in those days, was no small feat.)
No small number of those requests were for a Joe Diffie song — “Pickup Man,” “John Deere Green” or “If the Devil Danced in Empty Pockets.”
Joe Diffie died Sunday due to complications related to COVID-19. Diffie may be the first, truly high-profile death from the virus. (Although some would surely contest that Broadway playwright Terrence McNally, who died March 24, would qualify.)
Diffie had five No. 1 hits on the Billboard country chart, including “Home,” “If the Devil Danced (in Empty Pockets),” “Third Rock from the Sun,” “Pickup Man” and “Bigger Than the Beatles.” A native of Tulsa, Okla., Diffie also wrote hits for others, including Tim McGraw, Conway Twitty and Jo Dee Messina.
While I was certainly upset about Diffie’s death, I was even more saddened to learn that the Chicago folk singer John Prine had been hospitalized after contracting the disease.
I was probably 18 the first time I saw Prine perform live. He opened for Sting at the University of New Mexico’s “The Pit” — and it didn’t have any hokey, commercial branding at the time. I was a freshman in college at the time.
My father, after retiring in New Mexico, moved to Midland, Texas, to teach — to “double-dip,” as it’s often called. Following a knee surgery, he was introduced to Prine through Sirius/XM Radio’s “Coffeehouse” channel. He would eventually become a HUGE fan.
In 2013, for his 62nd birthday, I took him to Planet Bluegrass for the 23rd Annual Rocky Mountain Folks Festival to see Prine, who headlined the event.
Late Sunday, Prine’s official Twitter account announced that he had been hospitalized and intubated due to COVID-19 infection. It was clear that the situation was serious. Apparently, his wife Fiona has recovered from the infection.
I’m not at all prepared to lose John Prine to this foul-mouthed, hideous disease. And I certainly hope that Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan are seriously quarantined.
Prine has since stabilized, his wife states, but the future remains to be written.
“I need to clarify what I mean by ‘John is stable,’” Fiona tweeted Monday. “That is not the same as improving. There is no cure for (COVID-19). He needs our prayers and love — as do the thousands of others who are critically ill. Stay at home. Wash your hands. We love you.”
Pray for John. Stay at home. Wash your hands.
Damien Willis writes for the Las Cruces Sun-News. This column focuses primarily on entertainment and pop culture. He may be reached at dwillis@lcsun-news.com or @DamienWillis on Twitter.
