Mandatory Credit: Photo by AP/Shutterstock (8899154c) John Prine poses in his office in Nashville, Tenn. The former Chicago mailman has become an affable songwriting guru for many of Nashville's talented young artists and his songbook, "Beyond Words," released in April, features guitar chords, family photos, handwritten lyrics and witty stories alongside some of his best known songs, such as "Sam Stone Music John Prine, Nashville, USA - 20 Jun 2017
John Prine a 73-year-old legendary singer-songwriter dies of the Coronavirus on April 7 and leaves an unfilled void in the hearts of all country and folk music lovers.
The extraordinarily gifted US folk and country singer John Prine lost his life to the COVID-19. The 73-year-old who was hospitalized on 26th March remained in intensive care for 13 days before he finally took his last breath on Tuesday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee.
Prine’s family came out to confirm his death to many US media outlets including The New York Times, Variety, and Rolling Stone.
As per the news, the Recording Academy put forward a written statement in which it was written that all of them would join the world in mourning the passing of the revered country and folk singer/ songwriter John Prine. It also said that John who was widely appreciated as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation will continue to inspire several musicians for years to come. The message concluded with the note that everyone is sending out their deepest condolences to his loved and dear ones in this state of deep loss.
Several personalities came forward to show their gratitude and one amongst them was Bruce Springsteen who took to twitter to write how everyone is crushed by the loss of John Prine. He also shared how he and Bruce together were the New Dylans back in the early 70s and John who was according to him one of the loveliest guys in the world whose songwriting will be treasured for ages.
Being born on October 10, 1946, and raised on the outskirts of Chicago, John Prine during his early days worked as a mailman who shared a strong passion for music and playing guitars, before he finally took music as a full-time career. It is said that during an open mic night at Chicago, the legend was heard complaining about the poor talent on stage and it was when he was challenged by the mass to be one of the performers that he delivered a three-song set that went forward to earn him $1000 a weekend residency and Prine could finally quit his mail service job.
The decorated veteran was discovered by Kristofferson while the former was playing in Chicago. It was when Prine was visiting New York that the later invited him to play a gig in a room full of record label staff and luck played its role when the next morning Prine was signed to Atlantic Records.
The talented musician debuted in 1971 and released 19 studio albums in all. He received many critical acclaims as Bob Dylan said in 2009 that Prine had an uncanny ability to write beautiful songs that address the societal and political issues in a rather intriguing way. Bonnie Raitt who is devastated by the loss had once told that John could pull off extraordinary punches by playing with words exceptionally. Moreover, Johnny Cash had also addressed him as one of his big four songwriters alongside other names like Guy Clark, Steve Goodman, and Rodney Crowell.
An update on John pic.twitter.com/fPQbv0tLyB
— John Prine (@JohnPrineMusic) March 29, 2020
Talking of his trail of awards, John Prine has achieved several awards during his lifetime that includes 2 Grammy awards from 11 nominations and was also given a lifetime achievement award at the 2020 ceremony.
Widely acclaimed as a prolific songwriter, John offered his biggest chart hit with singers Alison Krauss, Kacey Musgraves, and Miranda Lambert in 2016 titled For Better, or Worse.
It was never an easy battle for John he suffered twice from cancer. In 1996 it was due to squamous cell carcinoma that needed him to get speech therapy and in 2013 he had undergone surgery for lung cancer.
Prine’s career received a boost when he was offered a small role in the 2001 Billy Bob Thornton Directed movie Daddy and Them, despite Prine having no prior acting experience.
Filmmaker Michael Moore, astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Stephen King paid further tributes by saying that he was one of the great ones out there. Robert Plant made a quite significant statement when he said that Prine’s talent was like a beam of white light cutting through the dark days.
John Prine who was a humorist but mainly a humanist was envied by many in his profession due to his honest depictions and has left a blueprint for many on how to live life with enthusiasm.
Wiki Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prine
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