John Prine died April 7, 2020 at age 73 - an early COVID victim . Prine was a singer/songwriter, author, actor, record-label owner, two-time Grammy winner, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the recipient of the 2016 PEN New England Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award, a honor previously given to Leonard Cohen and Chuck Berry. Bob Dylan said, “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism….Midwestern mind-trips to the nth degree.” For a real treat catch him on You Tube. Hello In There is a good starter.
Prine was a storyteller. I want to tell a story on him, or about him, or about me.
Cinny, my wife, and I had a commitment ceremony in 2000 with a couple dozen friends attending. We really enjoyed Prine’s song All The Way With You. We choregraphed a simple dance to accompany the song and made this a part of the ceremony. Really sweet.
Later we moved from Illinois to Tennessee. We lived and worked in and around Nashville. Our anniversary was coming up and I got the great idea for a gift for Cinny on our special date. Wouldn’t be fun to be at a nice Nashville restaurant celebrating our life together when John Prine walks up to the table and sings All The Way With You? Still gives me chills when I think about it.
How do I pull this off? For some reason I knew that Prine was a customer at a Green Hills pharmacy. Green Hills, a neighborhood in Nashville, was the home to many musical artists and the famous Bluebird Cafe. I approached one of the pharmacists and asked he would pass on a letter to Mr. Prine. Sure. No problem. The letter shared my vision. I waited for some days. No response.
Next I asked David Olney about how to reach John. (I posted some months back about David and his death) Dave had been part of the music scene for many years. Sure. John’s agent is so and so. Call him. Great. I called and had a pleasant conversation and learned that I would need about $50,000 to pull off my plan! Everyone wanted a piece of John and he had to set some boundaries. I was disappointed and reluctantly let the project go.
One day I was at Wild Oats Market shopping for groceries when I spotted John in the produce department. I walked over and introduced myself. “Mr. Prine, I am Roger Golden, the guy that has been stalking you for the last 6 months.” He acknowledged my doggedness and we had a good laugh. “Yeah, folks ask all the time if I can sing this or do that. Like, I have a wedding coming up, could you do a song?” We parted. I was thrilled to have met him. I let it go. Here is the song:
How wonderful that we're together!