In the early 1970’s, my wife Cathy and I were living in a nondescript Phoenix, Arizona ranch house with our two small children.
My hopes were high but my job menial, the paycheck small. After putting the kids to bed, we would often sit and talk in a back room off the kitchen. Cathy always chose the couch while I sat in a chair by the record player, a poor man’s DJ, pulling vinyl disks out of their album covers then placing the needle on whatever track fit the mood.
(freeze frame from Super 8 home movie…arrow points to record player)
John Prine was our “go-to” artist, his basic three chord acoustic guitar playing and folksy singing style perfectly suited for the subject matter he favored - ordinary people dealing with all that life throws in their direction, be it tragic, goofy, sentimental or absurd.
Prine, a former suburban Chicago mailman who didn’t look or sound like a pop star, emerged seemingly out of nowhere with a 1971 debut album that delivered musical messages written so descriptively as to render the lyrics almost photographic. You can picture the people, visualize their existence, see what they are up against.
“God bless this kitchen said the knick--knack shelf,
The dinner’s almost ready, go and wash yourself,
Jimmy’s growing up now, Wanda’s growing old,
The time is growing shorter, the nights are long and cold.”
In those days, I dreamed of finding a creative outlet and Prine gave me hope - this story telling postal worker elevated to an expanding route that now included our little house in Phoenix.
By 1986, we had four children and were living in Winnetka, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. I was working as a feature correspondent for NBC News based in the Midwest bureau. With freedom to choose any story subject, it suddenly dawned on me to seek out John Prine. Radio and other forms of electronic media had changed since the early 70’s. It was money, not artistry, that whet the appetites of station management. Consultants flourished by devising cookie-cutter formats for radio and local TV News. Celebrities and star performers were in. Nuanced artists were out. John Prine’s loyal following stood with him, filling medium-sized concert halls. But without consistent radio airplay or television exposure, new fans were hard to cultivate, despite his continued output of astonishingly descriptive songs.
I found the phone number of John’s Nashville manager and left a message about the possibility of doing a televised profile. The next evening one of our children answered the home phone, then handed it to me.
“Hello Mike, this is John Prine.”
For a millisecond, my mind jetted back to our humble Phoenix years when John Prine lifted our spirits and consciousness. Now I was in a position to lift his profile with a network news feature story to a Today show audience of five million.
“Hello John,” I spoke into the telephone. “Nice to meet you.”
We talked cordially before setting a date for a few days of filming in Nashville, his adopted hometown. My plan was to rendezvous with an Atlanta-based camera crew, rent a van, then call Prine from an airport pay phone and ask for directions to his house. Two weeks later, I stepped off the plane and into the Nashville arrival lounge, where to my surprise, stood my gracious host - a smiling John Prine.
The crew arrived about twenty minutes later, loaded their gear into the rental van and we headed off to one of Prine’ favorite restaurants for lunch. I rode with John in his cherry red vintage car and we talked about life’s twists and turns and how the two of us ended up in this moment, at this time.
The lunchtime conversation was filled with humorous tales of odd situations and strange sights when our sound-man Corky Jr, sitting immediately to John’s left, casually took a drag on his cigarette, and without ceremony, exhaled a thick billow of smoke out of his eye socket. Apparently, Corky Jr. had some kind of nasal/ocular defect, but the sight of Prine staring in wonder at the remaining wisps of cigarette smoke leaking from a man’s eye socket seemed to fit the moment.
After lunch, we drove to see Cowboy Jack Clement at his rambling house/office called Cowboy Arms Ranch and Recording Spa. Cowboy Jack, a legendary figure in Nashville, had written songs for Elvis, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis and more. He also produced tracks for Waylon Jennings, U2 and others. Rachel Prine, John’s wife at the time, joined us along with a few of his friends. Stories were told and songs were sung.
(Cowboy Jack Clement and John Prine)
At one point, I wandered out of Cowboy Jack’s spacious office and roamed the corridors, leaning my head into an open door to the sound of guitars being tuned. One of the women in the room turned to me and in a friendly, heavily accented southern twang said, “Hello young man. Who are you?” I answered, “I’m Mike from Chicago” to which she smiled and countered, “Hello Mike from Chicago, I’m June Carter Cash. Come on in. I’ll sing you a song.”
And she did.
(June Carter Cash in the middle)
After leaving Cowboy Jack’s, we drove to Prine’s house and settled in the kitchen where John, Rachel and musician friend Jim Rooney sat around a table and sang song after song for hours, interrupting their session only for my filmed interview with John.
It was a wondrous, fly on the wall experience, witnessing such creativity, friendship and laughter in a kitchen setting seemingly exported right out of the 1950’s. Outtakes from the kitchen concert will be included below.
After midnight, we said our temporary goodbyes, knowing that a few weeks later, I would fly to Virginia to film John’s concert at Wolf Trap where he was to be accompanied by the great Irish guitarist Philip Donnelly (who died in 2019). Also at Wolf Trap that night was Holly Gleason, a young music journalist working to expose John Prine’s brilliance to a wider audience. Holly went on to become a music industry publicist, consultant, critic and songwriter. In 2023, her book, Prine on Prine, was released to great fanfare. It is a collection of essays and news articles focusing on Prine, including a transcription of my 1986 Today story as well as a follow up piece that aired in 1991. It’s an honor to be part of Holly’s tribute to one of America’s greatest songwriters.
Through the years, I kept in touch with John, sometimes just for a quick dressing room hello after one of his Chicago concerts. In 2016, Prine graciously accepted an invitation to be the centerpiece of my public television program on the subject of creativity. Two separate bouts of cancer had disfigured his body and altered his singing voice, but he was still battling, still filling concert halls, still joking about every kind of absurdity.
Here are three short clips from that public television program.
(intro about his career - 1:59 min)
(reminiscing about his first time on stage - 1:09 min)
(his philosophical problem with mediocrity - :45 seconds)
John Prine passed away from complications caused by Covid 19 in April of 2020. He was 73.
Below are four films: My original 1986 Today show story plus the session with Cowboy Jack along with two musical outtakes from John’s Nashville kitchen. The scenes are amazing. Later in the year, I will post more about the brilliant John Prine.