Prine started playing guitar at age 14, taught by his brother, David. In summers, they would go back to visit family near Paradise, Kentucky.

He was born and raised in the Chicago suburb of Maywood. Prine was the son of William Mason Prine, a tool-and-die maker, and Verna Valentine (Hamm), a homemaker, both originally from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Nobody but Prine could write like that.' In 2020, Prine received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. All that stuff about ' Sam Stone', the soldier junkie daddy, and 'Donald and Lydia', where people make love from ten miles away. According to Nobel laureate songwriter Bob Dylan, 'Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, Prine was known for humorous lyrics about love, life, and current events, as well as serious songs with social commentary and songs that recollect sometimes melancholy tales from his life. In 1981, he co-founded Oh Boy Records, an independent label where he released most of his subsequent albums. He then signed with Asylum Records, where he recorded three more albums. The acclaim Prine earned from this LP led him to focus on his musical career, and he recorded three more albums for Atlantic. Army, he returned to Chicago in the late 1960s, where he worked as a mailman, writing and singing songs first as a hobby and then as a club performer.Ī member of Chicago's folk revival, Prine credited film critic Roger Ebert and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson with discovering him, resulting in Prine's eponymous debut album with Atlantic Records in 1971. After serving in West Germany with the U.S. He attended classes at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music.

He was known for an often humorous style of original music that has elements of protest and social commentary.īorn and raised in Maywood, Illinois, Prine learned to play the guitar at age 14. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death.

John Edward Prine (October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music.

John prine i remember everything