"Living in the Present with John Prine" by Tom Piazza, W. . Norton & Company, 208 pages
John Prine — singer, songwriter, guitarist and storyteller — attracted in his life such devoted fans that they could almost be considered a cult.
Best known for songs of irony, humor and sometimes social protest, Prine touched New Orleans writer Tom Piazza with another type of song when he heard him at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans in 2016.
Prine first amused the audience with some of his witty signature songs like “Some Humans Ain’t Human.” Then, singing along on the stage his composition “Mexican Home," he delivered a “quiet and haunting … tableau of the day the singer’s father died in 1971,” Piazza writes. He continues, “At one point I realized that tears were running down my cheeks.”
The experience prompted the writer to think he might like to do a profile of Prine, though he had given up a career as a prolific music writer to write novels and book-length nonfiction. In 2016, he had not done a story about a musician in 22 years.
In 2018, when Piazza again heard Prine, this time at the Orpheum Theater, he was struck by the change in his appearance. Two years earlier, he had seemed a debilitated old man, whereas at the Orpheum he played with great vigor and seemed healthy and glowing with good humor. Perhaps he had recovered from the ravages of the cancer of the neck for which he had undergone extended treatment after his diagnosis in 1998. The only noticeable effect of Prine's rigorous rehabilitation regime was much more gravel in his voice, though fans of his country and folk music were as enthusiastic as ever.
It was on that night that Piazza decided to approach Prine and his wife and manager, Fiona Prine, about doing an article on the singer for the Oxford American magazine. After the show, the Prines were cordial as they listened to Piazza’s proposal, but he was aware of being scrutinized. After a subsequent visit with them in Nashville, they gave their permission with the caveat that his story not be in the usual interview format of question/answer. Instead, they wanted Piazza to spend some time with them, just observing how they lived.
Piazza and the Prines agreed that the project would begin in earnest at their vacation home in Gulfport, Florida. This is how Piazza found himself in a hair-raising trek that John Prine said would be a pleasant little road trip to Sarasota for lunch.
The singer had just purchased a red 1977 Coupe de Ville on eBay and before they took off, John Prine stowed a couple of gallons of water in the trunk, just in case the radiator needed some on the way. That thought caused his passenger a bit of unease, which wasn’t helped when he found that though he had a seat belt, there was no buckle. He casually mentioned that he didn’t have a valid tag on the car, installing the one issued to his RV rather than applying for a valid one for his new Cadillac. When Piazza called John Prine’s attention to a police car up ahead, he admitted he couldn’t see that far, but he felt sure his vision was OK for going over the long and steep bridge into Sarasota, which made a sudden, sharp descent from a height designed to let ocean-going craft pass below. Adding up these factors in his mind, the author concluded that if it was his time to die, it might as well be with a half-blind singer in a compromised antique car.
In October 2018, the Oxford American article was published, but that was not the end of the Prine-Piazza story. While their preparation for the article was progressing, the two had become friends, playing guitars together, showing each other techniques and riffs. They shared meals and even went shoe shopping together. The Prines visited Piazza and his partner in New Orleans; the Prines invited Piazza to Nashville. Then came a meeting in Seaside, Florida, where John Prine was headlining a songwriters’ festival, followed by a stay at the Prines' Nashville mansion that the singer again seems to have bought on a whim, as he had the Cadillac. Fiona Prine said she’d like to downsize and instead her husband looked around and found them a larger home.
Though their hospitality was genuine, there was an underlying motive for this invitation. Other writers had proposed a biography of John Prine and had been turned down. The Prines, concluding a bio was inevitable, wanted to choose the biographer — Tom Piazza.
The next half of the book comprises the most fascinating section, for the majority of the content is a direct transcription of John Prine telling his own story. Piazza judiciously inserts comments, interpretation, setting and other relevant information, but the unedited reminiscences of John Prine give us the man in his own words and charm us with the same unassuming, friendly manner that audiences found in his live performances.
We learn that John Prine came from a blue-collar background, with a mother from Kentucky who married his father when she was 14. His father’s family had moved around to follow construction job opportunities, but had settled in Chicago. The young Prine spent the school year in Chicago and summers in Kentucky.
After the basic biographical interview at the Prine home in Nashville, Piazza suggests a session at the studio of Cowboy Jack Clement, who had been a mentor for John Prine in the 1970s when the latter moved to Nashville. Piazza describes him as “… a larger-than-life character, a legendary record producer, songwriter, and Falstaffian bon vivant.”
Clement had been with Sun Records in Memphis since the late '50s, producing Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and others. His songs had been recorded by Elvis, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Hank Snow and many others.
John Prine said mingling for the first time at the Grand Ole Opry backstage made him think, “I’m in hillbilly heaven.” He had left Atlantic for Asylum Records and the record company agreed to have Clement produce it, but John Prine confessed that he defeated the effort by not taking his commitment seriously — not showing up for sessions, for staying out drinking all night, and devoting his time to a new love affair, though he considered himself happily married.
Nevertheless, Clement and John Prine became fast friends, spending time together on trips to Memphis, Tennessee; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; and Los Angeles.
After this round of interviews, Piazza was tiring and felt it was time to go home to New Orleans, especially since he had developed some sinus symptoms that he didn’t want to expose the singer to because of his increasing weakness. Fiona Prine then developed COVID, but after time in quarantine, she was feeling well, according to a note John Prine wrote to Piazza, also saying he could come to New Orleans on March 12, 2020, for another round of interviews.
In early April, Fiona Prine wrote the author to say her husband had tested positive for COVID and was hospitalized. He died on April 26.
Because their time together had lasted only two years, Piazza debated for some time whether to proceed with a book about the singer, obviously not the biography they had planned, but the story of their friendship. Finally, he decided … ”deep friendship and love aren’t measured in linear time. If you are lucky enough to have had it, then you know.”
Thus, we have this funny, touching and very human story.