#Lonesome friends of science tab how to#

#Lonesome friends of science tab how to#

That’s unheard of.ĪS: Who taught you how to manage your money? They said, “I don’t care what your next record’s called, here’s $15, send it to me.” And the record was paid for before I went into a studio. People sent in checks before I wrote the songs. I just figured I’m going to start my own label and just service people that come to see me. They were frustrated trying to market me, and I was frustrated from them being frustrated. JP: It was partly because I moved to Nashville, and I really had nothing against the people at the major labels. It’s better to get known for your music that way then somebody taking the advertisements over the radio for you.ĪS: When you started your record company. Some people tell me that the car trip they would take with their parents were the only time they felt like a family, and I would be the soundtrack. They were introduced to me through my records, and in quite a few situations, people would pass my songs over-a lot of people got to know my songs through a good friend, or through their mother or father, who’d introduce it to them. And to have people know me before they shook my hand was odd to me. JP: It was like, I was writing about things private to me and dear to me. You come home straight and you come home curly You come on big when you're feeling small You come home late and you come home early And I’d always go, “Wait a second, who are you?” People felt really close to me because of my song lyrics. It all was airports and sound checks and meeting people that felt really close to you because of your-that was a tough one for me to get over. It drove me to songwriting.ĪS: And going back to 1971 when your first album came out, it’s after you had this incredible breakthrough, success through the 70s.what was that time like? JP: I was a mailman out there, braving the elements, between bees, wasps and dogs. But until then, he was making money delivering mail. John’s parents were from western Kentucky, but he grew up in a suburb of Chicago.That’s where he started out playing open mics.Kris Kristofferson heard him and helped him get a record deal. Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking This song is called Paradise off his first album, from 1971.Īnd daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg Countyĭown by the Green River where Paradise lay When I was a child my family would travelĭown to Western Kentucky where my parents were born.

I’ve loved John Prine a long time.I sang his songs around campfires when I was growing up in West Virginia. Bob Dylan called him one of his favorite songwriters, Johnny Cash said he was a source of inspiration. John is renowned for the way he can put together a song. And I’m going to play Radio City on Friday night, and hopefully dance off the stage. JP: I just had a knee replacement, exactly six weeks ago. He’s never taken more than a year off from touring and when we talked he was getting ready for a big sold-out show in New York. John’s been in the music business for 47 years. But it was pretty darn good and pretty expensive too. And I’m a meat and potatoes guy, but they served me with something that looked like a baby hedgehog, with liverwurst inside of it. JP: Last night we ate at a really swanky restaurant here in New York City. John Prine is 71 years old and right now, having the best album sales of his career, His new record is called The Tree of Forgiveness.We talked in New York just as it was coming out. JOHN PRINE: I get people to actually stop me on the street now going, “Who are you? Don’t I know you?' I mean, they don’t say, “Hey, you’re John Prine!” They want me to tell them who I am.ĪS: The show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot… Let’s listen back together to that episode, and we send our condolences to his family, his many friends, and all the people who have found meaning and comfort in his music.

Why would people want to go there if there was cancer?” He told me: “I thought, where can I smoke a cigarette? And I thought, heaven. It just made me feel so much more comfortable in the world.”Īnd when I asked him about the song off his latest album.When I Get to Heaven, he told me, it wasn’t about dying, It started as a little song he’d sing to himself when he was making a cocktail at happy hour.and he’d start thinking about cigarettes, which he’d long-ago quit after bouts with cancer.

Growing up, he told me, “I loved having buddies and I loved time alone.” But when he became a father, he told me, “It brought my feet right to the ground. John Prine died this week at the age of 73, from complications from COVID-19. He leaves a big hole.