John Prine Never Expected To Make It in Music

For most musicians that make it to the big time, that precipice is the culmination of a life-long journey in music. Few artists get famous by accident. There is almost always an expressed goal of making their hobby a career. However, for John Prine, being a recording artist came out of the blue. Find out why the Americana icon thought he wouldn’t make it in music, below.

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[RELATED: The Moment That Changed John Prine’s Life Forever]

John Prine Never Expected To Make It in Music

I am an old woman
Named after my mother
My old man is another
Child that’s grown old

Prine has no shortage of beloved classics. His songwriting was (and is) second to none. His unique voice spoke to the realities of life in a way few of his peers have been able to replicate. Nevertheless, there was a time when music was just “fun” for Prine.

The Illinois native–who got up on stage for the first time as a result of a dare–found himself underneath a spotlight quite unexpectedly. For a while he found it “difficult” to come to terms with.

If dreams were thunder
And lightnin’ was desire
This old house would’ve burnt down
At a long time ago

“Well, with me, my early recordings, I had a difficult time listening back to them because I was so nervous,” Prine once said. “I didn’t expect to do this for a living, be a recording artist. I was just playing music for the fun of it and writing songs to – that was kind of my escape, you know, from the humdrum of the world.”

“And everything happened so fast for me that I became a recording artist before I knew it,” he continued. “And I just – when I would listen to my old records, I’d just hear this young, extremely nervous fella that made me want to run out of the room, you know, rather than listen to what he had to say.”

[RELATED: Behind the Album: ‘Bruised Orange,’ A Low-Key Songwriting Master Class From John Prine]

Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo

Despite Prine’s trepidation, he more than found his footing as a recording artist. Revisit one of his top songs, “Angel from Montgomery,” below.

Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’
Is just a hard way to go

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