The kind of songwriter that can come up with timeless, touching classics like “Sam Stone” and “In Spite Of Ourselves” seems like someone who has been writing since they knew how to talk. Nevertheless, that wasn’t the case for John Prine, the Illinois-born wild child who was a mailman and a soldier before he thought about taking up the professional title of “musician.”
But thank goodness he did.
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John Prine Was Surrounded by Music As a Child
As a young boy growing up in Chicagoland, John Prine was exposed to a wellspring of music. He received music lessons at Chicago’s iconic Old Town School of Folk Music. His mother and father, both Kentuckians, introduced their children to bluegrass and country artists from that region as well. Prine’s brother, Dave, also served as a major influence and one of his first bandmates.
“I was writing a lot up until I was about 16,” Prine told Mojo in 2019. “Then, I guess I got busy being a juvenile delinquent. I can’t remember having any serious ideas of becoming a songwriter then. I thought it was so far away that it was not anything you should even dream about.”
The Life-Changing Moment That Brought Him Back to His Calling
As a young adult, John Prine worked as a Chicago mailman. While there, he was drafted into the U.S. Army to fight in the Vietnam War—or so he thought. He and everyone else stationed in Fort Polk, Louisiana, that year believed they would be sent to the jungle to fight (and, for many, die).
“Everybody got their orders, and I’d say 85 percent of the guys went to Vietnam,” Prine recalled. “When I got the orders [to be stationed in] Germany, my father was really happy. Actually, so was I. That’s where I started playing and writing again. I had my mom and dad ship over my guitar, and I’d play in the barracks.”
These experiences—and close calls—helped inform Prine’s thoughtful, poignant, and, at times, critical music. Debut tracks like “Sam Stone” and “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore” had all the jaded attitude of someone who had to witness the true consequences of war.
When Prine returned to the States, he started playing out his original music more regularly. This eventually got him in front of Kris Kristofferson through one of their mutual friends, Steve Goodman, who also lived in Chicago. The rest, as they say, is folk music history.
Photo by Tom Hill/Getty Images
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