Although John Prine had been sick with cancer for quite a while, it nevertheless came as a shock when he died in 2020 from COVID. The accolades started pouring in from within and outside the music world. (In fact, I was so moved by his passing that I performed one of his biggest hits, “The Late John Garfield Blues,” and posted this video of it on YouTube.) It’s a shame that you have to die to find out how much people care about you and the influence you had on them.

Music critic Holly Gleason is eminently qualified to put together this tribute, comprised of interviews that Prine did going back more than 50 years. The publications and TV shows on which he appeared are varied, as are the locations, which is another testament to his popularity.

"PRINE ON PRINE is a sweet look at a musician whose work brought smiles, as well as contemplation, to millions of fans around the world."

Gleason points out in her introduction to PRINE ON PRINE that Prine did not like to do interviews. He did a good job hiding it, at least on paper. The words on a page can’t always do justice to a person’s demeanor or inflection, so out of curiosity, I looked for several of his televised interviews online. To me, he came across pretty well: relaxed and natural. That comes with experience. You learn to anticipate what might be asked, and you figure out what works for both you and your audience. There are a lot of false starts, but they never seemed to deter Prine for very long. But then, that’s the persona that comes across. Whether or not he was being forthcoming, only he knew for sure.

One of the more interesting aspects of Prine’s career that stands out in these nearly 40 profiles was his impatience working with a major record company. It reminded me of a line from the movie That Thing You Do when the soulful songwriting member of the band laments over his inability to push new songs to his bosses. “Never trust the label,” he says. To be fair, making records is a business. The higher-ups want to make sales and are loathe to experiment. They want to go with what works. When Prine wanted to expand his repertoire, he met with resistance --- so much so that he decided to form his own label, with great success. That pride of ownership shows in many of these conversations.

“He evolved over the years, but he never changed his core truths,” Gleason writes in the afterword. “He was willing to scrape away the hubris and rhetorical build-up he saw around him to write what felt like basic songs that sucker punched transgressors with a wink or a child’s innocence.”

One of the drawbacks of a compilation such as this is that over time the questions (and answers) tend to look alike. Even with new projects coming out --- the impetus for many of these exchanges --- Prine repeated responses such as how he got his start, who his inspirations were, and where his ideas came from. (As a former newspaper writer and editor, I tried to mix it up as much as possible. The biggest compliment was having the interviewee momentarily stumped before saying, “That’s a great question.”)

Nevertheless, PRINE ON PRINE is a sweet look at a musician whose work brought smiles, as well as contemplation, to millions of fans around the world.