John Prine still hospitalized with COVID-19 but is now stable, his wife says
John Prine has been hospitalized in critical condition with COVID-19 but was stable Monday, his wife said.
John Prine, the esteemed Americana singer-songwriter who has been hospitalized in critical condition since Thursday with COVID-19, is now stable, his wife said Monday on social media.
“I have recovered from Covid-19,” Fiona Whelan Prine tweeted. “We are humbled by the outpouring of love for me and John and our precious family. He is stabile. Please continue to send your amazing Love and prayers. Sing his songs. Stay home and wash hands. John loves you. I love you.”
On Sunday she had given more details about her 73-year-old husband, explaining on Instagram that he had been hospitalized after “a sudden onset of COVID-19 symptoms” and was intubated on Saturday. “[H]is situation is critical,” she wrote.
John is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee since the class of 2019.
Let’s hope he makes it in. I’m dying to hear his speech!
"Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism, Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree – and he writes beautiful songs," Bob Dylan told the Huffington Post. "I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. 'Sam Stone' featuring the wonderfully evocative line: 'There’s a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes, and Jesus Christ died for nothing I suppose.' All that stuff about 'Sam Stone,' the soldier junkie daddy, and 'Donald and Lydia,' where people make love from 10 miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that."
Roger Waters described Prine's music as "just extraordinarily eloquent," in a talk with Word magazine. "He lives on that plane with Neil Young and [John] Lennon."
He's as Generous as He Is Sharp Witted
Prine co-wrote "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," a darkly humorous send-up of country-song tropes, with Steve Goodman – only to see it achieve sweeping chart success when singer David Allan Coe covered the outlaw classic in 1975. But you won't find Prine's name on any of those singles.
Instead, he handed all of the credit – and the cash – to Goodman. "I thought it was a joke," Prine told Rolling Stone. "Next thing I know, David Allan Coe does it, and it goes to No. 1." (Actually No. 8, but that probably doesn't sound as intriguing to the born storyteller in Prine.)