“It’s hard to talk about John being gone because his music is so present.”
On Thursday night, “60 Minutes” reporter John Dickerson kicked off a two-hour tribute to his friend and legendary songwriter John Prine, who died on April 7 at the age of 73 from COVID-19 complications.
The virtual tribute — called “Picture Show: A Tribute Celebrating John Prine” — featured performances from an all-star lineup that included Brandi Carlile, Vince Gill, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Eric Church and more.
“Picture Show” celebrated Prine’s 50-year career, highlighted first-person accounts from those who knew the Songwriters Hall of Famer — like Bill Murray and Billy Bob Thornton — and showed previously unseen footage of Prine.
And following the special tribute, Prine’s family gave friends and fans a parting gift, releasing the musician’s final recorded song.
The last song recorded before his death, “I Remember Everything,” was recorded in Prine’s living room with Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, according to Prine’s Facebook page. The song’s lyrics “reflect on memories from the road and the moments between dear ones that leave an indelible mark,” according to Rolling Stone.
Produced by Prine’s family and Oh Boy Records, the tribute raised at least $200,000 for COVID-19-related charities, according to USAToday.
“Picture Show” streamed on Prine’s official YouTube, Facebook and Twitch accounts, and can be viewed until Sunday, June 14, according to Prine’s YouTube channel.
Here are some highlights from the event.
Jason Isbell/Amanda Shires
- Americana/folk artists (and husband and wife) Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires kicked off the musical tribute with performances of “Hello in There” and “Clocks and Spoons.” The couple previously performed “Clocks and Spoons” for Austin City Limits.
Kacey Musgraves
- “John I think may have been a little bit in love with Kacey Musgraves,” said Fiona Whelan Prine, the widow of Prine, during the tribute. “But that’s OK with me. I think we’re all in love with Kacey Musgraves.”
- Musgraves performed two songs for the tribute. “Burn One With John Prine” — one of the first songs she wrote when she moved to Nashville — and “Spanish Pipe Dream,” a song she had previously performed with Prine.
- “That man singlehandedly influenced me and my songwriting more than anybody else on this planet,” she said. “Your spirit, it abounds. It’s never going to go away.”
Billy Bob Thornton
- Thornton knew Prine for 25 years. He said Prine was well-respected in the songwriting circle, mentioning a time Kris Kristofferson once said: “When you hear one of Prine’s songs, it makes you want to quit.”
- “It’s not an easy thing when a guy like John passes on,” Thornton said. “John was a simple, humble, complex, funny, heartbreaking guy, and it showed in his songs. “He could make you laugh and cry within just one line in a song.”
Brandi Carlile
- Brandi Carlile and her longtime band, twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth, performed their favorite Prine song, “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” in three-part harmony.
- Previously, Carlile paid tribute to Prine with a performance of “Hello in There” on Stephen Colbert’s late night show.
- “There’s so many amazing and powerful messages that John Prine has left the world,” Carlile said. “And for the people that weren’t familiar with his music, they’re about to get a whole lot of truth dropped on them, which I am really happy about at least.”
Kevin Bacon/Kyra Sedgwick
- Actor Kevin Bacon and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, performed “In Spite of Ourselves.”
Sturgill Simpson
- Sturgill Simpson performed “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness”
- “Every time I ever toured with John … this is a song we always played together,” Simpson said.
Iris DeMent
- “John Prine was without a doubt one of the greatest songwriters this world will ever know,” Iris DeMent wrote in a tribute to Prine. “Greatest or not, here’s what it comes down to for me and why he rests on my hearts mountaintop.
- “Because he cared enough to look — at me, you, all of us until he saw what was noble and then he wrapped us up in melodies and sung us back to ourselves,” she continued. “That was the miracle of John Prine. And it was enough.”
Bonnie Raitt
- Fiona Whelan Prine said that many people didn’t know “Angel From Montgomery” was John Prine’s song because Bonnie Raitt made it her own. Raitt, who has performed the song since the 1970s, joined the tribute to once again perform the hit song.
‘When I Get to Heaven’
- “When I saw that title, I was horrified and curious,” Fiona Whelan Prine said during the tribute.
- “He laid it out. He laid out really in that little song his complete set of beliefs, which were really simple. John believed in God, John believed in heaven, John believed you came from God and that when you died, you went to heaven.”
- “And In all the years that I’ve known him, he never wavered in that belief.”
- “When I Get to Heaven” is the last song on Prine’s last record, “Tree of Forgiveness,” which came out in 2018. The song closed out the two-hour tribute Thursday night.
- This song … it makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it comforts me, too,” Fiona Whelan Prine said. “I can see him reunited with the joys of his life, with the loves of his life, with the simple pleasures.”