This one is hard. Just one day after the passing of Jan Howard, Grand Ole Opry member Joe Diffie has passed away at the age of 61.
Joe Diffie, a consistent country-music hitmaker throughout the Nineties, died Sunday due to complications related to COVID-19. His publicist confirmed the death to Rolling Stone. Diffie was 61.
With a traditional-leaning voice that drew comparisons to George Jones, Diffie populated his records with honky-tonk ballads and lighthearted novelty tunes, earning the Oklahoma native five Number One singles in the first half of the Nineties. These began with his debut release, the deeply moving “Home,” followed by “If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets),” “Third Rock From the Sun,” “Pickup Man,” and “Bigger Than the Beatles.” In all, Diffie charted 18 Top Ten singles, with the majority reaching the Top Five, including the 1993 radio staples “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)” and “John Deere Green.”
The singer was famously name-checked, as were a number of his best-known songs, in Jason Aldean’s 2013 single “1994.” “There are plenty of singers in this town, but not many with a range like his,” Diffie’s fellow Opry star Vince Gill told People magazine in 1993.
Joseph Logan Diffie was born in Tulsa and raised in the tiny community of Velma, Oklahoma. In the intervening years, the Diffie family lived in San Antonio, Washington state, and Wisconsin. His father, who held jobs as a teacher, rancher, truck driver, and welder, had musical tastes that ran more toward traditional country, but Diffie learned about harmony singing by working in gospel and bluegrass groups, including, respectively, Higher Purpose and Special Edition. Diffie also played bars, VFW halls, and honky-tonks as a solo act in Duncan, Oklahoma, where he lived with his wife and children while working in a local foundry. He also partnered with his father to run a small recording studio.
After the closing of the foundry and the dissolution of his first marriage, Diffie relocated to Nashville in 1986, implementing a five-year plan to make it in the music business. There, he took a job with the Gibson guitar company and also began singing on countless demos and writing songs.
In 1988, country legend Hank Thompson cut the Diffie composition “Love on the Rocks.” In 1989, Diffie co-wrote and sang backing vocals on Holly Dunn’s Top Five single “There Goes My Heart Again.”
Signed to Epic Records, Diffie released his debut LP, A Thousand Winding Roads, in 1990. The album produced his inaugural hit, “Home,” which set a record by becoming the first debut single to reach the top of the country charts on all three trade publications at the time: Billboard, Gavin, and Radio & Records. Opening for acts including George Strait and Steve Wariner, Diffie continued his hit streak with six Top Five singles in a row, one of which, 1992’s somber “Ships That Don’t Come In,” would likely have gone to Number One but for its use of the word “bitch” in the lyrics.
In 1993, the year he was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, Diffie released the platinum-selling LP Honky-Tonk Attitude, followed by 1994’s Third Rock From the Sun, which was also certified platinum. Following moves to Monument and Broken Bow Records, Diffie signed with the Rounder label, returning to his bluegrass roots with Homecoming.
In 1998, he won a Grammy award for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals for the all-star recording “Same Old Train” with Merle Haggard, Clint Black, Emmylou Harris, and more.
In 2013, Diffie and two of his country contemporaries, Aaron Tippin and Sammy Kershaw, teamed for the collaborative album All in the Same Boat. In July 2019, he released the honky-tonk tune “As Long as There’s a Bar,” and in November issued his first-ever vinyl LP, Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie, featuring updated versions of 11 of his hits and a cover of the Stevie Ray Vaughan tune “Pride and Joy.”
Representative of his workingman persona, Diffie took a no-nonsense approach to his craft. “I just like the songs themselves,” he told Rolling Stone in 2019. “Finding songs I really liked and that I related to. Really, it’s not any more complicated than that.”
Prayers and thoughts to Joe's family and friends.
Sad and shocking news. Thank you for your tribute.
ReplyDeleteI know Jan Howard and Kenny Rogers both had health issues, but it just makes you wonder now if the COVID-19 was not involved.
ReplyDeleteThis is sad. This hits home. I was a teenager during the mid to late 90’s. Joe Diffie was one of the biggest around. “John Deere Green” and “Pickup Man” are two of my generations “go to” songs. But “Home” will forever be my favorite Diffie song.
All sad news
ReplyDeleteJim
And now John Prine is in critical condition from COVID-19
ReplyDeleteI saw that also David. And John's health wasn't the best before this diagnosis.
DeleteWell, I have more to say but I have been trying all day to copy and past my comments and I just can't get it to work. Shows what I know!
ReplyDeleteJim
Knightsville
Thoughts and prayers to Joe's family and the country music community. So glad I was able to see and hear Joe at the Opry when I went in 2016.
ReplyDeleteI have listened to the Opry since my young childhood days of the early 70's. As I matured I became a student of the music, the artist and the history and around 1980 began listening to the Opry every Friday and Saturday night over WSM. At that time the female artists I most looked forward to hearing were Jean Shepard and Connie Smith. I enjoyed Jan Howard when she performed but was not as aware of her music as Jean and Connie.
ReplyDeleteAs my knowledge grew and my brother Rick and I began collecting LP's in the mid 80's we soon had many of Jan's LP's including the duet albums with Bill Anderson. I've said this before but you owe it to yourself to dig into those Decca LP's and take a listen. The songs, the musicians, the arrangements and Jan's singing are all top notch in my opinion. I began to research and pay more attention to Jan's appearances on the Opry. As with most of our Opry hero's, if you pay attention, they offer a lot of insight into their personal lives just from the Opry stage and even more if you have the honor of meeting them. On my first trip to Nashville as an adult in 1989, Jan's book "Sunshine and Shadows" was part of an armload of purchases at the ET Record Shop. What an amazing and sometimes sad story of strength and perseverance! Reading the book helped connect the dots to the observations I had made over the preceding few years.
Our first time to meet Jan was backstage at the Opry in April 1999. I still recall the frustration on her face when I handed her an LP to sign with an ink pen. "Is that all you have to sign with?" She looked around to see if anyone close had a sharpie and then said "I guess this will have to do". Later, in August, she filled in for Jeanne Pruett on a show at Grissom AFB in Peru, Indiana with Bill Anderson and Jeannie Seely. We brought a sharpie that time! I took several nice photos that night and since it was our first time to really visit with Jan, I sent her a letter with some of the photo's. Over the next fifteen years, first by letter, then by email, we would communicate several times a year. Our last exchange was in August 2014 and at the time she suggested she was about ready to "hang it up". We would enjoy her performances on the Opry for just over one more year!
In April of 2001 Bill and Jan played Taylorville, IL. Since she had been so kind in returning my letters over the past couple of years I wanted to do something for her I felt would be kind of special. I do artwork as a hobby and can do a reasonable job on portraits so I decided to do a colored pencil drawing of Jan with her good friend Tex Ritter with the American flag as a backdrop. At Taylorville that night while waiting outside before the show and watching fans gather around the bus to talk to Bill and Jan, I happened to strike up a conversation with Jan's younger brother Bob. We must have talked for a half hour. He and Jan had come up from Nashville in her white Cadillac. Later, when I told Jan that we had talked with Bob she grinned and said "he's a talker". She seemed to appreciate the artwork but as Bob had said and I knew well, she had plenty of photos with Tex. But, this was a little different and hopefully meaningful. Sometime later her house burned and along with it my original. Thankfully I had taken photos and was able to send her a smaller reproduction.
Jim
Knightsville, IN
ReplyDeleteJan part 2
Through the years, a phrase she like to use, we would get to see and visit with Jan several times. She always had time for her fans and she was always impeccably dressed. The last time we saw her was at the ROPE luncheon in June 2016 and we had our picture taken with her. I was doing okay here till I just went and looked at that photo to confirm the date and now my eyes are full of tears. She was alone that hot June day and as we walked her to her car she had her sights on some ice cream on her way home.
It was so great to see Jan get a few minutes on the recent Ken Burns documentary even if it was about a sad time in her life. But you might also look at it as it led to a rewarding part of her life concerning her work with veterans. One of her Decca LP's was titled "For God and Country" released in 1970. Ironically, "My Son" was not on that LP but appeared on the preceding LP of 1969 simply titled "Jan Howard". Bill Anderson was part of the liner notes on both with her friend Jack Norman also writing on "God and Country". In one of our conversations Jan said it was so hard to do "My Son" in public because all those memories came rushing back. We were blessed that she chose to do it on the Opry and the Midnite Jamboree in the last couple years she performed.
As I recall, Jan often affectionately referred to Bill Anderson as "Star". No doubt that in the public eye Bill and many others were the bigger stars. In my art world, not every work in a show gets a ribbon but the show would be pretty lame without the other works around those ribbon winners. The same is true to me in this music world we all love so much. There has to be a supporting cast and often how good they are makes an impact on how great the stars are. Jan Howard has been one of the consistent supporters of Country Music along with many of our beloved Opry stars like Stu Phillips, Billy Walker, Ray Pillow and others. And we all know that the Opry would be in a different position today if people like Jan had not supported it with the same love she showed her fans. We owe them all thanks for that.
I am so thankful that back there in the 80's I came to realize who Jan Howard really was and eventually was able to spend a few moments with her after a show now and then or exchange personal thoughts about the Opry and music through letters and emails. As I have said before, it makes me proud to tell people who do not understand Country Music, just how down to earth and nice these people are, especially those of Jan's generation and before. I would like to think that Jan received many nice birthday cards and wishes earlier this month and knew that she was still loved and remembered.
The last song she sang on the Opry was "Remember the Good" and we will always remember the good she gave us through her kindness and music. I'll close with a quote from Jan's email of March 12, 2014: "I appreciate the birthday wishes. Someone ask me what I planned tomorrow, and I said "waking up would be a great start". Seriously, I celebrate every second of every day because each day is a blessing".
Jim Knightsville, IN
Now and then there's a fool such as I said Hank Snow.
ReplyDeleteI'm to long winded and that must be why it did not like what I was doing!
Jim
Knightsville, IN
Read every word Jim. Keep at it!
ReplyDeleteThanks Nat. Hope you are doing Okay down there in B Town.
DeleteJim
Jim,
DeleteI always appreciate what you have to say. I was actually thinking about you earlier today. Hearing the news about Joe Diffie has hit me hard. I thought that most people wouldn't understand why I feel this way. I know you have similar feelings about your music heroes.
Hang in there.
J in OK
J in OK: I was sad to hear about Joe too. I guess the difference for me is that I never had any interaction with him and only saw him at the Opry a time or two. Most of the people of Jan's generation we were lucky enough to at least meet once over the past 25-30 years and many of them like Bill Anderson we have talked with dozens of times after shows. That really stays with you. We never met Hank Snow or Ernest Tubb but we love their music, we just never had any personal contact with them.
ReplyDeleteHang in there.
Jim
Knightsville, IN
Thank you Jim - wonderful memories to cherish. We have the same sentiments about the country and bluegrass entertainers/musicians, who are always grateful for their fans and willing to meet and greet. (from Anonymous in PA)
ReplyDeleteJim, what you posted was GREAT.
ReplyDeleteByron, thank you for the great tributes.
My all-time favorite Jan Howard story is about the duet "For Loving You." Whisper had to look at her and the song was so serious that he just couldn't keep a straight face if he looked at her eyes, so he looked at her forehead. She kept telling him to LOOK AT HER, and he couldn't do it. Finally, one night, when he looked at her forehead, she pushed her bangs aside a little. She had pasted a Cyclops eye in the middle of her forehead. Apparently, he made it through the song, but not easily.
I think we all have a favorite Jan Howard memory. Mine is from the night of the 50th anniversary of the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree. At the time, my daughter was in high school and would make the trip with me to Nashville.
ReplyDeleteOn this particular evening we were at the downtown shop waiting for the Opry to end and the jamboree to start and my daughter was standing off to the side, along the wall where the cash registers were, while I was looking at some music. I noticed that a lady was standing beside her and they were engaged in a conversation. After they were done, my daughter came over and I asked her what she had been talking about with that lady. She said that the lady saw her standing there, came over next to her, said hi and started asking her about where she was from, how old she was, was she in school, that sort of thing.
My daughter did not know who she was. That lady who took the time to talk to my daughter that night was Jan Howard.
THAT is absolutely lovely, and, given what we know about Jan, totally unsurprising.
DeletePeople will always associate Joe Diffie with the up tempo, novelty-type stuff, but he could really nail a ballad. Kind of like Jimmy Dickens in that respect.
ReplyDeleteHe also had a lot of album cuts that were better than many singers' singles. He's somehow really popular and completely underrated at the same time.
J in OK
Last Night's Opry replay on WSM was a classic.
ReplyDeleteJoe Diffie was great, and Dom Flemons was electric.
He and Vince Gill together tore the house down on the last song.