Prine on Prine
Interviews and Encounters with John Prine
"As close to an autobiography as we’re going to get from John Prine, Prine on Prine captures the inimitable, whimsical voice of one of our greatest songwriters . . . Nashville legend Holly Gleason knew the man and assembled this brilliant collection with a knowing eye and loving heart." —Joel Selvin, author of Fare Thee Well: The Final Chapter of the Grateful Dead's Long, Strange Trip and other books
Curated by a critic who knew him across five decades, Prine on Prine distills the essence of an iconic American songwriter: unguarded, unfiltered and real. In his own words, in his own time—on the road, in the kitchen, the Library of Congress, radio shows, movie scripts, and beyond.
John Prine hated giving interviews, but he said much when he talked. Embarrassed by fame, delighted by the smallest things, the first songwriter to read at the Library of Congress, and winner of the Pen Award for Literary Excellence, Prine saw the world unlike anyone else.
The songs from 1971’s John Prine remain spot-on takes of the human condition today, and his writing only got richer, funnier, and more incisive. The interviews in Prine on Prine trace his career evolution, his singular mind, his enduring awareness of social issues, and his acute love of life, from Studs Terkel’s radio interviews from the early ’70s to Mike Leonard’s Today Show packages from the ’80s, Cameron Crowe's early encounter to Ronni Lundy's Shuck Beans, Stack Cake cookbook, and Hot Rod magazine to No Depression’s cover story, through today.
Editor Holly Gleason enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Prine and his longtime co-manager, and she often traveled with him on tours in the late 1980s and represented him in the 2000s.
Holly Gleason is a music critic, academic, and artist development consultant. Gleason enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Prine and his longtime co-manager. She often traveled with him on tours in the late 1980s and represented him in the 2000s. Her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Miami Herald, Musician, CREEM, Oxford Americanand NPR Music. The 2019 Country Music Association Media Achievement Award recipient and a SOURCE Hall of Fame inductee, she created and contributed to Woman Walk The Line: How the Women of Country Music Changed Our Lives, the 2018 Belmont Book Award winner. She is also the coauthor of Miranda Lambert's Y'all Eat Yet? She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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