updated 04-Oct-2017

Brandi Carlile - musician/singer/songwriter
Q: One more Cayamo-related question. You joined John Prine, the Indigo Girls and just about everyone else on stage this year. Who is the one artist that you just couldn't believe you were singing with over the years (not necessarily on the boat)?   A: Definitely John Prine. Singing with him might be unsurpassable. "Angel From Montgomery" was actually tough to get through without getting weepy. BOTH times!"  - June 7, 2011 Cincinatti.com

Jakob Dylan - musician/singer/songwriter
Pressed to name a role model, Jakob Dylan as usual veers from the obvious and tabs, not his iconic father Bob, but songwriter John Prine."He found a singular voice, and nobody can replicate it," Dylan says. "I would hope to have that down the line. Prine was born with something special, but he also dug deep." Apr 14, 2010 USA Today

Carrie Rodriguez - musician/singer/songwriter
 2. on opening for and performing with John Prine, she says is “one of the best things I’ve ever done in my musical career so far. Every night I get up there and think, ‘What did I do to deserve being up here? I must have done something great in my past life.’” 9/16/09   1. (on opening for John).... her charm and glow and overall musical appeal won Prine over during two dates they shared together in November (2008). "It was a ball, just so much fun," she said. "John is so, so sweet and charming, and I'm a huge fan. Getting to do something like that, it's like -- wow. I can't believe I get paid to do this and actually get paid to listen to John Prine sing these classic songs. It's like a dream, and I'm so grateful for everything." Feb 19, 2009

Janis Ian - Singer/songwriter
Q. Thanks for your kind thoughts about Philly in the book. What are your memories of our town?

A. Philadelphia is where I learned to be a real writer...  ... First year I went, John Prine's performance really knocked me out.... (Philadelpia Daily News, Aug 15, 2008)

Terry Wickham - Producer, Edmonton Folk Festival
"... He remembered first coming to the festival in the 1980s, when Holger Petersen was the producer, and noticing the magical feeling in the air. He remembered anecdotes about Joni Mitchell in 1994, a hotel room mix-up that brought a just-showered John Prine privates-to-privates with a newlywed couple (the bride knew of him, the groom didn't), and David Gray's appearance in 2006. (Edmonton Journal, Aug 11, 2008)

Paul Thorn - singer/songwriter/ex-boxer
Thorn said that the people he connects with will probably stay with him for life. In that respect, he patterns his career John Prine. “John Prine is just a fantastic person,” Thorn said. “I’ve had the honor to play some shows with him and get to know him pretty well. You can put his name on any marquee anywhere in the country and 2,000 people will show up. In the long run, to me, that has more value. He has a very high level of integrity; he’s a true artist.” Thorn said that’s what he is aiming for in his own career in music. - 3.23.09 New River Voice

Dan McCarthy - front man of his band McCarthy Trenching.
ask McCarthy the broad question on what shapes and influences his songwriting. Citing John Prine as a musician he hopes to emulate.....(Encore Online, 10/2008)

David Francey - singer
"It was storytelling essentially and it led me to the singer-songwriters, people - poets, really - who could get a whole story across in a few verses. John Prine was, and still is, a great example. I loved him." (The Herald, Glasgow Scotland, UK 10/2008)

Alistair Moock - musician/singer/songwriter
Q: Ellis Paul is said to have called you “the second coming of John Prine.” Was / Is Prine an inspiration to you? A: It was a nice compliment. Prine was definitely an influence but his lyrics smile in their very own way. 02/20/2009

Jacob Feniak aka Jake Ian: singer, songwriter
For Jacob Feniak, a.k.a. Jake Ian, just blame it on dad if you suddenly find yourself rekindling your appreciation for John Prine. "He got me into him when I was young," Feniak says. "He was always playing his stuff. Back then, I was like, 'Ah, screw this -- I want to listen to punk rock. This is lame.' Along the way, I started digging it -- stuff like John Prine, Tom Waits, Neil Young. I've been listening to a lot of Billy Bragg lately, too." (Edmonton Journal 07/01/2008)

Josh Board: writer
"That is why people like O.J. and Robert Blake get away with murder. And, Phil Spector had a 10 - 2 split, and is now being re-tried (even though he's pulled guns on everyone, including John Lennon; When I talked to musician John Prine, I asked if Spector pulled a gun on him when they worked together. He basically said that Spector does that to everyone."(San Diego Reader - Daily Crasher 11/7/2008)

Roger Waters: musician,singer, songwriter
Q: Can you hear the influence of the Floyd in all these clever British rock bands – Wire, Talk Talk, Blur, Shack, Coldplay, Radiohead?

RW: "I don’t really listen to Radiohead. ... I listened to the albums and they just didn’t move me in the way, say, John Prine does. His is just extra-ordinarily eloquent music – and he lives on that plain with Neil [Young] and Lennon. I don’t have satellite radio in my car yet – ... – but if I’m flipping through channels in the car I’ll stop for old stalwarts like Neil and John, but usually you can be certain that the thing you’ve stopped for is going to finish in three minutes and the thing that comes after it will be unlistenable.
Q: Have you given up hope of finding a replacement for Neil Young or John Lennon?

RW: "Well, no, I mean… no, I haven’t given up hope at all. If one comes along I’ll notice it. John Prine is one but he’s almost a contemporary. ..." (Word Magazine 04/13/2008)

Don Henry: musician, singer, songwriter
"Early on, my songs and the performances were bad. Once the songs got better, it was easier being a performer. But it was probably the late 1980s when I began writing songs to where I felt I could sing in a room with John Prine and he'd go 'That's not bad'."- 2008 The Tennessean Newspaper

Robert Hilburn: writer
"The next year I raved about John Prine, a young Chicago singer-songwriter whose folk-country style employed a literary ambition and soulful insight that was extraordinary. But Prine never became a major seller, though he is widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of his era." (July 22, 2006 LA Times "A Backstage Pass to Intimate Moments in Rock's Odyssey")

Page Wilson - Richmond VA musician & radio host for K95 'Out O' the Blue Radio Revue.'
"I was always attracted to songwriters like Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard early on and later came John Prine and Guy Clark. I got a chance one time to tell Guy Clark that it was his fault and that if I hadn't seen guys like him play music and hear them and said 'Well, I could do that,' I wouldn't be here. I would say that John Prine was the biggest influence but there are just so many." - (Richmond.com 8/9/2006)

Eric Church - Songwriter
Church said that his father listened to the soul music of Motown, and his mother preferred bluegrass, so he figured that all music between the two genres was his for the taking. It was the music of some of the great singer-songwriters - Kris Kristofferson, Bruce Springsteen, John Prine - that caught his ear and turned a musical desire into a passion. "I liked how personal their music was," he said. "The way they told their stories, as it related to everyone in the world, touched me." (Oct 12, 2006 RelishNow)

Jimmy Buffett - Singer, Songwriter
"I ended up a Cubs fan because Chicago is one of the first major cities out of South where I had enough popularity to make a living. In doing so I wound in the company of (folk singer and songwriters) Steve Goodman and John Prine during that great folk era in Chicago. I was always a baseball fan because Mobile, Alabama had a lot of baseball heritage with the Aaron brothers and a minor league team. There was no major league teams in the South in those days. When I got to Chicago we worked at night. So Goodman would take me to Wrigley Field during the day and we would buy a ticket in the bleachers. I remember seeing Willie Mays play for the Mets against the Cubs. That was an amazing event for me. So those developing years musically for me I spent a lot of time in Chicago and at Wrigley Field. And then last year we played the field. We did two days there. It was amazing. Ironically enough, that was the weekend New Orleans was flooded so I had a huge mixture of emotions" (Sports Illustrated 2007 Swimsuit issue)
 
Nancy Crocker - Author: Billie Standish Was Here
If you had twenty-four hours, a time machine, and a limitless supply of money, what would you want to do? NC: Oh, my. I think I’d strap my son in next to me, cruise by 1980 or so to pick up my father in his prime, and take my two Charlies to a private tropical resort where we’d spend the day talking and laughing and playing and feasting, all while being entertained by Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, John Prine, John Hiatt, and Lyle Lovett in a day-long concert. And thank you so much for that image….(interview at Beckys Book Reviews 2/2008)

Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) - Musician
2. "My Dad taught me a few John Prine songs on the guitar when I was a kid; it all started there. Well, specifically, high school Jazz band was everything for me musically. It really taught me the correct way to be apart of and operate in a musical ensemble, mentally and emotionally. (10/2008)
  1. "Growing up was John Prine; John Prine and Jackson Browne; blues records, Champion Jack Dupree. My dad loved that stuff..." (Crawdaddy 10/17/2007)

 
Steve Earle - Singer/Songwriter
"... The number of guys that I've ever seen that were absolutely riveting solo performers: Townes Van Zandt, John Prine when he was in his twenties. Loudon Wainwright is that good, Stevie Goodman was incredible. Steve wrote a few good songs, and then he wrote a lot of funny songs, but he was the most badass solo acoustic guitar performer that I ever saw in my life. I still steal shit from him all the time. Prine busted on me one night at one of my shows. I saw him grin when I used this Steve Goodman line, "ladies and gentlemen, at no time did my fingers ever leave my hands!" That's where I got that. (10/08/07 interview)
 

Billy Bob Thornton - Actor/screenwriter/director/musician/songwriter....
2. TH: I noticed you snuck a John Prine hat into Pushing Tin.    BBT: Yeah I did.

  TH: Didn’t you direct him, too?   BBT: John’s an old friend. I’ve known John for years, and I actually directed him in a movie I did called Daddy and Them. He played my brother in it. It wasn’t too long after John had cancer and they’d taken half of his throat out. He did the movie right after. That’s been ten years, probably. He’s doing great these days. Even though I was a former rock and roll guy and a classic country kind of guy, the guys that influenced me as a songwriter, particularly lyrically, were guys like John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Warren Zevon, guys like that. (09/23/2007 interview with Taylor Hill on Jambands.com)  
1. "I think the best writers are those who write about their life experience and don't try to come up with something tricky, that's what I love about John's songs -- they're just his observations on life. He has an amazing ability to write songs that are very emotional and can make you cry, and yet they're funnier than hell. John's about the best songwriter out there." (6/18/2005)

 
David Halberstam - Author
"The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War" (book - Hyperion, 736 pages $35) uses Prine's lines from "Hello In There" and quotes the straightforward lament of an aging father. The man talks about the lives of his grown children and mentions how "We lost Davy in the Korean War. And I still don't know what for. Don't matter anymore.'' It also provides an answer for John Prine's lamenting father.

 
Scott Miller - Singer/Songwriter
On his start in music: " I knew what I wanted to do, and I've never doubted it. But it took me a while to convince myself. I think I felt guilty about it, like I was letting my parents down. But I had a plan: I was going to be a postman like John Prine. Everything John Prine. I love John Prine… " Knoxville Metro Pulse
 

Pete Dekoker - of legendary London Rock band '63 Monroe that dates back to the late 1970s.
In his notes he name checks John Prine, Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick and Detroit's legendary pre-punks, the MC5. The surprise in there might be Prine, whose version of Tex Ritter's Dear John inspired a fine cover by the London band. "Tex Ritter. I know, I paid the royalties. A whompin' 34 bucks," Bentley says. (London Free Press June 14, 2007)
    

Todd Steed - of bands Suns of Phere, Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes
'roo Class of 2005,2007 - Weirdest Bonnaroo Moment: "When John Prine made it rain by singing Flag Decal. I didn't realize human beings could do that." (Knoxville Weekly Voice Metro Pulse June 14, 2007)

 
Ray Barron - Two Time Polka mandolin player
 " (My heroes are) Bill Monroe, Bob Dylan, The Band, stuff like that. I'm also a big John Prine fan; I love his turn of phrase and the way he says so much in one line." (Galway Independent June 13, 2007)

 
Tom Fitch - Singer Songwriter
   “As the years went by, I found myself getting into singers and players like Doc Watson, James Taylor, Dan Fogelburg, Tony Rice and the Byrds,” said Fisch. “My playing and writing also were greatly influenced by singer-songwriters such as Dave Mallett, John Prine, Steve Goodman and Jonathon Edwards.”  Smoky Mountain News 5/30/2007

Ted Kooser - US Poet Laureate:  
3. "One of the highlights of my first term was inviting the singer-songwriter John Prine to the Library of Congress where I interviewed him onstage about writing songs." (Nebraska StatePaper June 30, 2006)  
2. When Kooser came home from Washington after his night with Prine, his wife asked him what it was like."It was like being on stage with a huge chunk of the universe that had been drifting a billion years.' It was the first time a folk singer had been on that august stage since Woody Guthrie in the 1930s. Frankly, it was the high point of my two years as poet laureate." (Des Moines Register Mar 20, 2007) 
1. Kooser said he has been following Prine's career from the first album, calling his writing inventive, poignant, original. ''He did a better job of holding up the mirror of art to the '60s and '70s than any of our official literary poets. And none of our poets wrote anything better about Vietnam than Prine's Sam Stone,'' Kooser said in a statement. 02/07/2005
 
Fred Eaglesmith - Singer Songwriter
"...when I saw John Prine on The David Frost Show, it changed my life. I was 14 years old." from Folkwax 2.22.07

Amos Lee - Singer Songwriter
5."The most surreal moment, I mean I've had a few of them, but playing on stage with John Prine, because he's like my idol. To be playing his guitar that he's played all throughout his career, singing with him, it's pretty amazing. That happened twice, once in Canada and once in Philly. It's encouraging to be around these legends that have been doing it a long time and are still really great, nice human beings." (06/06/08 Bay City Times)
4. he was a teenager the first time he heard the music of John Prine. "I was like a snake in a basket and the music lured me out of the basket. ... I heard his songs (and said to myself) (2.22.07)  
3. "His music has been a big influence on my life and through that a big influence on my music." (2.22.07)
2. The thing that knocked Lee off his feet about Prine's music is Prine's ability to fuse the tragic with lightheartedness and to let listeners discover what the music means rather than to tell them.  (2.22.07)
1.... Its earthy, inviting soul-folk sound pulls together the influence of artists from the early 1970s, his favorite period of music, such as soul singers Donny Hathaway and Bill Withers, and songwriters John Prine and James Taylor. ... John Prine's first album is one of my favorites and was always playing around the house, but I didn't really tune in until I was set to go to college at the University of South Carolina." (from the Philadelphia Inquirer about his album "Blue Note")

Todd Snider - (Oh Boy Records recording artist/songwriter and dubbed as the next John Prine by others) 
3. “I get jealous of my friends when I love their songs, but I think it’s a good jealous, an honest one and sometimes I wish guys like [John] Prine and [Bob] Dylan would stop raising the bar for five minutes or something. But if it weren’t for Prine and [Billy Joe] Shaver and [Kris] Kristofferson and Jerry Jeff [Walker] and Dylan and Mick and Keith and Chuck Berry’s music in my life, I think I’d about like to die.” Nashville City Paper 10/20/2006 
2 . Snider says of Prine: "I have beaten him in trivia contests about himself. If he and I are sitting together with a buzzer and you say a song, I'll say what album it's on before he will." 7/8/2004 
1. "I first heard about John back when I was 18 or 19, one of my friends taught me a song called 'Crooked Piece of Time,' and I added it to my repertoire. I didn't know who John Prine was, nor had I heard the original song. Then one night after a gig, a hippie-looking guy came up to me and told me to seek out John's album 'Bruised Orange' (on which 'Crooked Piece of Time' appears), and that's what got me hooked." (Snider's 2002 release, "New Connection," glints with gems such as "Crooked Piece of Time," a Prine song that lodged in Snider's head as he watched the news on Sept. 11.) "He (Prine) puts himself all the way out there without being pretentious. Songwriters such as Prine and Jerry Jeff Walker dare me to put myself out there."

Mindy Smith - Singer Songwriter
"...The opportunity to appear on a Dolly Parton tribute record or to get on stage with her or John Prine, these are the reasons why I started writing and singing in the first place." 10/06/2006 Nashville City Paper

Sam Baker - Texas Singer Songwriter
"I'm a huge John Prine fan. His songs are so direct ... you can't turn away from them. He pops you in the nose, not hard enough to make you bleed, but hard enough to make your eyes water."  8/17/2006

John Darnielle - singer/songwriter - member of the Mountain Goats
(I have been inspired over the long haul by) Merle Haggard, just for the sheer quality of his singing and the ornery purity of his vision, and John Prine, for the really intense balance he strikes between naked and guarded. Both of those guys, they don't have the most grandiose vision: just a distinct one, and that's what I've tried to cultivate in my own stuff. A way of locating of the voice that sets me apart

Rev R, Clay Hall - senior pastor of the Saundersville and the Lambuth Memorial United Methodist churches in Sumner County, TN
"...some may find it surprising to know that my favorite songwriter is John Prine. Prine is an old-time, politically aware, folk singer with an edge. I love Prine's songs because they are simple and truthful. (They are a little depressing, but then, so are most folk songs.) They make me think."(from the Tennesseean 7/29/2006)

Macyn Taylor - 12 year old (2006) sidewalk superstar
  "Macyn's also deeply into Jimmie Rodgers, she says - but she learned to yodel by parroting Hank Williams' recorded version of "Lovesick Blues." She learned "Star of the County Down" off a ringtone downloaded from the Web. When she heard John Prine sing his "Fish and Whistle," she couldn't get it out of her head."
   "I kept singing it in the shower and around the house," she says. "Finally my dad said, 'If you like it that much, why don't you learn it?'"
   It took her about half an hour. -- Wisconsin State Journal 6/20/2006

Hayes Carll - Singer/Songwriter
2) "Kris Kristofferson, John Prine and Ray Wylie Hubbard have so much more depth and life experience in one sentence than there are in 40 of Mariah Carey's No. 1 hits," he said. "A guy with a great song is still what gets me. So if I live hard and sing a lot maybe my voice will turn into something that will affect people."....."I want to be the Rolling Stones but I also worship John Prine and Kris Kristofferson." 6/22/2006 Houston Chronicle. 
1) "As a teen I wanted to be a writer of some kind, short stories, poetry or whatever. When I got on to Dylan I realized the reasons I wanted to write was to express how I saw things, and to share that with other people. At 15 got my first guitar, listened to Kristofferson, John Prine, songwriters that could say things in a way that hadn't been said. The way they could make large issues simple and clear was magic to me."  12/31/2005

Jewel - Singer/Songwriter
"I like John Prine and underground stuff. I made a folk record at the height of grunge. I certainly didn’t do it because I thought I was going to be some big sensation...” May 31, 2006 Northern Pennsylvania's Times Leader

Sharon Shannon - Singer/Songwriter
When I first moved to Galway I met a singer called John Hoban and he introduced me to the music of John Prine and I became a massive fan. I was flabbergasted when I actually got to meet John Prine and play with him. ~ Galway Independent Apr 13, 2006

Paul Prather - writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader
"I value music. I may be gray-haired, but still, hardly anything does me as much good as putting John Prine, John Fogerty or the Rolling Stones on my stereo, cranking up the volume until the windows rattle and dancing around my den playing air guitar. I've entertained millions of fans that way. Being an imaginary rock star is wonderful for my ego -- and my wind. (I'm not ashamed of this, by the way.)" (Sat Feb 25, 2006 - Lexington Herald-Leader)

Lucinda Williams - Singer/Songwriter
"The better songwriters are just their own person," she says. "It's funny . . . John (Prine) and I had a great laugh together. We met, had a drink, had dinner, went over to Oh Boy (studios). We ended up sitting up till the sun came up, and we never came up with a damn thing. But we had a good time." (06/27/2005 Rocky Mountain News)

David Gans - Music Journalist/writer/broadcaster/performer/honkytonk hippie syndicated weekly radio show the Grateful Dead Radio Hour, which he's hosted since 1985.
"I like a lot of different types of things personally, but as a songwriter my main influences are people like Bob Dylan and John Prine. The lyrics are often more direct and they can be very political, but I also do some romantic material as well. For me, the major emphasis always comes in the storytelling." (7/20/2005)
  

Rachael Davis - singer/songwriter
When asked to cite her songwriting heroes, one of the first names to pop out of her mouth is John Prine. "He's just the best," said Davis. "His songs are so ... perfect."  interview 01/2005 Ann Arbor News

Peter Jest - Promoter/Club owner
On what Jest has been listening to lately: ... "John Prine, "Missing Years": "A classic. He won a Grammy for it back in the early '90s. I've had it in my home or car CD player every day since I bought it."...  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Oct 16, 2003

John K Sampson - vocalist/guitarist/songwriter of the Weakerthans 
"Plea . . ." exposes what may be Samson's most revealing influence, the very un-punk and often whimsical folkie John Prine. "I don't know if it ever shows, but I always come back to him," he says. "Laughing is a big part of life. People think I'm this mopey manic-depressive - which, you know, I am - but I also like to laugh about it."

Helen Clark - New Zealand Politician
"I love Rigoletto, one of the loveliest operas, so I wouldn't want to go away without that. And there'd have to be a string quartet by Mozart in there. As for more recent music, I'd go for an album by folk-singer John Prine." And then, to my delight, Helen Clark gets in touch with her inner folk singer. She recites the first few lines of a Prine song with a tender lilt in her voice, following the rhythm so closely she almost bursts into song. Stuff - 01/09/2005 Celebrity Jukebox

Charlie Robinson - Singer/Songwriter
"I've always been a huge fan of John Prine, who would write a record with all this heavy stuff, and then there'd be something like 'Illegal Smile.' Tom Waits is the same way, and I've been strongly influenced by those two guys. You've gotta poke fun at yourself." (interview on Buckeye Country WSRW 106.7, 12/02/2004)

Jason Cornwell - Writer
"First off I have to give credit to any writer who makes use of a song by John Prine as he's one of my personal favourites so seeing one of his songs used in a comic to enhance the impact of a scene left me quite happy."  (Silver Bullet Comics Review of 'Doctor Spectrum #4 - 12/15/2004)

Kasey Chambers - Singer Songwriter
 3 "I've never seen Patty (Griffin) play live, and it's one of my dreams," she adds. "Before I die, I just want to see Patty and John Prine play live." CMT interview 9/14/2004   2: "In Australia, people know John Prine because I cover his songs. It's nice in America because when I play a cover there, people know the songs. There are people who listen to the same music I do." - Kasey Chambers for the Salt Lake Tribune 6/13/2003     1: "A big thrill for me would be to play with John Prine in concert" ~Kasey Chambers in concert on 6/11/2003

Bill Miller - Singer Songwriter
"I used to see my musical heroes and wonder in my mind if I would ever meet these guys. So by the end of the '70s I started to meet them. I met Greg Allman and Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie; I met John Prine ... people that I just loved! And to my surprise, they were great people. They'd been through some hell, and they started to tell how long it takes to get to where you're going, and how long you have to stand in there. "They encouraged me; they never discouraged me," Miller says. "They brought me into the fold. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band took me in, Michael Murphy. I could name hundreds of people who just started to ... watch out for me. And love me, too, because I was unafraid out there as an Indian kid. They didn't see too many Native Americans at that time going out there on their own with an acoustic guitar. I guess I was one of a kind out there."

Tim Rogers (lead singer/songwriter with Australian rock band "You Am I") 
About his favorite albums he speaks about "John Prine"  "There's a lyric on [You Am I's single] 'Damage' where I sing 'old John Prine'; I wanted to change it to 'young John Prine' because I figured if somebody close to him heard it he might let us do a show with him. He mightn't react so well to 'old John Prine'. I heard him through the Flood ..." from their website, youami.net 

Dick Pleasants (25 year host of Boston's "Folk Heritage" program on WGBH-FM (89.7) upon retiring)
"I'm going to revisit some of my favorite songs," he says, naming John Gorka, John Prine, Christine Lavin, Shawn Colvin, and Townes Van Zandt among other artists. "I may even dip back into vinyl." 3/4/2004

Kris Kristofferson - S inger, Songwriter, Entertainer, Producer, etc) 
5: (on his favorite music) "Well I listen to the old guys I liked before. John Prine and Bob Dylan and Steve Earle.' 4/2004    4: "Well I met Steve back at the Quiet Night in Chicago. ... He introduced me to John Prine and it was magic. ... People give me credit for discovering them, but it's like Columbus getting credit for discovering America. It was already there." 4/2004   3. "... My favourite kind of protest songwriter is someone like John Prine - somebody who slips it to you gently. Every now and then I've said things not so gently." 1/2004   2. "If God's got a favorite songwriter, I think it's John Prine." (Nov 4, 2003 at the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame when Prine was inducted)   1. (from the 'John Prine' liner notes) "Sam Stone, Donald & Lydia. "The one about the Old Folks. Twenty-four years old and writes like he's about two-hundred and twenty. I don't know where he comes from, but I've got a good idea where he's going. We went away believers, reminded how goddamned good it feels to be turned on by a real Creative Imagination."

Pat McLaughlin  Singer/Songwriter
on their co-written song Just Getting By:  "Prine wanted to use a lot of the shun sounds," McLaughlin said with a chuckle. "Execution, things like that. He said the Rolling Stones had a lot of success with it. I had the melody. I was afraid it was too much like [Debbie Reynolds' 1957 hit] 'Tammy,' but Prine said he would never let that scare him away. He loves that song. And that is a great song. 'Just Getting By' has a Beatle-esque sound the way my [Nashville] musicians played on it. All the 'just getting by' and 'taking a walk' stuff is his. Its more autobiographical for Prine than most things we've been involved in. Usually he writes some situation about you. But I felt he was putting some of his real experiences in the song, which is cool." 1-1-2004 in review with Dave Hoekstra for the Chicago Sun Times

Clelia Adams - Singer, Australian pop idol
 on the song "Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness"-- "Soulful, heart wrenching song from master songwriter John Prine. Nothing else can be added to this piece, the simplicity and complexity of the lyric says it all. This song is often named "the song I wish I had written" by other famous songwriters."

Toby Keith - Singer/Songwriter
on whether he had early rock 'n' roll days in his career... "If you was to go back and dig out my old cassette boxes of tapes, if you were to go down through there it would be, you know, Willie, Waylon, Merle, Roger Miller, Charlie Daniels, maybe a Dolly Parton album even. And then you'd go on over and it would be Bob Seger and the Eagles and Dan Fogelberg, John Prine. I didn't know it at the time, but looking back, it was people who created their own music that had something to say attached to that. I connected to that. I had very few people that were artists that didn't write that moved me enough for me to lay my money down and want to listen to the whole album. I think that that writing thing creates personality that people can see into, whereas if you don't write them, I think it's harder to find songs that fit you." (Launch 11/02/2003)

Mike Riley - Oregon State Football Coach
"He doesn't read newspapers or listen to the radio. When he's in his car, he listens to a CD. The current selection is John Prine, a folk singer he has seen in concert four times. "Had that in for about six months now," he says, laughing. "There are some songs I just like to hear over and over." (Portland Sports Tribune 10/31/2003)

Rodney Crowell - Singer/Songwriter 
For his part, Crowell refuses to believe that the struggling writers who work menial jobs and share rent in ill-maintained Hillsboro Village houses cannot alter the course of Nashville music.  ''It ain't over,'' Crowell says as he drives past some other places where he lived in younger years. ''We've got to believe that there's another Bob Dylan, that someone can come along and strike a chord that suddenly draws everybody's attention back to Kris Kristofferson and Guy Clark and John Prine . . . that somebody can bring things back to where it means something. I see it happening.''  

Pat McCune - Singer/Songwriter
 "When I saw John, I was doing that song. And I said, "Do you do this?" And John goes, "No, I don't. I like your version. Record it."

Randy Newman - Singer/Songwriter
Newman has released more than 20 solo albums since his 1968 self-titled debut. Critics have almost unanimously heaped praise on Newman's albums because of his wit and his ability to bring colorful characters into his music. However, that hasn't translated into sales. "It's a little odd, but I'm certainly not alone," he said. "There are people like John Prine, who gets way less recognition than he should. Besides, it hasn't been bad. I've sold I don't know how many records. Not as much as Britney Spears, but some." (8/21/2003)

Mary Gauthier - Singer/Songwriter
"I remember the first time I heard John Prine I was an 18-year-old mess. The first time I heard Prine, it just knocked me out. That effect that he had on me is what I'm trying to do when I write songs," she says. "I always tell folks that if I had my way I'd just try to write Sam Stone over and over. That's what I want to do, which is write a song that will get inside people's hearts and they don't just hear it, they feel it. That, to me, is what the point is of all of this." 08/23/03

Eric Bogle - Singer Songwriter 
(background to quote) Eric Bogle's last two shows on his 2002 North American tour were in New Orleans, Dec 6th and 7th. I got tickets for my husband, Steve, and I to both of Eric's shows, then we found out John Prine was also appearing in New Orleans on the 7th, same time as Eric's show. I had just seen John Prine in October, but my husband couldn't go, so he REALLY wanted to catch John's New Orleans performance. I bought two tickets to John Prine's show, also. So, now we have tickets to Eric's and John's show on the same Saturday night. After Eric's Friday night show, we were all upstairs above Danny O'Flaherty's Irish Pub at a private party. Steve and I were going round and round about which show we were going to, I absolutely adore John Prine, but I couldn't miss Eric's last show. Steve definitely wasn't going to miss John Prine. I turned to Eric and said "It looks like I will be coming to your concert tomorrow night alone, Steve loved your show, but since he saw it tonight, he wants to go to John Prine's show tomorrow night." Eric called over to him and said, "Hey, Steve, I wish I could go to John Prine's show instead!" ~ told by Clancy Javaux - Eric Bogle Group Moderator

Cory Branan: - Singer/Songwriter
3. “I’m not influenced by Ryan Adams at all, so that cracks me up when people say that, I’ll take the John Prine comment any day though. The first time I heard his music, I just wanted to sit and have a beer with him. He’s just poetic, big-hearted and goofy.” (2006 Knoxville Metro Pulse Vol 17, Issue 16).
2. "Take my hero, John Prine," Branan says. "If you ask 10 people who John Prine is, maybe two or three will know. And yet, if I could have just a tiny fraction of the career he's had I'd be very happy." 
1. "Not long after I first started putting my own songs together, someone gave me a John Prine record," Branan says. "It wasn't pretentious. It was pretty good ol' boy but still poetry -- and conversational." 

Susan Werner 
"What John Prine (creates) is a kind of amicable church -- except it doesn't require donations, or attempt to convert. He brings everybody together. The audience knows the lyrics; they come to be moved emotionally. He knows what to do with that, partly because he's still in disbelief about the audience response."

Greg Jacobs - Singer/songwriter
 "Starting out, I played a lot of Bob Dylan, but what really got me going was John Prine. I was the John Prine jukebox. I met him once and told him 'I'm your biggest fan, I play twenty six of your songs' and he looked at me and said, 'Really, I only play twenty two.' I'll never forget that."

George Huntley - the Connells' guitarist 
on his CD "BRAIN JUNK" says "Probably the biggest influence on my songwriting is John Prine. Through his simplistic ideas, hints of humor and basic melodies, he was the one who truly made me feel valid. The true talent is found in his words and I find comfort in being able to relate. I think most people do."

Mike Wagner - writer for Rolling Stone
"Dylan is mystic, Dylan is from another world. John (Prine) is one of us."

Johnny Cash (aw jeez, there ain't enough room here -)
Johnny Cash's autobiography - "Cash" written with Patrick Carr, Harper Paperbacks - 1997. page 189 or  p. 253. Mr. Cash is talking about his farm, Bon Aqua in Tenn... "I don't listen to music much at the farm, unless I'm going into songwriting mode and looking for inspiration. Then I'll put on something by the writers I've admired and used for years (Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Guy Clark, and the late Steve Goodman are my Big Four), or any music in any field that has real artistry, or something that promises a connection to what's essential in my own music: old blues, old country, old gospel." 

Jim Walsh  - Pop music critic 
(taken from "Ooh La La'' asks right question, but what's the answer? article in from pioneerplanet.com 1/28/01) "Listen, really listen, to as much music as you can possibly get your ears around. There are secret treasures to be had, ways of living to be ingested, like Tsar's "Teen Wizards,'' my favorite song the radio won't play. And while you're at it, download John Prine's "Hello In There,'' which will make you feel bad about how you treat, or don't treat, old folks.  If it doesn't, see a doctor."

Mary Lou Lord - Singer/Songwriter
from an interview in April 1999: " ... I've really learned from playing in the street and in the subway... I know it sounds really dorky, but if you act locally and think globally - it really does matter. I sold close to 60,000 records without hardly any radio and that's pretty good and that was my first record and that was done by me. I played the Subway for ten years... and that didn't mean that I got great cause I started playing when I was 22, so all that time that went by was still not a real lot of time to get good haha. When I started playing the Subway I started in London and I knew one song, Angel From Montgomery by John Prine, that I played over and over again."

Mike Leonard (Does short TV spots, usually for NBC)
When discussing John's first album he says.... "His words painted vivid pictures of those mighty battles, fought by ordinary souls".  Later in the interview he says... "The key to Prine's longevity can be found in the subject matter of  his songs. The love, hope, sadness and comic absurdity that surrounds our  everyday life".

Tim Robinson Folk singer/Songwriter 
said in an Acoustic Live interview-- "He's very special to me in terms of language. That dance between poetry, plain talkin', cliche and just oddball genius captivates me. Anyone who doesn't have a soft spot for guys like that is missing a very cool little boat to nowhere special with an open bar and a kick-ass view of their own silly demons, that's for sure. "Sam Stone," "The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness"... C'mon!"

John Rzeznick - singer/guitarist with the Goo Goo Dolls 
" I also like singer-songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, and John Prine too. He creates this image of quiet desperation in his songs. I think Prine has this hole inside of him that nothing will ever fill, no matter how much Budwiser he drinks. What he writes is so beautiful, and everything he writes is so real. It's like looking at yourself in a mirror after you've been up for three days under a fluorescent light. .....Absolutely. Did you ever see the movie "The Deer Hunter"? Well, watch that movie and put on a John Prine record, and that is my life. - (Found in "A Simple Twist of Fate" By Robert Dye and Christopher Scapelliti Guitar World Acoustic #29)

Stephen King Writer, Director)
To introduce the second section of his book, "On Writing" (p111) about the tools an author needs to write - Mr King uses the chorus from "Grandpa Was a Carpenter" and he writes: " That's one of my favorite John Prine lyrics, probably because my grandpa was also a carpenter."

Chip Taylor - Singer Songwriter)
"I listen to John Prine sing and realize he has got a magical thing where he transfers his heart to his voice."

Winona Ryder - Actress
Part of her answer to describe her perfect day, she says: "John Prine stops by, Bonnie Raitt too, ...and they all play". Aug. 2000 Harpers Bazaar has an interview

Jessica Andrews - Singer
"John Prine is a great songwriter. I watched him on 'Austin City Limits' one night and became a huge fan. I think he's incredible,"