Living in the Present with John Prine

 

Living in the Present with John Prine is a beautifully written, moving, and worthwhile memoir by Tom Piazza recounting some of his friendship with the artist/icon. Released 9th Sept 2025 by W.W. Norton, it's 208 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. 

John Prine was never a rock star. He was solid, present, honest, unvarnished, with a middle class blue-collar appeal that was never fake or superficial. He did what he did and did it so well for so many years. His music was (is) universal, funny sometimes, ironic, solid. Music people could fix their cars to, or perform brain surgery (a colleague has it on his surgical theater playlist along with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chopin, and a few others). We all thought he'd be there forever, until he just wasn't.

Author Tom Piazza is a writer/journalist who encountered Prine as the subject of an article, and who became a friend in the last years of his life. This book is much less about Prine's early life and the minutiae of his biography, and includes much more life philosophy, day to day humor and some frustration, challenges, and so so many vignettes from his vast lived experience in the music industry for more than 5 decades. The stories are the meat and bread of this moving work. 

The unabridged audiobook version has a run time of 4 hours 44 minutes and is superbly read by John Pruden.  He has a gravelly natural baritone, Midwest American accent, and is so perfectly suited to the subject that it's often sublime; unvarnished and honest, and quite moving. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.

Prine's surviving family were involved with the writing and interview processes, and his widow wrote the foreword. 

Five stars. Well written and engaging. This would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home library, and gift giving. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.