When John Prine passed away a little over a year ago, the folk artist left behind a legendary catalog of work and an innumerable amount of artists he touched and influenced. One of those is Sturgill Simpson, who today has shared a cover of Prine’s “Paradise.” Simpson’s rendition of the song will appear on an upcoming tribute album, Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs Of John Prine, Vol. 2, which is set for release on October 8.
Simpson shared a statement about Prine, saying, “For myself along with many others, he was a mentor. He was very giving with his time and wisdom, and we were all grateful to get to know him.”
In a Late Show interview from November 2020, Simpson told Stephen Colbert (who himself once performed “Paradise” with Prine, on The Colbert Report in 2013) about how he first met Prine while mixing his 2016 album A Sailor’s Guide To Earth at the studio Prine owned, saying, “I was pretty in the zone, head down at the board, and I guess I took a break, hit the space bar, and when I turned around, John was sitting in a chair in these plaid pants, just kind of looking. I had no idea how long he’d been sitting there. I hit vapor lock. I kind of freaked out — you come face-to-face with your hero.” Prine then invited Simpson out to dinner and from there, a friendship blossomed.
Listen to Simpson cover Prine’s “Paradise” above.
Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs Of John Prine, Vol. 2 is out 10/8 via Oh Boy. Pre-order it here.
Sturgill Simpson is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.