Living in the Present with John Prine

Foreword by Fiona Whelan Prine

‘Tom Piazza’s writing pulsates with nervous electrical tension – reveals the emotions that we can’t define’ Bob Dylan

In the spring of 2018, Tom Piazza climbed into a cherry-red Cadillac Coupe-Deville with the great singer-songwriter John Prine. The two embarked on a road trip through Florida full of jokes and tall tales, afternoons digging around record stores and long nights playing guitar.

Having forged a deep friendship, they decide to embark on a new shared project – to write Prine’s memoir together. When Prine died suddenly of COVID in April 2020, that unfinished memoir evolved into an intimate narrative of the artist’s final years. The result is a warm and intimate story, richly detailed with hilarious stories of his youth and family in Chicago and Kentucky, his breakthrough into the national spotlight.