Pour One Out for Joe Diffie

We all know that this COVID-19 sucks REALLY hard. This news makes it suck a little harder - country music star Joe Diffie, who was diagnosed with the virus earlier this week, has passed away this afternoon at the age of 61 due to complications with the illness. A staple of '90's country music, Diffie for sure has earned his own memorial blog post.

Joe Logan Diffie was born December 28th, 1958 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His family was very musical, and he began performing at the age of 14 with his aunt's country music band. After initially pursuing a medical degree in college, he ended up dropping out before graduating in 1977 when he married his first wife. Over the course of his career, Diffie released seven studio albums as well as co-writing singles for countless country music stars such as Tim McGraw and Jo Dee Messina. He sang and played guitar as well as being a skilled songwriter.

I want to showcase a few of his top hits here in honor of his memory.

Pickup Man (written by H. Perdew, K. Phillips)

A fun, classic country song - reminds me a little of Alan Jackson's Mercury Blues.

Well, I got my first truck when I was 3/Drove a hundred thousand miles on my knees/Hauled marbles and rocks and thought twice before/I hauled a Barbie doll bed for the girl next door/She tried to pay me with a kiss, and I began to understand/There's something women like about a pickup man/When I turned 16, I saved a few hundred bucks/My first car was a pickup truck/I was cruising the town, and the first girl I see/Was Bobby Joe Gentry, the homecoming queen/She flagged me down and climbed on into the cab/And said, "I never knew you were a pickup man/You can set my truck on fire and roll it down a hill/And I still wouldn't trade it for a Coupe DeVille/I got a eight-foot bed that never has to be made/You know if it weren't for trucks, we wouldn't have tailgates/I met all my wives in traffic jams/There's just something women like about a pickup man

John Deere Green (written by D. Linde)

My favorite Joe Diffie song. I've known this song almost as long as I can remember.

They were farm kids, way down in Dixie/Met in high school in the sixties/Everyone knew it was love from the start/One July night, in the midnight hour/He climbed up on the water tower/Stood on the rail and painted a ten-foot heart/In John Deere green, on a hot summer night/He wrote, "Billy Bob loves Charlene" in letters three-foot high/And the whole town said that he should've used red, but it looked good to Charlene/In John Deere green

Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (written by H. Perdew, K. Phillips, R. Blaylock)

Oof, the first verse of this one is a little raw to listen to today...thank goodness the chorus picks up the tone a little.

Well, I ain't afraid of dying, it's the thought of being dead/I wanna go on being me once my eulogy's been read/Don't spread my ashes out to see, don't lay me down to rest/You can put my mind at ease if you fill my last request/Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die/Lord, I wanna go to heaven, but I don't wanna go tonight/Fill my boots up with sand, put a stiff drink in my hand/Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die

Third Rock from the Sun (written by J. Greenebaum, S. Whipple, T. Martin)

A classic two-stepper.

She walks into Smokey's one hip at a time/Like a broken field runner, slipping through the line/He likes the way she looks, so he calls the little wife/Says don't wait up for me, I'll be working late tonight/Wife hangs up the phone, bursts into tears/Calls her sister up and cries, "Get over here"/Sister tells her boyfriend, "Be back in a while"/Boyfriend wants a beer, the store is just a mile/He leaves the motor running, he'll only be a minute/His car drives away with teenagers in it/The driver tells his buddies, "Got one life to live"/They scream into the night, "Let's get it over with"/Cause and effect, chain of events/All of the chaos makes perfect sense/When you're spinning 'round, things come undone/Welcome to Earth, third rock from the sun

Rest In Peace, Joe Diffie. I know I'll always picture you propped up beside the jukebox.