Johnny Blue Skies (the artist formerly known as Sturgill Simpson) hit his Indianapolis crowd with quite the story about John Prine, and how the legendary artist helped him with one his hit songs.
Prine and Simpson may have only known each other for four years or so, but the legendary country star’s impact will last a lifetime for the “Call To Arms” singer. Simpson met Prine in 2016 in Nashville, and the pair had great respect for one another up until Prine passed away in 2020.
During a recent tour stop along JBS’ Mutiny For The Masses Tour, Sturgill told a story about how John Prine helped him out with one of his songs… without ever actually being in the same room as him:
“This is a song called ‘A Good Look.’ I’ll say something not stupid. A long time ago, there used to be a studio in Nashville called The Butcher Shop. It was co-owned by a good buddy of mine, David Ferguson, and a good buddy of mine who is no longer with us, John Prine.
In the back of the studio, there was a little room that we called the writing room. There was a drum kit and a little table and a jukebox in there. I kept some notebooks in there. I don’t think I actually ever wrote anything in the room.”
The studio – which closed in 2020 – meant a lot to Simpson.
Mainly because that was one place that he and Prine interacted on a regular basis. But it wasn’t a run into each other kind of thing… it was actually through note sharing. One note ended up inspiring Simpson to craft an entire song:
“John and I would take turns leaving notes for each other. We were never in the room at the same time over four years. It was a weird thing, but I’d come in and I’d find these little riddles and scribbles he’d left. The first verse of this song is one of those scribbles I found in there one day. I thought, ‘That’s pretty clever.'”
That first verse that Sturgill Simpson is referring to is this:
“The star of David don’t belong to David at allHe borrowed it from Peter just so he could pay off PaulPeter copyrighted the star and now he owns the claimBut a star is still a star by any other name.”
Now when we press play on the Sturgill Simpson hit, we know that it was John Prine that got that song started.
“A Good Look” by Sturgill Simpson
Oh, and if you are wanting to see Johnny Blue Skies and the Dark Clouds out on the road, you better do it sooner rather than later.
Mutiny For The Masses tour dates are quickly dwindling, and “Disco Stu” did warn the masses that he and his band are going to go away for a while after this run:
Mutiny For The Masses Tour Dates
Oct 6 – St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center
Oct 7 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena
Oct 9 – Pittsburgh, PA – Petersen Events Center
Oct 10 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
Oct 13 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
Oct 15 – Philadelphia, PA – Xfinity Mobile Arena
Oct 16 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
Oct 18 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena
Oct 21 – Raleigh, NC – Lenovo Center
Oct 23 – Charleston, SC – Credit One Stadium
Oct 25 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena
Oct 27 – New Orleans, LA – Lakefront Arena
Oct 30 – Lexington, KY – Rupp Arena
