Books

About Living in the Present with John Prine
by Tom Piazza (Author), Fiona Whelan Prine (Foreword by)

A vivid, joyful, moving window onto the life and heart of an American icon.

In the spring of 2018, Tom Piazza climbed into a 1977 Coupe de Ville with the great singer-songwriter John Prine to write an article for the Oxford American. Their Florida road trip ignited a deep friendship, full of tall tales over epic meals, long nights playing guitar and trading songs, and visits back and forth between their homes in Nashville and New Orleans. Along the way, Prine invited Piazza to work with him on a memoir, with John telling sprawling, often hilarious stories of his youth and family in Chicago and Kentucky, his breakthrough into the national spotlight, his riotous early years in the Nashville country scene, and much more. When Prine died suddenly of COVID in April 2020, that unfinished memoir evolved into an intimate and very personal narrative of the artist’s final years. In it, Piazza offers fans an unforgettable portrait of the beloved musician in his late glory—as a boyish cut-up, an epic raconteur, a great American poet, and, most important, a beloved friend.

Praise

“Living in the Present with John Prine is a deeply intimate, moving, superbly written account of the last two years of a great artist’s life. It covers a narrow window of time in John’s life, but a huge expanse of feeling and memory. I loved being with John and Tom Piazza, sitting in the back seat of that cherry red Coupe de Ville as they careened across a Florida bridge, or curled up in a dark corner of Sperry’s restaurant in Nashville, telling stories. Artists exist and resonate outside linear time, and I really did not want this book to end.”--Rosanne Cash

“For all of us who love and dearly miss John Prine, what a gift it is to be able to be with him again, both through his own words and in Tom Piazza’s wonderful recounting of their adventures forging their deep, late-life friendship. Tom is such an insightful, eloquent writer and many thanks to him for giving us another round with our dear friend”.--Bonnie Raitt

“Tom Piazza's book is a beautiful buddy movie — two old guys at the top of their games, bantering, playing music, and co-writing a never-to-be-finished memoir that becomes something no less precious, a quietly radiant story about the saving grace of fellowship, family, and art.--Will Hermes, author of Lou Reed: The King of New York

Product Details
Living in the Present with John Prine
By Tom Piazza
ISBN-10: 1324050853
ISBN-13: 978-1324050858
Published by  W. W. Norton & Company September 9, 2025