DJ Deb Grant picks US mailman turned country-folk singer John Prine, whose beautiful songs captured the world in which he lived. Bob Harris, who first met him on the Old Grey Whistle Test, adds to the conversation.
"I came to know him through him speaking about his own music - it's his character, his personality and his attitude that I fell for," says Deb Grant. "When he died I was absolutely inconsolable."
Programme includes archive of John and his wife, talking after her husband died of complications arising from covid. There's also a reading of the lyrics from Sam Stone, his tale of a Vietnam vet returning from the war. "There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes," he sings.
This is series 67 of Great Lives and future guests include Miles Jupp, Stewart Lee and Elizabeth Day.
The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde