John Prine Postpones Summer Dates To Undergo Medical Procedure

“With sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused, the Prine family and Oh Boy Records regretfully announce the postponement of the following John Prine summer dates…” Prine’s Instagram post says.

“In consultation with his doctors, John has been advised that he has an elevated risk for a stroke,” the post continued. “He will have surgery this week to insert a stent which will remedy the issue. He looks forward to a full and speedy recovery.”

Postponed shows include those at Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, Colo.; Red Butte Gardens, Salt Lake City, Utah; Oregon Zoo, Portland, Ore.; Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle, Wash.; Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, B.C.; Shaw Amphitheatre, Banff, Alberta; and Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary, Alberta. A scheduled appearance at the Edmonton Folk Festival Aug. 11 will have to wait for next year, and has already been rescheduled for Aug. 9, 2020. The Red Rocks show has also been rescheduled for Sept. 18.

To date, Prine’s European leg in August in unaffected.

“We are currently working on rescheduling the affected dates and will share updates information as soon as possible — all original tickets will remain valid. Alternately, refunds are available at original point of purchase,” the post says.

See Also — Oh Boy: John Prine’s Family Business Is Booming Like Never Before  

Prine, considered one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, has survived two bouts of cancer and remains a prodigious road warrior. He recently completed a tour of Australia and New Zealand and closed out 2018 with a sold-out concert at the Grand Ole Opry House with stalwart duet partner Iris DeMent and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, moving 4,257 tickets for a gross of $625,721. 

After a brief recuperation,  Prine’s itinerary brings him back to the U.S. for October dates including at the Ford Theatre in Los Angeles; Fox Theater in Oakland, Calif.; and DPAC/Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, N.C. 

He also heads up his own “All The Best Festival” from Nov. 11-15, working one venue per day in both Punta Cana and La Altagracia in the Dominican Republic. Joining him are artists including DeMent, Rateliff, Gretchen Peters, Jason Isbell, Rita Wilson, Kacey Musgraves, Amanda Shires, Shovels & Rope, The War and Treaty, Iris Dement, Tyler Childers and more. He’s slated to close out the year with a return to the Grand Ole Opry, to celebrate New Year’s Eve with Marty Stuart.

Prine, a former mailman from Maywood, Ill., has been performing his songs about off-kilter people, places and things even before releasing his eponymous debut on Atlantic Records in 1971. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he arrived in Chicago and palled around with another Windy City troubadour, Steve Goodman (“City of New Orleans,” “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request” and “Go Cubs Go”) before he was “discovered” by Kris Kristofferson. 

In more recent years, Prine has toured extensively despite having only released one record of original songs since 2005’s Fair and Square until 2018’s The Tree Of Forgiveness, which proved to be the biggest-selling album of his long career.

Following the 2015 death of his longtime manager Al Bunetta, the three-time Grammy winner turned his fiercely independent Oh Boy Records into an actual family business. With wife Fiona Whelan Prine at the helm as manager, the man responsible for the iconic classics “Sam Stone,” “Hello In There,” “Blow Up Your TV,” “Paradise” and “Angel from Montgomery” released 2016’s Grammy-nominated For Better, Or Worse, a redux of In Spite of Ourselves featuring duets with various female country and roots luminaries including Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless and DeMent.