Two weeks ago, country music singer Joe Diffie postponed all of his upcoming shows to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. On Sunday, he died from complications of COVID-19.
Diffie’s career started as a demo singer. In an interview with Bobby Bones last year, Diffie said he’d been laid off by a foundry in Oklahoma and decided to move to Nashville.
He signed with a label in 1990 and over the next 15 years had five number one songs on the Billboard country charts. His most popular was “Pickup Man,” a song about a love of trucks and using one to pick up women.
His songs were heavy on humor and wordplay. And one, “Prop Me Up Beside The Juke Box (If I Die)” even gave instructions upon his passing:
Lord I want to go to heaven but I don’t want to go tonight
Fill my boots up with sand put a stiff drink in my hand
Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die
On Friday, his publicist disclosed that Diffie had been hospitalized with the coronavirus, asking fans to be “vigilant” during the pandemic.
Diffie was 61 years old.
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