Joe Diffie obituary

Between 1990 and 2004, Joe Diffie was one of the most commercially successful artists in country music, notching up more than 30 singles on Billboard’s country chart, including five No 1s. Diffie, who has died aged 61 after contracting Covid-19, built up a huge and loyal following with songs based around shrewd observations of everyday life, which he performed with rambunctious rowdiness and easygoing humour.

It was in this uncomplicated spirit that he recorded hits such as Bigger Than the Beatles (No 1 in 1995), the tale of love between a waitress and a hotel lounge singer featuring a crafty nod to the Beatles’ She Loves You. John Deere Green (No 5, 1993) entwined the John Deere tractor, traditionally dear to the hearts of American farmers, with the lifelong romance of Billy Bob and Charlene. Perhaps his philosophy was best captured in Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die) – No 3 in 1993 – in which Diffie sang: “Fill my boots up with sand, put a stiff drink in my hand / Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die.”

Diffie was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His mother, Flora, was a schoolteacher and also ran a flower shop. His father, Joe, held a variety of jobs including rancher, truck driver and welder, and would later become the tour bus driver for the country artist Toby Keith. Joe Sr also played the guitar and banjo, while Flora was a singer, and Joe Jr began singing while still an infant. At 14 he launched his performing career by appearing with his aunt Dawn Anita’s country band. The family moved around between San Antonio, Texas, Washington State and Wisconsin before settling in Velma, Oklahoma, where Joe attended high school.

He developed his skills as a musician and harmony singer with a variety of gospel and bluegrass groups including Higher Purpose and Special Edition. He lived for a time in Duncan, Oklahoma, where he worked in a foundry and played in local bars and dancehalls, but the foundry closed and his first marriage, to Janise Parker, broke up.

In 1986 he moved to Nashville, determined to succeed in the music business. While working during the day with Gibson guitars, he focused on his songwriting and sang on demo recordings. He enjoyed a breakthrough in 1988, when Hank Thompson, the “king of western swing”, recorded his song Love On the Rocks. “There’s really no magic formula,” Diffie commented, about his songwriting. “I’ve just always drawn on my own experience, whether it’s falling in love or hanging out in a bar. I feel like if I can relate to it, other people will too.”

A deal with Epic Records followed, and Diffie’s debut album, A Thousand Winding Roads, appeared in 1990. This gave him his first country No 1 hit with his debut single Home, a showcase for his smooth and supple voice and the beginning of a streak of six consecutive Top 5 singles including another chart-topper, If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets).

He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1993, a year when he also released the platinum-selling album Honky Tonk Attitude. The following year brought his most successful long-player, Third Rock from the Sun, which reached 6 on the US country chart. This contained one of his biggest hits, Pickup Man, which played on the double entendre of sexual attraction and pickup trucks – “I met all my wives in traffic jams / There’s just something women like about a pickup man”.

In 1998 he won a Grammy for his appearance on a star-studded recording of Same Old Train with Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart, Merle Haggard and others. His songs were frequently covered by other artists, including Memory Lane by Tim McGraw, and Jo Dee Messina’s take on My Give a Damn’s Busted. In 2013, Jason Aldean’s song 1994 name-checked several of Diffie’s hits, and contained a chorus consisting of the chant “Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie!” This supplied Diffie with the title of his final album, released in 2019.

Diffie was three times divorced. He is survived by his fourth wife, Tara Terpening, whom he married in 2018, and by four sons, Parker, Travis, Drew and Tyler, and two daughters, Kara and Kylie.