Even if you’re a country music fan too young to remember when Joe Diffie became one of the genre’s most popular singers in the 1990s, there’s a good chance you became familiar with him about eight years ago thanks to Jason Aldean.
Diffie, though always modest, loved it — last fall, he released a limited-edition vinyl called “Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie!” and started to record new music. So it was especially shocking to the Nashville community on Sunday when Diffie, 61, died due to complications from covid-19. He had revealed his positive diagnosis only a few days before. Almost immediately, social media was flooded with remembrances from his fellow singers, who praised his “pure” voice (Trisha Yearwood) and called him “one of the nicest stars on the planet” (Chris Janson).
“Oh my God. One of the all-time GREAT vocalists. Joe Diffie was my friend. RIP buddy,” Trace Adkins wrote.
“The soundtrack of every bonfire, parking lot, tailgate, jukebox, and cassette player back in high school. We’ll miss you Joe Diffie,” Jessi Alexander tweeted.
“Joe Diffie was one of the reasons I wanted to sing country music,” Caylee Hammack wrote on Instagram.
Scrolling through the dozens upon dozens of tributes, it was clear: Diffie meant something different to everyone. There were common themes, as many celebrated him as one of the best voices in country music. Others talked about which songs they loved the most. Artists credited him as an inspiration for their careers.
He had a huge impact on newer artists, who name-checked him in songs (“Got my honky-tonk attitude from Joe Diffie,” Chris Young sang last year on “Raised on Country”) and appreciated his old-school country look (“Joe Diffie man. … Our love for mullets made me feel connected to you in a special way,” Morgan Wallen tweeted.) Everyone from Luke Bryan to Dustin Lynch to Locash covered “Pickup Man” in concert. Thomas Rhett, a co-writer of Aldean’s “1994,” was four years old at the time of the song’s title, but he still idolized Joe Diffie, and he and co-writers Barry Dean and Luke Laird wrote a whole song about him.
“I was a junior in high school in ’94. Joe Diffie was huge,” Aldean told Billboard about why he decided to record the track. He and his producer thought it was one of the “funniest, coolest” things they had ever heard. “There may be some younger fans that have to do some research and figure out who Joe Diffie is, but obviously people in the business know he’s a great singer and one of the best vocalists we’ve had in this town in years.”
Diffie was beyond flattered by the attention and credited the song with helping him make a comeback after he took a nearly decade-long break from releasing music in the mid-2000s.
“Jason’s great. And I tell you what, I tip my hat to him, because he’s kind of revived my own career,” Diffie told a country radio station after the song was released.
Other words commonly used to describe Diffie on Sunday were “underrated” and “underappreciated.” It may have been true: While Diffie had plenty of huge country hits, he never crossed over to the mainstream audience — partly because the ’90s country music explosion meant there was tons of competition.
But with ’90s nostalgia all the rage these days, it’s not surprising Nashville singers and fans connect to his classic country ways (that mullet, that honky-tonk twang) more than ever.
Singer Adam Sanders summed it up succinctly in a tribute Sunday: “When you think of ’90s country, you think Joe Diffie. His music will continue to impact generations to come in ways that only a few can.”
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