White Castle Honors Late Country Music Legend With Special Meal

White Castle is paying special tribute to late country music legend John Prine. Ahead of what would have been Prine’s 76th birthday on Monday, Oct. 10, the home of The Original Slider is taking part in “You Got Gold: Celebrating the Life & Songs of John Prine,” a week-long event celebrating the famed musician that is organized by The Prine Family and Oh Boy Records.

As more than 7,000 fans from across the world join in on the celebration centered in Nashville, Tennessee, which includes special concerts and other events, White Castle will be honoring Prine in a number of ways. From Friday, Oct. 7 through Wednesday, Oct. 12, all White Castle locations in the Nashville area will have special packaging featuring Prine’s Cravers Hall of Fame story. Prine was posthumously inducted into the Craver’s Hall of Fame, which is reserved for the most devout fans, back in 2020. To celebrate one of their biggest fans, the fast food restaurant chain will also host an evening of “Prine Dining” at its location at 1404 Broadway. The event is dubbed as an “acknowledgment of John’s many years as a White Castle Ambassador.” A specific date and time for the Prine Dining event has yet to be announced. White Castle will also make a charitable contribution to The Hello In There Foundation “as an expression of gratitude for John’s feeding the souls of so many.”

The “You Got Gold: Celebrating the Life & Songs of John Prine” event is being held more than two years after Prine died in Nashville on April 7, 2020, at 73. His wife, Fiona, announced in March that Prine tested positive for COVID-19, and he was hospitalized later that month. White Castle’s participation in this year’s remembrance of Prine comes as little surprise given Prine’s relationship with the fast food chain, which dates back decades.

Per White Castle, Prine’s relationship with the chain began after Prine’s manager, Mitchell Drosin, received a call from a woman asking if her husband, an astronaut, could meet Prine. Drosin agreed, later learning that the Canadian astronaut was to be accompanied by an Italian astronaut.The next morning while Prine was en route to the airport, he said, “Let’s stop at White Castle first and pick up a bunch of sliders for the pilots and attendants.” The astronauts had never had White Castle before and are said to have loved it. The rest, they say, is history, with White Castle bestowing Prine with the chain’s highest honor when they inducted him into the Cravers Hall of Fame in Oct. 2020, just days after what would have been his birthday.

For a complete list of “You Got Gold: Celebrating the Life & Songs of John Prine” events, including dates and times, click here. A date for White Castle’s Prine Dining event will be announced in the coming days.