'Yellowstone' Honors Late Country Legend John Prine in Latest Episode

By Daniel S. Levine

Yellowstone featured a song by legendary singer-songwriter John Prine at the end of Sunday's episode. The show's producers picked "Caravan of Fools," a song Prine wrote with Dan Auerbach and Pat McLaughlin, to punctuate the latest drama in the lives of the Dutton family. "Caravan of Fools" was featured on Prine's 2018 album The Tree of Forgiveness, which turned out to be Prine's final album before his death in April 2020.

After the episode ended, the Yellowstone Twitter team confirmed that was Prine's song used at the end. Country music fans watching Yellowstone got teary-eyed after the show paid tribute to the musician. "John Prine was the best way to end this episode. He was a legend," one fan tweeted. "That was awesome. Thank y'all for that," another fan wrote. "I was choked up just hearing it, before even seeing 'in memory of John Prine.' I was in tears after seeing it."

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. Fiona also tested positive and recovered, but her husband was not improving. After his death, his family followed the wishes he outlined in the song "Paradise." Half of his ashes were spread in the Green River in Kentucky, while the other half was buried next to his parents in Chicago. "I Remember Everything," the last song Prine recorded before his death, was released in June 2020.

Although Prine was not as commercially successful as his contemporaries, his songs are influential and have been covered by artists from a wide range of genres. He won the Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammy twice and received two posthumous Grammys for "I Remember Everything" in the Best American Roots Performance and Song categories. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and was posthumously named the Poet Laureate of his home state, Illinois.

"John and I were 'New Dylans' together in the early Seventies," Bruce Springsteen told Rolling Stone after Prine's death. "He was never anything but the loveliest guy in the world. He wrote music of towering compassion with an almost unheard-of precision and creativity when it came to observing the fine details of ordinary lives. He was a writer of great humor, funny, with wry sensitivity. It has marked him as a complete original."

Yellowstone airs on Paramount Network on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET. The show's first three seasons are also available to stream on Peacock. The prequel series 1883 will debut on Paramount+ on Dec. 19. Another spin-off, 6666, is in development. 

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