John Prine Squinty-Eyed Hard Stare [View all]

...I was 14 so it must have been around '75 when a rec center volunteer decided to bundle a few of us teens in a van and take us to a concert at an intimate, relatively small outside venue called 'Carter Barron Ampitheater'.

Danny O'Keefe opened for John Prine. I was pretty drunk, so I don't remember much about the music, except Danny did 'Babe' and blew me away (I think I was the only one there who got as much of a rush off of that song, still do.)

Anyway, John came on and I got one of my great ideas to do something that I wasn't supposed to and went looking to get on top of the building in back of the stage.

It was surprisingly easy to pull myself up and there I was, right in back of John Prine as he was doing 'Hello in There,' and right as he got to the last verse, singing, "Hello in therrrrrre... Hello!' I yelled out HELLO! in my best drunk little voice and John turned around on his stool, looked up and gave me a withering squinty-eyed hard stare before everyone went ahead and applauded him.

I got down from there awful quick, and though I thought I got back to my seat without being seen, I suspect John fingered me because we ALL got kicked out. One of the MANY idiot things I did in my youth in which I was frequently inordinately high at a very young age.


John Prine performs at Atlanta Symphony Halll on April 23, 1975 in Atlanta, Ga.

John at the Roxy in LA in 1975