Four years ago today country music lost one of its finest and most impacting songwriters of the 1990s. Joe Diffie was a GRAMMY and CMA Award winner whose feel-good romp “Pickup Man” spent four weeks at #1 on the Hot County Songs Chart in 1994. Diffie died of complications from COVID. Other #1 hits included: 1990’s “Home“, 1991’s “If The Devil Danced“, 1994’s “Third Rock From The Sun” and 1995’s “Bigger Than The Beatles.”

The Oklahoma native released more than dozen studio albums and his 2010 album Homecoming: The Bluegrass Album is a personal favorite. Of all his songs “John Deere Green” always seems to leave me with a smile.

Perhaps his lasting legacy though is that few, if any, have negative things to say about him. He was a solid man who sang and wrote solid songs. As country music continues to morph and meld into a genre that at times is unrecognizable Diffie was classic country through and through.

If you get a moment today, play some Diffie and remember a man gone far too soon.