Brandi Carlile appeared on Wednesday night’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where she and the host paid respects to John Prine, who tragically passed away earlier this week at the age of 73 due to complications with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Carlile’s segment on The Late Show, which is now dubbed Stephen At Home as it is recorded remotely due to the ongoing pandemic, began with Colbert offering a few words about the legendary songwriter,
I first really got to know John Prine’s music when my then-girlfriend, now my wife, sent me her first cassette tape when we were dating, and it started with ‘Paradise’ by John Prine. I loved that song and I loved her for showing it to me. I learned it on the guitar so I could play it over the phone to her because we were living in different cities. I started studying at the Old Town School of Folk Music, where I was happy to learn that John had been. I learned to play “How Lucky”, and learned from him in that song how to be grateful for the things I don’t remember about childhood. And, talk about lucky, I learned to know John Prine. I got to meet him. I interviewed him. I sang a song for him with John Dickerson. I sang a song with him, which I think some of y’all have seen. I got to know a lot of people who also loved John.
Colbert then went on to introduce Brandi Carlile, who actually played with John Prine on The Late Show in 2018 with Sturgill Simpson. Before treating viewers to her take on “Hello In There”, Carlile shared a few words of her own about the icon. She described the difficulty in choosing a song of his to cover, as there were so many great options available.
“I think that this is a song that John would like me to sing because this song refers to the people that we’re all staying home to protect, and it reminds us that older people aren’t expendable. They made us who were are and they’ve given us every single thing that we have,” she said, before her acoustic rendition of the song. Watch Brandi Carlile cover “Hello In There”, written by Prine in 1971, below.
Brandi Carlile – “Hello In There”
[Video: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert]
Like virtually all musicians, the status of Carlile’s live shows is in doubt due to the ongoing health crisis. She was scheduled to perform at this year’s LOCKN’Â festival in June following a couple of spring dates on the West Coast in May, however that event has now been postponed until October. Head to her website for the latest show information regarding postponements and cancellations.