Remember When Joe Diffie Came To Binghamton

I'm filing this under "how time flies." I can't believe that it's been a year already since we lost a country legend to COVID-19. It was a year ago, that we found out that Joe Diffie passed away at the age of 61 due to the coronavirus.

For many, his death brought home how real this disease could be. It had been only a few weeks since the world went on pause and I didn't know anybody that had passed because of the coronavirus. I didn't know Joe personally but he was one of the reasons that I got into country music.

Joe Diffie Memories

I saw him perform at the Allentown Fairgrounds and an up-and-comer named Keith Urban opened for him. Yes...that Keith Urban. The next night, he played at Touch of Texas (TOT) at their Johnson City location and that's when I had the chance to meet him.

I noticed that he played much longer at Touch of Texas than in Allentown and I asked one of his band members about it. He told me that Joe LOVED the atmosphere, the intimacy, and the people at TOT. I thought it was awesome that the people of the Southern Tier made such a great impression on the man with the Honky Tonk Attitude.

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Joe Diffie remains one of my top 5 favorite all-time country artists and when I'm in the mood for some country music with fiddles and steel guitars, I grab his "Greatest Hits" CD.

Thank you for the memories and it was nice taking a trip down memory lane again when life felt so much simpler. What do you remember about the Pick-Up Man?