Sturgill Simpson Reveals John Prine Left Him His Porsche

Tuesday night’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert featured an interview and performance from Sturgill Simpson, and the country singer as well as the host took some time to pay tribute to their late mutual friend, the legendary John Prine.

In addition to discussing his bout with COVID-19 back in the spring (“I woke up feeling like a bucket full of buttholes,” he said), Simpson recalled his first meeting with Prine at The Butcher Shoppe recording studio while he was mixing A Sailor’s Guide to Earth.

“I was pretty in the zone, head down at the board, and I guess I took a break, hit the space bar, and when I turned around, John was sitting in a chair in these plaid pants just kind of looking,” he told Colbert. “I had no idea how long he’d been sitting there … I kind of freaked out. I mean, you come face to face with your hero, and he was just like, ‘Well, that’s pretty good.’ He said, ‘You want to go get some meatloaf?’ And we went and had lunch … any time I’d come up to town, we’d go grab lunch … He was a mentor and very giving with his time and wisdom, and we were all grateful to get to know him.”

Simpson also revealed that he inherited one of Prine’s cars after the beloved singer-songwriter passed away. “I just recently became the owner of his 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo,” he said. “He was a total car guy. He had a bunch of old Cadillacs, and that 911 was his bucket-list dream car.”

“I like music and cars to go real fast, man,” he added. “But I have three children, and I feel like I just had a fourth with the responsibility that comes with this thing. It’s bittersweet, but it will be something I treasure for the rest of my life.”

You can watch Simpson’s full interview and his performance of “Breakers Roar” below.