Joe Diffie, RIP [Updated]

COVID-19 has claimed one of its more prominent victims in country singer Joe Diffie, age 61. I remember Diffie fondly because he was on the radio in the early 1990s, when I first started listening to country music. I liked “Third Rock From the Sun” the only popular song, to my knowledge, whose theme is the nature of causation. Aristotle would approve, I think.

Cause and effect, chain of events
All of the chaos makes perfect sense
When you’re spinning round, things come undone
Welcome to Earth, 3rd rock from the Sun

The unfortunate events described in the song begin with the local sheriff calling his wife from a bar, and come full circle with:

Mayor says “Use your head, if he ain’t in his car
He’s hiding from his wife, down at Smokey’s Bar”

Here is the video. As is often the case, I am not sure whether it adds to or detracts from the song. You can always listen with your eyes closed.

Diffie’s obituary is here. Like many in show business, he had a tangled personal life. But no need to dwell on that here.

Finally, here is a sweet song by Diffie called “Bigger than the Beatles.” [UPDATE: Having watched it again, I don’t like the video. It introduces irony and I hate irony. Just listen to the song.]

UPDATE: One of Diffie’s cousins turns out to be a Power Line reader. He wrote us as follows:

I have been reading Power Line daily for over 15 years. Thank you for your fantastic website.

I am writing you today to thank you for mentioning the unexpected death of my cousin, Joe Diffie. It never occurred to me that his name would ever be mentioned on the erudite Power Line blog. And … had I heard that Joe had been mentioned on Power Line, I would have assumed it was one of Scott’s columns! Thanks for mentioning his death, John. Joe was an unbelievably down-to-earth guy, and was very generous with his time.

Thank you for all you do. You have, once again, brightened an otherwise gloomy day.

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