It’s hard to regard star musicians as “regular” people. However, when you really give it some thought and examination, you find that even celebrities experience problems like everybody else. When I started to prepare for this weeks’ feature, I really was left with an understanding of the common problems of mankind. Enter country music star Joe Diffie. The same Joe Diffie with the clever lyrics and catchy songs that provided him with a large following during the 1990s. Well, Joe Diffie returned to bring fans his first single in five years titled I Got This. Most of the time the story would end right there. Perhaps, the new song would be the springboard to more songs and a major comeback. That might still hold true, but the life of Joe Diffie should be of interest to us all. His life experience makes the comeback that much more interesting.
Joe Diffie was born into a musical family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1958. His first musical performance came at age four, when he performed in his aunt’s country music band. Diffie’s father, Joe R., played guitar and banjo, and his mother sang. Following in his mother’s footsteps, Diffie began to sing at an early age, often listening to the albums in his father’s record collection. Diffie has said that his “Mom and Dad claimed that [he] could sing harmony when [he] was three years old.”
Diffie’s start sounds a lot like many musicians. A prodigious beginning that blossomed into so much more. The influence from musician parents can help mold accomplished artists. The Joe Diffie story involves more. His family moved to San Antonio, Texas while he was in the first grade, and subsequently to Washington state where he attended fourth and fifth grades. Later, he moved to Wisconsin for the years he was in sixth grade through his second year of high school, and back to Oklahoma where he attended high school in the town of Velma. In his last two years in high school, Diffie played football, baseball, and golf in addition to running track; in his senior year he was recognized as Best All-Around Male Athlete.
It seems that Joe Diffie had what many would consider a normal childhood experience. Perhaps, even the moves around the country helped to develop Diffie for later musical success. I feel that Diffie’s adult life provided more fuel for songwriting and so much more. His life experiences really established him as a regular guy.
After graduating, he attended Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma. Although he initially earned credits toward medical school, he decided against a medical profession after marrying for the first time in 1977, and ultimately dropped out before graduation. Diffie first worked in oil fields, then drove a truck that pumped cement in the oil field in Alice, Texas, before he moved back to Duncan to work in a foundry. During this period, he worked as a musician on the side, first in a gospel group called Higher Purpose, and then in a bluegrass band called Special Edition. He then built a recording studio and began touring with Special Edition.
Joe Diffie taking a job at a foundry and before that driving a cement truck to an oil field certainly sounds like a regular guy. Underneath all of the regular jobs was a songwriter trying to find his way into the music industry. He sent demo recordings to publishers in Nashville with good results. Hank Thompson recorded Diffie’s “Love on the Rocks”. When Randy Travis nearly recorded another of his songs, Diffie was convinced he had a shot in the business. He moved to Nashville in 1986. He took a job at the Gibson guitar plant while continuing to write songs, and became an in-demand demo singer as well. Holly Dunn’s 1989 recording of a Diffie collaboration, “There Goes My Heart Again,” proved a major hit, and Diffie found himself a hot commodity. He signed with Epic and released his début album, A Thousand Winding Roads, in 1990. His first single, “Home,” went all the way to number one on the country charts, and “If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)” duplicated that feat; meanwhile, two more singles from the album, “If You Want Me To” and “New Way (To Light Up an Old Flame),” reached number two.
Diffie’s second album, titled Regular Joe, was released in 1992 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The first two singles from the album both peaked at number five on Billboard: “Is It Cold in Here” and “Ships That Don’t Come In”, with the latter reaching number one on Radio & Records. Music critics found Joe Diffie as well as the fans. Brian Mansfield gave the album a positive review in Allmusic, saying that it “has all the clichés of country music, and all the good stuff too.” Richmond Times-Dispatch reviewer Norman Rowe referred to Diffie as a “pleasant surprise” and called “Is It Cold in Here” “the sort of tear-jerker George Jones has worked wonders with in the past”.
While recording nine more studio albums, Joe Diffie experienced many personal ups and downs. Not surprising because that’s what happens to us all – musician or not. Four marriages and five children have provided Diffie with enough personal life to make it interesting. The constant through it all has been the music.
The Oklahoma Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry member of more than 20 years continues a heavy tour schedule while fine-tuning a new album slated for release this summer. Diffie co-penned “I Got This” with Tate Stevens, Wade Kirby and Phil O’Donnell.
“This one’s dedicated to all the hard workin’ guys and gals out there. I’m a guy that played football and worked in the oil fields as a young man and, when I’m singing ‘I Got This,’ I’m taken back to those days. I’ve been playing it at my shows recently and so far the reaction has been great!” Diffie shared.
As with most artistic endeavors, I hope this one finds intended success. Just maybe Joe Diffie will find the top of the charts again.