Biography
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Born
28 December 1958
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Born In
Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States
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Died
29 March 2020 (aged 61)
Joe Diffie (December 28, 1958 – March 29, 2020) was an American country musician. Between 1990 and 2004, he had 35 singles that charted on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, five of which peaked at number one. He also co-wrote singles for Holly Dunn, Tim McGraw, and Jo Dee Messina, and recorded with Mary Chapin Carpenter, George Jones, and Marty Stuart.
Raised in Velma, Oklahoma, Diffie worked in a foundry while playing local nightclubs in Oklahoma and moved to Nashville in 1986 to work for Gibson Guitar Corporation.
His first album arrived in 1990 when country music was thriving commercially and creatively. His first single, a sensitive traditional country ballad, Home, reached No. 1, although Diffie quickly counted on novelty hits to sustain his career. For instance, his other No. 1 hits are Pickup Man, Bigger Than the Beatles, Third Rock From the Sun and If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets). Toward the end of the 1990s, Diffie lost his chart momentum and left Epic Records following his 2001 album, In Another World. Subsequently, he toured with Mark Chesnutt and Tracy Lawrence on the Rockin' Roadhouse tour.
In 2013, Diffie collaborated with Aaron Tippin and Sammy Kershaw on the album All in the Same Boat, and cut the single "Girl Riding Shotgun" with D Thrash of the Jawga Boyz. This was followed in 2019 by a vinyl album called Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie.
Diffie passed away from complications of coronavirus (COVID-19) on March 29, 2020.
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