John Prine to Receive Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

Two-time Grammy winner John Prine has been named one of the recipients of the Recording Academy’s 2020 Lifetime Achievement Awards. The singer-songwriter, whose self-titled 1971 debut LP was enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015, scored three Grammy nominations last year for his album The Tree of Forgiveness.

Other 2020 Lifetime Achievement honorees are pop-rock group Chicago, singer Roberta Flack, late soul legend Isaac Hayes, punk pioneer Iggy Pop, hip-hop innovators Public Enemy, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member and gospel-rock icon Sister Rosetta Tharpe. A special award presentation and concert celebrating the honorees will take place April 18th at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California, with additional details announced in the coming weeks.

Although no country-related acts were given Grammy Lifetime Achievement honors in 2019, recent honorees in the field include Emmylou Harris (2018); Charley Pride, Jimmie Rodgers (2017); Linda Ronstadt (2016); the Louvin Brothers (2015); and Kris Kristofferson (2014). In 1971, Elvis Presley became the first act with a connection to country music to be honored, although the first-ever Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, in 1963, went to Bing Crosby, who along with the Andrews Sisters, topped the very first Billboard country songs chart in 1944 with “Pistol Packin’ Mama.”

The 62nd Grammy Awards will air live on CBS on January 26th from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Tanya Tucker’s four nods, including in the all-genre Song of the Year category for “Bring My Flowers Now,” make her the year’s most-nominated country artist.