The 1942 Wurlitzer jukebox stood in the corner of a Nashville office for years. It was a thank you. A reward for taking no money. In October 2023, the family of John Prine carried it into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Inside it were old 78s. Outside it was a story of a joke that became a hit.
That joke started in a hotel room. Steve Goodman and John Prine were songwriters having a laugh. They decided to write a country song that made fun of every country song they had ever heard. Prine was nervous.
He wanted his name taken off the track
He thought it was a novelty. He did not want to offend the country crowd.
Goodman put the song on his 1971 debut album. Almost no one noticed. Then David Allan Coe heard it. Goodman called it the perfect country and western song. Coe wrote back.
It said nothing about mama or trains or trucks or prison or getting drunk
Goodman took the challenge. He wrote one more verse. That verse had every single missing element. David Allan Coe cut the song on August 20 1974. It ran five minutes and sixteen seconds. It climbed to No 8. It became his first Top Ten hit.
Steve Goodman was not laughing at first. He took it to Kris Kristofferson. But the song worked. John Prine never took a dollar for it. So Goodman used part of his own royalties to buy a 1942 Wurlitzer jukebox.
Prine filled it with old 78s and kept it in the corner of his Nashville office
That jukebox now sits in the Country Music Hall of Fame. It is a reminder that a joke between two songwriters turned into history. A missing line about a truck, a train, and a mama created one of the most legendary stories in country music.