© 2025 WKNO FM
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

'Pickup Man' Joe Diffie, Age 61, Dies Of COVID Complications

Joe Diffie had five number one hits on the country music Billboard charts between 1990 and 2004.
courtesy Joe Diffie
/
via Facebook
Joe Diffie had five number one hits on the country music Billboard charts between 1990 and 2004.

Two weeks ago, country music singer Joe Diffie postponed all of his upcoming shows to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. On Sunday, he died from complications of COVID-19.

Diffie’s career started as a demo singer. In an interview with Bobby Bones last year, Diffie said he’d been laid off by a foundry in Oklahoma and decided to move to Nashville.

He signed with a label in 1990 and over the next 15 years had five number one songs on the Billboard country charts. His most popular was “Pickup Man,” a song about a love of trucks and using one to pick up women.

His songs were heavy on humor and wordplay. And one, “Prop Me Up Beside The Juke Box (If I Die)” even gave instructions upon his passing:

Lord I want to go to heaven but I don’t want to go tonight

Fill my boots up with sand put a stiff drink in my hand

Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die

On Friday, his publicist disclosed that Diffie had been hospitalized with the coronavirus, asking fans to be “vigilant” during the pandemic.

Diffie was 61 years old.

Copyright 2020 WPLN News