Countrysinger Joe Diffie has died of the novel coronavirus after he was testedpositive. The singer who had a string of hits in the 1990s with chart-toppingballads and honky-tonk singles like Home and Pickup Man on Friday announcedthat he had contracted the coronavirus, becoming the first country star to gopublic with such a diagnosis.
Diffie'spublicist Scott Adkins said that the singer died on Sunday in Nashville,Tennessee, due to complications from the virus. He was 61 at the time of hisdeath.
Diffie,a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a member of the Grand Ole Opry for more than25 years. His hits included Honky Tonk Attitude, Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox(If I Die), Bigger Than the Beatles and If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets).
Diffie also shared in a Grammy award for best country collaboration for the song "Same Old Train", with Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart, and others. His last solo album was 2010's the Bluegrass Album: Homecoming.
Diffieis survived by his wife, Tara Terpening Diffie, and seven children from fourmarriages.
