Photo by Emma Delevante c/o Hello In There Foundation
Fiona Prine (center) at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
“I love Gulfport. My three boys love it. They go now with their wives, families,” she told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
The Prine family’s connection to our neck of the woods goes all the way back to the ‘70s and ‘80s, but during one family stay at St. Pete Beach’s Don CeSar, John went to visit his friend, Suncoast Surf Shop founder Joe Nuzzo. Johnny Green, who was managing the Gulfport Casino, was around sometimes, and he eventually showed the songwriter a house down the street. John immediately brought it to Fiona.
“He was like, ‘Oh my god, the minute I saw it, Fi, I just knew you’d love it,’” Fiona said. One thing led to another, and they closed on the house in 2005. A few months later, the family celebrated John’s 60th birthday at the casino just a three-minute walk away.
“I’ve gone back ever since,” Fiona added. “It’s still a very special place.”
John passed away on April 7, 2020 after being diagnosed with the coronavirus; he was 73. Nuzzo, who in 2017 told CL that there was nobody more sincere and honest than “Mr. Prine,” had been diagnosed with leukemia and died a year-and-a-half later on Sept. 23, 2021 in Hospice care; he was 78.
“Joe became very close friends with me, John and our family. We call him family. So when Joe died, that was devastating for me because he was such a good friend,” Fiona said.
Gail Gilchrist met Nuzzo while negotiating the price of a pair of sunglasses at his surf shop—and they stayed friends until the end. A month before he passed, she took Nuzzo to see live music. Gilchrist told CL that Nuzzo wanted to go to the first celebration of John’s life. “He didn’t quite make it,” she added.
But this weekend, she knows Nuzzo would give her his trademark two thumbs up. The occasion? Three Bay area events that will celebrate the songs of John Prine while donating 100% of proceeds to the Hello In There Foundation.
Gilchrist helped connect the dots to make sure the concerts benefited Hello In There. Fiona said Gail is also family and has been pivotal in spearheading this weekend’s fundraising.
“She’s given me little or nothing to do other than show up. So I’m really looking forward to it. It’s gonna be special,” Fiona added.
Thursday night’s show is near Gulfport’s North End Taphouse & Kitchen, where a mural of John is painted. On Friday, St. Petersburg’s Noisemakers—owned by Prine megafan Gabe Whitney—has its benefit. Both those events are sold-out, but tickets to Safety Harbor’s 4th Annual A Crooked Piece of Time on Sunday were still available as of press time.
Locals started throwing John Prine tributes as soon as it was safe to do so—and the Hello In There Foundation has thrown star-studded "You Got Gold" concerts to help raise funds and awareness—but this is the first year it has been able to interact directly with the other American communities to make the shows benefit the nonprofit.
"And of course, it would be Gulfport," Fiona said.
Founded by John’s family in 2021, Hello In There “aims to identify and collaborate with individuals and communities to offer support for people who are marginalized, discriminated against or, for any reason, are otherwise forgotten.”
Nearly three dozen organizations have been grantees of the foundation including: Renewal House, which provides specialized addiction treatment to women and their children in Middle Tennessee; The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans; The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition; Rise and Shine TN a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to building a culture of civic engagement.
“Our mission statement makes it very clear about what it is that we want to do,” Fiona told CL, adding that the nonprofit looks for organizations that are already on the ground and doing good work.
Celine Thackston—a rockstar of the philanthropy sector who worked at the Nashville Symphony, Appalachian-serving Highlander Research and Education Center and elsewhere—took over as Executive Director in 2022.
“My main job has just been to help organize and support Fiona and the family in figuring out how to let all that love bloom through projects, events, and initiatives. There is no absence in terms of ideas or help in making it all happen!,” Thackston told CL.
In less than two years she’s experienced firsthand the love for John from fans, artists and his close community of friends and family who often attend benefits and events then start their own initiatives to support foundation grantees.
Thackston said that the foundation—a "gold transparency" organization according to nonprofit watchdog GuideStar—will select two local grantees, and make an announcement after further evaluation and outreach. "Then after all the shows are settled with the venues, we'll match proceeds from the concerts and distribute the funding!," she added.
“We’re a good team. We work together very, very well. And I’m just so grateful to have her,” Fiona said of Thackston.
And you don’t need to look too hard to find the marginalized people Fiona’s husband wrote about. Veterans, rural communities, the lonely—they’re all in the songbook, and beyond words, they become beneficiaries of a foundation that is immortalizing John’s kindness.
John, Fiona said, never passed someone with a sign on the side of the road without stopping, talking and giving a bill. She recently did the same, knowing he would.“John gathered some good people around him.”
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“And that’s ‘Hello In There,’ right?,” she said, referencing the song on her husband’s 1971 debut. “I made eye contact with him, he smiled at me, I told him, ‘Be safe,’ and that was it. It was a brief encounter, but I know it gave me food for thought for the next hour.”
Fiona can make endless sharp observations about social issues in the U.S., but always lands at the idea that we all must get busy working to fix them. After all, John’s songs, and the community of characters in them, are all but asking us to.
Kip Kelly is a songwriter and founder of Crooked Thumb Brewery, which has canned a special Bruised Orange beer for the weekend. The brewery will donate sales of it to the foundation. Kelly told CL that he and Bay area songwriter Joshua Reilly joke that they've never met a John Prine fan that’s a jerk.
“I think there’s something about the type of person that gravitates towards his music. Maybe they’re comfortable just kind of being quiet, listening and understanding,” he added.
Fiona said there’s truth there.
“It’s a huge community that he kind of left for us,” she said. The cross section of John Prine fans transcends political persuasions, shapes, sizes, colors, creeds and backgrounds—the common thread is their love for his music.
“They want connection with John and they want that continuing relationship,” she added. “I would believe that. If you can love John through the words that he wrote and the empathy that he had for people then, you know, John gathered some good people around him.” Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
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