Remembering Joe Diffie: Tara Diffie’s Picks

On August 21, 1990, Joe Diffie introduced himself to the world with “Home,” the lead single from his debut album, A Thousand Winding Roads, which set in motion a career award-winning, chart-topping career that cemented him as one of the essential country artists of the 1990s. Diffie continued to bring his signature brand of country music to the stage until his untimely passing in early 2020, which spawned numerous tributes from his peers.

Beloved by those peers and fans worldwide, Diffie was also beloved by his wife, Tara, whom he married in 2018. To celebrate the anniversary of the release of “Home,” we talked with Tara about her favorite songs Joe released in his legendary career and what she loves about each!

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Home

Cool story: the first time he heard this on the radio when it was released was driving in Oklahoma with his parents. They were literally driving past Oral Roberts University and the large praying hands out front. This was one of his favorite songs, and it was my dad’s favorite song. We played it at my dad’s funeral in June. His first four or five songs released hit number one. He always said he thought, “oh, this is easy!” [laughs].

John Deere Greene

One of his most popular songs by far. He was always amazed at all the little kids singing along, especially in the last years he toured. When we were at the shows, my daughter would go on stage and sing the last chorus with him, and it’s probably one of my favorite memories. He treated her like his own, and I’ll never forget that!

This Pretender

Not very well known, but his voice is absolutely amazing on it. One of my top five songs of his. After he passed, I got a call from Gary LeVox from Rascal Flatts saying this was the first song he wrote that got released when he moved to Nashville and started his own career.

One More Breath

A friend of mine brought up this song on our last spring break, just a week before I lost Joe. We were headed to Lorrie Morgan’s chicken restaurant in PCB, and they played it for me. I told Joe I had NEVER heard this song and was blown away by how beautiful it was. He passed away, and that friend made a video of our pics to that song, and I literally lose it every time I hear it now. It’s just so beautiful, and to hear his voice saying those words in the lyrics hit my heart hard!

So Help Me Girl

My favorite, because at every show since we started dating, he dedicated it to me. It was probably dedicated to other women over the years, but it was cute to me when he dedicated it to me.

Ships That Don’t Come In

This song meant the most to him. He loved hearing soldier’s stories about how that song helped them when they were overseas. Brad Paisley and John Berry both mentioned they heard that song on the radio and it inspired them to keep going, and they both became very successful! His voice on this is just perfect, and everyone in the industry always said how his range was unbelievable. He could still hit those notes perfectly at 61.