Joan Baez - hello in there cover, 1975

 

"I delivered to a Baptist old people’s home where we’d have to go room-to-room... and some of the patients would kind of pretend that you were a grandchild or nephew that had come to visit, instead of the guy delivering papers. That always stuck in my head."

Roger Waters - hello in there cover, 2015

"Since the great songwriter John Prine died in April — and even since before Prine’s death, when the news came out that he was suffering from COVID-19 — other musicians have been showing their appreciation by covering his songs. Among Prine’s many songs, “Hello In There” has taken on a special weight. Prine wrote the song from the perspective of an old man who’s longing for any kind of connection, and he included it on his self-titled debut album in 1971. Jason Isbell coincidentally released his “Hello In There” cover just before the news of Prine’s diagnosis came out. Joan Baez, who’d released her cover of “Hello In There” in 1975, shared a video of herself singing “Hello In There” before Prine’s death. And now Roger Waters has covered it too."