John Prine - The Missing Years

The Missing Years is the tenth studio album by American folk singer songwriter John Prine, originally released in September 1991 via Oh Boy Records.

The Missing Years was Prine's first studio release since his 1986 album German Afternoons and is regarded as his comeback album.

According to the Great Days: The John Prine Anthology liner notes, manager Al Bunetta and longtime Prine associate Dan Einstein were brainstorming over prospective producers at Oh Boy headquarters and the name of Howie Epstein came up. Epstein, the bass player in Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, was a long-time fan, with Prine recalling "I'd heard for years that he and (Heartbreakers keyboard player) Benmont Tench would show up at my shows. And I heard all the guys in the Heartbreakers played my stuff on the road. So Al called Howie. And before he could even hang up the phone, Howie was in the office. Four hours later, he was still there, talking to my manager about my music."

Although it was partially recorded at The Money Pit in Nashville, it was mostly recorded at Huh Sound Theater in Los Angeles (actually Epstein's guest bedroom on Laurelcrest Drive), which led to a coterie of famous contributors, including Tom Petty, Phil Everly, Bonnie Raitt, Albert Lee, and Bruce Springsteen.

Prine had bumped into Springsteen at an Italian restaurant the day he arrived to record, with Springsteen telling Prine, "When you guys get into the record and have something to play, please invite me over. I'd just love to play guitar or harmonica or sing or whatever." Prine told the Phoenix New Times in a 1991 interview, "Howie has one of those houses that looks like it's going to fall off the cliff. But it was great. All we paid for was the musicians, the tape and the engineer. I recorded most of it in a hallway. I mean a hallway - we're talkin' three-and-a-half feet wide."

The Missing Years was well received by critics and won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

This double album is a 2017 reissue on 180 gram heavyweight black vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve, pressed in the US via Oh Boy Records.