May 28, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, John Denver’s songs have become part of the American bloodstream. His melodies and lyrics are heard all over the world. His music is simple and honest—no auto-tune, no flashy outfits—just a man and his guitar. Our own Greg Hengler tells the story of this cultural icon.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people coming to you from where the West begins in
Fort Worth, Texas. John Denver's songs have become part of
the American bloodstream. His melodies and words are played all
over the planet. His music is simple, it's honest. No
(00:33):
auto tunes, no flashy outfits, just a man and his guitar.
Today we're going to tell his story. Here's Greg Hengler.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
On October twelfth, nineteen ninety seven, at Monterey Airport, just
one hundred miles south of San Francisco, one of the
world's best known and best loved singers, took off to
test his new plane. The son of a famous Air
Force pilot, John Denver had thousands of hours of flying experience.
(01:04):
It was a simple flight on a cloudless day. He
was five hundred feet above the Pacific Ocean and one
hundred and fifty feet from the Monterey Bay shoreline when
eyewitnesses heard a popping sound. A second or two later,
they watched in horror as the plane plummeted into the sea.
(01:25):
He was killed instantly, aged only fifty three. John Denver
was born in nineteen forty three in Roswell, New Mexico,
at the Air Force base where his father was stationed.
It was a far ways away from Denver, but then again,
(01:47):
so was his name. Here's John.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
My real name is Henry John Dutchendorf Junior. And my
father was in the Air Force and we moved around
a great deal.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Here's John's brother Ron.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
It was always hard because you were going into a
new school, new people. John was a little bit more shy,
and so it was harder for him.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
And I said, I like music. I played guitar, blah
blah blah, and so they asked me to bring my
guitar to class one day, which I did, and all
of a sudden, all of a sudden, people were saying
hello to me in the halls. All of a sudden,
people knew me as more than just another one of
the Air Force brats that was coming through every year
through the Maxwell Air Force Base.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
John's father, Dutch Dutchendorff, joined the Air Force in the
Second World War and soon became a top pilot. Here
again is John's brother Ron.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
He flew a number of planes. He actually gave Lindbergh
a test ride, and I think it was a B
twenty five when he was flying those bombers. And then
he went on to fly the plane that carried all
the electronics when they dropped the first atomic bomb to
test it.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Dutch achieved fame flying a new bomber, the B fifty
eight Hustler. In nineteen sixty one. He broke six world
air speed records in one day.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Six records set by Major Dujin Dark ben Crow, four
of them previously held by the Soviet.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
For this sensitive son of a Cold War warrior, something
had to give. At age sixteen, he took the family
car and ran away out west to Los Angeles with
a dream of becoming a folk singer. But it didn't
work out. His dad jumped into a friend's jet to
retrieve his wayward son.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Dad flew out there, and they went to Disneyland and
SeaWorld and did all these things and then came back,
and that, to me, their relationship was like.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Golden Four years later, John tried again, dropping out of
college and hitting la just as the folk boom was
at its height. He got a singing gig, and in
no time the music execs could see where John Starr
was headed. But they first saw complications with his name.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
One day there was this big, heavy meeting. They sat down,
they said, listen, kid, Dutchendorff has got to go, has
got to go.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Randy says that they asked him to change his name
and John said, no, I will not give up my
father's name. I'm proud to be a Deutschendorff. And Randy
said it won't fit on the marquee. You have to
change it. They had a minor hit at the time
called Denver written about this city, and the sheet music
was on the wall behind the desk. You're John Dedver.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Now with his new name, John Denver set out to
make it as a folk singer. The opening came when
one of the big names on the folk circuit, that
Chad Mitchell Trio, lost their lead singer. Hundreds of young
vocalist auditioned for the spot, but John was the obvious choice.
Here's Mike Koblik, one of the trio's singers.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
John was a fine musician, an excellent musician, a very
fine twelve string guitar player. There was an innocence, I
think in a way that was believable and true.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The Mitchell trios trademark was political satire. John's innocence was
on full display.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
He says, well, I don't know anything about politics. And
we looked at him and said, John, it's politics. He said,
that's what I said. I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
The Mitchell Trio's main audience were university students. In the
spring of nineteen sixty six, they were at Gastavis Adolphus,
a Lutheran college in Saint Peter, Minnesota. In the audience
was a sophomore student, Annie Martel.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
I was twenty and John was twenty three, very young,
but I thought he was very glamorous, very worldly. He
was not at all, but I thought so.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
The two were married in June nineteen sixty seven. John
began writing songs and recorded some of them at his
own expense, sending the album out as a Christmas present.
Track three of the album was called Babe, I Hate
to Go. Mitchell Trio producer Milt Oaken liked the tune
but not the title.
Speaker 8 (06:22):
I said, John, that's a terrible name for a very
beautiful song. He said, what would you call it? I said,
leaving on a jet plane. He said, but that's the
third line of the chorus. He never heard a song
named after the third line of a chorus. I said
it's a good name, let's go with it, and he
(06:43):
went with it.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Here's that original John Denver recording, All My.
Speaker 9 (06:47):
Bags are fact, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 10 (06:50):
Standing here outside your door, I hate to wake you
up to say goodbye.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Milt Oaken passed the song on to another one of
his acts, Peter Paul and Mary, and it became their
first number one hit. With the Vietnam War at its height,
the song struck a deep nerve and became a favorite
amongst the troops.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And you've been listening to the story of John Denver,
how he got his name, who his father was, where
he was born, what happens next in John Denver's life.
Stay with us here on Our American Stories. Plee hbib
here the host of Our American Stories. Every day on
(07:36):
this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country,
stories from our big cities and small towns. But we
truly can't do the show without you. Our stories are
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If you love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories
dot com and click the donate button, Give a little,
Give a lot, Go to Auramerican Stories dot com and give,
(08:09):
and we returned to our American stories and the story
of John Denver. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Here again is our own Greg Hangler.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
In nineteen sixty eight, John decided to pursue a solo career,
but his producer, Milt Oaken, struggled to get the record
companies interested.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
I struck out with John Hammond at Columbia, WEX Atlantic
and half a dozen others, and someone at RCAA, Harry Jenkins,
liked it.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
John Denver signed with RCA in nineteen sixty nine. His
first records were in the classic singer songwriter Vain, but
his early records refused to sell. A young talent agent
by the name of Jerry Weintraub, who would become I'm
a top Hollywood producer, became John's manager.
Speaker 7 (09:04):
We all got on a rocket ship together and it
was big.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
It was really big. The song that launched the rocket
ship was the classic sing along song now known all
over the world, take Me Home, Country Roads. It was
co written by two of John's friends from the folk scene,
Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert. Bill and Taffy planned on
finishing the song and then selling it to Johnny Cash.
(09:33):
Then one evening, John Denver showed up to share songs
with his two friends. Here's Taffy, I.
Speaker 11 (09:39):
Said, let's show him Country Rhoads. Bill says it's not finished.
I says, well, I know, but you know, let's just
show me what we got. And he absolutely loved it.
And in the singing of it, John took the lead,
Bill and I fell in with a harmony, and it
just sounded so good, like that.
Speaker 10 (10:00):
Heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Channon, the river life
is older, older than the trees, younger than the mountains,
(10:20):
growing lack of breeze.
Speaker 9 (10:23):
Country Roads, Take Me Home.
Speaker 10 (10:28):
To the Place, Hoby Longe, West Virginia.
Speaker 9 (10:37):
Mountain Mama, Take me Home, Country.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Road, Take Me Home. Country Roads was a huge hit
in the summer of seventy one, peaking at number two
on the charts and selling more than three million copies. Then,
on March third, nineteen seventy seven, Johnny Cash would get
to sing it with John Denver on John's ABC television
(11:04):
special Thank God I'm a Country Boy.
Speaker 12 (11:08):
I hear her voice in the morning hour. She calls
me radio reminds me of my home far a week,
driving down the road, I get a feeling that I
should have been home yesterday.
Speaker 9 (11:27):
Yesterday, Country Road.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
Take me home.
Speaker 9 (11:35):
To the place.
Speaker 12 (11:37):
I belong West Virginia, Mattha, Mama, Take me home, Country.
Speaker 13 (11:49):
Road, Take me home, that country road, Take me home,
Take me home that couch.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
After the success of Country Roads, John and Anny moved
permanently up to the Rocky Mountains and built their dream
home in the old mining town turned ski resort of Aspen, Colorado.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
The year that I moved here in nineteen seventy, I
was twenty seven years old, and coming to Colorado was
like coming home for me. I don't know how to
explain that, except I just felt that this was my home.
And in that first summer here, I started really getting
into camping again. And one of them was too alike.
(12:39):
Across the valley during a time in August when there's
what is called the Perseed meteor shower, and this is,
in my mind, the most fantastic meteor shower of the year.
You don't only see the little flashes of the light.
Oh oh, there was one.
Speaker 8 (12:53):
Did you see that?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
And sometimes people do and sometimes they don't. On this occasion,
there were balls of fire would go all the way
across the sky smoking. You would swear that you could
hear them. In any case, I was camping with some
friends at this lake and told him what to expect,
and I think everybody was pretty nonchalant about the evening.
(13:15):
Everybody I've seen shooting stars a big deal, And so
as the evening grew on, we all went to our
separate camping areas to kind of quiet down and lie
there and look at the stars. I was pretty sure
everybody had gone to sleep, until all of a sudden,
one of those came smoking across the sky, and everybody, Oh, wow,
did you see that? So we were up all night
(13:35):
watching the most glorious display that I've ever seen in
these mountains of meteorites. With that camping trip, and with
a feeling of coming home here to Colorado, to a
place I'd never been before, I ended up riding Rocky Mountain.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
High Here's the hymn John wrote to the Rocky Mountains
and his new life there. The song went on to
become an anthem to the state of Colorado.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
Born in Summer is twenty seven years coming home to
the place he never been before he left yesterday five.
You might say he's born again, might say found the
keys every door when he first came to.
Speaker 10 (14:24):
The barcoms his life far away on the load, hanging
by song.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
All you had to do was be in Colorado somewhere
when he would start singing Rocky Mountain High, and I'd
swear you could feel the whole state rocking.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
That song is more than.
Speaker 8 (14:42):
Just a pop song.
Speaker 11 (14:43):
It's now folklore.
Speaker 14 (14:44):
How it's part of our American heretics.
Speaker 9 (14:47):
The Colorado Rocky Mountain Live. I've seen it rained.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Five s guy sattle from Starmide, Saut then a lot
of the.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
Rocky Mountain.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Country roads in Rocky Mountain High were big hits, but
John's next move cemented his stardom. Folk music in that
day had been serious and earnest, but John's warmth and
outgoing personality made him a natural for the small screen.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
We're alife on the farm, kind of lived back and
much an old country ball like became hack Thurler to
ride early in a side, I thank God on the
Country Ball.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
In nineteen seventy three, Jerry launched The John Denver Show.
The series established John's catchphrase far out.
Speaker 9 (15:48):
It's far out. You guys have been so great. Ah,
my dad's far out. That made my whole day.
Speaker 15 (15:54):
Out.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Will have got me if I'm I forgot me old
fiddle when sun's coming up with got cake, saw the riddles,
lve thing.
Speaker 9 (16:01):
Nothing about a phot of the riddle. Thank god, I'm.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
A country ball. He was fast becoming one of the
biggest stars in American music, and his Greatest Hits album
of nineteen seventy three sold over ten million copies in
the first six months alone.
Speaker 9 (16:17):
Yeah a good The Lord him alive wouldn't take it
very good. So a fiddleman, I can work up. Thank god.
I'm a punch of ball. You liddle gotten me a vime.
I forgot the old fiddleman. The sun's coming up.
Speaker 10 (16:29):
I hate song on the riddle Light Dane, nothing about
a puddle, My god, I'm a puncher ball.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And you've been listening to our own. Greg Hangler tell
the story of John Denver and my goodness, when they
started shopping him to major record labels, the great John
Hammond turned him down, and my goodness, he didn't turn
down what turned out to be great stars. He was
the man known for discovering them. Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan,
(16:57):
Sarah Vaughn.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
He missed it.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Jerry Wexler from Atlantic Records didn't hear it either, And
I think part of it was in the times. This
music was just too happy. John Denver had a different voice,
and the song that launched him was that song Country Roads,
originally written for Johnny Kesh, and we heard the two
of them come together to sing it the way Cash
(17:21):
would have done it. Fine though it was, it would
have never become the hit that we'd come to know.
And then, of course came that hymn to the Rockies
and his own life story, born to the home he
never lived before. Many of us feel that way. I
feel that way about Fort Worth, where I live now,
a tribute not only to the Rockies, but God's magnificent
(17:43):
design in that space, and Denver always was celebrating that.
When we come back more of this remarkable life story,
the story of John Denver here on our American stories,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of John Denver. Let's return to our own Greg Hengler
with more of the story.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
The Rocky Mountains were John's retreat while at home in
Aspen in nineteen seventy four, he wrote his most famous song,
A love letter to his wife Annie.
Speaker 9 (18:29):
You phil a messes s.
Speaker 10 (18:34):
Lock, night in a forest, lock mountains, and spring time.
Speaker 9 (18:44):
Lock, walk in the rain.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
John and I were in our kitchen and we had
had an argument, and we had had an argument, and
then we had sorted it out, and he left to
go skiing.
Speaker 9 (19:04):
Come fill me.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
There was nobody on the mountain when I started out
that day. I skied down this very tough run, all
out of breath. I skied right on to the lift.
I was riding up again, sitting there, catching my breath,
looking down at where I'd just been a few moments ago.
All this physical stuff going on, when suddenly I was
hyper sensitive to how beautiful everything was. The sky was
(19:30):
a blue you only see from mountaintops. Then I became
aware of the other people skiing, the colors of their clothes,
the birds singing, the sound of the lift, the sibilant
sound of the skiers going down the mountain. All of
these things filled up my senses. And when I said
this to myself, unbidden images came, one aftter the other.
The night in the forest, a walk in the rain,
(19:52):
the mountains in springtime, all of the pictures merged, and
then what I was left with was Annie. In the
ten minutes it took to reach the top of the mountain,
the song was there.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
It's been wonderful for me because I've heard it in elevators,
I've heard it in Saint Mark's Square with violinists. My
daughter had it played at her wedding. But people still
carry that with them, and it's just a It's a beautiful, beautiful,
beautiful gift.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
John Denver's rise to stardom coincided with obleak time in
American life, with the Watergate scandal, gasoline shortages, and the
end of the Vietnam War. His simple songs of love
and nature struck a chord across war weary America.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
John's songs offered a refrashen affirmation of kindness and contrast
to the steady stream of opposition and protest music that
was emptying out of America's radios and turntables. But not
everyone like John Denver. In the rock music press, he
was widely loathed. Here's g Brown from the Colorado Music
(21:20):
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
The last interview I conducted with John was in the
early nineties, and we got around to the topic of
his detractors. He was called the Mickey Mouse of rock,
the Ronald Reagan of pop. What he was angry about
was what it meant regarding his fans, the people that
had seen a birth of a child to his music
or had gotten married to one of his songs, that
(21:42):
they were being disparaged. That angered him. That's what got
under his skin.
Speaker 16 (21:47):
John would sing to eighteen thousand people, and the music
critics would just talk about how pat his music was
and everything and the last tagline was but the eighteen
thousand people seemed to enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
There was also those who had a love hate relationship
with John's music. Here's a story from John's friend Ron Lemire.
Speaker 17 (22:15):
Well, in Lake Powell, we have this houseboat and we
found this beautiful little circular bay, you know, with about
eighty foot cliffs all the way around it, like a
real natural amphitheater. Right when the sun went down, another
boat came in and just parked like about twenty yards
(22:35):
away from us. They didn't know who we were. So
that night John I want to take his guitarre and
go in the middle of this little bay and sing.
They hear his voices reflect back to the with the
with the with the rock. And so he's in the
middle of the of his songs and he's singing. He's
got these he's got like three echoes feeding back, and he's,
(22:59):
you know, just having the great time just working with
his vocals and some of the songs that he's working on.
And then all of a sudden, the other people of
the boat turned the radio up real high, just to
drown us out a little, and we just started laughing.
There's nothing else he could do. It's like, here we
are recards it to her. Thousands of people pay good
money to see him and here he is a free
(23:21):
concert and they numb him out right.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
So we go back.
Speaker 17 (23:25):
And you know, bunk in for the night. And then
the next morning, as we're getting out there, John's in
the stern, you know, pulling things, you know, as I'm
driving the boat out and those people are out on
the deck and they see Johnny go oh, it's John Denver.
Speaker 8 (23:40):
It just like goes off into the sunset.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
John Denver was a hugely popular entertainer. His concerts often
had the reverence of a religious gathering. He put together
a stellar band, many of whom played for Elvis, including
guitar legend James Burton.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
He could put the people in pum his hand.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
It was just like a.
Speaker 8 (24:03):
One on one, you know.
Speaker 9 (24:06):
The people were right there with them.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I hear that that's not Rocky Mountain High.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
Here he is.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Ladies and gentlemen, my friend, mister Frank, I've got you.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
Under my skin.
Speaker 18 (24:27):
I remember the first time they worked together. We did
Harris in Lake Tahoe, and when we put the show
on sale, the phone lines in the Western United States
went down from the reservations. That's how big it was,
you know.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Frank I was just thinking about the time that song
was first heard, so was I.
Speaker 14 (24:53):
Sometime during his tenure with the trio, I remember him
saying that it was one of his ambitions in life
to become as much of a household name as Frank Sinatra.
The payoff came years later when I found myself in
Los Angeles driving up Sunset Boulevard and looking up and
seeing a humongous poster of the two of them with
(25:16):
their arms crossed, standing back to back with each other,
and I thought to myself, my golly, he made it.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
But I get up.
Speaker 9 (25:26):
You give me a boot I kick.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
John was now a superstar. He had his own lear
jet and got his dad to fly it for him.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I hope you quotes recognize me, but I'm not sure
you recognized a gentleman on my right.
Speaker 8 (25:58):
He's my father, Dutch and Door.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
He's been a fine it all his life.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
He caught me out a fly, yes, he leather and
back home and Aspen. John's own family started to grow,
and he and Annie adopted two small children.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
Here's Annie Zach was the first, and he was this
little brown, beautiful little boy. And then Anna Kate was
the second. And John was just thrilled and over the
moon that this was happening too, because we'd have a
boy and a girl stars.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
He makes and asking them bus.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And you've been listening to our own Greg Hengler tell
the story of John Denver and my goodness, the story
of that beautiful love song to his wife, born out
of a fight with her, and soon thereafter a trip
down the slopes and Aspen, whereas he put it, he
was hyper sensitive to how beautiful everything around him was,
(26:54):
and he started to go.
Speaker 8 (26:55):
Down that list at all.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
All of it led back to his wife, and as
she called it, a beautiful, beautiful gift and then the
ultimate payoff for Denver being paired up with the Great
Frank Sinatra, transcending his time, transcending the moment of the time,
which music at its best can do, and creating something
(27:18):
magical for anybody who saw it. When we come back,
the story of John Denver continues here on our American stories.
And we continue with our American stories and the story
(27:40):
of John Denver told by our own Greg Hengler. Let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
John also utilized his talents in Hollywood. His first feature
film was Oh God. John played Jerry Landers, an assistant
manager in a supermarket who receives a visit from God
played by George Burns. Reluctant to believe the old man
is really God, Jerry needs proof. Here's the automobile scene
(28:09):
with John Denver and George Burns.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
I see, you know a lot of things, and you've
been making a lot of things happen, but none of
it seems godlike?
Speaker 14 (28:18):
Yeah, godlike? And what do you would be god like?
Speaker 18 (28:22):
Uh?
Speaker 14 (28:23):
Change the weather?
Speaker 8 (28:25):
Ah, special effects?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Why would you like a little a little earthquake, a
small hur again? No, no, I wouldn't want anybody hurt.
I was just thinking, maybe, uh, what about a little rain?
Speaker 6 (28:38):
Little rain?
Speaker 9 (28:39):
Yeah, a small shower.
Speaker 19 (28:41):
One small shower.
Speaker 9 (28:42):
You got it.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Hey, hey, it's raining.
Speaker 9 (28:52):
You made a rain. You didn't even better? Eye you
let lit the finger. Rain's not that hogs?
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Would you like it to Randall Lodder?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
No? No, this is fine.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
How about bigger drops?
Speaker 8 (29:05):
No?
Speaker 9 (29:05):
This is fine fine.
Speaker 8 (29:06):
Would you care for a little snow?
Speaker 9 (29:09):
This is fantastic.
Speaker 12 (29:10):
Respect you.
Speaker 17 (29:11):
It's just like Noah's Ark, the same thing without the smell.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
The film was well received by critics and was regarded
by many as one of the best films of nineteen
seventy seven, including Gene Siskell, who placed it on his
top ten list for the year. Roger Ebert praised the
casting of Burns in Denver and noted that Oh God
struck the right tone by avoiding both pious religious platitudes
(29:38):
and cheap shots about faith. Despite his huge success, John
Denver had always been prone to insecurity and self doubt.
From the early seventies, he had been involved in New
Age therapies, including the controversial self awareness program est or
st Here again is John's manager, Jerry Wine. I think
(30:01):
he had.
Speaker 18 (30:01):
A difficult time with success because I don't think he
knew how good he was. Many many artists don't realize
how good you are, and that's when the darkness comes out.
I don't think he ever accepted the fact that he
was as good as he was, because the critics always
(30:22):
were a problem for him.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
John was one of the first celebrities to use his
fame to promote conservation. He formed a firm friendship with
legendary French naval officer and underwater explorer Jacques Custeau.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
And I met Captain Custeau and all of the members
of the Calypso down in Belize, in Central America, and
I had these words in my head, I Calypso, the
places you've been to, the things that you've shown us,
the stories you tell, and anyway, the chorus to the
song was there, and almost the time it takes to
(30:56):
say it. During the remaining time that I spent aboard
the clips So I tried to finish this song to
be able to sing it for Captain Cousteau and his crew,
and for some reason I was unable to get anywhere
close to what I was hoping to say. Behind that
wonderful chorus, and I couldn't finish this song. I just
(31:19):
could not find it. One day I gave up after
spending sleepless nights and literally at least it felt like
sweating blood trying to finish this song. And I went
skiing across the valley at Snow Mass, made a couple
of runs, and all of a sudden there was this
incredible tension to get back home and to work on
the song. And so I skied down to my car,
(31:41):
and it takes about twenty twenty five minutes to drive
from snow Mass back here to the house, and in
that time, the whole rest of the song was there
for me. It just came almost out of nowhere. I
came to the house, I walked upstairs in the studio,
picked up my guitar, and I had the song. The
best songs I think that I've ever written, one that
(32:01):
I still used to close my concerts today.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
Calypso, Calypso, the place human thing? Did you saw the
stories you tell me? Clypso? Same love.
Speaker 8 (32:23):
And so Dad.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Here's Jacques's son, Jean Michael.
Speaker 19 (32:27):
Custeau, typical of John and his generosity ultimately gave the
revenue of that particular song to the not for profit
company of my father, and I remember collecting big checks.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Sometimes I feel like a sad song.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
By the early nineteen eighties, John's status as a pop
star was fading. Although his albums were still popular, he
hadn't had a single hit since col Lipso in nineteen
seventy five. His personal life was also in turmoil. His
father died in March nineteen eighty two, and only three
months later, on their fifteenth wedding anniversary, Annie asked him
(33:14):
for a divorce. By the mid nineteen eighties, John star
had fallen. When the charity record We Are the World
was produced in nineteen eighty five, John wasn't even invited
to participate. He also broke up with his long term manager,
Jerry Weintraud. In nineteen eighty six, Denver was dropped by RCA,
(33:37):
the company for whom he recorded fourteen gold and eight
platinum albums in the US alone and sold over one
hundred million records in the nineteen nineties. His appearances in
the media were more for drunk driving offenses than for
his music, but John Denver had a loyal fan base
(33:57):
and he still played sellout shows all over the world.
In nineteen ninety six, John was inducted into the Songwriters
Hall of Fame, but there was to be no comeback
for John Denver. Since learning to fly with his father,
he had become a keen pilot, owning a number of
(34:17):
high performance acrobatic planes and flying Air Force F fifteen
combat jets. On October twelfth, nineteen ninety seven, he had
taken delivery of an experimental kit plane and test flewid
at a low level over Monterey Bay in northern California,
when the plane crashed into the sea. The accident report
(34:40):
concluded that the plane had run out of fuel. John
was killed instantly.
Speaker 10 (34:45):
I having let me thinking about my life time, all
the things I've.
Speaker 9 (34:54):
Done, how its fed. I can't help.
Speaker 18 (35:01):
Believe in.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
My line.
Speaker 10 (35:07):
I know I'm going I hate to see it in.
Speaker 8 (35:14):
He represented America at its best, healthiest. It's a wonderful
artist and a wonderful writer. And I think his songs
will be sung for hundreds of years.
Speaker 10 (35:24):
They're that good to say it that it's been a
good life fall in all, it's really fine to that
a test thang around.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Here's a story from John's longtime friend Tom Crumb.
Speaker 15 (35:43):
I'll tell you a little story that has always meant
a lot to me. And this happened with his son,
Zach when he was eight or nine years old. He's
on the same little squirt hockey team that my son
was on, and they went all the way to the
state championships. So there we are in this arena, if
(36:04):
you will, this big arena in Colorado Springs, and there's
only sixty five people in the place, right, it's just parents,
But the parents are so pumped. The game's about to start.
He stands up impromptu, turns his face to the audience
and sings the national anthem. You know, no music, ac company, nothing,
just did it for those sixty people. We all stood up,
(36:25):
saluted the flag, put our hands on our heart. It
was incredibly moving. We won that game. Went to a
pizza restaurant that night. He bought everybody, the parents, all
the kids dinner. He was so excited again, always wanting
to contribute, however, and then he bought everybody else in
the restaurant dinner.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Here again is John's producer, Milt Oaken.
Speaker 8 (36:49):
The arc of his career was like that of an
eagle taking flight. People have said that what Sinatra was
to the nineteen forties, Elvis to the nineteen fifties, the
Beatles to the sixties. John Denver was to the nineteen seventies.
His music was powerful, and his message was so positive
(37:09):
and compassionate it's refreshing to hear it again today.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And what a story he told.
By nineteen seventy seven, Denver's on the top of the world,
just having finished a highly acclaimed and very successful movie
with George Burns. Oh God, And despite all of that success,
he was prone to insecurity. He didn't realize how good
(37:38):
he was. Those critics, those cruel critics, they were a
problem for John. That story about Calypso just magnificent, where
the song came from, how it materialized, his generosity with
the proceeds to Jacques Cousteau's nonprofit. But by the nineteen
eighties his star had faded. He died in an experimental
(37:59):
kitplane in nineteen ninety seven. The story of John Denver
his music will be remembered, no doubt, for hundreds of
years to come. His songs were that good. His story
here on our American stories,
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people coming to you from where the West begins in
Fort Worth, Texas. John Denver's songs have become part of
the American bloodstream. His melodies and words are played all
over the planet. His music is simple, it's honest. No
(00:33):
auto tunes, no flashy outfits, just a man and his guitar.
Today we're going to tell his story. Here's Greg Hengler.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
On October twelfth, nineteen ninety seven, at Monterey Airport, just
one hundred miles south of San Francisco, one of the
world's best known and best loved singers, took off to
test his new plane. The son of a famous Air
Force pilot, John Denver had thousands of hours of flying experience.
(01:04):
It was a simple flight on a cloudless day. He
was five hundred feet above the Pacific Ocean and one
hundred and fifty feet from the Monterey Bay shoreline when
eyewitnesses heard a popping sound. A second or two later,
they watched in horror as the plane plummeted into the sea.
(01:25):
He was killed instantly, aged only fifty three. John Denver
was born in nineteen forty three in Roswell, New Mexico,
at the Air Force base where his father was stationed.
It was a far ways away from Denver, but then again,
(01:47):
so was his name. Here's John.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
My real name is Henry John Dutchendorf Junior. And my
father was in the Air Force and we moved around
a great deal.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Here's John's brother Ron.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
It was always hard because you were going into a
new school, new people. John was a little bit more shy,
and so it was harder for him.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
And I said, I like music. I played guitar, blah
blah blah, and so they asked me to bring my
guitar to class one day, which I did, and all
of a sudden, all of a sudden, people were saying
hello to me in the halls. All of a sudden,
people knew me as more than just another one of
the Air Force brats that was coming through every year
through the Maxwell Air Force Base.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
John's father, Dutch Dutchendorff, joined the Air Force in the
Second World War and soon became a top pilot. Here
again is John's brother Ron.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
He flew a number of planes. He actually gave Lindbergh
a test ride, and I think it was a B
twenty five when he was flying those bombers. And then
he went on to fly the plane that carried all
the electronics when they dropped the first atomic bomb to
test it.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Dutch achieved fame flying a new bomber, the B fifty
eight Hustler. In nineteen sixty one. He broke six world
air speed records in one day.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Six records set by Major Dujin Dark ben Crow, four
of them previously held by the Soviet.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
For this sensitive son of a Cold War warrior, something
had to give. At age sixteen, he took the family
car and ran away out west to Los Angeles with
a dream of becoming a folk singer. But it didn't
work out. His dad jumped into a friend's jet to
retrieve his wayward son.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Dad flew out there, and they went to Disneyland and
SeaWorld and did all these things and then came back,
and that, to me, their relationship was like.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Golden Four years later, John tried again, dropping out of
college and hitting la just as the folk boom was
at its height. He got a singing gig, and in
no time the music execs could see where John Starr
was headed. But they first saw complications with his name.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
One day there was this big, heavy meeting. They sat down,
they said, listen, kid, Dutchendorff has got to go, has
got to go.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Randy says that they asked him to change his name
and John said, no, I will not give up my
father's name. I'm proud to be a Deutschendorff. And Randy
said it won't fit on the marquee. You have to
change it. They had a minor hit at the time
called Denver written about this city, and the sheet music
was on the wall behind the desk. You're John Dedver.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Now with his new name, John Denver set out to
make it as a folk singer. The opening came when
one of the big names on the folk circuit, that
Chad Mitchell Trio, lost their lead singer. Hundreds of young
vocalist auditioned for the spot, but John was the obvious choice.
Here's Mike Koblik, one of the trio's singers.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
John was a fine musician, an excellent musician, a very
fine twelve string guitar player. There was an innocence, I
think in a way that was believable and true.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The Mitchell trios trademark was political satire. John's innocence was
on full display.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
He says, well, I don't know anything about politics. And
we looked at him and said, John, it's politics. He said,
that's what I said. I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
The Mitchell Trio's main audience were university students. In the
spring of nineteen sixty six, they were at Gastavis Adolphus,
a Lutheran college in Saint Peter, Minnesota. In the audience
was a sophomore student, Annie Martel.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
I was twenty and John was twenty three, very young,
but I thought he was very glamorous, very worldly. He
was not at all, but I thought so.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
The two were married in June nineteen sixty seven. John
began writing songs and recorded some of them at his
own expense, sending the album out as a Christmas present.
Track three of the album was called Babe, I Hate
to Go. Mitchell Trio producer Milt Oaken liked the tune
but not the title.
Speaker 8 (06:22):
I said, John, that's a terrible name for a very
beautiful song. He said, what would you call it? I said,
leaving on a jet plane. He said, but that's the
third line of the chorus. He never heard a song
named after the third line of a chorus. I said
it's a good name, let's go with it, and he
(06:43):
went with it.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Here's that original John Denver recording, All My.
Speaker 9 (06:47):
Bags are fact, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 10 (06:50):
Standing here outside your door, I hate to wake you
up to say goodbye.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Milt Oaken passed the song on to another one of
his acts, Peter Paul and Mary, and it became their
first number one hit. With the Vietnam War at its height,
the song struck a deep nerve and became a favorite
amongst the troops.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And you've been listening to the story of John Denver,
how he got his name, who his father was, where
he was born, what happens next in John Denver's life.
Stay with us here on Our American Stories. Plee hbib
here the host of Our American Stories. Every day on
(07:36):
this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country,
stories from our big cities and small towns. But we
truly can't do the show without you. Our stories are
free to listen to, but they're not free to make.
If you love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories
dot com and click the donate button, Give a little,
Give a lot, Go to Auramerican Stories dot com and give,
(08:09):
and we returned to our American stories and the story
of John Denver. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Here again is our own Greg Hangler.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
In nineteen sixty eight, John decided to pursue a solo career,
but his producer, Milt Oaken, struggled to get the record
companies interested.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
I struck out with John Hammond at Columbia, WEX Atlantic
and half a dozen others, and someone at RCAA, Harry Jenkins,
liked it.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
John Denver signed with RCA in nineteen sixty nine. His
first records were in the classic singer songwriter Vain, but
his early records refused to sell. A young talent agent
by the name of Jerry Weintraub, who would become I'm
a top Hollywood producer, became John's manager.
Speaker 7 (09:04):
We all got on a rocket ship together and it
was big.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
It was really big. The song that launched the rocket
ship was the classic sing along song now known all
over the world, take Me Home, Country Roads. It was
co written by two of John's friends from the folk scene,
Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert. Bill and Taffy planned on
finishing the song and then selling it to Johnny Cash.
(09:33):
Then one evening, John Denver showed up to share songs
with his two friends. Here's Taffy, I.
Speaker 11 (09:39):
Said, let's show him Country Rhoads. Bill says it's not finished.
I says, well, I know, but you know, let's just
show me what we got. And he absolutely loved it.
And in the singing of it, John took the lead,
Bill and I fell in with a harmony, and it
just sounded so good, like that.
Speaker 10 (10:00):
Heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Channon, the river life
is older, older than the trees, younger than the mountains,
(10:20):
growing lack of breeze.
Speaker 9 (10:23):
Country Roads, Take Me Home.
Speaker 10 (10:28):
To the Place, Hoby Longe, West Virginia.
Speaker 9 (10:37):
Mountain Mama, Take me Home, Country.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Road, Take Me Home. Country Roads was a huge hit
in the summer of seventy one, peaking at number two
on the charts and selling more than three million copies. Then,
on March third, nineteen seventy seven, Johnny Cash would get
to sing it with John Denver on John's ABC television
(11:04):
special Thank God I'm a Country Boy.
Speaker 12 (11:08):
I hear her voice in the morning hour. She calls
me radio reminds me of my home far a week,
driving down the road, I get a feeling that I
should have been home yesterday.
Speaker 9 (11:27):
Yesterday, Country Road.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
Take me home.
Speaker 9 (11:35):
To the place.
Speaker 12 (11:37):
I belong West Virginia, Mattha, Mama, Take me home, Country.
Speaker 13 (11:49):
Road, Take me home, that country road, Take me home,
Take me home that couch.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
After the success of Country Roads, John and Anny moved
permanently up to the Rocky Mountains and built their dream
home in the old mining town turned ski resort of Aspen, Colorado.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
The year that I moved here in nineteen seventy, I
was twenty seven years old, and coming to Colorado was
like coming home for me. I don't know how to
explain that, except I just felt that this was my home.
And in that first summer here, I started really getting
into camping again. And one of them was too alike.
(12:39):
Across the valley during a time in August when there's
what is called the Perseed meteor shower, and this is,
in my mind, the most fantastic meteor shower of the year.
You don't only see the little flashes of the light.
Oh oh, there was one.
Speaker 8 (12:53):
Did you see that?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
And sometimes people do and sometimes they don't. On this occasion,
there were balls of fire would go all the way
across the sky smoking. You would swear that you could
hear them. In any case, I was camping with some
friends at this lake and told him what to expect,
and I think everybody was pretty nonchalant about the evening.
(13:15):
Everybody I've seen shooting stars a big deal, And so
as the evening grew on, we all went to our
separate camping areas to kind of quiet down and lie
there and look at the stars. I was pretty sure
everybody had gone to sleep, until all of a sudden,
one of those came smoking across the sky, and everybody, Oh, wow,
did you see that? So we were up all night
(13:35):
watching the most glorious display that I've ever seen in
these mountains of meteorites. With that camping trip, and with
a feeling of coming home here to Colorado, to a
place I'd never been before, I ended up riding Rocky Mountain.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
High Here's the hymn John wrote to the Rocky Mountains
and his new life there. The song went on to
become an anthem to the state of Colorado.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
Born in Summer is twenty seven years coming home to
the place he never been before he left yesterday five.
You might say he's born again, might say found the
keys every door when he first came to.
Speaker 10 (14:24):
The barcoms his life far away on the load, hanging
by song.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
All you had to do was be in Colorado somewhere
when he would start singing Rocky Mountain High, and I'd
swear you could feel the whole state rocking.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
That song is more than.
Speaker 8 (14:42):
Just a pop song.
Speaker 11 (14:43):
It's now folklore.
Speaker 14 (14:44):
How it's part of our American heretics.
Speaker 9 (14:47):
The Colorado Rocky Mountain Live. I've seen it rained.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Five s guy sattle from Starmide, Saut then a lot
of the.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
Rocky Mountain.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Country roads in Rocky Mountain High were big hits, but
John's next move cemented his stardom. Folk music in that
day had been serious and earnest, but John's warmth and
outgoing personality made him a natural for the small screen.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
We're alife on the farm, kind of lived back and
much an old country ball like became hack Thurler to
ride early in a side, I thank God on the
Country Ball.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
In nineteen seventy three, Jerry launched The John Denver Show.
The series established John's catchphrase far out.
Speaker 9 (15:48):
It's far out. You guys have been so great. Ah,
my dad's far out. That made my whole day.
Speaker 15 (15:54):
Out.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Will have got me if I'm I forgot me old
fiddle when sun's coming up with got cake, saw the riddles,
lve thing.
Speaker 9 (16:01):
Nothing about a phot of the riddle. Thank god, I'm.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
A country ball. He was fast becoming one of the
biggest stars in American music, and his Greatest Hits album
of nineteen seventy three sold over ten million copies in
the first six months alone.
Speaker 9 (16:17):
Yeah a good The Lord him alive wouldn't take it
very good. So a fiddleman, I can work up. Thank god.
I'm a punch of ball. You liddle gotten me a vime.
I forgot the old fiddleman. The sun's coming up.
Speaker 10 (16:29):
I hate song on the riddle Light Dane, nothing about
a puddle, My god, I'm a puncher ball.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And you've been listening to our own. Greg Hangler tell
the story of John Denver and my goodness, when they
started shopping him to major record labels, the great John
Hammond turned him down, and my goodness, he didn't turn
down what turned out to be great stars. He was
the man known for discovering them. Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan,
(16:57):
Sarah Vaughn.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
He missed it.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Jerry Wexler from Atlantic Records didn't hear it either, And
I think part of it was in the times. This
music was just too happy. John Denver had a different voice,
and the song that launched him was that song Country Roads,
originally written for Johnny Kesh, and we heard the two
of them come together to sing it the way Cash
(17:21):
would have done it. Fine though it was, it would
have never become the hit that we'd come to know.
And then, of course came that hymn to the Rockies
and his own life story, born to the home he
never lived before. Many of us feel that way. I
feel that way about Fort Worth, where I live now,
a tribute not only to the Rockies, but God's magnificent
(17:43):
design in that space, and Denver always was celebrating that.
When we come back more of this remarkable life story,
the story of John Denver here on our American stories,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of John Denver. Let's return to our own Greg Hengler
with more of the story.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
The Rocky Mountains were John's retreat while at home in
Aspen in nineteen seventy four, he wrote his most famous song,
A love letter to his wife Annie.
Speaker 9 (18:29):
You phil a messes s.
Speaker 10 (18:34):
Lock, night in a forest, lock mountains, and spring time.
Speaker 9 (18:44):
Lock, walk in the rain.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
John and I were in our kitchen and we had
had an argument, and we had had an argument, and
then we had sorted it out, and he left to
go skiing.
Speaker 9 (19:04):
Come fill me.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
There was nobody on the mountain when I started out
that day. I skied down this very tough run, all
out of breath. I skied right on to the lift.
I was riding up again, sitting there, catching my breath,
looking down at where I'd just been a few moments ago.
All this physical stuff going on, when suddenly I was
hyper sensitive to how beautiful everything was. The sky was
(19:30):
a blue you only see from mountaintops. Then I became
aware of the other people skiing, the colors of their clothes,
the birds singing, the sound of the lift, the sibilant
sound of the skiers going down the mountain. All of
these things filled up my senses. And when I said
this to myself, unbidden images came, one aftter the other.
The night in the forest, a walk in the rain,
(19:52):
the mountains in springtime, all of the pictures merged, and
then what I was left with was Annie. In the
ten minutes it took to reach the top of the mountain,
the song was there.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
It's been wonderful for me because I've heard it in elevators,
I've heard it in Saint Mark's Square with violinists. My
daughter had it played at her wedding. But people still
carry that with them, and it's just a It's a beautiful, beautiful,
beautiful gift.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
John Denver's rise to stardom coincided with obleak time in
American life, with the Watergate scandal, gasoline shortages, and the
end of the Vietnam War. His simple songs of love
and nature struck a chord across war weary America.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
John's songs offered a refrashen affirmation of kindness and contrast
to the steady stream of opposition and protest music that
was emptying out of America's radios and turntables. But not
everyone like John Denver. In the rock music press, he
was widely loathed. Here's g Brown from the Colorado Music
(21:20):
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
The last interview I conducted with John was in the
early nineties, and we got around to the topic of
his detractors. He was called the Mickey Mouse of rock,
the Ronald Reagan of pop. What he was angry about
was what it meant regarding his fans, the people that
had seen a birth of a child to his music
or had gotten married to one of his songs, that
(21:42):
they were being disparaged. That angered him. That's what got
under his skin.
Speaker 16 (21:47):
John would sing to eighteen thousand people, and the music
critics would just talk about how pat his music was
and everything and the last tagline was but the eighteen
thousand people seemed to enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
There was also those who had a love hate relationship
with John's music. Here's a story from John's friend Ron Lemire.
Speaker 17 (22:15):
Well, in Lake Powell, we have this houseboat and we
found this beautiful little circular bay, you know, with about
eighty foot cliffs all the way around it, like a
real natural amphitheater. Right when the sun went down, another
boat came in and just parked like about twenty yards
(22:35):
away from us. They didn't know who we were. So
that night John I want to take his guitarre and
go in the middle of this little bay and sing.
They hear his voices reflect back to the with the
with the with the rock. And so he's in the
middle of the of his songs and he's singing. He's
got these he's got like three echoes feeding back, and he's,
(22:59):
you know, just having the great time just working with
his vocals and some of the songs that he's working on.
And then all of a sudden, the other people of
the boat turned the radio up real high, just to
drown us out a little, and we just started laughing.
There's nothing else he could do. It's like, here we
are recards it to her. Thousands of people pay good
money to see him and here he is a free
(23:21):
concert and they numb him out right.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
So we go back.
Speaker 17 (23:25):
And you know, bunk in for the night. And then
the next morning, as we're getting out there, John's in
the stern, you know, pulling things, you know, as I'm
driving the boat out and those people are out on
the deck and they see Johnny go oh, it's John Denver.
Speaker 8 (23:40):
It just like goes off into the sunset.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
John Denver was a hugely popular entertainer. His concerts often
had the reverence of a religious gathering. He put together
a stellar band, many of whom played for Elvis, including
guitar legend James Burton.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
He could put the people in pum his hand.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
It was just like a.
Speaker 8 (24:03):
One on one, you know.
Speaker 9 (24:06):
The people were right there with them.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I hear that that's not Rocky Mountain High.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
Here he is.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Ladies and gentlemen, my friend, mister Frank, I've got you.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
Under my skin.
Speaker 18 (24:27):
I remember the first time they worked together. We did
Harris in Lake Tahoe, and when we put the show
on sale, the phone lines in the Western United States
went down from the reservations. That's how big it was,
you know.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Frank I was just thinking about the time that song
was first heard, so was I.
Speaker 14 (24:53):
Sometime during his tenure with the trio, I remember him
saying that it was one of his ambitions in life
to become as much of a household name as Frank Sinatra.
The payoff came years later when I found myself in
Los Angeles driving up Sunset Boulevard and looking up and
seeing a humongous poster of the two of them with
(25:16):
their arms crossed, standing back to back with each other,
and I thought to myself, my golly, he made it.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
But I get up.
Speaker 9 (25:26):
You give me a boot I kick.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
John was now a superstar. He had his own lear
jet and got his dad to fly it for him.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I hope you quotes recognize me, but I'm not sure
you recognized a gentleman on my right.
Speaker 8 (25:58):
He's my father, Dutch and Door.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
He's been a fine it all his life.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
He caught me out a fly, yes, he leather and
back home and Aspen. John's own family started to grow,
and he and Annie adopted two small children.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
Here's Annie Zach was the first, and he was this
little brown, beautiful little boy. And then Anna Kate was
the second. And John was just thrilled and over the
moon that this was happening too, because we'd have a
boy and a girl stars.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
He makes and asking them bus.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And you've been listening to our own Greg Hengler tell
the story of John Denver and my goodness, the story
of that beautiful love song to his wife, born out
of a fight with her, and soon thereafter a trip
down the slopes and Aspen, whereas he put it, he
was hyper sensitive to how beautiful everything around him was,
(26:54):
and he started to go.
Speaker 8 (26:55):
Down that list at all.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
All of it led back to his wife, and as
she called it, a beautiful, beautiful gift and then the
ultimate payoff for Denver being paired up with the Great
Frank Sinatra, transcending his time, transcending the moment of the time,
which music at its best can do, and creating something
(27:18):
magical for anybody who saw it. When we come back,
the story of John Denver continues here on our American stories.
And we continue with our American stories and the story
(27:40):
of John Denver told by our own Greg Hengler. Let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
John also utilized his talents in Hollywood. His first feature
film was Oh God. John played Jerry Landers, an assistant
manager in a supermarket who receives a visit from God
played by George Burns. Reluctant to believe the old man
is really God, Jerry needs proof. Here's the automobile scene
(28:09):
with John Denver and George Burns.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
I see, you know a lot of things, and you've
been making a lot of things happen, but none of
it seems godlike?
Speaker 14 (28:18):
Yeah, godlike? And what do you would be god like?
Speaker 18 (28:22):
Uh?
Speaker 14 (28:23):
Change the weather?
Speaker 8 (28:25):
Ah, special effects?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Why would you like a little a little earthquake, a
small hur again? No, no, I wouldn't want anybody hurt.
I was just thinking, maybe, uh, what about a little rain?
Speaker 6 (28:38):
Little rain?
Speaker 9 (28:39):
Yeah, a small shower.
Speaker 19 (28:41):
One small shower.
Speaker 9 (28:42):
You got it.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Hey, hey, it's raining.
Speaker 9 (28:52):
You made a rain. You didn't even better? Eye you
let lit the finger. Rain's not that hogs?
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Would you like it to Randall Lodder?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
No? No, this is fine.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
How about bigger drops?
Speaker 8 (29:05):
No?
Speaker 9 (29:05):
This is fine fine.
Speaker 8 (29:06):
Would you care for a little snow?
Speaker 9 (29:09):
This is fantastic.
Speaker 12 (29:10):
Respect you.
Speaker 17 (29:11):
It's just like Noah's Ark, the same thing without the smell.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
The film was well received by critics and was regarded
by many as one of the best films of nineteen
seventy seven, including Gene Siskell, who placed it on his
top ten list for the year. Roger Ebert praised the
casting of Burns in Denver and noted that Oh God
struck the right tone by avoiding both pious religious platitudes
(29:38):
and cheap shots about faith. Despite his huge success, John
Denver had always been prone to insecurity and self doubt.
From the early seventies, he had been involved in New
Age therapies, including the controversial self awareness program est or
st Here again is John's manager, Jerry Wine. I think
(30:01):
he had.
Speaker 18 (30:01):
A difficult time with success because I don't think he
knew how good he was. Many many artists don't realize
how good you are, and that's when the darkness comes out.
I don't think he ever accepted the fact that he
was as good as he was, because the critics always
(30:22):
were a problem for him.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
John was one of the first celebrities to use his
fame to promote conservation. He formed a firm friendship with
legendary French naval officer and underwater explorer Jacques Custeau.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
And I met Captain Custeau and all of the members
of the Calypso down in Belize, in Central America, and
I had these words in my head, I Calypso, the
places you've been to, the things that you've shown us,
the stories you tell, and anyway, the chorus to the
song was there, and almost the time it takes to
(30:56):
say it. During the remaining time that I spent aboard
the clips So I tried to finish this song to
be able to sing it for Captain Cousteau and his crew,
and for some reason I was unable to get anywhere
close to what I was hoping to say. Behind that
wonderful chorus, and I couldn't finish this song. I just
(31:19):
could not find it. One day I gave up after
spending sleepless nights and literally at least it felt like
sweating blood trying to finish this song. And I went
skiing across the valley at Snow Mass, made a couple
of runs, and all of a sudden there was this
incredible tension to get back home and to work on
the song. And so I skied down to my car,
(31:41):
and it takes about twenty twenty five minutes to drive
from snow Mass back here to the house, and in
that time, the whole rest of the song was there
for me. It just came almost out of nowhere. I
came to the house, I walked upstairs in the studio,
picked up my guitar, and I had the song. The
best songs I think that I've ever written, one that
(32:01):
I still used to close my concerts today.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
Calypso, Calypso, the place human thing? Did you saw the
stories you tell me? Clypso? Same love.
Speaker 8 (32:23):
And so Dad.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Here's Jacques's son, Jean Michael.
Speaker 19 (32:27):
Custeau, typical of John and his generosity ultimately gave the
revenue of that particular song to the not for profit
company of my father, and I remember collecting big checks.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Sometimes I feel like a sad song.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
By the early nineteen eighties, John's status as a pop
star was fading. Although his albums were still popular, he
hadn't had a single hit since col Lipso in nineteen
seventy five. His personal life was also in turmoil. His
father died in March nineteen eighty two, and only three
months later, on their fifteenth wedding anniversary, Annie asked him
(33:14):
for a divorce. By the mid nineteen eighties, John star
had fallen. When the charity record We Are the World
was produced in nineteen eighty five, John wasn't even invited
to participate. He also broke up with his long term manager,
Jerry Weintraud. In nineteen eighty six, Denver was dropped by RCA,
(33:37):
the company for whom he recorded fourteen gold and eight
platinum albums in the US alone and sold over one
hundred million records in the nineteen nineties. His appearances in
the media were more for drunk driving offenses than for
his music, but John Denver had a loyal fan base
(33:57):
and he still played sellout shows all over the world.
In nineteen ninety six, John was inducted into the Songwriters
Hall of Fame, but there was to be no comeback
for John Denver. Since learning to fly with his father,
he had become a keen pilot, owning a number of
(34:17):
high performance acrobatic planes and flying Air Force F fifteen
combat jets. On October twelfth, nineteen ninety seven, he had
taken delivery of an experimental kit plane and test flewid
at a low level over Monterey Bay in northern California,
when the plane crashed into the sea. The accident report
(34:40):
concluded that the plane had run out of fuel. John
was killed instantly.
Speaker 10 (34:45):
I having let me thinking about my life time, all
the things I've.
Speaker 9 (34:54):
Done, how its fed. I can't help.
Speaker 18 (35:01):
Believe in.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
My line.
Speaker 10 (35:07):
I know I'm going I hate to see it in.
Speaker 8 (35:14):
He represented America at its best, healthiest. It's a wonderful
artist and a wonderful writer. And I think his songs
will be sung for hundreds of years.
Speaker 10 (35:24):
They're that good to say it that it's been a
good life fall in all, it's really fine to that
a test thang around.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Here's a story from John's longtime friend Tom Crumb.
Speaker 15 (35:43):
I'll tell you a little story that has always meant
a lot to me. And this happened with his son,
Zach when he was eight or nine years old. He's
on the same little squirt hockey team that my son
was on, and they went all the way to the
state championships. So there we are in this arena, if
(36:04):
you will, this big arena in Colorado Springs, and there's
only sixty five people in the place, right, it's just parents,
But the parents are so pumped. The game's about to start.
He stands up impromptu, turns his face to the audience
and sings the national anthem. You know, no music, ac company, nothing,
just did it for those sixty people. We all stood up,
(36:25):
saluted the flag, put our hands on our heart. It
was incredibly moving. We won that game. Went to a
pizza restaurant that night. He bought everybody, the parents, all
the kids dinner. He was so excited again, always wanting
to contribute, however, and then he bought everybody else in
the restaurant dinner.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Here again is John's producer, Milt Oaken.
Speaker 8 (36:49):
The arc of his career was like that of an
eagle taking flight. People have said that what Sinatra was
to the nineteen forties, Elvis to the nineteen fifties, the
Beatles to the sixties. John Denver was to the nineteen seventies.
His music was powerful, and his message was so positive
(37:09):
and compassionate it's refreshing to hear it again today.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And what a story he told.
By nineteen seventy seven, Denver's on the top of the world,
just having finished a highly acclaimed and very successful movie
with George Burns. Oh God, And despite all of that success,
he was prone to insecurity. He didn't realize how good
(37:38):
he was. Those critics, those cruel critics, they were a
problem for John. That story about Calypso just magnificent, where
the song came from, how it materialized, his generosity with
the proceeds to Jacques Cousteau's nonprofit. But by the nineteen
eighties his star had faded. He died in an experimental
(37:59):
kitplane in nineteen ninety seven. The story of John Denver
his music will be remembered, no doubt, for hundreds of
years to come. His songs were that good. His story
here on our American stories,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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