John Denver

John Denver 1974 – RCA Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

American Singer and Songwriter · Environmentalist and Humanitarian · 1943 – 1997 · American Folk · Country

Fast Fats

• John Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., but changed his name to John Denver to honor Devner, Colorado and its surrounding Rocky Mountains that he loved so much.
• After dropping out of college, John got his big break when he became the lead singer of the Mitchell Trio.
• John began to gain more credibility as a musician after writing Peter, Paul and Mary’s first and only number one hit, “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”
• Written in the 1970s, the most successful albums of John’s career were Poems, Prayers, and Promises, Rocky Mountain High, and Back Home Again.
• John was recognized by Record World magazine as Top Male Recording Artist from 1974-75. In 1975 he was also named the Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year.
• John has written two songs that would eventually become state songs – “Rocky Mountain High” for the state of Colorado and “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” for the state of West Virginia.
• John was an activist for environmental and humanitarian causes; He founded the World Hunger Project and co-found the Windstar Foundation, a non-profit wildlife preservation agency.
• John was the first musician from the West to hold a multi-city tour in mainland China, and became the first American artist to perform in the USSR since the start of the Cold War.
• John was a member of several organizations, such as the National Space Institute, the Cousteau Society, Friends of the Earth, Save the Children Foundation, and the European Space Agency. He served on the commission on World and Domestic Hunger and became a chair member of the National UNICEF Day in 1984.
• John’s passion as an aviator led to his death on October 12, 1997, when he crashed a plane over Monterey Bay, California.