1. John Denver was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s and one of the best selling artists in that decade.
103 Facts About John Denver
1. 2.
John Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he wrote himself.
3.
John Denver had 33 albums and singles that were certified Gold and Platinum in the USby the Recording Industry Association of America, with estimated sales of more than 33 million units.
4.
John Denver recorded and performed primarily with an acoustic guitar and sang about his joy in nature, disdain for city life, enthusiasm for music, and relationship trials.
5.
John Denver continued to record into the 1990s, focusing on environmental issues as well as lending vocal support to space exploration and testifying in front of Congress to protest censorship in music.
6.
In 1974, John Denver was named poet laureate of the state.
7.
An avid pilot, John Denver died at the age of 53 in 1997, in a single-fatality crash while piloting a recently purchased light plane.
8.
The introverted John Denver often felt misplaced and did not know where he truly belonged.
9.
John Denver was content in Tucson, but his father was transferred to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.
10.
The family later moved to Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, where John Denver graduated from Arlington Heights High School.
11.
John Denver was distressed with life in Fort Worth, and in his junior year of high school, he drove his father's car to California to visit family friends and begin his music career.
12.
John Denver's father flew to California in a friend's jet to retrieve him, and Denver reluctantly returned to Texas to complete his schooling.
13.
At age 11, John Denver received an acoustic guitar from his grandmother.
14.
John Denver learned to play well enough to perform at local clubs by the time he was in college.
15.
John Denver decided to change his name when Randy Sparks, founder of the New Christy Minstrels, suggested that "Deutschendorf" would not fit comfortably on a marquee.
16.
John Denver attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock and sang in a folk-music group, "The Alpine Trio", while studying architecture.
17.
John Denver was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
18.
John Denver dropped out of Texas Tech in 1963 and moved to Los Angeles, where he sang in folk clubs.
19.
In 1965, John Denver joined The Chad Mitchell Trio, replacing founder Chad Mitchell.
20.
John Denver made several copies and gave them out as Christmas presents.
21.
John Denver's song made it to No 2 in the UK in February 1970, having made No 1 on the US Cash Box chart in December 1969.
22.
When he was successful in persuading a school, college, American Legion hall, or coffeehouse to let him play, John Denver distributed posters in the town and usually showed up at the local radio station, guitar in hand, offering himself for an interview.
23.
John Denver recorded two more albums in 1970, Take Me to Tomorrow and Whose Garden Was This, including a mix of songs he had written and covers.
24.
John Denver's career flourished thereafter, and he had a series of hits over the next four years.
25.
In 1972, John Denver had his first Top Ten album with Rocky Mountain High, with its title track reaching the Top Ten in 1973.
26.
In 1974 and 1975, Denver had a string of four No 1 songs and three No 1 albums.
27.
John Denver's embroidered shirts with images commonly associated with the American West were created by the designer and applique artist Anna Zapp.
28.
In 1973, Denver starred in his own BBC television series, The John Denver Show, a weekly music and variety show directed and produced by Stanley Dorfman.
29.
When John Denver ended his business relationship in 1982 because of Weintraub's focus on projects, Weintraub threw John Denver out of his office and accused him of Nazism.
30.
John Denver was a guest star on The Muppet Show, the beginning of the lifelong friendship between John Denver and Jim Henson that spawned two television specials with the Muppets, A Christmas Together and Rocky Mountain Holiday.
31.
John Denver tried acting, appearing in "The Camerons are a Special Clan" episode of the Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law television series in October 1973 and "The Colorado Cattle Caper" episode of the McCloud television series in February 1974.
32.
John Denver hosted the Grammy Awards five times in the 1970s and 1980s, and guest-hosted The Tonight Show on several occasions.
33.
In 1975, John Denver was awarded the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year award.
34.
In 1977, Denver co-founded The Hunger Project with Werner Erhard and Robert W Fuller.
35.
John Denver served for many years and supported the organization until his death.
36.
President Jimmy Carter appointed John Denver to serve on the President's Commission on World Hunger.
37.
John Denver wrote the song "I Want to Live" as the commission's theme song.
38.
John Denver's father taught him how to fly in the mid-1970s, which led to their reconciliation.
39.
In 1976, John Denver campaigned for Jimmy Carter, who became a close friend and ally.
40.
John Denver was a supporter of the Democratic Party and of a number of charitable causes for the environmental movement, the homeless, the poor, the hungry, and the African AIDS crisis.
41.
John Denver founded the charitable Windstar Foundation in 1976 to promote sustainable living.
42.
John Denver had battled to expand the refuge in the 1980s, and he praised President Bill Clinton for his opposition to the proposed drilling.
43.
The letter, which John Denver wrote in the midst of the 1996 United States presidential election, was one of the last he ever wrote.
44.
In 1992, Denver, along with fellow singers Liza Minnelli and John Oates, performed a benefit to fight the passage of Amendment 2, an anti-LGBT ballot measure that prevented Colorado municipalities from enacting anti-discrimination protections.
45.
John Denver was on the National Space Society's board of governors for many years.
46.
John Denver had a few more US Top 30 hits as the 1970s ended, but nothing to match his earlier success.
47.
John Denver began to focus more on humanitarian and sustainability causes, focusing extensively on nature conservation projects.
48.
John Denver made public expression of his acquaintances and friendships with ecological design researchers such as Richard Buckminster Fuller and Amory Lovins, from whom he said he learned much.
49.
John Denver founded the environmental group Plant-It 2020.
50.
John Denver had a keen interest in solutions to world hunger and visited Africa during the 1980s to witness firsthand the suffering caused by starvation and work with African leaders toward solutions.
51.
From 1973 to at least 1979, John Denver annually performed at the fundraising picnic for the Aspen Camp School for the Deaf, raising half of the camp's annual operating budget.
52.
In 1983 and 1984, John Denver hosted the annual Grammy Awards, which he had previously done in 1977,1978, and 1979.
53.
In 1984, ABC Sports president Roone Arledge asked John Denver to compose and sing the theme song for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
54.
John Denver worked as both a performer and a skiing commentator, as skiing was another of his enthusiasms.
55.
John Denver composed "The Gold and Beyond", and sang it for the Olympic Games athletes, as well as local venues including many schools.
56.
In 1985, John Denver asked to participate in the singing of "We Are the World" but was rejected, despite his obvious genuine commitment to charity work and his musical talent.
57.
For Earth Day 1990, Denver was the on-camera narrator of a well-received environmental television program, In Partnership With Earth, with then-EPA Administrator William K Reilly.
58.
John Denver conscientiously worked to help bring into being the "Citizens in Space" program.
59.
In 1985, John Denver received the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal for "helping to increase awareness of space exploration by the peoples of the world", an award usually restricted to spaceflight engineers and designers.
60.
John Denver entered discussions with the Soviet space program about purchasing a flight aboard one of their rockets.
61.
John Denver testified before the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee on the topic of censorship during a Parents Music Resource Center hearing in 1985.
62.
Contrary to his innocuous public image as a musician, John Denver openly stood with more controversial witnesses like Dee Snider and Frank Zappa in opposing the PMRC's objectives.
63.
John Denver returned two years later to perform at a benefit concert for the victims of the Chernobyl disaster.
64.
In October 1992, John Denver undertook a multiple-city tour of the People's Republic of China.
65.
John Denver released a greatest-hits CD, Homegrown, to raise money for homeless charities.
66.
In 1997, John Denver filmed an episode for the television series Nature, centering on the natural wonders that inspired many of his best-loved songs.
67.
John Denver was the subject of his song "Annie's Song", which he composed in 10 minutes as he sat on a Colorado ski lift.
68.
The Denvers adopted a boy, Zachary John, and a girl, Anna Kate, who, Denver said, were "meant to be" theirs.
69.
John Denver married Australian actress Cassandra Delaney in 1988 after a two-year courtship.
70.
In 1993, John Denver pleaded guilty to a drunken driving charge and was placed on probation.
71.
John Denver was an avid skier and golfer, but his principal interest was in flying.
72.
In 1974, John Denver bought a Learjet to fly himself to concerts.
73.
John Denver was a collector of vintage biplanes and owned a Christen Eagle aerobatic plane, two Cessna 210 Centurion airplanes, and a 1997 amateur-built Rutan Long-EZ.
74.
John Denver had stopped to refuel on a flight from Carefree, Arizona, to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
75.
John Denver died on the afternoon of October 12,1997, when his light homebuilt aircraft, a Rutan Long-EZ with registration number N555JD, crashed into Monterey Bay near Pacific Grove, California, while making a series of touch-and-go landings at the nearby Monterey Peninsula Airport.
76.
John Denver was a pilot with over 2,700 hours of experience.
77.
John Denver had pilot ratings for single-engine land and sea, multi-engine land, glider and instrument.
78.
John Denver had recently purchased the Long-EZ aircraft, made by someone else from a kit, and had taken a half-hour checkout flight with the aircraft the day before the crash.
79.
John Denver was not legally permitted to fly at the time of the crash.
80.
In 1996, nearly a year before the crash, the FAA learned that John Denver had failed to maintain sobriety by not refraining entirely from alcohol and revoked his medical certification.
81.
The quantity of fuel had been depleted during the plane's flight to Monterey and in several brief practice takeoffs and landings John Denver performed at the airport immediately before the final flight.
82.
John Denver's newly purchased amateur-built Rutan aircraft had an unusual fuel tank selector valve handle configuration.
83.
An NTSB interview with the aircraft mechanic servicing John Denver's plane revealed that he and John Denver had discussed the inaccessibility of the cockpit fuel selector valve handle and its resistance to being turned.
84.
John Denver told Denver that there was "less than half in the right tank and less than a quarter in the left tank".
85.
John Denver then provided Denver with an inspection mirror so he could look over his shoulder at the fuel gauges.
86.
John Denver said that he would use the autopilot in flight to hold the airplane level while he turned the fuel selector valve.
87.
John Denver turned down an offer to refuel the aircraft, saying that he would only be flying for about an hour.
88.
Funeral services were held at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora, Colorado, on October 17,1997, officiated by Pastor Les Felker, a retired Air Force chaplain, after which John Denver's remains were cremated and his ashes scattered in the Rocky Mountains.
89.
In 1998, John Denver posthumously received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Folk Music Association, which established a new award in his honor.
90.
The New York Post wrote, "An overachiever like John Denver couldn't have been this boring".
91.
An anthology musical featuring Denver's music, Back Home Again: A John Denver Holiday, premiered at the Rubicon Theatre Company in 2006.
92.
Senator Nancy Todd said, "John Denver to me is an icon of what Colorado is".
93.
On October 13,2009, a DVD box set of previously unreleased concerts recorded throughout John Denver's career was released by Eagle Rock Entertainment.
94.
The John Denver Spirit sculpture is a 2002 bronze sculpture statue by artist Sue DiCicco that was financed by Denver's fans.
95.
John Denver is only the second person, along with Stephen Foster, to have written two state songs.
96.
On October 24,2014, John Denver was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California.
97.
John Denver began his recording career with The Mitchell Trio ; his distinctive voice can be heard where he sings solo on "Violets of Dawn", among other songs.
98.
John Denver recorded three albums with the Trio, replacing Chad Mitchell as high tenor.
99.
John Denver's solo recording contract resulted in part from the recording by Peter, Paul, and Mary of his song "Leaving on a Jet Plane", which became the sole number-one hit single for the group.
100.
Country singer John Berry considers Denver the greatest influence on his own music and has recorded Denver's hit "Annie's Song" with the original arrangement.
101.
John Denver covered his "Take Me Home, Country Roads", and had a hit in the United Kingdom and Japan with it.
102.
The filmed was funded heavily by John Denver but received some assistance from ABC.
103.
John Denver starts the documentary off, and ends it, with the song American Child.