John in Moscow November 1984 & July 1985

John Denver was born December 31, 1943 in Roswell New Mexico. He died October 12, 1997 in a plane crash near Monterey California.

I met John in 1979 and have been engineering and producing his albums since 1980. When we weren’t in the studio working, we would go fishing or hiking or skiing in the Rockies. I certified John as a SCUBA diver so we could go diving with Cousteau. Connie and I traveled to Australia to dive with John on the Great Barrier Reef. John let me fly right seat in his Lear Jet and perform some aerobatics in his Christian Eagle bi-plane. We stood on the Great Wall of China and contemplated our place in the Universe. John was the ultimate Gear Slut. He had me beat by a mile. One time John came through New York when I was working on a Steely Dan project. He called me at the studio and asked if Donald Fagen and I wanted to go on a sunset helicopter cruise around Manhattan.

John called me two days before the crash to check on his latest project. Connie was recording vocals on his new single. He asked me if I wanted to meet him in Santa Maria to pick up the new plane I helped him choose. I had to go to Nashville and was going to meet him in Monterey on Sunday. I heard about the crash on my way to the airport.

John cared about people and the environment. He often got bashed by the press. Every summer he would pay to bring underprivileged children to an Aspen Summer camp. When gas prices skyrocketed, he bought an underground gas tank and filled it up for the busses. Public opinion made him take it out because everyone believed he was using it to fuel his Porsche. With the increase in fuel prices, summer camp attendance had to be cut back.

John and Roger on The Great Wall June 1985

 

Remember the Billy Joel concert in The Soviet Union? John made that possible. For over ten years, there was no cultural agreement between the United States and Soviet Union. After two years of negotiation, the Soviet government allowed John to go to Moscow, Leningrad and Tallinn in 1984 to perform for small audiences of government officials. They were impressed. The audience couldn’t speak English, but they sure were singing John Denver songs. The road was cleared for the following year: the first public concerts by an American in over ten years. The cultural agreement was signed and the record showed that it was made possible by the efforts of John Denver.

John’s songs may have been three chord wonders, but he played the hell out of them. He was an excellent guitar player and singer. He performed thousands of sold out concerts over the years with just him and his guitar. He is the only guy I know who could do vocals on 30 songs in two days in the studio, all of them in one take.

John supported Windstar, The Hunger Project, UNICEF, Plant-It 2000 and many other organizations that helped to improve the quality of life for us all. Most of all, John supported his friends and his family. Connie and I will miss him as a friend, as part of our family, but most of all, we will miss him as a great human being.

Roger Nichols 1997