Henry John Deutschendorf was born on December 31, 1943 in Roswell, New Mexico.
As part of an Air Force family John, his brother Ron and their parents travelled
to and lived in various areas of the southwestern United States.

It was John’s grandmother who gave him his first guitar, a 1910 Gibson acoustic.

During his college years John began performing at the local clubs, and changed
his name to John Denver.

In 1965 John joined up with the Chad Mitchell Trio.

It was in 1967 that John married Ann Martel. Still with the Chad Mitchell Trio at
this time although this wasn’t to last long. When the last remaining original
member of the Chad Mitchell Trip left the group, they renamed themselves
‘Denver, Boise and Johnson’, the group was short lived however and John left in
1969 to pursue his solo career

John recorded his first solo album in 1969 “Rhymes & Reasons” and was on the
road to stardom.

Subsequent albums, “Take Me to Tomorrow” and “Whose Garden was this”, gained only
mild attention. It was not until the release of “Poems, Prayers and Promises” that
John enjoyed popular acclaim.

John topped singles charts worldwide with million selling hits “Take Me home,
Country Roads” “Sunshine on My Shoulders” “Annie‘s Song“ and “Rocky Mountain High“.

In 1970 in his 27th year, John and Annie moved to Aspen, Colorado where they adopted
their two children Zachary and Anna Kate.

"...Annie and I moved to Aspen. It was Christmas 1970. Mountain promontories had
always been a part of the equation for us, and when the numbers for ‘Country Roads'
kept growing, I figured we could afford our dream house....Winter had settled in
and there was snow on the slopes; the whole setting went right into your soul."
John Denver from his autobiography ``Take Me Home"

And so began John Denver's love affair with Aspen and Starwood. ``I looked out
over the valley... I knew we'd found home." The following year John was there for
the ground breaking, ``A couple of hours later, there it was, the whole house laid
out in pegs and string, pointing through the hundred-year-old scrub oak to the
mountains beyond."

It was in the early 1970’s that John interests turned to human rights and nature
issues. He worked tirelessly to promote world peace and end world hunger, he supported
the space program and the protection of the wilderness.

He received the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Music Award for a “life’s work dedicated
to music and devoted to humanity”. John was also the first to ever receive the World
Ecology Medal.

In 1977 John embarked on his movie career with the release of “Oh God”, also starring
George Burns, it was an instant hit. From then on John went on to star in Foxfire,
Oh God II, The Christmas Gift, Higher Ground, and more.

John also loved to fly. His father taught him to fly, it was his childhood dream.
He had a pilot’s license and owned his own Lear Jet. Also he was an aerobatic pilot
and was licensed to fly gliders.

It was in 1983 that John and Annie divorced. Some years later John married again,
Australian born Cassandra Delaney, unfortunately after the birth of their daughter
Jesse Belle the marriage was only to last but a few short years.

John died on October 12, 1997 when the single engine Long EZ plane he was flying
plunged into the ocean at Monterey Bay in California. He was only 53. John’s ashes
were strewn over his beloved Rocky Mountains.

During his career, John had 14 gold albums and 8 platinum albums in the US,
and many more gold and platinum sales overseas. “John Denver’s Greatest Hits” is
still today one of the largest selling albums in the history of RCA, with world wide
sales totalling over 10 million copies.

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