John Denver

Denver got married to Annie Martell in the year 1968. The couple had two children; a son named Zachary and a daughter named Anna Kate. However the marriage culminated in divorce twelve years later.

This renowned singer married for the second time in the year 1988 to Cassandra Delaney, an actress from Australia. The couple had one daughter named Jesse Belle but this relationship also ended in a divorce.

Denver was killed under tragic circumstances on October 12, 1997 when he could not control his aircraft while trying to fly it as an experiment at ‘Pacific Grove Peninsula’ in California.

On December 31, 1943 Henry John Deutschendorf Senior and Emma Louise Swope gave birth to a child in Roswell, New Mexico named Henry John Deutschendorf Junior, who was later known as John Denver. His father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force and hence the family often moved from one city to another.

John Denver was gifted with a Gibson guitar, when he was only 2 years old, by his grandmother and that was how he was initiated into the world of music.

He continued to dabble in music throughout his teenage years and only joined a band when he started going to ‘Texas Tech University’ located in Lubbock to study architecture. The band that he was a part of was known as ‘The Alpine Trio’ and it was after joining that band that he adopted the moniker John Denver.

In the year 1963, Denver discontinued his studies at the ‘Texas Tech University’ and decided to try his fortune in the world of music in Los Angeles. Once in Los Angeles, it took him two years to find a folk group called ‘The Mitchell Trio’ and that was well and truly the tentative beginnings of a professional music career.

It as in the year 1969 that John Denver took his most important career decision and decided to abandon being part of different bands. Instead he decided to be a solo performer and his very first album was hence produced. It was titled ‘Rhymes & Reasons’.

The biggest turning point in his career came in the year 1969 when the song ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ was released and became a smash hit instantly. Interestingly, the song had been recorded two years prior to its release.

Denver released two albums; ‘Take Me to Tomorrow’ and ‘Whose Garden Was This’ in the year 1970. A year later his next album became another huge hit thanks to the song ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’ and sold a million copies.

Throughout the 1970s John produced one hit after another under the guidance of his manager and producer Jerry Weintraub. Some of the smash hits included ‘Sunshine on my Shoulders’, ‘Annie’s Song’, ‘Thank God I’m a Country Boy’, among singles.

The talented singer also became a known face on television during his career and became a guest in the hugely popular ‘The Muppet Show’ in 1974. Three years later he starred in the film ‘Oh God’ and although it wasn’t a hit it showed that Denver was an extremely marketable brand.

John Denver’s most famous work in his career has to be his first smash hit that is still regarded as his best production ever. The song is ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ and it is still considered among the best songs that have ever been composed on farewell and travel.