Transcript for the Piece Audio version of JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN

John Denver: Back Home Again
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TOM CRUM (5:47):what John did is he reached people's hearts, he really was a poet in his soul and his voice had this angelic penetrating quality that brought out the best in people who listened to it, and he realized that his great love was singing with friends around a campfire

JOHN DENVER IS BEST KNOWN FOR HIT SONGS LIKE ?LEAVING ON A JET PLANE? AND ?ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH? BUT WHAT PEOPLE DON?T KNOW IS THAT JOHN DENVER FOUGHT FOR MANY CAUSES, OFTEN WAY AHEAD OF HIS TIME. HE ALSO BROKE GROUND AS AN AMERICAN MUSICIAN PLAYING IN CHINA AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION.

IN THE NEXT HOUR, WE?RE GOING TO HEAR ABOUT THE MANY FACETS OF JOHN DENVER FROM FRIENDS, FAMILY MEMBERS AND DENVER HIMSELF.

I?M RITA HOUSTON, AND WELCOME TO ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN.?

News hole

WELCOME BACK TO ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN.? I?M RITA HOUSTON.

JOHN DENVER WAS BORN JOHN HENRY DEUTSCHENDORF ON NEW YEARS EVE, 1943. HE GREW UP A MILITARY BRAT, MOVING AROUND FROM PLACE TO PLACE FOR MOST OF HIS CHILDHOOD

JOHN DENVER.

JOHN DENVER (d1): I can't remember when I began to sing.. repeat
stuff on the radio.. called me jitterbug.. grandma gave me a guitar

DENVER?S GRANDMOTHER, KATE SWOPE.

GRANDMA DENVER: (d1): he sang nursery rhymes.. I asked him, would you practice if I gave you lessons?

JOHN DENVER (d10): when I first started singing I dreamed of moving on from coffee houses and perhaps singing in concert halls, you know. If I was lucky I'd sing around the world.

MU: (d2) applause opening leaving on jet

DENVER GOT HIS BREAK WITH A TUNE IN 1969 THAT PETER, PAUL AND MARY WOULD MAKE FAMOUS.

Music: Leaving on a Jet Plane (3:40)

?LEAVING ON A JET PLANE? PERFORMED BY JOHN DENVER.

IN AN AGE OF PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC AND HIPPIES, DENVER SEEMED THE OPPOSITE. AFTER MOVING TO LOS ANGELES IN THE MID-60?S, HE BECAME THE SINGER FOR THE MITCHELL TRIO AFTER THEIR LEADER CHAD MITCHELL WENT SOLO. DENVER TOOK THE PATH OF A FOLK MUSICIAN UNTIL GOING OUT ON HIS OWN IN THE LATE 60?S.

BY 1971, HE WAS EVER-PRESENT ON THE RADIO WITH SONGS THAT MIXED FOLK, POP AND COUNTRY.

Music: Sunshine On My Shoulders (5:13)

?SUNSHINE ON MY SHOULDERS? PERFORMED BY JOHN DENVER.

YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN.? I?M RITA HOUSTON.

DENVER?S WIFE, ANNIE.

ANNIE DENVER(d3): Take Me Home Country road was started by Bill and Taffy Danoff... we got together played all night, came up with this...

THE SUCCESS OF ?TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROAD? CROSSED A LOT OF BORDERS.

MO(d3):Became popular all over the world. It became a a surprisingly big song in China. President and Premier Jiang cam e to a concert and afterwards the Premier wanted cassettes. How many? I asked-- 500.

MILT OKUN PRODUCED JOHN DENVER?S RECORDS THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER.

MO(d3):Years later jd wanted to know where he could go that he was not known... gets off a plane in Shanghai.. people gathering pointing. Turns out that the primier had sent cassettes to all the radio stations in China who were not given permission to play Western music except this.

IN 1992, JOHN DENVER BECAME THE FIRST AMERICAN ARTIST ALLOWED TO DO A MULTI-CITY TOUR IN CHINA.

Music: Take Me Home Country Road (3:12)

?TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROAD? PERFORMED BY JOHN DENVER.

COMING UP, DENVER?S FEARLESS APPROACH TO CONCERTS AND LIFE, AND A LOT MORE MUSIC.

I?M RITA HOUSTON, AND YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN.?

Break 1 with music bed (1:00)

WELCOME BACK TO ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN.? I?M RITA HOUSTON.

AUTHOR AND MARTIAL ARTS EXPERT TOM CRUM WAS JOHN DENVER?S CLOSE FRIEND, MENTOR, BODY GUARD, AND PROJECT COLLABORATOR.

TOM CRUM (5:47):what John did is he reached people's hearts, he really was a poet in his soul and his voice had this angelic penetrating quality that brought out the best in people who listened to it, and he realized that his great love was singing with friends around a campfire.... It was a very very powerful performance because you felt like you were literally sitting alone, or with John around a campfire, and in that place you could hear a pin drop.

DENVER WANTED HIS CONCERTS TO FEEL INTIMATE, SO HE AND TOM CRUM WORKED OUT A NEW APPROACH.

TOM CRUM (7): How do you take 20,000 people and have it feel like you?re singing with your buddy around a campfire. Well, in the round was the way he figured he wanted to do that. When you have 20,000 people, people on a 2 foot platform that?s revolving, people sitting only 2 feet away from him with no barriers and no typical security guys in their t-shirts throwing guys back over the fence, that created an interesting unique thing that had never been done before, and we decided to take it on as an exploration. Can you use this, what I call the ikey approach, can you be conscious and aware and send your energy out and connect with people at a level where that kind of stuff just doesn?t occur. It was important also to have meetings with all the basic security people and the ushers and the police department in those areas to get them enrolled. So, I would have meetings ahead of time and get them enrolled and get them conscious of what we wanted to do so that they were really treating people as guests, not just some guy with a ticket in Madison Square Garden, and as a result, it all worked.

IT WORKED, BUT NOT WITHOUT A FEW INCIDENTS.

TOM CRUM [10:23]: One particular time we were in Detroit I think at the Olympia Center or something and we had walked this whole basketball length exit and then we were in those?just before you go out and some lady, I mean she must have been 300 pounds, she reached over with one big arm, grabbed him underneath the armpits and started lifting him up, and now he?s about a foot off the ground and I?m grabbing him around the legs and I couldn?t reach her to do a little pressure point technique that allows her to release, I couldn?t reach her and John?s being stretched now and it was an embarrassingly by very laughable scene, and after about 10 or 15 seconds I finally won the war, the tug of war and got John there back down on the ground and out of there but other than a few humorous moments like that it really worked.

Music: Thank God I?m A Country Boy (3:22)

?THANK GOD I?M A COUNTRY BOY? PERFORMED LIVE BY JOHN DENVER.

TOM CRUM TRAVELED WITH JOHN DENVER FOR YEARS.

TOM CRUM11:22: and John, of course, was my mentor in so many ways, because he was such a gift to be around, his spirit, his generosity. I mean you would just witness this person giving to everybody, people he didn't know; he would go over and assist them with luggage if we were in a hotel, pull over if somebody were stranded and help them out. I remember one day we had just come back from a 3 month tour; I call it the tour from hell we did 90 some days we did 88 shows in different cities and totally exhausted, 9:00 at night somebody knocks on John's door at his home and wants his autograph, and John looked at him and told him the truth, that he felt it was a little inappropriate that the guy would come up here and want his autograph, and he said, I really don't want to sign your autograph but I will shake your hand and I also will help you change your tire, because he had looked out over his shoulder and there this guy's tire was flat. He goes out with the guy and changes the guy?s tire at 10:00 at night and he was just absolutely exhausted, and that?s how he was. That?s just who he was, he helped people, he made a difference wherever he went. He had such enthusiasm that even when you walked with him, whether you were out in the mountains or just down the street, you almost had to jog to keep up, it was like there was a contribution to be made and he didn?t want to be late.

ONE OF THE PROJECTS THAT DENVER AND CRUM CREATED WAS THE WINDSTAR FOUNDATION.

TOM CRUM [33:27]: he?d always felt this, even when he was young John felt that he would like to have a place where people could gather, sort of a larger campfire if you will, and talk about real serious issues and create action plans and actually applications, real projects that demonstrated that we could do it differently on this planet, and he always wanted a place like that and Windstar Land, which is about 1000 acres of land, became available one year it was used as a retreat place for a monastery, a Trapist monastery, I knew those guys up there and I was aware of that and we walked the land, and ironically enough the land was shaped like a whale, that sort of, somehow made a deep difference at some level, but we?John purchased that land and founded a project in the late 70?s and early 80?s that was a huge demonstration center with biointensive gardening and wind generation and aqua culture and solar retrofitting and all the things that?again may be way ahead of its time.

THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, DENVER SANG SONGS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT. HERE?S AN EARLY EXAMPLE.

Music: Rocky Mountain High (4:45)

?ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH? PERFORMED BY JOHN DENVER. THAT WAS DECLARED THE STATE SONG OF COLORADO IN 2007.

YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN.? I?M RITA HOUSTON.

THE ENVIRONMENT WAS ONE OF SEVERAL CAUSES THAT DENVER EMBRACED. HE WASN?T AFRAID OF STEPPING UP AND STANDING FOR SOMETHING, AND USING HIS POPULARITY FOR A GOOD IDEA.

FRIEND AND COLLABORATOR TOM CRUM SAW DENVER?S ENERGY.

TOM CRUM [24:21]: Yeah, well Bono and Sting and those people made a huge difference and I think that they were deeply inspired by a guy?s willingness to?you know, you have influence, let?s use it, let?s make a difference, what are you impassioned by, and to know that everyone can do it. That?s where I saw John do some incredible wonderful things. He was a great father in terms of his love and enthusiasm. I can remember Zach, his son, who is the same age as my son, they were playing on a hockey team, a squirt hockey team that was vying for the state championship and we?re in Colorado Springs at this big arena, and of course the only people there are maybe 30 parents, you know how it works, all cheering. John is so excited he stands up and sings the national anthem, just impromptu. Well, we won that game, next thing we know we?re at a dinner at a pizza place; John is so excited of course he buys everyone on the team and all the parents dinner, then he buys everybody in the restaurant dinner. This is the kind of just unbridled enthusiasm, when you were with him in the mountains, he would literally be running, he?d have his camera out, photography was a big interest of his, in fact, one of my books, ?The Magic of Conflict? so many of his photographs are in there. He would just?if there was water around he?d want to jump in, if there was a waterfall and deep water, he?d dive in, we?d all jump, he?d dive. He wanted to go to the highest spot, and that?s just how he was. I see him running through nature, skiing, everything was fast for him, let?s do it now, life might not be here tomorrow. If you skied with him, you?d better not ski in front of him, it was like riding a bicycle down some steep pass with an 18 wheeler right on your rear wheels, because if he wipes out, you?re dead. If he wiped out it was a hug wipeout, it would block the sun for minutes. So, you can just get a vision of this guy with great spirit, unbridled enthusiasm for life, wanting to make a difference and absolutely doing so.

THOUGH HE HAD A PASSION FOR LIFE, HIS WIFE ANNIE SAW WHEN HIS ENERGY WANE.

ANNIE DENVER(d5): complicated guy.. elated and then in the dumps.

DENVER WROTE ?ANNIE?S SONG? FOR HIS WIFE.

JOHN DENVER: I wrote it going up a ski lift when I was hypersensitive how beautiful the world is .. filled up my senses.. All the pictures merged and then I was left with Annie as the embodiment of the love I felt.

ANNIE DENVER: I've heard it in an elevator in Japan. I didn't connect it with me . it's bigger than that. The most beautiful time I heard it was last summer when my daughter married.

Music: Annie?s Song (3:02)

?ANNIE?S SONG? PERFORMED BY JOHN DENVER.

IN A MINUTE, DENVER GOES TO WASHINGTON FOR WORLD HUNGER RELIEF, AND A LOT MORE MUSIC.

I?M RITA HOUSTON, AND YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN.?

Break 2 with music bed (1:00)

WELCOME BACK TO ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN.? I?M RITA HOUSTON.

JOHN DENVER(10): I think that I would most like to be remembered for the fact that I stood up for what I believed in . I spoke for it I and of it. I worked for things that I believe in.

DENVER?S MUSIC DREW SOME OF ITS POWER FROM THE WAY IN WHICH HE WAS MOVED BY THE WORLD AROUND HIM. THIS FUELED HIS SONGS AND HIS ACTIVISM.

JOHN DENVER (d4) :The old need to teach the young and the young need to treach the old.. earths needs.. see more clearly what I need to do and I see it needs doing... not holier than thou but do thyself no harm.

FRIEND, COLLABORATOR AND ONE-TIME BOYGUARD TO DENVER, TOM CRUM.

TOM CRUM(10:23): He was talking about issues like the environment and hunger before they were really issues on anybody's front or back page, and it takes a lot of courage to be out ahead of the wave like that. You might not sell as many songs if you're ahead of the wave but if you look at his music now it's probably more appropriate than ever.

IN HIS LIFETIME, DENVER WORKED ON BEHALF OF UNICEF, THE NATIONAL SPACE INSTITUTE, SAVE THE CHILDREN, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, THE WORLD WILDLIFE FUND, AND HELPED TO CREATE THE ALASKAN NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE TO NAME A FEW.

ONE OF THE MANY CAUSES DENVER EMBRACED WAS THE COUSTEAU SOCIETY. HE SPENT TIME ON JACQUES COUSTEAU?S MARINE RESEARCH SHIP ?CALYPSO? AND WROTE A SONG ABOUT IT.

DENVER?S LONG-TIME MANAGER HAROLD THAU.(pronounced thaw)

HAL THAU (d4): What Calypso did for the Cousteau society was enormous besides the fact that he donated all the royalties, he gave people an awareness of what Jaques Cousteau was doing.

HE ALSO DONATED THE EARNINGS FROM THIS NUMBER ONE SINGLE TO THE COUSTEAU SOCIETY.

Music: Calypso (3:38)

?CALYPSO? PERFORMED BY JOHN DENVER FOR THE COUSTEAU SOCIETY.

ROBERT FULLER:(p2) I think of him as one of the stars, one of the first to really show a conscience about humanitarian problems and human suffering.

ROBERT FULLER HAS BEEN A PHYSICS PROFESSOR, PRESIDENT OF OBERLIN COLLEGE, CONSULTANT TO INDIRA GANDHI, PEACE NEGOTIATOR AND AUTHOR. HE MET JOHN DENVER AT THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT TRAINING CALLED ?EST.? SOON AFTER, HE FOUNDED THE WORLD HUNGER PROJECT WITH DENVER AND EST CREATOR WERNER ERHARD.

ROBERT FULLER(p1): He came up afterwards and identified w...Washington. And he said, "I can help you do that"; and of course, I knew exactly how he could that, he was a celebrity. He had at that time I think the number one best selling record in America. This was '77 and I had been virtually commuting from San Francisco to Washington D.C. for months working my way up the administrative ladder one step at a time from the Energy Secretary, ... I had been aimingfor all along. John Denver said, "I think I can get us through into Jimmy Carter's office". And as it turned out, he got us first to Walter Mondale's office, the Vice President, and I have a photograph of John Denver, myself, and Walter Mondale. Mondale said, "How'd you like to see the Oval Office, I think the President is there"? And he walked us right across and into the Oval Office and we met with Jimmy Carter first in his small little office off of the Oval Office, and then in the Oval Office itself. And remember that he and John were extremely glad to see each other and I felt like a fly on the wall as I watched them talking with great animation. I remember that President Carter was especially interested in getting John Denver's autograph for his daughter Amy who was at the time eight or nine years old, I think....night, the same night that John and I had seen him in the Oval Office. And the very next day Carter issued a proclamation establishing a Presidential Commission on World hunger.

AUTHOR AND FRIEND TOM CRUM SAW DENVER?S ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE FOR A CAUSE.

TOM CRUM (15:33): it was just amazing how he would be at a hearing or something?a congressional hearing and there would be people with all of the expertise speaking articulately and I could see John bubbling, and I'd go "uh oh here we go", and the next thing you know he'd stand up and he'd share his truth, and it might not be as coming with all of the facts and the expertise of the people in the room but I'll tell you what, he got more attention, more?he directly went from heart to heart and that made a difference, and whether it was hunger or wildlands or the environment in general or to us directly, that's what happened, that was the experience.

DENVER ALWAYS MANAGED TO SUM UP HIS FEELINGS IN MUSIC. HE WROTE THE SONG ?CALYPSO? ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF THE OCEAN AFTER RIDING ON A BOAT WITH JAQUES COUSTEAU, ?WILD MONTANA SKIES? ABOUT COUNTRY LIVING AND POLLUTION, AND ?I WANT TO LIVE? ABOUT THE ISSUE OF HUNGER.

Music: I Want To Live (3:49)

?I WANT TO LIVE? PERFORMED BY JOHN DENVER.

YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN.? I?M RITA HOUSTON.

CO-FOUNDER OF THE HUNGER PROJECT, ROBERT FULLER.

ROBERT FULLER(botp5):There's one other thing I just remembered that came to me as an image: of Denver singing privately to small groups of people working on the hunger issue. He would take his guitar around anther was quite willing, he didn't have to have five thousand people in a stadium, he was quite happy to sing for fifteen people with his
guitar pulled out like he was a college boy. And he often did this; and you really felt quite special listening to his beautiful voice singing in a living room like he was a nobody, not one of the most famous singers on the earth. I thought that was a very interesting thing about him.

DENVER JUMPED INTO LIFE WITH ABANDON, WHETHER IT WAS IN MUSIC, A CAUSE, OR ONE OF HIS HOBBIES.

AUTHOR AND MARTIAL ARTS EXPERT TOM CRUM WAS DENVER?S CLOSE FRIEND AND MENTOR. HE SPENT A LOT OF TIME DOING WHAT WE WOULD CALL ?EXTREME SPORTS? WITH DENVER.

TOM CRUM (27): we all skied down and we made it down and we look up and here's John and I just had this feeling, and yes sure two or three turns in he fell and just tons of snow came with him about a?the avalanche was maybe about 100 yards and he just was swept up in it but I could see his face, he stayed above it, he stayed calm, his eyes were wide eyed and just not into it for fun but aware, not turning off not totally in paralyzing fear and he just rode it out, it stopped about 100 yards down and there his little head was sticking out and a smile on his face and a great prayer in his heart I'm sure.

UNFORTUNATELY, ONE OF HIS HOBBIES WAS THE CAUSE OF HIS DEATH IN OCTOBER OF 1997. AN EXPERIENCED PILOT, DENVER CRASHED ON THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA TRYING OUT AN EXPERIMENTAL PLANE.

AGAIN, TOM CRUM.

TOM CRUM (46): there's something ironic about how he went through life so headfirst and he went out headfirst also. That enthusiasm and his commitment, I am quite certain that as that plane was going down into the Monterey Bay off of Lovers Point the he was very present, fully committed to doing whatever it had to right that ship. I think he went out very conscious and fearless, as he lived his life.

Music: Back Home Again (4:46)

?BACK HOME AGAIN? PERFORMED BY JOHN DENVER.

?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN? WAS PRODUCED BY JOYRIDE MEDIA. PAUL CHUFFO AND JOSHUA JACKSON ARE THE PRODUCERS.

OUR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER IS JOHN VERNILE.

ALL SONGS ON THIS PROGRAM CAN BE FOUND ON THE RCA/LEGACY CD ?THE ESSENTIAL JOHN DENVER.?

SPECIAL THANKS GO TO ADAM BLOCK, ROB SANTOS, ADAM FARBER, IRIS MAYENZA, HAROLD THAU AND THE WINDSTAR FOUNDATION, PRODUCERS OF ?A SONG?S BEST FRIEND: JOHN DENVER REMEMBERED,? ANDY CAHN, ERIC MOLK, SHANNON MUELLER, MICHELLE CLARK, JUDY WARNER, MEREDITH CARROLL, JIM RICHARDS AND NADINE NASSAR.

I?M RITA HOUSTON, AND THANKS FOR LISTENING.

JOHN DENVER(d10):[screaming fans]goodnight everybody. Be careful, be patient with one another. pray for peace. Thank you for being with me tonight.

Promo:

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I?M RITA HOUSTON. JOIN ME FOR ?JOHN DENVER: BACK HOME AGAIN,? A LOOK AT THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF JOHN DENVER.

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