John Denver was much more than an entertainer.  He was a deeply spiritual humanitarian and visionary with a unique talent which enabled him to share feelings, observations and opinions in a way in which all people - regardless of language, geographic, economic, and political backgrounds - could relate to his messages.  He made music his voice for the Earth, the children, and all who would choose a path of compassion and peace.  His life and lyrics touched the lives of thousands, and he was eulogized as a man with “the voice of an angel, the heart of a soldier, and the spirit of God.” 

 

The joys John experienced, the pain he endured, the dreams and longings of his heart, the freedom and spiritual fulfillment he derived from nature and simple pleasures—all these things speak to that place in each of us as well.  And he had a way of affecting the people around him in powerful ways. 

 

“There’s something in my music that speaks to people,” he said in a 1981 interview after receiving the Premier Artist Award from RCA Records after worldwide sales of 10 million copies of his album, John Denver’s Greatest Hits.  “The music has a commonality, a quality that people everywhere can relate to.” Even though many of his more popular songs seem “simple,” deep inside John was anything but simple.   There is a Chinese saying that “Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought,” and this is the energy that John’s spirit imbued.

 

In December of 1996 he sang “Little Drummer Boy” at the Vatican and when asked why tears had come to his eyes during the song, he explained that he had always wondered what it would have felt like to be there when Christ was born, and singing that song at the Vatican that evening gave him a real sense of that.  In 1997 he was planning a tour with Neale Donald Walsch and Barbara Marx Hubbard on “The Awakening of Humanity.”  He sought to help people understand that most of our fears are unfounded; that what we should fear most is passivity - not sharing what gifts we have to offer to the world, not taking a stand for that which we believe in. 

 

 

Eileen Stein, 1998