He was one of the biggest folk musicians of the 1960s — but who really was John Denver,
and what do we know about his sudden and tragic death?
In 1997, John Denver died in a plane crash off the coast of Monterey Bay, California. There's
more than meets the eye to the life — and death — of the acclaimed singer-songwriter, though.
For one thing, Denver's first name wasn't John and his last name wasn't Denver. He wasn't just a
singer, either; he was also an actor, an advocate for the environment, and an outspoken opponent of
censorship. After his sudden and tragic death at the young age of 53, further details emerged about
Denver — details that threatened to besmirch the folk-rock hitmaker's squeaky-clean public image.
The man who would one day become John Denver was born in Roswell, New Mexico on December 31st,
1943. An Air Force brat named Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., Denver was the son of
an accomplished career pilot and moved a lot during his childhood. From a young age,
he was interested in music, and he received his first guitar when he was 11 — the caveat
being that he had to promise to practice regularly. He did so in an era of wholesome
popular music typified by well-known folk groups such as The Kingston Trio,
The New Christy Minstrels, and others, all of whom influenced Denver's sound.
By the mid-1960s, Denver had joined the Chad Mitchell Trio — replacing Chad himself,
thereby transforming the group into The Mitchell Trio. Denver's big break came when popular folkies
Peter, Paul and Mary turned his song "Leaving on a Jet Plane" into a sizable hit — and it's still
among Denver's most well-known tunes today. From there, Denver would record albums with the trio,
then as a solo act, with songs like "Take Me Home, Country Roads." He followed that with a
dizzying run of best-selling singles and albums, including "Back Home Again." All the while,
he cultivated the clean-cut image of an environmentally-conscious singer-songwriter.
In addition to his career in music, Denver maintained a lifelong interest in flight,
likely inspired by his father.
"I know that it's true that you have to climb to the top of the mountain to see the other side.
Well, we wanted wings — we got 'em."
Denver even dreamed of one day going to space, and applied to be the first civilian
to reach the final frontier on the Space Shuttle Challenger. He missed out on that opportunity to
Christa McAuliffe, however, who died along with the other crew members in 1986 when the
Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff. A short time after that, in the early 1990s,
a darker side to Denver's personal life emerged; it was during this time that he was twice arrested
on drunk driving charges. Denver pleaded guilty to lesser charges in one case, while the second
case ended in a hung jury. A retrial was set, but Denver died before it took place.
With those DUIs on Denver's record, many wondered if drugs and alcohol had perhaps
been a factor in the plane crash that killed him. That turned out not to be the case,
however. After a routine autopsy, no drugs or alcohol were found in his system. Due to Denver's
record of driving while intoxicated, though, his flying license had been revoked at the time the
fatal accident happened — therefore, he was flying illegally nonetheless. Unfortunately,
that didn't stop him. The aircraft that Denver died in was a home-built experimental plane,
and Denver was practicing takeoffs and landings when he crashed and died.
According to the accident report, Denver was alone in the plane,
so it's difficult to know for certain what happened — but pilot error is believed to
have caused the accident. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, Denver,
who had informed the tower that he would fly for another hour right before his plane went down,
likely reached backward in the cockpit to switch fuel tanks when his body inadvertently shifted
on the controls. That sent the plane into a spin from which he couldn't recover, possibly due to
his inexperience flying that kind of aircraft. The engine of the plane was later recovered from
40 feet of water, and Denver's official cause of death was declared to be blunt-force trauma.