THIS COUNTRY BOY HAS STRUCK IT RICH Family Weekly May 22, 1977 by Peer J. Oppenheimer Above photo: How John Denver, whose image is that of a wholesome do-gooder bent on self-improvement, dreamed of stardom and thein achieved it. "I feel there is truth in my music - truth presented in a way that has no restrictions on it. I would like to be a catalyst. I would like my life to be so true and so honest a reflection of me that people see themselves." That's John Denver speaking - the 33 year old Buster Brown boy with the big granny glasses and sunshine smile who has parlayed his message into a multimillion dollar business and become the world's leading record seller. In spite of some critics' quips about his being a Pollyanna and his music - a fusion of folk, rock, country and even gospel songs - as insipid as a vanilla milkshake, John has enormous appeal. Privately, Denver is more complex than meets the eye. he practices yoga, has been Rolfed (the painful massage therapy to relieve body tensions), studied aikido (applying pressure to energy centers of the body) with his bodyguard who uses it to stop aggressors nonviolently, covets his private 20 minutes, morning and night, for transcendental meditation and believes, as do a number of faddists in the energy given off by pyramids. Denver's wholesome, upbeat image is no accident. In fact, according to some close associates, it was his manager-partner-best friend Jerry Weintraub who carefully nurtured Denver's guru of pop music image. Weintraub took him in charge in 1969, when Denver first attracted attention by writing Peter, Paul and Mary's recording hit "Leaving On A Jet Plane." Weintraub was cognizant that Denver was a rather odd commodity to sell. The talent was there, but his didn't look like a macho star with his squinty eyes, Muppet smile and loner attitude, which had plagued John since childhood when he grew up on one Air Force military post after another, wherever his father, Lt. Col. "Dutch" Deutchendorf, was sent. Denver didn't act like a star, either, when Weintraub took him in hand. That's why he arranged a few guest spots on the Merv Griffin Show and packed him off to London for six BBC shows. "I found out I could use the medium to further my music," John said, "and that's what I am interested in doing." He returned full of new poise and lots of confidence in front of the camera. He was ready, Weintraub felt, for full exposure to the American public: first in college concerts, then bigger concerts, on into the recording field and, eventually, in films. (He costars with George Burns in Warner Brothers' summer release, "Oh God" directed by Carl Reinder and produced by Jerry Weintraub.) In short, John's career was engineered so he would be discovered by the public. No better way to make them feel he belongs to them. Oddly enough, that's what was brewing in Denver's mind way back when he was in Texas Tech studying to be an architect. Music kept intruding, and John got more and more frustrated. "So I opted to go see if I could realize that dream inside of me. I was 20. I felt I had the time to try to make it work or get it out of my system so I could be serious about my studies." His family's reaction surprised him. "Everybody said i was making the biggest mistage of my life, except my mother and father. Now, they felt I was making a mistake, but they gave me $200 and said 'Go do this thing and when you get tired of messing around, come home.'" Denver looked radiant. "To me, that is the clearest example of love that I've had in my experience. Love is letting you be who you are. And that's what we plan to do with Zach and Anna Kate." Zachary is John's and his wife /Anne's 2 1/2 year old adopted son whose parentage is Cherokee Indian. Anna Kate is their recently adopted Oriental-American baby girl. Denver didn't really put down roots until he married Anne Martell. used to being a transient, he headed to Los Angeles after his breakout from Texas Tech. There he changed his family name of Deutchendorf to Denver because it was a better marquee name and because it was a happy and constant reminder of the mountains he loves so much. A lifeguard job in Long Beach and a drafting job in L.A. held him together. Then he landed a job at a well known club that used new talent. "Quite often when people start in music, they are so intent on copying someone successful, or reaching a specific audience, that they lose sight of what they want. I've been blessed because I've never wanted to be like anybody else. At Ledbetter's I was given the great opportunity to find out what I wanted to do, what worked and what didn't on stage, and I found out who I was as a performer." Then when John heard there was an opening in the Chad Mitchell trio, he was off. In spiteof a terrible cold, he auditioned and won over 250 applicants for Chad Mitchell's place. It wasn't his voice that landed him the job, said Milton, the trio's recording producer. "He lit up the room with his personality." Next, he met Annie, a coed at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., when he went there on tour. It was not her musical ability which attracted him. "Annie has one of the worst voices," John told me, "but she sings with enthusiasm. I prefer that to technique in music any time." Annie didn't make his concert, but she came to the informal gathering afterward in the student union. "She came in wearing loafers, jeans and an old plaid shirt with an ACT sign for a melodrama skit she was in, and I thought she was beautiful. Later they asked me to sing, and I sang every song to her." Ten months passed before John had occasion to see Annie again. "I was in another concert 15 miles away. We'd spoken about two words that first time, but I remembered. I got her phone number, called her, and she raced over to the concert and back to her dorm. That was our first date. I courted her nine months and then we got married. That was nine years ago." Today the Denvers deeply value their privacy, and if you were to walk up to their $150,000 home on their seven acre Starwood estate in Aspen, Colorado, you'd find a sign saying "Please don't bother us. You are not welcome here. Thank you!" At first you're shocked. Then you remember his desire to live the truth, and what could be a more honest statement? "Privacy is the hardest thing for me, and I value it the most" John says. That's why we have this security gate. People don't realize that they are not the oly ones wanting to come by. I'd love to have them tell me how my music reaches them, but it's not possible with 450 cars a day stopping. So now I have a man down there so if people want to leave a note, or get an autographed picture, they can do that." Throughout all of his learning experiences, which he uses commercially as songs or TV specials, Denver came to realize that "music is far more than just entertainment. It's a tool for coping." Music breathes life into him, just as he charges his music with life. "One of my favorite things is to go camping" he once remarked. "Annie and I go as much as we can - which hasn't been often because I haven't had time. But a couple of weeks ago we took off in a four wheel drive vehicle back up to our favorite lake, and wee took a cooler of beer and steaks, and I mean camping gets to be fantastic. Well, I took my guitar and a raft I blow up, and I got out in themiddle of the lake after dinner and floated around and sang to the mountains and the stars and it was absolutely great. Really far out."