This month, PBS has chosen the recent film "A Song's Best Friend, John Denver Remembered" for broadcast during their national pledge drive.
The new DVD features commentary from some of those closest to John: his first wife, Annie, and some of his fellow writers, managers and collaborators, as well as a moving tribute from Jean Michel Cousteau.
For those of us familiar with John's work it's an emotional journey filled with personal video, clips from specials and his best concerts; for those new to the amazing person that John Denver was it's a phenomenal introduction to the man, his music, and his causes.
Many don't know that John Denver was not only a musician and environmentalist but was a key figure in many other international endeavors and was instrumental in the 1985 Senate hearings on music censorship along with The Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra, Frank Zappa and Twisted Sister's Dee Snider. They fought the PMRC (Parent's Music Resource Center -- a group founded by Tipper Gore) to retain freedom of expression in the music industry.
John Denver is pretty much our number one hero, so it made us weepy and very sentimental to watch the film. As his brother said, echoing John's own words to Rolling Stone, on VH1 Behind the Music: John Denver, "I don't care if he was the Mickey Mouse of rock and roll."
Your legacy lives on, John.
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