Friday night I was flipping around the TV and came across a PBS station playing a documentary on John Denver. My first reaction was astonishment that they are able to raise funds with a John Denver show but then I realized the extent of his popularity with people my age. I guess we are the age to support PBS stations these days.

While it was great to hear this music, I learned some really interesting things about him. He was one of the first musicians to use his celebrity to raise money for a cause. He wrote and recorded the song “Caylapso” in 1975 as a tribute to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his research ship, the Calypso. Cousteau’s son was in the film and said while he didn’t know the exact amount, he knew that the song made a lot of money for the Cousteau Society.

Additionally, he was one of the first to work on hunger in Africa. He was asked to serve on the Presidential Commission on World and Domestic Hunger during the Carter years. He was one of the founders of The Hunger Project, an organization committed to the sustainable end of chronic hunger.

John toured African countries devastated by drought and starvation as a representative of UNICEF. He performed benefit concerts for global hunger and environmental efforts, and was even awarded the Presidential “World Without Hunger” award and yet despite all this work, he wasn’t invited to be part of the song “We are the World.” Seems like such a snub – someone who actually had done more than probably anyone else involved, wasn’t there. Unfortunately for him, his popularity had dwindled by the time that song was released.

His Windstar Foundation, which has since closed, was an environmental education and humanitarian organization and aimed to education people around the world about environmental issues.

I never knew all that about him and it gave me a better appreciation of him as a person. As a kid, I did have some John Denver socks. They were pretty cool with his face on them. I tried to find a picture online, but alas, there wasn’t one that I could find. You will just have to imagine how incredibly cool they were.

I’ve chosen “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” for today. It used to be sung at the 7th inning stretch at the Baltimore O’s games. Not sure if they still sing it but it is a great song.