John Denver

American guitarist, singer, composer, actor, humanitarian, and environmentalist born December 31, 1943 in Roswell, New Mexico and died October 12, 1997 at Pacific Grove, California when the single-engine airplane he was piloting crashed into the sea. He was 53 years old. He is known for popularizing acoustic folk music in the 1970s as part of the ongoing singer-songwriter movement of the mid-to-late 20th century. Denver is widely recognized as a cultural icon of the American West. He began his career as a folk singer in The Mitchell Trio and Denver, Boise & Johnson in the 1960s, before beginning his successful solo country and pop career of the 1970s and 80s. He was one of the top five best-selling artists of all time with 14 gold and eight platinum albums in the United States. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1996.