Did John Denver hate Jehovah's Witnesses?

by free2beme 46 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  startingover

  Did anyone else read that link on Rebel8's post?

  Here are a couple of posts on that thread:

  I heard that John Denver used to throw JWs into the crowd at the start of the show and would refuse to play until they came back to the stage dead. Used to really get the crowd fired up for Annie's Song.

  The way I heard it was that Bob Denver was doing a TRIBUTE to John Denver (you know how much they looked alike, and Bob strummed a mean guitar) and one night when the crowd got all inflamed by a ragin' version of "Stairway to Rocky Mountain High," somebody threw a JW onto the stage and Bob bit his head off. He said later he thought it was a rubber JW, though.

  LMFAO!!
• 

  divejunkie

  They same the same thing about Gloria Estefan. Don't know why -have no proof.
• 

  Country Girl

  I really don't know a whole lot about John Denver and his predilection for asking JW's to leave his concert, but I *do know* that his Father LOVED JW's, or maybe he just loved good golfers. His Father (and I'm not sure if he was a JW) used to play golf with the brother and sister that I babysat for. He had the wierdest last name: Duschendorf. I met him a few times when I was 12 and was babysitting in the summer for Brother and Sister Smith in Denver. He would stop by early and pick Brother Smith up and off they would go to the golf course. He was a pretty laid-back nice old guy, from what I remember. I met his wife, once, too, and she was sweet as cherry cobler! Of course, I look back now and I see Brother Smith as a person that was suckin ass.. so maybe my perception is all wrong.

  CG
• 

  startingover

  Here's something I just heard from my ex-bethelite friend.

  A musician named Wayne Stewart was living on Colorado and was friends with John Denver. He became a JW and eventually moved to Kentucky. He eventually became an elder, then went to Bethel and was also a Bethel elder. He left Bethel and came back to Colorado and eventually left the JW's, possibly disillusioned by 1975. Apparently he stayed friends with Denver, and as a JW he gave him literature which he said he read and was not opposed to. I googled it and came up with this:

  http://www.emusic.com/artist/10565/10565650.html

  My ex-bethelite friend's JW sister and her husband were friends, and were in fact married by Stewart. The husband and Stewart were in Colorado and then ended up in Kentucky where he met my friends sister and ended up marrying her. Maybe there are some ex-bethelites who may know of this guy and can confirm.

  Stewart also told them that John Denver slept under a pyramid shaped tent, which he supposedly felt he got some power from. He did this after reading some of Russell's pyramid stuff. (I just made up the last sentence about Russell, so I hope that doesn't turn into an urban legend)

  It just struck me that maybe it was Stewart's feelings toward the JW's after he left that may have caused Denver to do what he allegedly did.
• 

  AuldSoul

  Auldsoul - did you mean that you were actually a witness to this?

  No. My non-JW uncle was. He didn't leave the concert, but it struck him powerfully because his entire family (including my mom) are JWs, it surprised him. He shared the story at a family reunion.

  Respectfully,
  AuldSoul
• 

  AuldSoul

  Also agree that there's no way people would be asked to leave a concert due to their religion!

  I would love to see the civil right that guarantees that entertainment shall be available to all regardless of religion. I am sure the box office refunded the smattering of tickets of JW concert goers, much the same as a theater will refund the tickets of persons with loud babies who are asked to leave, and I don't know that this happened at every concert.

  Jehovah's Witnesses are (1) a fringe group, (2) a societal nuisance, (3) the butt of jokes, (4) poorer than the average citizen, and (5) apolitical.

  John Denver's fan base is predominantly (1) Protestant Christian, (2) civic-minded, (3) patriotic, (4) typical income for the average citizen, and (5) voters.

  Please explain why it would make a difference whether these people were asked to leave. And please explain who would take up the case in their behalf against John Denver, because it is unlikely they could afford to pursue it on their own.

  Respectfully,
  AuldSoul
• 

  CaptainSchmideo

  I heard that John Denver used to throw JWs into the crowd at the start of the show and would refuse to play until they came back to the stage dead. Used to really get the crowd fired up for Annie's Song.

  The way I heard it was that Bob Denver was doing a TRIBUTE to John Denver (you know how much they looked alike, and Bob strummed a mean guitar) and one night when the crowd got all inflamed by a ragin' version of "Stairway to Rocky Mountain High," somebody threw a JW onto the stage and Bob bit his head off. He said later he thought it was a rubber JW, though.

  Oh, God, my SIDES! I am still at work, and getting all sorts of strange looks while I strangle in my own laughter!

  You forgot to mention the urine bucket that was supposed to be filled so that he could....never mind, not going there!

  Oh!, and the time he collapsed on stage, and when they pumped his stomach, he had several gallons of ...nope, not going there either!
• 

  Seeker4

  No disrespect intended, AuldSoul, but this makes absolutely no sense.

  I'm a newspaper reporter, and if I heard that, say for example, Neal Young regularly asked if there were any Mormons at his concert, and then made them leave, I would be all over that. That's a form of religious discrimination, which I think you'll find is illegal in this country. What if he'd told all the blacks in the audience to leave? Same principle. Any reporter or journalist who heard this at a concert would certainly have made an issue of it and written about it.

  Also, your lists of comparisons between Denver and the JWs is meaningless. Poor, apolitical and the butt of jokes or not, the Witnesses have won more civil rights cases in US courts than probably any other group, and you likely know that.

  The fact that these exact same stories are being told about Don Ho, Chris Duburg (sp?) and John Denver smacks of urban legend. The total lack of anything but third person hearsay is important. Let someone produce some concert footage, a tape or a newspaper or magazine article that mentions it in anything but urban myth terms.

  Denver was supposedly doing this in the 60s and 70s, when civil rights was a huge issue. No matter how fringe JWs were, this would have been big news. Sorry, can't believe this. It would certainly have made the press if a well-known, liberal and well-liked entertainer was practicing religious discrimination at his concerts.

  S4
• 

  mkr32208

  I think anyone who knows much about the witnesses would hate them AS A GROUP! They are leeches on society they don't have ANY charities they do nothing to help the world in ANY POSSIBLE WAY!

  I hate them too!
• 

  Elsewhere

  http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=33;t=001060;p=1

  1- The cover to Billy Joel's 1994 album "River of Dreams" is based on the
  text/illustrations from the 1984 book published by the Watchtower Society
  entitled "You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth". The rumor has it
  that his sister is a JW and she gave him the book.
  
  2- The Tommy James & the Shondells song "Crystal Blue Persuation" is based
  on the Watchtower book from the 1960s entitled "The Truth that Leads to
  Eternal Life". The book, naturally, has a blue cover.
  
  3- John Denver hated JWs, even going so far as to ask, before he began his
  concerts, that any JW in the audience please leave.

  I heard that John Denver used to throw JWs into the crowd at the start of the show and would refuse to play until they cam back to the stage dead. Used to really get the crowd fired up for Annie's Song.

  The way I heard it was that Bob Denver was doing a TRIBUTE to John Denver (you know how much they looked alike, and Bob strummed a mean guitar) and one night when the crowd got all inflamed by a ragin' version of "Stairway to Rocky Mountain High," somebody threw a JW onto the stage and Bob bit his head off. He said later he thought it was a rubber JW, though.