About the song
What John Denver Said About His Wife Before He Died
In the years before his tragic death in 1997, John Denver — the beloved singer-songwriter whose music celebrated love, nature, and the simple joys of life — carried a deep sadness behind his ever-gentle smile. Known for timeless hits like “Annie’s Song,” “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” and “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” Denver was a man who poured his heart into every lyric he wrote. But few people knew that some of his most tender words in his final years were about the woman who had once been the center of his world — his first wife, Annie Martell Denver.
Their love story was the stuff of music legend. They met in the late 1960s when Denver was still a struggling musician and Annie was a Minnesota girl with kind eyes and a quiet spirit. They married in 1967, and their love inspired one of the most beautiful love songs ever written — “Annie’s Song,” composed in just ten minutes during a ski lift ride in Aspen. “She filled up my senses,” he would later explain, “just like the mountains, the trees, the night.” The song became a global anthem for romance — but behind that beauty lay a relationship slowly fraying under the weight of fame.
By the early 1980s, the pressures of Denver’s success — endless touring, public scrutiny, and emotional distance — had taken their toll. The couple divorced in 1982, though they remained connected through their memories and the two adopted children they raised together. Yet, in interviews years later, John often spoke of Annie with wistful affection. “She was my muse,” he said. “No matter what happened between us, I will always be grateful for what we shared. She was the inspiration behind my best song — and my best self.”
Friends close to Denver said that even after his remarriage and second divorce, Annie remained a presence in his thoughts. “He never stopped loving her in his own way,” one longtime friend revealed. “He’d talk about how he wished things had been different, how he’d hurt her more than he should have.”
In one of his final interviews before the plane crash that claimed his life on October 12, 1997, John reflected quietly on the meaning of love and regret. “You don’t always get forever with the people who change your life,” he said. “But if you’re lucky, you get to keep their spirit with you. Annie will always be a part of me — in every song I sing, in every mountain I climb.”
Those words now feel hauntingly prophetic — the reflection of a man coming to peace with his past. Though his plane went down off the coast of California that fateful day, his voice and his love story continue to soar above the clouds.
Even today, when “Annie’s Song” plays, listeners can feel John Denver’s heart — full of longing, gratitude, and a love that never truly ended. As Annie herself once said, “He may be gone, but his music still fills up our senses — just like he always wanted.”
