A HISTORY OF THE JOHN DENVER INTERNET FAN CLUB
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by Emily M. Parris

In the beginning there was the Rocky Mountain High BBS (816) 753-2477 running from my home in Kansas City, Missouri. It was a place to amass files and collect information. I got it up and running in December of 1992. I devoted the next few months to wading through my crates of information about John from the 20+ years during which I've been a fan of his and getting the information into ascii text. Many of the documents here on the RMH web page are from those humble beginnings with the RMH BBS. It was online 24 hours a day for several years, but now 'Rocky Mountain High' is strictly on the internet since that is where the J.D. fans are and there is no limit to where they can come from. I found that there just wasn't enough interest in J.D. among the local (Kansas City Metro Area) BBS enthusiasts to justify the monthly expense of the phone line. The Internet is so much better because the same files can be made available and yet they can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

It was in April of 1994 that I was introduced to the internet and made a friend in England. He is also a John Denver fan and we started talking about John but then progressed to sorting out our "common" language and customs. I must mention him because it was in the course of writing a letter to him that the idea for the club was born. All at once it came to me that I had everything I needed to work with to start a club and to bring John Denver fans from all around the world together on the internet. (1) I had my own writing talents and a backlog of poetry dedicated to John (2) free email on the internet (3) newsgroups to advertise the club in free (4) ascii text files already collected on the BBS. (5) Other than that I only needed my own time and effort.

There was another advantage to the internet as well. Although I am a John Denver fan and he has affected my life greatly, I am shy, and here on the internet that's not a problem either. So in April of 1994 I started posting notices. At first the only place I knew to post was "rec.music.country.western." I published the first newsletter in May of 1994 and it went out to only about 16 people. The club grew slowly over the summer, but by the fall of 1994 I started learning more about the internet and discovering that there were a lot of other newsgroups to which I could post.

The club really took off when I figured out how to create a newsgroup in the alt newsgroups domain. Since January of 1995 we have had our own newsgroup: "alt.fan.john-denver" where fans from all over the world can talk about John and this newsgroup continues to bring members into Rocky Mountain High. Then in February of that year the "Wildlife Concert" taping was announced. I think I might have been one of the first people who knew about it because Barbara Zadina asked me on the phone...."Do you think there are enough JD fans who would travel to New York City to see the taping?" I told her...."Yes, I'm sure there are because there are a number of J.D. fan clubs." Within a few days she was swamped with requests for tickets. :-)

Many of the RMH fans on the internet at that time were able to attend. My brother and I also took the bus to New York City on a whirl-wind 5 day trip where most of the time was spent on the bus since we could only afford one night in a NYC Hotel. It was a crazy 39 hours in NYC. We arrived the morning of the 1st night of taping, toured the city, saw the taping, and then collapsed that night in the hotel room since we were tired from 2 days on the bus. Then the next day we were off sightseeing again, saw the 2nd night of taping and then hopped on the bus again for the 48 hours trip back to Kansas City. It was strange to have John competing with the great city of New York for my attentions. It was also a gruelling trip, but then....how often do you get invited to watch John tape a live album? ? To me the best part of the taping of the "Wildlife Concert" were the out-takes - when John stopped singing and laughed saying he wanted to start again. After awhile the audience made a joke out of it saying..."Take Two" for him. It was so much fun to see him laugh and talk naturally and to actually witness all the work that goes into getting it perfect. It was wonderful....yet that part never gets seen. I wonder if any of the tape was kept? It would be wonderful to see a tape of "The Making of the Wildlife Concert" like they have for "Will The Circle Be Unbroken - Vol. 2".

I hope you will check out some of our back issues and send me an email to join our club and receive the newsletters. I hope you will join us. :-)

emily@parris.net

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