nobody could work an audience like john denver.me you're so relaxed onstage?" i said, "i had the best teacher." john denver taught me to be myself onstage. >> it was quite an experience for all of us, the band members and the wives and my friends and all of our friends, watching john, you know, make the transition from a well-known singer-songwriter to a household name. >> whoo-hoo! thank god i'm a country boy! yes, i am! >> john denver had a profound effect on so many of us. several years after his death, we, his friends, are able to speak about him. >> ♪ oh. ♪ rocky mountain high. i can't remember not singing. evidently, from the time i could first talk, i started repeating the songs that i heard on the radio, and they called me "jitterbug" as a matter of fact. i think that's because that was kind of the popular music form at the time, and my grandmother gave me a guitar when i was 12 years old. it was a guitar that she had played in her younger years. >> and i got the guitar out, and i let him pick around on it, and he just trie