 November 19,1977 John Denver (33) returned to Australia to do his 2nd Australian concert tour.John's dad Dutch( Henry Duetschendorf) came with John on this tour. What a great guy! ( I must say that). So down to earth like John. Tom Crum also was him this time. Tom is such a cool guy. When John arrived in Brisbane from New Zealand He asked for a motorcycle, as he just wanted to go off on his own for a while. Just a few hours . John told his promoters "It's the best way I know to getting the feel of the place". The promoters were eager to oblige because "The John Denver tour" was a million dollar investment and an afternoon at loose in Brisbane was about the only free time John would have. John thought it was "FAR OUT" that Australians wanted to hear him sing songs like Rocky Mountain High and other songs he had written about his beloved Rocky Mountains in Colorado. " It's Funny" he said " I come to Australia and I get huge audiences who want to hear me sing about places they've never been to and probably never will" "I suppose I should change the words for Australia and sing the local equivalents and make the songs Ayers Rock High and Fraser Island High. But somehow I don't think I will". (Wow I think John made a good move there.) Besides the 6 concerts John was doing in Australia at this time, he was also doing a 90 minute TV special called "John Denver In Australia" for the American broadcasting Corporation. (More on the special below). But John was not worried about the gruelling schedule he had set for himself. " It will mean I'll see a lot more of the country, than I would otherwise",he said "I'll be going to places like Alice Springs and Ayers Rock" "Is that what you people call the outback? It sure sounds like the outback to me" It was going to be a Huge concert. John was taking 100 people around Australia with him. They included the promoters and the American ABC network, these people chartered two airliners and two Lear jets to get the task done. Not to mention the roadies. They brought several tons of sound equipment and lighting equipment, a huge aluminium and plastic roof which he worked under during his out door concerts. John at this stage of his life had sold more than 30 million LPs, he was solidly on the side of people who wanted to leave uranium in the ground and was totally involved with the countryside until his untimely death in 1997. When John was away from home he missed Annie and the kids very much. He told the papers here on this tour " I'm essentially domestic, I really want just want to be with my wife and children and have Colorado to walk around in". John called home every night. John's first concert on this tour was in Brisbane at Lang Park on the 19th of November. I must mention here that John used The Sydney Orchestra with him on this tour. John arrived in Sydney NSW aboard an Ansett flight at about 1pm on the 21st of Nov and headed to the Boulevard Hotel in the centre of Sydney and checked into his room #2035. After spending a short time in his room he headed to the Sydney Opera House for his sound check. I personally found out from John just how grueling his life was. After the sound check he had only enough time to grab something to eat and then shower and get ready for his concert. John did his first Sydney concert at the Sydney Opera House on Nov.21 The audience & John had a ball doing it. John came on stage, everyone started clapping John said "Thank you and welcome to our show tonight , here at the beautiful Opera House...Boy Oh Boy. We have a whole lot of songs we wanna do for ya this evening, some old ones an some news ones. I hope in the program we got planned for you include some that are among your favorites. We invite you to relax and kind of ease back in your seats, anytime you feel like singin along I want you to do that. You don't even have to limit yourselves to the choruses gang. If your in the mood go for it ...if you know what I mean" He than started singing "Rocky Mountain High". John followed with "Back Home Again", "Fly Away", "Looking for Space", "I Want to Live", "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie","Moreton Bay", "Grandma's Feather Bed". John then started to sing "Thank God I'm A Country Boy", everyone starting getting way ahead of him. So he stopped playing and said..... "Eh EH EH EH Now folks, Ya set a tempo you gotta stay with it. Don't get all excited and speed up and everything like that. Were makin a record here tonight and we wanna...... get it right.Take two ....as they say in the record business. That's when we all found out about "Live at the Sydney Opera House". Although we did not know the name of it then. After "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" John continued with"Take Me Home Country Roads", "The Eagle and the Hawk", and finish with "Annie's Song". What a great concert it was. After John did his Sydney concert he flew on an Ansett flight to Melbourne to perform at the Myer Music Bowl on the 23 of November. A friend of mine was at that concert at the Myer Music Bowl. She was a student, so she had no money to buy a ticket, so she went along and sat outside the enclosure. After a while, she decided she needed to see the stage, so she climbed one of the trees in the gardens and got a small bit of a view.( I don't blame ya) He then flew to Perth to perform at the Entertainment Centre on the 26 Of November, then to Adelaide to perform at the Football Park at Westlakes on 30th of November. John arrived back in Sydney on an Ansett Flight to do one more concert. But first he headed back to the Boulevard Hotel to freshen up. On December 3, John did his Outdoor concert at the Sydney Sports Ground. A lot of people had spent the night outside the sportsground. The concert was due to start at 8 pm. Everyone outside the gates were having a great time. All you could hear was people playing John's music & singing. The atmosphere was "FAR OUT!!!!! " I was told by John he would be there about 2.30 pm to do a sound check & to make sure everything was going on schedule. John arrived and did his sound check it sounded so great. When the time came everyone went for their seats. To our left was Robbie Benson, Debbie Boone & Susan St.James. (Reason for them being there is explained below.) The show started just after 8 pm. John looked fantastic in his satin shirt. He sang a total of 29 songs that night he was going to sing 30 but they took one off the running order. The funniest part of the night was when he sang Moreton Bay. He was singing away & pronounced Port Macquarie as Port Macqueerie. Even though everyone laughed he kept his composure . At the end of the song he did his giggle that only John can do and asked. "Did I mispronounce one of those gang?" Everyone yelled Yes and he asked which one? We all said Port Macquarie, John replied isn't that what I said? We Yelled No! So he asked how he had said It. We told him Port Macqueerie. He laughed and said OH! and started banging his head on his Microphone. He then said "I'm so embarrassed... Well it's the thought that counts right?"he said. He was right. Another funny part was when he said 'I called home today Aspen got 8 inches of snow last night! Everbodys Skying" He then did his little giggle, then said "hey listen, we were in Adelaide a few days ago which is a beautiful, beautiful city and it's the only city I had the chance to get out in the country at all. I went out riding about on my motorcyle" Everyone giggled & cheered John said "Hey... Leave me alone" Smiling. He then continued "Anyway they have a place there called Mt Lofty..... That Ain't a mountain folks, thats barely a large Hill". Everyone Laughed. More than 30 thousand people turned up that night. It blows me away. After the show he asked if people could pick up a bit of trash on their way out to save the cleaners from having to do it all. John told us in the concert that it was being filmed and it would be shown in it's entirety. John was very upset when he found out they had cut a few songs out. John's Album "I Want To Live" was Released the week of the 20th of November,1977 here in Australia.  Back to Debbie Boone, Robbie Benson & Susan St.James. They came out with John to do the John Denver in Australia Special that was mentioned above. Included in the special were the following Lee Marvin and Australians Noel Ferrier and tennis champ John Newcombe The special was filmed at Ayers Rock, Alice Springs and Lizard Island. John did a mini concert while up at Ayers Rock before he they headed to Lizard Island where they did underwater segments on the barrier Reef. American producers of the show did not blink an eye when scheduled interstate airline services couldn't lift cast and crew for the Lee Marvin fishing segment to be filmed at Port Fairy, Victoria. They Chartered a Boeing from Ansett at a reported cost of $40.000! Once back in Sydney they did a scene depicting the days of Ned Kelly, John was dressed in the original suit that Mick Jagger had worn in the movie made several years before. The rest of the show was shot on Sydney Harbor, a local national park and Sydneys famous beaches. It took 10 days for the filming to be done. This Special screened in Australia on the Seven Network on Wednesday April 5 1978 at 7.30pm . And in America in the February of 1978.  Now for a piece of trivia, "Oh God premiered on the big screen on 8,December 1977".
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