ASPEN, Colo.-
A lawmaker wants to make John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” Colorado’s second state song, saying the current official song just isn’t as memorable.
“You hear a few bars of John Denver and you recognize it,” Democratic state Sen. Bob Hagedorn told the Aspen Daily News in Monday’s editions.
The current state song is “Where the Columbines Grow.”
“That’s not a song that a lot of Coloradans know or can hum the lyrics to,” said Hagedorn, who represents the Denver suburb of Aurora.
Hagedorn wants to introduce legislation this month that would make “Rocky Mountain High” an official state song without displacing “Where the Columbines Grow.” He said most of the copyright arrangements have been made and now he is trying to line up support in the state Senate and House.
Denver, who lived in Aspen, died in a plane crash near Monterey, Calif., on Oct. 12, 1997.
His brother, Ron Deutschendorf, supports Hagedorn’s idea, saying Denver would have been “proud and honored.”
“It’s been discussed for a period of time, and this year is the 10-year anniversary of his accident,” Deutschendorf said.
