When Somebody of John’s Caliber Calls, You Do What It Takes
Liberty, in one form or another, worked with John Denver for the next three years. I remember being on the road with Liberty in a motel in North Platte, Nebraska, when the phone rang. It was John Denver, saying he needed an opening act for a concert in Des Moines, Iowa. We consulted our “busy” band calendar and tried not to sound too anxious to accept. On the designated weekend, we loaded up two Volkswagens (one bug, and one wagon), and headed east from Aspen. There was no Interstate 70 then, so we headed up Loveland Pass on US 6 (11,990 feet).
Those were the days…
About a half mile short of the pass, the bug blew its engine. This was before cell phones and AAA cards, of course, so we pushed the bug up and over the pass with the wagon, and then we coasted the bug down to the parking lot at the Loveland Ski Area. Vic and I stuck out our thumbs and caught a ride with two doctors who’d been skiing and were late for their rounds at Denver General. It was a wild ride. Later that day I rode the Greyhound with the bass amp to Des Moines, while the others squeezed themselves and the rest of the gear into the wagon for the drive. When somebody of John’s caliber calls, you do what it takes.
For the remainder of 1973, Liberty played many club dates in Aspen, while also joining John Denver at Purdue University in Indiana, and on a mini-tour of the Pacific Northwest in Portland, Eugene, and Seattle. At these shows with John, we would play our set, then John would come on, and at the end of his set we would join him for three or four songs. For the Purdue concert, the flight from Denver was late, and by the time we’d driven to Lafayette, there was no time for anything but setting up and a brief sound check. By the time we had played our set we were tired and needed some fresh air. So, we let ourselves out of the stage door, which then shut behind us with an ominous “click.” Oops…locked out! A mad dash around the building finally yielded an open door with a merciful corridor to backstage, just in time for our return to the stage.
