Charles Wesley Godwin has no doubt about what state John Denver penned “Take Me Home, Country Roads” for.
During a recent appearance on the God’s Country podcast, the West Virginia native slammed speculation that the 1971 tune is about Virginia, not West Virginia.
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“There’s always that person that’s like, ‘You know, the song is about Virginia or about western Virginia,’” he said. “Those people drive me f**king nuts. It’s the smuggest, most annoying thing ever [when people say], ‘It’s about Virginia, actually.’”
“If you’re coming from D.C., swing through Harper’s Ferry and tell me it’s about Virginia, not West Virginia,” Godwin continued. “It drives me nuts… It’s about West Virginia.”
Charles Wesley Godwin Reveals How He Knows the Origins of “Take Me Home, Country Roads”
Godwin continued by claiming that he knows the song’s about West Virginia “for a fact.” He said he confirmed as much when he wrote his own track, “Cue Country Roads,” with West Virginia University in mind.
“That had to go through John Denver’s estate… I paid a royalty to John Denver’s estate in order to have that song,” Godwin said. “I met the manager, I met family members and stuff. That song’s about West Virginia.”
During that process, members of Denver’s estate told Godwin the story of how the song came to be.
“They played in D.C. the night before and they’re headed west,” he said of Denver and co-writers Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert. “They were going through the eastern panhandle and gone through Harper’s Ferry and all. They were writing the song that day in the car.”
“The Blue Ridge Mountains are on the eastern side of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, but it can be an adjective as well, cause all the Appalachians look blue when you see them out in the distance,” Godwin continued. “The Shenandoah River runs right through that part of the eastern panhandle.”
Godwin ended his rant by once again by reiterating that the whole thing “makes me so mad.”
“Every time, inevitably, there’s someone on Twitter, some smug sports writer, that’s like, ‘Actually, the song…,’” he said. “They always think when they say it too that they are the only one that has had that thought. It drives me up the wall.”
Photo by Jason Davis/Getty Images for SiriusXM
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