The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 71: Head In The Clouds

Episode Date: August 22, 2017

Henry Junior just wanted to get out of Henry Senior's famous shadow.

This is the way I heard it. Henry Jr. did not want to get on that plane. No way. For one thing, it was tiny. For another, it was pointed in the wrong direction. And worst of all, it was piloted by his famous father. 48 hours earlier, the miserable 17-year-old had been sitting in a movie theater 1,500 miles away in Texas when his dad popped up on the newsreel before the feature again. The major had finally done it. He cracked 1,200 miles an hour and a B-58 hustler, smashing the existing Soviet record to pieces.

The audience had actually applauded. Well, good for Dad. Henry Sr. Legendary Test Pilot, Bonafide Cold War Hero. Henry Jr., miserable, friendless teenager, desperate to break free. Word to the Wise. If you're a restless teenager sick and tired of moving from one military town to the next and thinking about stealing your dad's car for an unauthorized road trip to Hollywood,

make sure your dad isn't a famous test pilot, because if he is, it's entirely possible he'll chase your ass across the desert in a private jet and fly you and your beat-up old guitar back to Fort Worth in abject humiliation, which is precisely what happened to young Henry. On the return trip, things were tense in the tiny cockpit. At 10,000 feet, the major finally spoke. "'Well, son, you have anything to say for yourself?' "'Jrior stared blankly out the window,

"'the very picture of teenage angst. "'No, sir. "'Do you understand how irresponsibly you've behaved?' "'Yes, sir.' "'The major regarded the petulant boy in the passenger seat. "'He knew he was frustrated. "'He knew he was lonesome and tired of the military life, "'but stealing a Plymouth has consequences.

"'Do you know what kind of plane this is? No, sir. The decorated aviator smiled to himself. Well, allow me to show you. With a flick of his wrist, the sky disappeared, and then it reappeared, and then it disappeared again. And then Jr.'s lunch reappeared as the little plane came out of a double inversion. Any questions? No, sir. Henry Jr. readjusted his oversized glasses, cleaned the puke off the front of his shirt and rested his blonde head against the passenger window. Lesson learned, senior was still calling the shots. He was just along for the ride. A year later, after graduating high school, Henry tried again. This time he grabbed the old guitar his grandmother gave him when he was 11, boarded a commercial jet, and arrived in the city of angels without vomiting once.

In fact, he wrote a song about his plane ride and sold it to some folk singers who thought it had a nice vibe. Then Henry got busy doing all the things that people do who want to make it and show business. He got an agent, he auditioned, and of course he changed his name. Henry was done being a junior, and with 13 letters inconveniently grouped up, Henry's German surname was not only unpronounceable. It was too long to fit on a marquee. So the artist, formerly known as Henry, left his father's name behind and pulled a new name off a map of the United States, a name that he would later write felt like coming home to a place he'd never been before. In time, the restless son of a bona fide war hero became a bona fide movie star

and a regular guest on the Muppet Show, as well as the Tonight Show. He even filled in for Johnny Carson now and then. But if you don't recall his on-cats, career, you might recall a few of the tunes he cranked out on that beat-up guitar of his. Unless, of course, you were one of the critics who called his songs egregious, juvenile, monuments to sophomoric, pabulum, and my personal favorite, music so unapologetically sentimental and dopey, it makes the Muppets with whom he associates seem positively urban by comparison. Happily, the son of the famous test pilot didn't much care about the opinion of critics,

and neither did America. That sappy little number he wrote about his airplane ride, for instance, the one he sold to Peter Paul and Mary. That went all the way to the top of the charts, as did his unabashed musical love letters to all the places in America he'd yearned to escape to while living in the shadow of his father. But if Jr. was really trying to escape the ghost of his old man, he chose a strange hobby, aviation. The more money he made, and he made plenty, the more he poured into experimental aircraft, and the more hours he spent high above the spinning earth. There, the man whose voice had become a solace, finally found solace for himself. In the the trails of the stratus clouds, he didn't have to be that alter ego, who fans adored and critics

derided. He could just be Henry Jr. exploring the landscape of his father's house. He took the Rutan long, easy through a series of maneuvers that would have made the major proud and executed another perfect landing. He taxied his homemade plane across the short runway and pop the cowling. What an amazing aircraft. Henry Jr. did not want to get a lot. off this plane. No way. On the ground, he had a brief chat with the crew, but never took off his helmet. In a few moments, he was back in the air, high over Monterey Bay. A few moments after that, he ran out of gas. Fortunately, he had an auxiliary tank. He reached for the fuel switch. Unfortunately, it was set behind him and too far back. The famous pilot stretched hard for the

switch and lost control. The sky disappeared. Then it reappeared. and then it disappeared forever. On the big screen, he talked to God. On the TV, he talked to puppets. On the radio, he talked to the places he loved most. The Rocky Mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Shenandoah River. Maybe up there in the clouds, he talked to his father. I guess we'll never know because the man who started his career by leaving on a jet plane

would not be coming back again. not from this trip. Henry Deutscheendorf, Jr. had taken his final flight, but he left behind an enduring legacy, the poems, prayers, and promises of the one and only. John Denver.

Anyway, that's the way I heard it. If you work in university maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP, because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip-off, and Granger is your trusted partner. Offering the products you need, all in one place,

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