re: Did Garth Brooks Rip Country Music's Soul Out?

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To be fair to Denver, I don't think he really ever saw himself as a country music guy. He was more folk than country....soft rock.

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John Denver once said (paraphrased) that at one time, country music was called country and western, with the country portion representing the sound and music of the southeast and Appalachians, and the western portion representing Texas, the cowboys, and the western part of the country. This was the part of country and western where John saw himself. By the 1970s, the western portion had gotten lost, or had been forgotten, and so he didn't feel like there was really a place for him in the redefined country music.

I, personally, don't see John Denver as the western/cowboy music archetype. I think, as you said, he is much more of a folk artist, along the lines of an early Dylan (though not to his caliber), Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul & Mary (plus they were the first to have success with Leaving on a Jet Plane).