re: John Denver wasn’t from West Virginia, Merle wasn’t from Muskogee, and other lies told

I refuse to believe that Marvin Gaye didn’t Hear it through the grapevine

The country music band Alabama pretty much fricked over the drummer during their longest run, Mark Herndon, and now try to refer to him as just another guy despite 20+ years in the band and from their earliest hit songs.
Dick move, Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook.

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I just had my world turned upside down when someone told me John Denver was born in New Mexico and never lived in West Virginia.

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You do realize that Denver did not write most of the song? The verses and chorus had already been written, including the West Virginia part, by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert. They intended on selling the song to Johnny Cash but Denver heard it and loved it. So the three of them wrote the bridge.

Here's another thing that might blow your mind, Denver wasn't John's surname, it was Deutschendorf . And John is his middle name, first name Henry.

And yet another thing that might blow your mind, sometimes singers sing about things they haven't done themselves. Bowie has never been in space in a space ship, neither has Elton John... (again two people who changed their names). Freddie Mercury (another name change!) never killed a man by putting his gun against the man's head, pulling the trigger, making him dead. Tommy Shaw has never been a wanted Renegade. Jon Bon Jovi has never gone down in a Blaze of Glory and Robert Plant has never been hanged on the Gallow's Pole.

The list goes on and on.... be prepared to have your would permanently turned upside down.

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Does Sir Mix-A-Lot even like big butts?

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I think you can rest assured that he does indeed like large posteriors.

What is this, LSD and pot night?

People tend to think Kid Rock is southern Jesus. Except he’s trailer trash from Romeo Michigan.

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That you make good threads.

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Well, at least I write my own threads, good or bad.

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Johnny Cash stole a big chunk of that song from Beverly Maher and Gordon Jenkins.

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Interesting. I love the Johnny Cash song and didn't know that history.

Here's some more perspective from the top comment on YouTube:

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Some dates worth noting: the album this song was on made the Billboard Top Ten in late 1953/early 1954. Cash's song came out in December 1955. Cash wasn't stealing an obscure song by unknown artists. He was using a recent chart hit by one of Sinatra's arrangers. Cash's song didn't attract much attention at the time because country music didn't have the huge audience it would later have.

Jump ahead to 1968: Cash's live Folsom City Prison concert is released in May. "Folsom City Blues" becomes a top 40 hit and THEN it becomes a big deal. Later, Cash had this to say about "writing" the song in the early 1950s:

"At the time, I really had no idea I would be a professional recording artist; I wasn't trying to rip anybody off. So when I later went to Sun to record the song, I told Sam Phillips that I rewrote an old song to make my song, and that was that. Sometime later I met up with Gordon Jenkins and we talked about what had happened, and everything was right."

Did Cash rip off Jenkins? Absolutely - and he paid Jenkins 100 grand as a result.
Did Cash turn the song into a genuine Johnny Cash masterpiece? Absolutely - and you can't price on something like that.

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Elton John never went out with a girl named Suzy