Charlie Rich did not appear to think very highly of John Denver.
Some say that today's country music really is more like hip hop or pop. There are a lot of people who think that George Strait may be the last true country musician.
But others go back even further, even suggesting that it was Patsy Cline who was the first that sent country music off the rails and into pop territory.
We had a record at our home in the 60's called "Countrypolitan Hits" which suggests that even back then some country musicians were trying to be more "relevant".
True believers seem to think that anything that came after blue grass ain't country.
Denver was one of those crossover musicians that some people welcomed into the country fold and others rejected.
To my mind Charlie Rich was no more country than anyone else at the time. A lot of the music from his era could be described as pop music with southern accents and steel guitars.