The Music Beat: Who owns ‘Country Roads’?

On Aug. 29, the University of Virginia Cavaliers beat North Carolina State University, 34-8, during the season opener. Rather than celebrate the win, some fans took to social media to criticize whoever took over the sound system during the second half, when John Denver’s hit, “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” blared through the loudspeakers.

FYI- UVA fans are playing and singing Country Roads. pic.twitter.com/1N4hGr0fsR

— Aaron Maloney (@maloney_aaron) August 29, 2026

“Playing the song BEFORE you play West Virginia is certainly a choice,” wrote Schuyler Callihan for Yahoo Sports.

It turns out, the fans themselves were to blame; they got to vote in the first half on which song would play during a second-half timeout. The 1970 hit is having a bit of a moment, too, after the U.S. national soccer team adopted the song during the recent World Cup.

Still, some questioned the voters’ wisdom, arguing that “Country Roads” really belongs to West Virginia – and the Cavaliers will face West Virginia University on Saturday in Charlotte, N.C.

The truth is somewhat more complicated.

“It makes sense that people from West Virginia would feel attached,” Jack Hamilton, a pop culture expert and associate professor of media studies at UVA, said. “It’s a designated state anthem, one of four, but it’s funny, because John Denver wasn’t from West Virginia.”

Neither was Bill Danoff, the writer behind one of country music’s best-known songs. Danoff, who also worked with country artists like Emmylou Harris, was from Springfield, Massachusetts. When he wrote “Country Roads,” he had never set foot in the state.

Danoff reportedly considered referring to his home state instead of West Virginia in the lyric, “West Virginia, mountain mama,” but didn’t think Massachusetts sounded musical enough.

“There’s a long history of that kind of thing in American music, of people writing about places they’re not from. One of John Denver’s other most famous songs is ‘Rocky Mountain High,’ which is about a completely different part of the country,” Hamilton said. He cited acts like the Florida band Lynyrd Skynyrd and Australian-British group the Bee Gees, who sang about Alabama and Massachusetts, respectively.

Jack Hamilton, a pop culture expert at UVA, said West Virginia’s attachment to the song “makes sense.” (University Communications photo)

Some Virginians like to claim that the “West Virginia” line refers to the western part of Virginia. After all, two major landmarks Danoff also referenced in the “Country Roads” lyrics – the Shenandoah River and the Blue Ridge Mountains – are largely within Virginia’s borders.

Danoff, a Georgetown University alumnus, said the song was actually inspired by a drive on Clopper Road in Montgomery County, Maryland, with his girlfriend, though he later said, “It didn’t have anything to do with Maryland or anyplace.”

That’s the key to the popularity of “Country Roads,” Hamilton said.

“The dictates of songwriting mean you’re not always going for accuracy. You’re going for what sounds good. One of the reasons I think that song has endured is because the lyrics are pretty simple. It lends itself to this big sing-along,” he said.

It may seem strange that a rather anodyne song stirred up this much controversy. But when sports get involved, both sides are likely to get territorial.

“I’m from Massachusetts, and at Boston Red Sox games, they always play ‘Sweet Caroline,’” Hamilton said. “If a rival team started playing that during the seventh-inning stretch, I’d get pretty mad – and that song doesn’t have anything to do with Boston.”

West Virginia also tends to get less spotlight than its neighbor.

“How many songs are written about West Virginia? There’s just not that many of them,” he said. “And then you have your neighboring state, which you used to be part of, sort of co-opting it. I can imagine why people would be bothered.”