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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) – On September 27, Bill O\u2019Brien took the stage at the 24th annual Mountain Harvest Festival. <\/p>\n
Bill O\u2019Brien\u2019s performance festival was his first time back in Paonia since the retirement party the community held for him. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels wonderful. It feels really nice to be able to be here and to be able to visit with people in a personal instead of a professional way. I feel freer to just take my time and hug people and talk to people,\u201d said Bill O\u2019Brien, Musician\/retired UPS driver. <\/p>\n
For many, O\u2019Brien is remembered for more than deliveries. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe got more than just a package delivery guy. We got a person who cared. We got a person who always delivered with a smile, always had a story, always had attitude of just wanting to serve his customers, serve his people well,\u201d said Tim Austin, Paonia resident. <\/p>\n
Residents said his impact goes far beyond music. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese other guys and gals, the replacements, they\u2019re going to have a lot to live up to. So I\u2019m not sure how they\u2019re going to do it, but all I know is that Bill is going to be missed. Bill is a pretty special guy and a once in a lifetime type of person. Our valley has been really privileged to have him,\u201d said Josh McIntire, Paonia resident. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien said the love he\u2019s received from Paonia keeps bringing him back. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just really nice to see so many people that I know just show up and they put out their lawn chairs. And then to be able to share my brother\u2019s passing, to be able to share that with them because I know how much they care. They care for me in a level that\u2019s different than just delivery man, so it\u2019s nice to be able to share that with other people,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n
Residents at the festival said they hope to see O\u2019Brien continue to visit Paonia and perform for them in the future. They said that while it is weird not having him around, they are happy to see him at this new stage of life. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien also said that he is going to continue playing music, whether teaching at an elementary school or trying to form a consistent band. He plans on visiting Paonia as often as he can. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 KKCO. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kkco11news.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) – On September 27, Bill O\u2019Brien took the stage at the 24th annual Mountain Harvest Festival. Bill O\u2019Brien\u2019s performance festival was his first time back in Paonia since the retirement party the community held for him. \u201cIt feels wonderful. It feels really nice to be able to be here and to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[382284,22035,339862,382288,382285,21800,22587,382287,382286],"class_list":["post-2055293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-bill-obrien","tag-community","tag-delivery","tag-montrose","tag-mountain-harvest-festival","tag-music","tag-musician","tag-paonia","tag-ups"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2055293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2055293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2055293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2055293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}