Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,335

This is the grave of Kenny Rogers,

Born in 1938 in Houston, Rogers grew up in a poor family that like a lot of southern families, was interested in music. Rogers got that gene. The first person in his family to graduate from high school, he had work his way through it, at least from the time he was 14 or so. He also started singing. There was some doo wop early on and he had a minor hit in 1957 with “That Crazy Feeling.” Then he was in a jazz combo called the Bobby Doyle Three that recorded for Columbia and had a regional fan base in Texas. Rogers was attending the University of Texas at that time as well.

Rogers became a guy in the 60s. By this, I mean one of those people in the music world who are sort of everywhere without making it big. He was a big session guy in the country music industry, including for Mickey Gilley and Eddy Arnold. He had a few recordings of his own. He wrote songs and produced albums. Then in 1966, he joined the New Christy Minstrels as their bass player. But the folkie movement was dying fast in the face of it mostly being terrible and rock taking over. Dylan got that inherently and bailed into rock. Rogers actually did too. He and a bunch of the band left in 1967 and started First Edition. That was the success Rogers was looking for.

It’s hard to call First Edition a particularly good band. It was kinda cheesy accessible folk/country/rock. But they had hits. “Just Dropped In” was a big hit and of course is known today for its spectacular use in The Big Lebowski. Their cover of “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” written by Mel Tillis about a disabled Vietnam vet whose woman is walking out for a man who can have sex with her, was a big hit although I think it underplays the potential power of that song. That hit #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1976, Rogers left First Edition for a solo career. He became the biggest star in country music in the late 70s through the mid 80s. You can definitely criticize his work. A lot of it was pure cheese. What Rogers did have going for him was a warm, folkie voice that brought you into his world. It was not challenging music, absolutely not. But it did tap into a market. He re-recorded a bunch of First Edition songs, including “Ruby” for a Greatest Hits album in 1977 and it went huge again. “Lucille” was a gigantic hit in 1977 and I can basically sing that entire song after not hearing it for 25 years or so.

Then there was The Gambler, in 1978. The lead single from that album is one of the most popular songs in the entire history of country music. Mostly, by this time, Rogers was using songwriters and in fact, Johnny Cash recorded “The Gambler” first. But it became Rogers’ ultimate standard. Then there’s the TV movie version in 1980 starring Rogers in a “script” that turned that song into a full fledged production. In 1979, Rogers followed up with Kenny, which included “Coward of the County,” one of the worst songs ever recorded, about a man taught to avoid violence and which belief can only be broken when the bad guys rape his woman and then he learns the value of violence. It is so bad. Huge hit though. People wanted this message. It was #1 on the country charts and #3 on the pop charts.

Rogers also started recording very successful duets with Dottie West, including “Every Time Two Fools Collide” and “What Are We Doing In Love,” which both hit #1. In fact, Rogers singing with women was basically guaranteed gold in these years. He did “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer” with Kim Carnes and “Islands in the Stream” with Dolly Parton. He also started working with Lionel Richie. While this might seem odd, it really isn’t. First, country and R&B have a much longer relationship than is usually understood. They are both working class musics for different audiences and the simple messages of both have led to crossover covers forever basically by this point. Think of Ray Charles’ country cover albums as just one famous example. Plus both Richie and Rogers were studio masters and long-time professionals with similar visions of warm but not challenging music that could have widespread appeal. So they wrote for each other and together. They wrote “Lady” together, among other hits.

Rogers was still a pretty big deal in the late 80s. He was on the “We Are the World” recording, for example. And he still hit the charts a good deal. But his star was starting to slip. The hits didn’t chart quite as high and the styles in country music were changing, mostly for the worse, not that Rogers was any paragon of traditional country, whatever that means anyway. By the 90s, he was a Branson act, hosted a show on The History Channel, and started Kenny Rogers Roasters, a chicken chain that is missed by approximately no one, although I suppose there were worse fast-casual chains out there. But by 1996, he was recording albums directly for QVC, which says just about everything you need to know.

Now, late in life, Rogers, a man who claimed to know when to hold them and know when to fold them, really did not understand the latter part of this. By this, I mean that rather than age gracefully, he subjected himself to an unbelievably amount of plastic surgery that I suppose he thought made him look young but in fact made him look like a freak. Really, this was sad stuff. Just total desperation to stay relevant and not admit your age. Anyone wanting a face job should be forced to look at this like A Clockwork Orange to see if this is what they really want to do. He continued to tour and record occasionally, mostly new versions of old hits and Christmas albums, and lived the life of the aging legend.

By the mid 2010s, Rogers was slowing down. He had a last big show in 2017, which included all his friends and Dolly Parton sang “I Will Always Love You” to him. He died in 2020 of bladder cancer, at the age of 81.

Let’s listen to some Kenny Rogers:

Kenny Rogers is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia, with all the subtlety one hopes for from a country music star.

Kenny Rogers was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. If you would like this series to visit other members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Jean Shepard, inducted in 2011, is in Hendersonville, Tennessee and Mac Wiseman, inducted in 2014, is in Nashville. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.