Kenny Rogers

Did You Know?

• Rogers kept a pet goat named Smitty at his estate in Colbert, Georgia, which he acquired in 2008.
• He was married five times and had five children.
• Rogers was interred in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta.

Early life

Kenneth Donald Ray Rogers came into the world on August 21, 1938, at St. Joseph's Infirmary in Houston, Texas, as the fourth of eight children. His father, Edward Floyd Rogers, worked as a carpenter, and his mother, Lucille Lois Rogers, was a nurse's assistant. The family resided in the San Felipe Courts public housing project. Rogers had Irish and Native American heritage.

He went to Wharton Elementary School, then George Washington Junior High, and finished at Jefferson Davis High School (now Northside High School) in 1956. In 1949, he took first place in a talent show at the Texan Theatre. To earn money, he worked as a busboy at the Rice Hotel and swept floors at a hat store for $9 each week. He later enrolled at the University of Houston.

During a 1986 appearance on The Phil Donahue Show, Rogers revealed he was the first in his known family line to earn a high school diploma. He described his family as broke, living in federal housing, and noted his father's top weekly wage was $75. Though he always had food, he admitted the family sometimes suffered from nutritional deprivation.

Career

Rogers began his recording career in the late 1950s with the Houston-based group the Scholars, who first released 'The Poor Little Doggie'. After some solo releases, including 1958's 'That Crazy Feeling', he joined a group with jazz singer Bobby Doyle. In 1966, he became a member of the folk ensemble the New Christy Minstrels, playing double bass and bass guitar, as well as singing. In 1967, several members of the New Christy Minstrels and he left to found the group the First Edition, with whom he scored his first major hit, 'Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)', a psychedelic rock song that peaked at number five on the Billboard charts.

As Rogers took an increased leadership role in the First Edition following the success of 1969's 'Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town', the band gradually changed styles to a more country feel. The band broke up in 1975–76, and Rogers embarked on a long and successful solo career, which included several successful collaborations, including duets with singers Dottie West, Dolly Parton, and Sheena Easton, and a songwriting partnership with Lionel Richie.

His signature song, 1978's 'The Gambler', was a crossover hit that won him a Grammy Award in 1980, and was selected in 2018 for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. He charted more than 60 top-40 hit singles, including two number ones—'Lady' and 'Islands in the Stream'.

Acting and other ventures

Kenny Rogers also found success on screen. His 1982 film Six Pack, where he portrayed a race-car driver, earned over $20 million at the U.S. box office. TV movies like The Gambler series, Christmas in America, and Coward of the County—all based on his hit songs—topped the ratings, and he hosted and narrated the A&E series The Real West. Photography was once an obsession for Rogers, later becoming a passion; he published two photo books, Kenny Rogers' America in 1986 and Your Friends and Mine in 1987.

In 1991, he teamed up with former KFC CEO John Y. Brown Jr. to launch the restaurant chain Kenny Rogers Roasters, which appeared on a Seinfeld episode called "The Chicken Roaster." He also lent his name to the Gambler Chassis Co., a sprint-car manufacturer in Hendersonville, Tennessee, named after his song "The Gambler." During the 1980s and 1990s, Gambler cars were among the fastest and most popular, winning races in the World of Outlaws and Knoxville Nationals, as well as Australian championships.

In October 2012, Rogers published his memoir, Luck or Something Like It. Two years later, he appeared in a GEICO commercial, singing a cappella part of "The Gambler" while dealing cards.

Record labels

Rogers signed with numerous record labels over his career. He began with Cue in 1957, with the band the Scholars and also as a solo singer, followed by Carlton in 1958. He recorded with Columbia in the 1960s as part of the Bobby Doyle Three. With the First Edition, he signed with Reprise in 1967. He later owned the label Jolly Rogers in 1973. As a solo artist, he signed with United Artists in 1975, then Liberty in 1980 after United Artists merged into EMI/Capitol. He moved to RCA Records in 1983, returned to Reprise in 1989, and later signed with Giant, Atlantic, onQ Music, Magnatone, Dreamcatcher, and Capitol Nashville.