![\"KennyRogers](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/KennyRogers-Drawing.jpg\")
<\/a>By now, Kenny Rogers has become such an icon that it\u2019s easy to forget how he got there. Just look at the hit titles he\u2019s had over the years: \u201cLady,\u201d \u201cRuby Don\u2019t Take Your Love to Town,\u201d \u201cThe Gambler,\u201d \u201cShe Believes in Me,\u201d \u201cIslands in the Stream,\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve Got Tonight,\u201d \u201cBuy Me A Rose.\u201d Not a ditty among them. Then listen. The sweetly raspy vocals are instantly identifiable as Kenny Rogers\u2014he sounds like nobody else. More importantly, he inhabits each song, making it vivid and tangible. For more than five decades, Rogers has delivered memorable songs, drawing fans among rock, pop, soul, and country audiences.<\/span><\/p>\nWhen one singer makes such an indelible mark, that\u2019s not mere luck or even simple talent. \u201cI really, really love what I\u2019m doing,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cPeople survive longer if they love what they\u2019re doing. Because you just don\u2019t quit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Houston-born Rogers formed his first band while in high school in 1956 and never quit making music from that point on. In 1966 he became a member of the New Christy Minstrels, the popular folk group, leaving a year later to form The First Edition with other members of the troupe. <\/span><\/p>\n In 1974, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition disbanded, leaving Rogers at a crossroads. Disillusioned with the fickleness of the pop world, but not with music itself, he searched for a direction to take his solo career. Impressed by the loyalty of country fans that supported their favorite artists long after they had disappeared from radio, Rogers looked to country. He\u2019d already had some success among country fans with the First Edition and he was drawn to the type of story songs that populated the genre. It was the perfect transition for him. \u201cLove Lifted Me,\u201d went Top 20 in 1975, but it was the \u201cLucille\u201d that shot him into the stratosphere. Tops at country, it also succeeded on the pop chart, was named the CMA\u2019s Single of the Year and was certified Gold. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDaytime Friends,\u201d \u201cSweet Music Man,\u201d and \u201cLove or Something Like It\u201d continued his run of success. Then came \u201cThe Gambler,\u201d a story song so vivid it not only delighted country and pop fans, it also became a TV movie, starring Rogers himself in the title role. The movie spawned four follow-ups, making it the longest running miniseries franchise on television. It started Rogers on a second career as an actor on television and movies, including another TV movie based on one of his hit songs, \u201cCoward of the County.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Though theoretically a country singer, Rogers dominated the pop charts, consistently finding songs with universal appeal. \u201cI\u2019ve never considered myself a great singer, but I am a great storyteller,\u201d Rogers told Billboard magazine, also noting that he feels his strength as an artist is in finding great songs. In the 1980s he came to embody the role of the sensitive male, singing such romantic hits as \u201cThrough The Years,\u201d \u201cShe Believes In Me,\u201d \u201cYou Decorated My Life,\u201d and \u201cLady,\u201d the biggest song of his career. Those songs are classics today, sung at countless weddings, and even engraved on tombstones. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the 1980s wound down, so did Rogers\u2019 chart success. Gone from the radio, Rogers kept busy in other ways. He would establish himself as a well-respected photographer, publishing several books, and being invited to the White House to shoot a portrait of First Lady Hillary Clinton. He authored several short stories, and appeared off-Broadway in his Christmas musical, The Toy Shoppe, which he subsequently toured. And he never stopped making music. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1999, after forming his own record company, Dreamcatcher Entertainment, Rogers found himself back on the country chart with a touching story song about a young boy playing baseball. When \u201cThe Greatest\u201d got radio and video airplay, it was greeted as a sweet comeback from a favorite bygone singer. When the follow-up, \u201cBuy Me a Rose,\u201d hit number one, Rogers proved that his talent was just as vibrant and meaningful as it was when he first started out. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always been like a boomerang.\u201d Rogers says. \u201cYou can throw me away, but you can rest assured that I\u2019m coming back. It\u2019s not necessarily about success for me. It\u2019s not about being the biggest star in the world. I think for all intents and purposes, if you go back to the peak of my career, I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish. To do that again doesn\u2019t excite me. But to just be there and to be a force and have people care about what you\u2019re recording, that\u2019s the greatest gift you can have.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Gambler Comes To Oxford! By now, Kenny Rogers has become such an icon that it\u2019s easy to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":9702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[1194,1193,2227,2225,5,2226,1617],"class_list":["post-9700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-shows","tag-center","tag-ford","tag-gambler","tag-kenny","tag-mississippi","tag-rogers","tag-the"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/kennyrogers.jpg?fit=620%2C430&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}