Kenny Rogers
I was sad when I found out that Kenny Rogers died. This Coronavirus stuff is bad enough, but now part of my childhood is gone. I guess I should be happy that he doesn’t have to suffer through whatever this virus may bring, but I’m still sad. I don’t want to brag, but I own at least 12 Kenny Rogers 8-tracks. That’s right. I also have a couple of his cassettes and CDs, had his poster hanging on my wall as a kid, and have a shirt with his picture on it. I may pull that out of storage and add it to this blog at some point. His 8-tracks and cassettes were always part of our family road trip in the motorhome to Turtle Lake, North Dakota each summer.
Home Improvement
I loved watching Home Improvement. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Home Improvement was a hit sitcom for pretty much all of the 90’s. I had many favorite episodes but one of the best ones was because of Kenny Rogers. There’s a montage of memories from the show as Kenny sings We’ve Got It All. I believe this was the last episode of the series. That song was made exclusively for that episode.
Kenny Live!
I was lucky enough to see Kenny Rogers in concert in Sacramento, CA in 1980. My big brother Joe took me and my best friend Robin (who was Joe’s girlfriend at the time). My seat was pretty far back but it was still exciting to actually see Kenny. He sang all of his hits and put on a great show.
I remember watching an interview with Kenny Rogers. I think it was on the Tonight Show. He said something like he knew there were people out there who were better singers and how he just got lucky. Something like that. I agree with him and appreciate how humble and honest he seemed to be.
Song
Some of my favorite songs weren’t necessarily “hits” but that doesn’t matter to me. In no particular order, some of my favorites:
- She Believes in Me
- You Were a Good Friend
- Through the Years (Donny & Marie used this song in their concert as they flashed back on times with their family)
- I Don’t Need You
- We’ve Got Tonight – my favorite version is the original by Bob Seger, but Kenny’s is second (with Sheena Easton)
- The Gambler
- Coward of the County
- You Decorated My Life
- The Greatest
- We’ve Got It All
Life
Kenneth Ray Rogers was born in Houston, Texas on August 21, 1938. He passed away on March 20, 2020 in Sandy Springs, Georgia at the age of 81. Maybe Kenny Rogers had decided he didn’t want to go through this whole Coronavirus apocalypse thing. If that’s the case, he was the ultimate gambler and really did know “when to fold ‘em and when to walk away”.