Kenny Rogers, who died of natural causes on Friday night at the age of 81, can be considered one of the greatest country singers of all time. The musician laid the foundation for country-pop collaborations such as Old Town Road from Lil Nas X to keep his head above water.
Rogers was born in Houston, Texas, in 1938 as the fourth of eight children. The family in which the country singer grew up was not very well off.
In the 1950s, Rogers started making music under the name Kenneth Rogers. In 1957 that resulted in his first hit with his debut single That Crazy Feeling, a song that didn’t have any country influences yet.
Late sixties: own sound develops
In the 1960s, Rogers played jazz music and worked as a session musician until he started developing his own sound in 1968. In that year he released as now Kenny Rogers with the band The New Edition Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) from, a song that was revived by the film in the 1990s The Big Lebowski.
After the breakup of The New Edition in the mid-1970s, Rogers started a successful solo career. In 1978 he had one of his biggest hits with The Gambler, which, incidentally, was not written by himself but by Don Schlitz.
For Rogers, the 1980s consisted of collaborations that also caught on in the pop world, including Lionel Richie, Sheena Easton and fellow country star Dolly Parton. With the latter, he had a big hit in 1982 with Islands in the Stream.
Such collaborations are seen as inspiration for later collaborations between country artists and musicians from other genres. For example, rapper Lil Nas X and country star Billy Ray Cyrus had a world hit in 2019 with Old Town Road.
Rogers made a crossover to keep his head above water
Speaking of his collaborations with pop artists, Rogers said they weren’t necessarily a conscious choice for country-pop crossover music. “I didn’t start with country music to change that style of music, but to keep my head above water,” said the country star. “That’s why I made songs that were more pop.”
“Nowadays, people no longer make country at all, but they create their own music style. That style becomes country because country lovers are going to love it.”
Rogers had twenty number one hits in the country rankings between 1977 and 1987 and sold 165 million records. The five-time-married and equally-divorced father of five children won three Grammys in his career and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
2015: farewell to the music world
Rogers announced his retirement in 2015. He had to cancel his farewell tour in April 2018 because his health was not satisfactory. The following year, the singer was hospitalized with dehydration symptoms, but recovered.
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