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almost deadpan quality to the answer
that comes when a nervous writer
asks Kenny Rogers what his current live show
is like. The answer sounds full of hubris, but
the facts are there. The man isn't lying or
bragging—it's just true.
“What I do live is an hour-and-20-minute
show, and everything that I do is a hit," says
Rogers.
But even a 80-minute set can't cover
all the hits from Rogers' distinguished and
influential half-century-plus career. The fact
is, that from the vinyl-obsessed fanatic to
the casual radio listener, just about everyone
knows a Kenny Rogers song.
"I think that music is the greatest reminder
in the world," says Rogers. "So when people
tell me the songs that I sing are part of their
lives, I’m very flattered. I'm flattered to be a
part of anyone's musical conscience."
But Rogers isn't just some sort of silver-
haired specter hanging out in music fans'
memories. He is a genuine crossover superstar
who cast aside the traditional Hank Williams
and Jimmie Rodgers-inspired country music
template and, despite having the beard to do
the job, avoided the outlaw country movement
of the late 70s. Instead, he drew from the pop
world and beyond to create a version of coun
try music that was his own.
"Once I had The Gambler' and 'Lucille' and
'Coward of the County,' I didn't have to do
[traditional country] anymore. My first love
will always be country music, but at the same
time, to bring some other people who wanted
to be in the country field into that world was
something interesting to do," says Rogers.
The resulting output—a string of hits in
the early '80s that included tracks written
by Lionel Richie ("Lady") and The Bee Gees
("Islands in the Stream")—was anything but
traditional. The songs moved and swayed; it
was less twangy and more soulful and always
trademarked by Rogers' rough and raspy
vocals.
"I think that I'm just a country singer with
a lot of other influences," he says. Inspired by
into the genre that hadn't been heard before,
particularly in his unique vocal delivery which
sounds less like the traditional high, lonesome
yodel of country and more like the guttural
moans of rhythm and blues. Rogers doesn't see
the two genres as too disparate.
"There is something about soul music that
I think has a lot in common with country
music. Country to me is a very white form of
rhythm and blues," he says.
But Rogers' music isn't as neatly segre
gated. It tiptoes along the line, often creating
a musical grey area where the click-clack of
the guitars meets with a swell of strings or
keyboards. The result is something that has
helped make Rogers the eighth-best-selling
male artist of all-time (according to the RIAA)
and the number-one lover man in country
music. If country is R&B for white people,
then Kenny is its Barry White.
"I think that if a song can touch me then I
can make it touch some ,ie else," says Rogers.
"My job is to find that emotion in a song and
bring it out, to really feel it. I think when
you do that and it's genuine, then people are
going to believe in the song," says Rogers.
And the fans keep on believing. Rogers
is the only artist to have charted a single
in each of the last six decades, and he isn't
showing any signs of slowing. For him, there's
always another project or another song just
around the corner. But for all the praise and
admiration this nervous writer can muster,
none so eloquently sums up the career of
a singer, actor and icon as Rogers himself:
"Music is what I am," he says, "and everything
else is what I do."
Jason Bugg
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