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Kenny Rogers 1938-2020

#61
JimmyM said:
I bought that course, and let me tell you, it was pretty good. I learned how to play fingerpicking guitar with it, and also learned a good bit about notes on the fretboard. I only wish I'd have kept up the fingerpicking, but I was a rocker and flatpicking was easier for me so I let it go.
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Pretty cool. Yeah, if you recall the commercial, he did some fine picking on it. He and Roy Clark were inspirations in my formative years. Thank God my old man watched Hee Haw!
 
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#63
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#64
RIP Kenny. I remember watching his TV show as a kid - I think it was still in the "...First Edition" days. It wasn't really my style of music but my mother was a big fan and I remember singing along to a few of his songs she used to play around the house.

I don't have a real Kenny Rogers story, but thought I'd add this: An American woman I used to work with in Australia dated a local guy who was a limo driver. When I first met him I said "He reminds me of someone..." and she said "Kenny Rogers, right?". Yep, he looked so much like Kenny it was uncanny. When she went back to the US, he went with her and started driving there too. Later, she told me in an email that one day they were meeting at a restaurant for lunch. He drove up in the limo and got out in his uniform, and she overheard someone say "$#!%, if Kenny Rogers is driving, who's in the back?!"
 
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#70
JTE said:
He wrote an excellent book about the music biz, titled something like "How to Make It in Music". I really liked it because he talked about the biz from the bar band level up. He shared stories of his days booking gigs for his bar bands, all the way through his days as a solo singer with hit songs like "Lucille", "The Gambler" etc. He talked about professionalism in and off stage, business sensibility, being a performer as well as a businessman. One of the best parts is he talked about different approaches and offered even-handed explanation of how different approaches worked even if he didn't then they were the best choices ( as in independent labels vs. major labels back when that mattered)

So even nor being a fan of his solo work, I always had a lot of respect for his willingness to share what he had learned.
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So Anyway, I worked for a BL who read the Kenny Rogers book. He said it listed some music/entertainment 'commandments' that should never be broken.
He then told us that as a band, we broke every rule, every night, and usually every set.
But we had fun and we always seemed to work every weekend.
 
#72
Always with the Tele bass! Good taste I guess...
Saw him 11 years ago. The tickets, a gift to my dad less than a month before his death. He always liked Kenny. Anyway, Kenny’s voice was still in fantastic shape and he sounded great.
RIP Kenny
 
#73
Kenny mainly played bass, electric and upright, in his early career.
Lucille was the first song I remember hearing of his, it was extremely popular where I grew up.
I later discovered Ruby his stuff with the First Edition. Lady shot him to super star status.
He was one of the first who truly crossed from Rock to County to Pop and was totally accepted in all three genres. Yes Elvis and others did country, but they were never considered country.

Genres really do not matter... he was Kenny Rogers.

Rest in peace...
 
#74
JTE said:
He wrote an excellent book about the music biz, titled something like "How to Make It in Music". I really liked it because he talked about the biz from the bar band level up. He shared stories of his days booking gigs for his bar bands, all the way through his days as a solo singer with hit songs like "Lucille", "The Gambler" etc. He talked about professionalism in and off stage, business sensibility, being a performer as well as a businessman. One of the best parts is he talked about different approaches and offered even-handed explanation of how different approaches worked even if he didn't then they were the best choices ( as in independent labels vs. major labels back when that mattered)

So even nor being a fan of his solo work, I always had a lot of respect for his willingness to share what he had learned.
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My takeaway from that book, that was read by a LOT of people:

'You better be nice to people (fans and particularly people 'in the business') on the way up, 'cause you're sure gonna want them to be nice to you on the way back down.'
 
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#75
He had such success with his run of duets, but I particularly loved this trio recording with Kim Carnes and James Ingram, amazing the blend such seemingly disparate voices achieved. The key shift at the bridge is breathtaking, and I'm guessing (maybe someone will correct me) this is David Foster-produced, 'What About Me?'

 
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#77
An interesting trivia fact about KR is that in the early '80s he bought the old ABC recording studio and named it Lion's Share Studio. Famously, "We Are The World" was recorded there, which ended up being a super-savvy business move, because a lot of the USA For Africa singers came back to record or mix their albums at Lion's Share in the years that followed, including Diana Ross, Dione Warwick, James Ingram, Kenny Loggins, Tina Turner, and Smokey Robinson.

Also, Kenny Rogers was good at selling chicken. ;)
 

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