52 Facts About Kenny Rogers

Kenneth Ray Rogers was an American singer, songwriter, and actor.

Kenny Rogers was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

Kenny Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but charted more than 120 hit singles across various genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone.

Kenny Rogers sold more than 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

Kenny Rogers remade his career and was one of the most successful cross-over artists of all time.

Kenny Rogers's signature song, 1978's "The Gambler", was a crossover hit that won him a Grammy Award in 1980 and was selected in 2018 for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

Kenny Rogers developed the Gambler persona into a character for a successful series of television films starting with 1980's Emmy-nominated Kenny Rogers as The Gambler.

Rogers' albums The Gambler and Kenny were featured in the About.

Kenny Rogers was voted the "Favorite Singer of All Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.

Kenny Rogers received numerous awards, such as the AMAs, Grammys, ACMs, and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003.

Kenny Rogers was a co-founder of the restaurant chain Kenny Rogers Roasters in collaboration with former Kentucky Fried Chicken CEO John Y Brown Jr.

Kenny Rogers was born the fourth of eight children on August 21,1938, at St Joseph's Infirmary in Houston, Texas.

Kenny Rogers's parents were Lucille Lois Rogers, a nurse's assistant, and Edward Floyd Rogers, a carpenter.

Kenny Rogers was said to be of Irish and Native American ancestry.

Kenny Rogers attended Wharton Elementary School, George Washington Junior High School, and graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in 1956.

In 1949, Kenny Rogers won a talent show at the Texan Theatre.

Kenny Rogers served as a busboy at the Rice Hotel and swept floors at a hat store for $9 a week.

In 1986, on The Phil Donahue Show, Kenny Rogers told the audience that he was the first person in his family "as far back as we know" to graduate from high school.

Kenny Rogers had a minor solo hit in 1957 called "That Crazy Feeling".

Kenny Rogers worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers, including country artists Mickey Gilley and Eddy Arnold.

Kenny Rogers soon developed a more middle-of-the-road sound that sold to both pop and country audiences.

Kenny Rogers charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles.

Kenny Rogers's music has been featured in top-selling movie soundtracks, such as Convoy, Urban Cowboy, and The Big Lebowski.

Producer Larry Butler and Kenny Rogers began a partnership that would last four years.

Kenny Rogers was with West only hours before she died at age 58 after sustaining injuries in a 1991 car accident, as discussed in his 2012 biography "Luck Or Something Like It".

In 1982, Kenny Rogers released the album Love Will Turn You Around.

In 1981, Kenny Rogers bought the old ABC Dunhill building and built one of the most popular and state-of-the-art recording studios in Los Angeles.

On January 28,1985, Kenny Rogers was one of the 45 artists who recorded the worldwide charity song "We Are the World" to support hunger victims in Africa.

From 1992 to 1995, Kenny Rogers co-owned and headlined Branson, Missouri's 4,000 seat Grand Palace Theatre.

In 1994, Kenny Rogers released his "dream" album titled Timepiece on Atlantic Records.

In 1996, Kenny Rogers released an album Vote For Love where the public requested their favorite love songs and Kenny Rogers performed the songs.

In 1999, Kenny Rogers scored with the single "The Greatest", a song about life from a child's point of view The song reached the top 40 of Billboard's Country singles chart and was a Country Music Television Number One video.

Also in 1999, Kenny Rogers produced a song, "We've Got It All", specifically for the series finale of the ABC show Home Improvement.

Kenny Rogers signed with Capitol Records and had more success with the TV advertised release 21 Number Ones in January 2006.

Also in 2007, the 1977 Kenny Rogers album was re-issued as a double CD, featuring the 1979 Kenny album and this put Rogers' name into the sales charts worldwide.

On June 10,2012, Kenny Rogers appeared on stage with the musical group Phish to perform his hit song "The Gambler" at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Also in 2012, Kenny Rogers re-recorded the hit song "Lady", a duet with its songwriter Lionel Richie, on Richie's album Tuskegee.

In 2013, Kenny Rogers recorded a new album with the name You Can't Make Old Friends.

Kenny Rogers recorded 65 albums and sold over 165 million records.

In 2015, Kenny Rogers announced his farewell tour, titled The Gambler's Last Deal.

Kenny Rogers stated his intention to retire from touring at its completion, although he was considering the possibility of recording another studio album.

Kenny Rogers said that photography was once his obsession, before it morphed into a passion.

Kenny Rogers authored the photo books Kenny Rogers' America and Your Friends and Mine.

Kenny Rogers is shown from the back but played by Jeff Pomerantz in the episode "Let Me Go, Bro".

Kenny Rogers used the name from Rogers' hit song The Gambler.

In October 2012, Kenny Rogers released the book Luck or Something Like it: A Memoir about his ups and downs in his musical career.

In 2014, Kenny Rogers appeared as himself in a GEICO commercial, singing part of his song "The Gambler" a cappella while acting as the dealer in a card game.

At Beaver Dam Farms, a former estate in Colbert, Georgia, Kenny Rogers kept a pet goat named Smitty.

Kenny Rogers originally acquired the animal from a friend in 2008.

Kenny Rogers married his second wife, Jean, in October 1960 and divorced her in 1963.

Kenny Rogers married his fourth wife Marianne Gordon on October 1,1977, and they divorced in 1993, with one child.

On March 20,2020, Kenny Rogers died at the age of 81, while under hospice care at his home in Sandy Springs, Georgia.