After more than 50 years of entertaining audiences around the world, Kenny Rogers is calling it quits. The legendary country crooner is beginning his final world tour, The Gambler’s Last Deal, today in Mahnomen, Minnesota, with a show that looks back at many of the musical moments of his career through the years.
“I will miss the people and the appreciation and the respect they’ve shown me. That has been such a gift.”
“It is a totally different show than anything I have ever done,” a hale and hearty-sounding Rogers, 77, said in a press call last week. “I’m excited by it and a little frightened by it.”
This final tour is packed with dates and is expected to run into 2017. It will include longtime friend and singer Linda Davis on all dates, along with singer/songwriter Charlie Worsham for select dates in Europe. Rogers says his concerts have always been “high-energy,” but “this show, I will tell you, is totally different.”
He explains, “We’re doing a lot of stuff in the new show that talks about the old songs and tells stories about them … We’re using a lot of film from when I was younger to lay the groundwork for my career.” It’ll be a musical walk down memory lane, if you will, with vintage clips, videos, and personal stories.
“The journey is what makes life so exciting,” he says. “It’s a chance for me to relive those moments in my mind, to do songs I haven’t done in 30 years, literally, and talk about what makes them unique.”
Rogers has sold more than 120 million albums worldwide. He has charted a record within each of the last seven decades.
He says the show will touch on all the various times in his life, from his first band while in high school in 1956 — a doo-wop group called the Scholars, moving on to the 1960s when he was with The New Christy Minstrels, and through his years with the First Edition, which led to big success on the pop and country charts.
But it was Rogers’ breakthrough, Grammy-winning performance of “Lucille” as a solo artist in 1977 that really launched him into superstardom.
[lz_bulleted_list title=”Kenny Rogers, by the Numbers” source=”Webster PR“]24 Number 1 Hits|12 Number 1 Albums|25 Top 10 Country Albums|3 Grammy Awards|11 People’s Choice Awards|19 American Music Awards|8 Academy of Country Music Awards|6 Country Music Association Awards[/lz_bulleted_list]
He recalls the moment when he realized he had finally made it. He had been working for Steve Wynn at the Gold Nugget Hotel in downtown Las Vegas, putting in five one-hour shows a night. And then “Lucille” came out and “changed everything,” he says. Stardom had arrived.
And now, after all those years, it’s time to stop and focus more on family. That’s the reason the time is right for him to retire. Rogers wants to devote more time to his wife, Wanda, and sons Jordan and Justin.
“I have 11-year-old twin boys — and I had other kids [he was married four times before and has two other sons and a daughter] and I didn’t spend time with them when they were young. I decided I want to do this.” He talks of a recent trip to Africa and how much they all loved going on a safari, and he talks excitedly of upcoming travel to Europe and China.
“I decided now is the time, while I can still travel, to take them places.” He ticks off England, Ireland, Scotland — all stops on the tour — and adds, “Jakarta and a bunch of different places. I’m really excited about taking them so someday they can say, ‘My dad took me there.'”
He jokes, “I’m afraid I’ll get home with these two boys after I retire and say I gotta go back on the road!”
For all his musical accolades, Rogers admits the recent Geico “Gambler”-themed commercial brought him all sort of new fans and fame.
“I can’t tell you how many people tell me when I walk in to McDonald’s to get my breakfast, say, ‘I saw your commercial.'”
And now the name of the tour includes that beloved “Gambler” song. “Gambling, personally, I found out I can’t win enough to excite me — but I can lose enough to depress me, so I stay away from it. But ‘The Gambler’ is one of those songs that catapulted my career. I love the song and I love Don Schlitz for writing it.”
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While fans love to think of Rogers with Dolly Parton — their 1983 duet “Islands in the Stream” was a huge hit — the singer says there are no plans for pal Parton to join him on the tour, although he says, “That would be awesome.” Parton is featured in musical film footage in the show and Rogers says, “Even in rehearsals I kept saying she has the most honest smile of any human being. I’ve really been blessed by her friendship.”
Looking back over the years, Rogers says the music business has changed a lot. Artists don’t spend the kind of time that he did building a career. “It’s kind of an ‘American Idol’ mentality now. OK, he’s a star, now who’s the next star coming up?”
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And how has his audience changed? “It’s gotten older! But I think it’s gotten more music-oriented, as opposed to ‘let’s go out and have a night on the town.’ I think that comes from maturity.” But he also has new, young fans. “If you’re around long enough you don’t pick up new kids, you get the kids of the people who were already fans. I believe parents forced their kids to listen to my music and that’s child abuse!” He laughs.
Rogers sounds a little wistful when talking about what he’ll miss when the tour is over.
“I will miss the people and the appreciation and the respect they’ve shown me. That has been such a gift.” And the singer, who is also a photographer, says he’ll miss taking shots of new places.
But most of all, he says, “I will miss the comedy that I do — the sense of humor that I try for when I perform. It is very rewarding. I will miss making people laugh and making people smile. That is a great feature to have and that’s what I’ll miss most.”
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