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Rogers has received hundreds of awards for his music and charity work, including three Grammys, 11 People's Choice Awards, 18 American Music Awards, eight Academy of Country Music awards and five Country Music Association awards. Here are 50 facts about Kenny Rogers.
1. March 7, 2011 marked another new chapter in the remarkable career of music legend and American icon, Kenny Rogers. That is the day his first inspirational gospel album, The Love Of God, became available exclusively at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® locations nationwide.
2. Known for instantly identifiable sweetly raspy vocals and an extraordinary ability to vividly inhabit each song he performs, Rogers has sold more than 120 million records worldwide.
3. Recorded more than 65 albums during his storied 52 years in show business.
4. His long list of timeless classics includes an impressive 24 #1 hits - "The Gambler," "Lady," "Lucille," "She Believes in Me," "Islands in the Stream," and "We've Got Tonight" among them.
5. Two of Rogers' albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About.com poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever".
6. His Greatest Hits album has sold over 24 million copies worldwide to date.
7. He is the RIAA's 8th best selling male artist of all time with 1 Diamond album, 19 Platinum albums and 31 Gold albums.
8. Rogers has received hundreds of awards for his music and charity work, including three Grammys, 11 People's Choice Awards, 18 American Music Awards, eight Academy of Country Music awards and five Country Music Association awards.
9. Remaining a popular entertainer around the world, Rogers, voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People, still loves touring and recording new music.
10. For over five decades, the gifted singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actor, photographer and entertainer has delivered memorable songs, drawing fans from many different backgrounds. "I really, really love what I'm doing," Rogers says. "People survive longer if they love what they're doing. Because you just don't quit."
11. Rogers is one of very few artists who have enjoyed successful careers in such a variety of genres - jazz, folk, rock, country and pop.
12. Houston-born Rogers formed his first band while in high school in 1956 - a rockabilly group called The Scholars (they performed on American Bandstand) - and has never quit making music.
13. He played stand-up bass in the jazz group the Bobby Doyle Trio, and later became a member of the popular folk group, The New Christy Minstrels.
14. The spotlight started focusing on Rogers when his group, The First Edition, scored their first hit, "I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), which was followed by the pop and country chart success of "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town."
15. Rogers' solo career shot into the stratosphere with the #1 hit, "Lucille," which was named the CMA's Single of the Year and was certified Gold.
16. After leaving The First Edition in 1976, after almost a decade with the group, Rogers signed a solo deal with United Artists.
17. The single "Lucille" (1977) was a major hit, reaching number one on the pop charts in 12 countries, selling over five million copies, and firmly establishing Rogers' post-First Edition career.
18. In the late 1970s, Rogers teamed up with close friend and Country Music legend Dottie West for a series of albums and duets.
19. Together the duo won 2 gold records (1 of which later went platinum), 2 CMA Awards, an ACM nomination, two Grammy nominations and 1 Music City News Award for their two hit albums "Every Time Two Fools Collide" (#1) and "Classics" (#3), selling out stadiums and arenas while on tour for several years, as well as appearing on several network television specials which showcased them.
20. In 1980, a selection he recorded as a duet with Kim Carnes, "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer," became a major hit.
21. Kenny went on to work with the Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees who produced his 1983 hit album Eyes That See in the Dark, featuring the title track and yet another No. 1 hit "Islands in the Stream," a duet with Dolly Parton.
22. Rogers would reunite with Parton in 1984 for a holiday album and TV special, Once Upon a Christmas, as well as a 1985 duet "Real Love," which also topped the U.S. country singles chart. The two would continue to collaborate on occasional projects through subsequent years, including a 2013 duet single "You Can't Make Old Friends".
23. The next few years saw Rogers scoring several top country hits on a regular basis, including "Twenty Years Ago," "Morning Desire," "Tomb of the Unknown Love," among others.
24. On January 28, 1985 Rogers was one of the 45 artists who recorded the worldwide charity song "We Are the World" to support hunger victims in Africa. The following year he played at Giants Stadium.
25. In January 1987, Rogers co-hosted the American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
26. In 1988 Rogers won a Grammy Award for "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals" with Ronnie Milsap - "Make No Mistake, She's Mine."
27. In the 1990s Rogers continued to chart with singles such as "Crazy In Love," another selection that Kim Carnes provided him with, "If You Want To Find Love," and "The Greatest."
28. His second Christmas album, titled Christmas in America, was released in 1989 for Reprise Records.
29. From 1991-94, Rogers hosted The Real West on A&E, and on The History Channel since 1995 (Reruns only on The History Channel).
30. In 1994, Rogers released his "dream" album titled Timepiece on Atlantic Records. It consisted of 1930s/40s jazz standards, the type of music he had performed in his early days with The Bobby Doyle Three in Houston.
31. In 1996 he released an album Vote For Love where the public requested their favorite love songs and Rogers performed the songs.
32. In 1999 Rogers scored with the single "The Greatest," a song about life from a child's point of view (looked at through a baseball game). The song reached the top 40 of Billboard's Country singles chart and was a Country Music Television Number One video.
33. "Daytime Friends," "Sweet Music Man," and "Love Or Something Like It" continued his run of success. Then came "The Gambler," a story song so vivid it not only delighted country and pop fans, it also became a TV movie, starring Rogers himself in the title role. The movie spawned four follow-ups, making it the longest running miniseries franchise on television.
34. In 1999, after forming his own record company, Dreamcatcher Entertainment, Rogers returned to the charts in a big way with the hit, "The Greatest," and when the follow-up, "Buy Me a Rose," hit #1 in 2000, Rogers, at age 61, became the oldest artist in chart history to have a #1 solo record in any format, proving his talent was just as vibrant and meaningful as it was when he first started out.
35. That same year, the Recording Industry Association of America awarded Kenny the prestigious Diamond Award celebrating sales of more than 10 million albums for his Greatest Hits album (sales to date have exceeded 24 million).
36. Kenneth Ray "Kenny" Rogers is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
37. Though he has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres, topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone and has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
38. Kenneth Ray Rogers was born in Houston, Texas, on August 21, 1938, the fourth of eight children born to Lucille Lois, a nurse's assistant, and Edward Floyd Rogers, a carpenter.
39. Rogers also had success as an actor. His 1982 movie Six Pack, in which he played a race-car driver, took more than $20 million at the United States box office, while made-for-TV movies such as The Gambler, Christmas in America, and Coward of the County (based on hit songs of his) topped ratings lists.
40. He also served as host & narrator for the A&E historical series "The Real West".
41. Rogers says that photography was once his obsession, before it morphed into a passion.
42. He has authored the photo books Kenny Rogers' America (1986) and Your Friends and Mine (1987).
43. As an entrepreneur, he collaborated with former Kentucky Fried Chicken CEO John Y. Brown, Jr. in 1991 to start up the restaurant chain Kenny Rogers Roasters.
44. Rogers and his restaurant were subjects of comedy from MADtv, especially the impersonation done by Will Sasso; the sketch of the faux-Rogers hosting Jackass became popular on the Internet.
45. Rogers put his name to the Gambler Chassis Co., a Sprint car racing manufacturer started by C. K. Spurlock in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The company used the name from Rogers' hit song The Gambler.
46. Rogers appeared in a 2004 episode of Reno 911! as himself being subjected to incompetent security provided by starstruck sheriff's deputies to comical effect.
47. In October 2012 he released a book Luck or Something Like it: A Memoir about his ups and downs in his musical career.
48. With Mike Blakely, he has written a novel, What Are the Chances, that was released September 1, 2013.
49. In 2014, 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.
50. In 1999, Rogers also produced a song, "We've Got It All," specifically for the series finale of the ABC show Home Improvement. Not found on any album, the recording sells for a high sum at auction.
Source: kennyrogers.com, Wikipedia.org
