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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDespite his crossover success, he always preferred to be thought of as a\ncountry singer. \u201cYou either do what everyone else is doing and you do it\nbetter, or you do what no one else is doing and you don\u2019t invite comparison,\u201d\nRogers told The Associated Press in 2015. \u201cAnd I chose that way because I could\nnever be better than Johnny Cash or Willie or Waylon at what they did. So I\nfound something that I could do that didn\u2019t invite comparison to them. And I think\npeople thought it was my desire to change country music. But that was never my\nissue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of his hit songs, \u201cIslands in The Stream\u201d, was a 1983 duet with fellow\ncountry music legend Dolly Parton and people always saw electricity between\nthem. But there was never any romance. Instead, they became life-long friends.\nKenny joked of their relationship: \u201cI\u2019m a believer that tension is better if\nyou keep it than if you satisfy it. And then secondly, she said no to me!\nEverybody thought we were having an affair but we didn\u2019t. We just flirted with\neach other for 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dolly later said: \u201cI\u2019m not his type. We are almost like brother and sister.\nSo we just never went there.\u201d He once summed up his global popularity by\nsaying: \u201cI do ballads that say what every man wants to say and that every woman\nwants to hear.\u201d The lyrics, combined with his gravelly voice, led him to become\none of the most successful country-pop crossover acts and the tenth bestselling\nartiste in history in terms of album sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He sold more than 47 million records in the United States alone, according\nto the Recording Industry Association of America. He had 20 No 1 singles from\n1977 to 1987 and was inducted into Nashville\u2019s Country Music Hall of Fame in\n2013, getting a lifetime achievement award and playing the Legends slot at\nGlastonbury the same year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKenny was one of those artistes who transcended beyond one format and\ngeographic borders,\u201d said Sarah Trahern, chief executive officer of the Country\nMusic Association. \u201cHe was a global superstar who helped introduce country\nmusic to audiences all around the world.\u201d Kenny was a five-time CMA Award\nwinner, as well as the recipient of the CMA\u2019s Willie Nelson Lifetime\nAchievement Award in 2013, the same year he was inducted into the Country Music\nHall of Fame. He received 10 awards from the Academy of Country Music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A true rags-to-riches story, Kenny was raised in public housing in Houston\nHeights with seven siblings. His breakthrough came when he was asked to join\nthe New Christy Minstrels, a folk group, in 1966. After the group broke up in\n1974, Kenny started his solo career and found a big hit with the sad country\nballad \u201cLucille,\u201d in 1977, which crossed over to the pop charts and earned\nKenny his first Grammy. Suddenly the star, Kenny added hit after hit for more\nthan a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kenny\u2019s childhood was tough, with an alcoholic father, and he was raised in\nsocial housing with seven brothers and sisters. Before he finally found true\nlove, Kenny\u2019s personal life was wild, to the extent that in the 1980s, he even\nset up a special number for women to call so he could have phone sex with them\n\u2014 a scandal that threatened his career at the time. He later said: \u201cI thought\nthat phone sex was the safest sex there was, only to get hammered by it. It was\ngreat, it was exciting, it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By then Kenny had enjoyed years of fame and fortune, though his success had\nnot come to him on a plate. He went on to work with charities including the Red\nCross and MusicCares, as well as being part of the 1985 all-star We Are The\nWorld recording for famine relief. Kenny married first wife Janice Gordon on\nMay 15, 1958. In his 2012 memoir, Luck Or Something Like It, he revealed that\nthe first time they had sex, Janice got pregnant with their daughter Carole,\nwhich led him to marry her. He said: \u201cI loved her. At 19, I thought, \u2018This is\nOK with me\u2019. Her parents thought I\u2019d ruined her life and were determined to\nbreak me. The marriage didn\u2019t work and it\u2019s sad, because I think it could\nhave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They divorced in 1960 and Kenny wed Jean Rogers in October that year. They\ndivorced three years later. In October 1964, he married Margo Anderson \u2013 and\nthis time, it lasted for 12 years and they had a son, Kenny Jr, now 55, before\ndivorcing in 1976. Marriage number four was to TV actress Marianne Gordon, who\nKenny wed on October 1, 1977. They had a son, Christopher Cody Rogers, now 37,\nbut they split and divorced in 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, in June 1997, he married his \u201csoulmate\u201d Wanda Miller, 52, who,\ndespite a 28-year age gap, he described as the love of his life. They had twin\nboys, Justin and Jordan, now 14. He said: \u201cShe\u2019s 28 years younger than me, and\nI say this from the bottom of my heart \u2013 she is my soul mate. She loves me\nbetter than anyone else has known me. She loves what I do and I\u2019m not as\ninsensitive to her needs as I may have been in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in all, there was one regret in Kenny\u2019s life, and that was having\nplastic surgery on his face. He said: \u201cI had the money to do it and I had time\noff. You look at yourself and think, \u2018Could I be better if I did this or did\nthat?\u2019 And I did it, and the guy who did it was one of the world\u2019s best. He had\nthis concept that the edge of your eyes had to be higher than a certain place,\nand I regret that. But the truth is I don\u2019t know what I would have looked like\nif I hadn\u2019t done it. You do it and you live with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sad news of his death sparked a flood of celebrity tributes from around\nthe world. Actor Channing Tatum tweeted: \u201cThe gambler himself, RIP Kenny\u201d.\nRapper MC Hammer shared an image of the star with the word RIP, while Piers\nMorgan recalled: \u201cI asked Kenny Rogers which of his songs was his favourite. He\nimmediately said, \u2018Lady\u2019, then corrected himself \u2013 \u2018Actually it would be We\u2019ve\nGot Tonight\u2019. The lyrics seem apposite today: \u2018We\u2019ve got tonight, who needs\ntomorrow? Let\u2019s make it last, let\u2019s find a way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kenny\u2019s \u201cIslands in the Stream\u201d collaborator and friend Dolly Parton posted\na heartfelt tribute to Instagram. \u201cYou never know how much you love somebody\nuntil they\u2019re gone,\u201d Dolly wrote alongside an emotional video in which she\nstruggled to hold back tears. \u201cI\u2019ve had so many wonderful years and wonderful\ntimes with my friend Kenny, but above all the music and the success, I loved\nhim as a wonderful man and a true friend. So you be safe with God and just know\nthat I will always love you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kenny\u2019s longtime friend, Lionel Richie shared an emotional tribute. Taking\nto his Instagram, 70-year-old Lionel wrote alongside a heartbroken emoji: \u201cI\nlost one of my closest friends. So much laughter so many adventures to\nremember, my heart is broken. My prayers go out to Kenny\u2019s Family.\u201d Kenny had\npreviously admitted and explained during a joint performance that Lionel had a\nhuge impact on his career by working on the song \u201cLady\u201d with him. \u201cHe\u2019s not\njust a friend of mine, but the song he wrote was truly a changing point in my\ncareer. It\u2019s one of the most identifiable songs I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By Ferdinand Ekechukwu As much a legend for his love of women as he was for the hit songs that made him a global superstar that sold 120 million albums worldwide, plus having a wild…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[227],"class_list":["post-938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment-art-culture","tag-kenny-rogers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/DVucJB7XkAAnwco.jpg?resize=872%2C1005&ssl=1\")
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