His Amazing UNTOLD STORY
HE RAISED HIMSELF UP FROM POVERTY TO BECOME ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST BELOVED CROSSOVER STARS
Kenny Rogers’ favorite memory of Dolly Parton was bittersweet. In 2013, while recording “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” Dolly suddenly stopped singing. The lyric “What will I do when you’re gone?” had unexpectedly brought her to the verge of tears. “Kenny, I think you should know,” she told her pal as she put her arms around him. “I could never sing at your funeral.”
When Kenny died at 81 on March 20, Dolly was among the first to pay tribute to the music legend. A giant among country artists, Kenny sold tens of millions of records, won three Grammys and even enjoyed a successful acting career. “I’ve had so many wonderful years and wonderful times with my friend Kenny, but above all the music and the success I loved him as a wonderful man and a true friend,” she said.
THROUGH THE YEARS
A native of Houston, Kenny was already a superstar when he teamed up with Dolly to record 1983’s “Islands in the Stream.” “We had met before ‘Islands,’ but we weren’t friends,” recalled Kenny, who had been struggling to record the song as a solo ballad when Dolly was suggested as a duet partner. “Once she came in and started singing the song, it was never the same,” he said. “It took on a personality of its own.”
“Islands” became a No. 1 hit and sold more than 2 million copies. Realizing they had a rare connection, Kenny and Dolly teamed up for a Christmas album, a holiday special and a tour. A warm friendship developed and sparks flew whenever they took the stage together. Dolly called Kenny her “soulmate” while Kenny gushed about Dolly’s “very special place in my life.” Their chemistry generated gossip, but the already-married entertainers denied an affair. “We just flirted with each other for 30 years — it keeps the tension,” said Kenny. Dolly liked to joke about it. “[Kenny’s] been married about 40 times,” she laughed. “I couldn’t catch him between wives!”
Marianne Gordon, Kenny’s fourth of five wives, who was wed to him from 1977 to 1993, shrugged it off. “I just knew him
so well that I never felt uncomfortable,” Marianne tells Closer. “Kenny sincerely felt that they had a cute thing going onstage. There was a sexual tension and a teasing, but if anything had happened between them, they would’ve ruined that.”
ALWAYS A GAMBLER
Like most successful people, Kenny was extremely dedicated to the career that made him a crossover sensation with hits like “The Gambler,” “Lucille” and “Lady” in the ’70s and ’80s. “Money has never driven me,” he confided to Closer in his final interview. “My mom was the wisest. She said, ‘Son, be content where you are.’ Even in the down parts of my career, it was a bright thing to me. Because if all I wanted to do was make music, I was doing what I set out to do, and I was happy.”
Born into a family with seven siblings, Kenny knew deprivation as a child. “I came from the projects in Houston and we had nothing,” he said. He discovered music as a young man and moved fluidly between genres, searching for his place. Kenny started in doo-wop, performed with a jazz group, switched to folk, then found some success in 1967 with a hybrid of country and psychedelic pop in a band called the First Edition. “When I was a kid, we used to watch The Ed Sullivan Show on a 10-inch screen,” he said. “To me, everyone on that show was a major star. So when the First Edition did that show, I thought, ‘This is cool!’ ”
Kenny found an even larger audience as a solo performer. In 1977, he scored his first big hit with the sentimental ballad “Lucille.” It was closely followed by “The Gambler,” his most famous “story” song that would become his signature tune. “I think of my music as storytelling that touches the people who have had those kinds of conditions in their lives,” he explained.
In time, Kenny would sing on a whopping 30 No. 1 singles in the U.S. and sell more than 100 million records worldwide. “He didn’t have much of a voice — he was more a talker or a whisperer,” “American Pie” singer Don McLean, who was a friend, tells Closer. “But Kenny was an extremely good musician who knew exactly how to use his voice to create an emotion. He made the most out of what he had.”
Kenny also moved beyond music and became a television actor in a string of movies throughout the ’80s based on his song “The Gambler.” Despite the films’ popularity, he never thought of himself as a great thespian. “You give me believable dialogue in a believable situation, and I can keep it believable,” Kenny said. “Actors, you give them unbelievable dialogue in an unbelievable situation, and they can make it believable. That’s the distinction between someone who acts and an actor.”
Even after he became successful —
“He was always in a good mood and had a great sense of humor.”
— Marianne Gordon
Kenny left behind an estimated $250 million fortune — he never forgot his humble roots. In 2000, a medical facility he supported in Sikeston, Mo., that delivers free care to kids with special needs was renamed the Kenny Rogers Children’s Center. “I take great pride in it,” he told Closer, appearing a bit bashful to see his name on the building. “If my name helps, then I am happy to help, but it was not something I expected,” he confided.
IN LOVE WITH A DREAMER
Success didn’t change Kenny as a man. “With Kenny, what you saw is what you got,” Marianne, the mother of Chris, one of Kenny’s five children, tells Closer. “He was very easygoing and had a smile every day.” But Kenny’s appetite for his work made him miss many of his older children’s milestones. “A father on the road is never as good as a father who comes home every night,” she admits.
In 1997, Kenny tied the knot for the final time with Wanda Miller, a woman 28 years his junior. The union produced twin sons, Justin and Jordan, 15. “I think the years with Wanda have been the most rewarding. That’s no offense to any of the other people I was married to. I just think I wasn’t ready before,” he told Closer. “I’ve had a lot of things in my life. I’ve made loads of money and had the biggest and best of everything, but now I’m back to looking at the small things that matter: my boys. Wanda. It’s not about me anymore. It’s about them.”
In 2017, Kenny crisscrossed the country one final time on the Gambler’s Last Deal tour before his retirement from the stage. “There’s no question, I will miss the crowds and the people who have always been so sweet to me,” he said. “I’ll also miss the friendships I’ve made. But my life, you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”