Kenny Rogers knows when to walk away
Friday night, Kenny Rogers says a second, final farewell to his Houston fans
Houston native Kenny Rogers will perform another “farewell” show Friday night for his hometown fans — and it could really be his last.
Around this time last year Kenny Rogers played the Stafford Centre on his farewell tour. So we bid him farewell. But musical farewell tours often run a little longer than anticipated, which is fine. I was grateful to have had three chances to see Glen Campbell before he left the road.
So it is that Rogers has another farewell show in his hometown. This time he’ll play the Redneck Country Club on Friday night. And this one looks to be the last, last one in Houston, as Rogers has a farewell show with Dolly Parton and a bunch of guests set for Nashville in October.
He’s among the biggest performers ever to come out of Houston. Rogers was born here Aug. 21, 1938. He attended Wharton Elementary School and Jefferson Davis High School. He talks here about taking in live music at Jimmy Menutis’ club and playing bass in
the Bobby Doyle Three, a jazz band.
Rogers’ older brother Lelan helped him make some connections that got his career going. Lelan has his own interesting music history as a key figure at International Artists, most notable for putting out the music of the legendary psych rock band the 13th Floor Elevators.
Rogers worked with another Houston native, a drummer named Micky Jones who had played with Trini Lopez, Johnny Rivers and Bob Dylan. Jones was the drummer on Dylan’s infamous 1966 world tour. After leaving Dylan’s employ, Jones, who later had a notable acting career, played drums in the First Edition, which
had a No. 5 hit in 1968 with “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In),” a song penned by Mickey Newbury, one of the greatest songwriters to spring out of Houston.
The First Edition became Kenny Rogers and the First Edition and scored another five hits including the enduring “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town.”
By 1977 Rogers was a solo artist and things worked out for him. He owned the country charts and hit the pop charts another 21 times with the songs that became the foundation of his live shows: “Lucille” (No. 5 pop in 1977), “She Believes in Me” (No. 5 in 1979), “Lady” (No. 1 in 1980) and his Barry Gibb-penned Dolly Parton duet “Islands in the Stream” (No. 1 in 1983).
But the song most identified with Rogers is probably “The Gambler.” It was a No. 1 country hit in 1978 and reached No. 16 on the pop charts. Schlitz is one of the best and most successful songwriters in Nashville. He wasn’t a card player, and he just made up the “you gotta know when to hold ‘em” chorus out of the blue. He talks about “The Gambler” and his career here.
With that, we’ll say farewell to Kenny Rogers (again) as he passes through his hometown for the last time (again). Then a few more gigs before his farewell with Dolly. That Comedy Central hasn’t hosted a Kenny Rogers Roast is beyond me. But at 78 with 12-year-old twin sons, he appears ready to fold ’em and spend more time with family.