![\"kenny-rogers-Issue-No30\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/kenny-rogers-Issue-No30.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cMy current audience falls into two groups,\u201d says Kenny Rogers. \u201cThose born after 1980 whose parents made them listen to my music as child abuse, and those born before the \u201960s who can no longer remember that decade.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a typical self-deprecating comment from one of this year\u2019s\u00a0Country Music Hall of Fame inductees\u2014an honor that Rogers says \u201cblindsided\u201d him. His wildly successful career in the\u00a0mid-\u201970s produced country-pop megahits like\u00a0\u201cThe Gambler,\u201d \u201cCoward of the County,\u201d and his classic duet with Dolly Parton, \u201cIslands in the Stream.\u201d But before that Rogers played bass in an avant-garde jazz ensemble, then performed with folk group the New Christy Minstrels and later\u00a0the First Edition.<\/p>\n
Rogers\u2019 new album, You Can\u2019t Make Old Friends<\/i>, includes sounds both familiar and new\u2014from a fresh country-pop duet with Parton to the Southwestern flavored \u201cDreams of the San Joaquin\u201d (which includes Spanish lyrics) to the Contemporary Christian vibe of \u201cTurn This World Around.\u201d At 75, he\u2019s pushing creative boundaries more than ever: He released a memoir in 2012, and a novel he wrote comes out this year. No matter what he\u2019s doing, Rogers relies on advice that\u2019s carried him through his half-century career. Says Rogers, \u201cMy mom told me, \u2018Always be happy where you are. Never be content to be there, but if you\u2019re not happy where you are, you\u2019ll never be happy.\u2019 So even in hard times, I\u2019m happy. I\u2019m making music and surviving. What more can you ask?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How has this record been unique?<\/b><\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t have any pressure. I told John Esposito, the president and CEO of Warner Bros., \u201cI can\u2019t guarantee I\u2019m going to get on the radio with this album.\u201d He said, \u201cYou go cut the 12 songs you want to cut and let me worry about getting it on the radio. Don\u2019t think radio, think music.\u201d There\u2019s usually a lot of pressure to record something that sounds radio-friendly. But there are really only two ways I can compete at my age: Do what everybody else is doing, and do it better\u2014and I don\u2019t really like my chances at that\u2014or do something totally different, where you don\u2019t invite comparison. Either it works or it doesn\u2019t work. That\u2019s where\u00a0we went with this.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tell us about recording with Dolly.<\/b><\/p>\n
We started the recording process with that duet, \u201cYou Can\u2019t Make Old Friends,\u201d and both agreed we didn\u2019t care if it was a hit. I went into the studio first and recorded a base track, and then she came in and sang her part so much better than mine that I said, \u201cWhile we\u2019re here, let me redo my part.\u201d Then she said, \u201cLet me redo mine if you\u2019re going to redo yours.\u201d So we went over and over it, and finally finished it together that night in the studio. It was recorded almost 30 years to the day after we did \u201cIslands in the Stream,\u201d but neither of us realized that at the time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You sang in Spanish.<\/b><\/p>\n
I hope I never have to do \u201cDreams of the San Joaquin\u201d live in Spanish. I\u2019m sure it would sound more like Czech or something. We hired a guy to stand right beside me in the studio, and when I\u2019d sing the Spanish lyrics, he\u2019d correct my inflection and pronunciation. When you listen to that song, it\u2019s almost cinematic. It presents a wonderful story about the migrant farmers who made this country and the struggle they went through to feed their families back in Mexico. It\u2019s kind of a Woody Guthrie statement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How did you choose the songs?<\/b><\/p>\n
Cris Lacy and Rebekah Sterk at Warner Bros. had a great deal of input in finding songs for me to listen to. Once they found them, I had the right of refusal. I started with finding the songs I could do well, then finding songs that make a statement. I don\u2019t like just singing words\u2014I like to have a story. Songs like \u201cYou Had to Be There\u201d put you in a spot, take you through this emotion, and drop you off at the end, just like \u201cThe Gambler\u201d did. Those are the best songs for me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Has your selection criteria evolved?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s opened up a little bit. On this album we have a Zydeco-feeling song called \u201cDon\u2019t Leave Me in the Night Time\u201d that we asked Buckwheat Zydeco to play accordion on. It\u2019s such a fun piece of music, and it makes me want to try other things that are also out of my comfort zone.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Why three different producers?<\/b><\/p>\n
There were two different sets of producers. Dann Huff is so hot right now that he just didn\u2019t have time to do the whole project. I told him, \u201cDann, I could die before we finish this album.\u201d Kyle Lehning and my keyboard player, Warren Hartman, produced the religious album I did for Cracker Barrel a few years ago, and I went back to my comfort zone and asked them if they\u2019d help me finish the album. I think they did a beautiful job. It was so totally different, yet equally as good as Dann\u2019s stuff.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Has recording become easy, or are some songs still challenging?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
There are still songs I struggle with. The good news is, as you go through life, you\u00a0find the technical part of recording gets better. Some songs would have a long verse that I couldn\u2019t sing without taking a breath, so the technicians would say, \u201cSing what\u00a0you can, and we\u2019ll cut it together.\u201d When you\u2019re learning a song, you don\u2019t think about where to breathe. I\u2019ve done a couple of the songs since then, and once you learn where the breaths are, you can do them. One of the writers of \u201cTurn This World Around,\u201d\u00a0Eric Paslay, is a young guy with plenty of lung left, but for me, trying to sing that\u00a0song without an oxygen mask was difficult. I would do a take, we\u2019d listen to it and say, \u201cI like it except for these two places.\u201d Then I\u2019d go back in and redo\u00a0those two parts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Seems you\u2019re writing more prose\u00a0<\/b>than tunes.<\/b><\/p>\n
I think there are writers, and I think there\u00a0are people who can write. I think writers have a need to write, and I don\u2019t have that need. If I don\u2019t have a reason to write, I\u00a0can\u2019t just say, \u201cHey, I\u2019m going to write a song today.\u201d I don\u2019t play guitar anymore, so songwriting is that much harder for me because it requires someone else to play the music. Writing is one of those things I like to do\u00a0but don\u2019t need to do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anything you still want to achieve?<\/b><\/p>\n
Right now, if anything gets me going, it\u2019s the idea of chasing history. I\u2019d like to be 75 years old and have a charted record. I don\u2019t want to be thought of as that past guy who recorded \u201cRuby, Don\u2019t Take Your Love to Town.\u201d I need to be relevant.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
No plans to retire?<\/b><\/p>\n
I believe everyone has to have a purpose in life, a reason to get up every morning. I have twin 9-year-old boys, so that\u2019s purpose enough, but right now my purpose is to get away from them for a while. I still enjoy touring and performing. Getting there is not\u00a0as much fun as it used to be, but once I get there, there\u2019s no place I\u2019d rather be than walking out on that stage.<\/p>\n
\u2013Juli Thanki<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KENNY ROGERS The Gambler rolls the dice on his dream of making chart history at 75\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cMy current audience falls into two groups,\u201d says Kenny Rogers. \u201cThose born after 1980 whose parents made them listen to my music as child abuse, and those born before the \u201960s who can no longer remember that decade.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7299,6171,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11335,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11333\/revisions\/11335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}