American singer Kenny Rogers was born as Kenneth Ray Rogers on 21st August 1938 in Houston, Texas as passed away on 20th March 2020. He was particularly famous for country music and was also a songwriter, record producer and entrepreneur. He was married 5 times and had 5 children.
As a kid, Kenny went to Elementary school, proceeded to Junior High and then secondary school from where he graduated. Then he worked a couple of jobs and continued his studies at university. Once he competed in a talent show and won.
In the late 50s, Rogers became a jazz band member and performed with them in various clubs; this lasted until 1965 when the band split and a year later Kenny became the singer and double bass player of a folk music group. Meanwhile, he collaborated with other artists by composing and producing songs as well as acting as session musician for them. In 1967, Rogers left the band and formed a new one and released some popular hits like ‘Ruby, don’t take your love to Town’ and ‘Something’s Burning’, amongst others.
Nine years later, Rogers embarked on a solo career and his debut album was released, however, it was of minor success. Kenny’s career took a positive turn with his second album, which featured a couple of hits namely ‘Laura (What’s he got that I ain’t got) and the number one single ‘Lucille’ which topped the charts in numerous countries plus selling more than 5 million copies worldwide. With this famous single, Rogers became an established artist and he continued to increase his popularity with another big hit ‘Coward of the County’ in 1979.
During the 80s, Kenny dueted with various singers including Dottie West, Kim Carnes, Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie, and released several hits like ‘All I ever need is You’, ‘Don’t fall in a love with a Dreamer’, ‘Islands in the Stream’ and ‘Lady’, amongst many others.
In the next 4 decades until his demise, Rogers proceeded with his successful career and released over 55 albums, more than 30 singles and 26 music videos. During his +60-year career, Kenny had 24 US number one singles and 30 number one singles overall. He also starred in a couple of films and guest appeared in numerous TV programmes/shows.
Rogers received numerous awards including Grammy, Academy of Country Music and American Music and was also inducted in the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017. With global record sales of over 100 million copies, he is considered as one of the best-selling music artists ever.
Kenny died on 20th March 2020 at the age of 81 from bladder cancer.
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