A Conversation with Kenny Rogers – HuffPost 5.19.14

Mike Ragogna: Kenny, let’s start with your latest album, You Can’t Make Old Friends. I think in the case of Kenny Rogers, you probably can’t count the number of old friends you have.

Kenny Rogers: I am so lucky because I’ve enjoyed a long span… The interesting thing about the music is that there’s kind of an American Idol mentality today and I don’t think that’s wrong, but everybody likes the hero and they push them up the charts and then it’s, “Okay, who’s next?” I think the faster you go up, the faster you come down. I think I was at that period of time where people had to buy the whole album, and in buying an album you got to see what else the artist was interested in and you got the feel of the depth of what was really important to that guy or that girl. I think the longer it takes to reach the pinnacle of your success, the longer your glide ratio down, and I think that’s what I’ve been lucky on. I had a chance to build up a fanbase over a period of about forty years and they don’t forget. I think they understand it when I do a song that’s different or when I do a duet, because it’s typical of what I do.

MR: You have many famous duets, recordings with Dottie West, Dolly Parton, Kim Carnes, Sheena Easton and many others. How do you choose your partners?

KR: The trick I’ve learned from doing duets is you don’t start with a partner, you start with a song and then you say, “Who could sing this song well?” It’s unfair to bring somebody in on a song they can’t really perform. It doesn’t make any sense for me to sound good on it, since I know I can do it, and then have a song that they can’t really put their heart and soul in. That’s what I think I’ve been best at, finding the right people for the right songs, and the right people are Sheena Easton and Kim Carnes and Dottie West and of course Dolly Parton, and Ronnie Milsap. I did a duet with Ronnie Milsap that won a Grammy. It was an exciting thing, it was “Make No Mistake, She’s Mine,” two guys fighting over a girl. And I did another song with Kim Carnes and James Ingram called “What About Me?” where there’s three people in a relationship going, “Hey, wait a minute, what about me?” It was a great piece of music, it did pretty well. But I really loved the voices together, I thought we all sounded good, and that’s the trick.

MR: Kenny, your material has been A-league since The First Edition. How do you choose what you record?

KR: I think that’s always been my strength, finding good songs and recognizing their value. I figure if a song touches me I have a shot at making it touch someone else. If it doesn’t touch me I’m no good, I can’t bring anything to the table. But I just love finding those songs. There’s one on this new album called “You Had To Be There,” about a father that visits his son in prison, and he’s complaining about his son and what he’s done and how ashamed he is and his son says, “Wait a minute, you had to be there back when I was nine.” It’s just so true. It’s a wonderful piece of music.

MR: How do you keep your voice in shape?

KR: I’ve made a lot of money with a bad throat, that’s all I can tell you.

MR: Ha, I disagree, sir.

KR: Well, I think there’s a certain amount of honesty in what I do and I think that shows up on tracks and I’m so thrilled with that. I’ve tried to do a couple of things that were out of my territory and I realized just how bad they were, so I think you stick with your strengths as a rule.

MR: You’ve incorporated a fair amount of styles into your repertoire, so how would you describe your growth over the years? Has there been a particular thing that’s really evolved to get you to this point?

KR: First of all, I think styles are developed through appreciation. If I do something and enough people say, “I don’t like it when you do that,” I quit doing that. And if I do something they like I try to find more places to do it. That’s how you develop a style. For me, I think I’m a country singer with a lot of other musical influences. I’m in the music business because of Ray Charles. I went to see him when I was twelve years old, and somebody said the other day it’s amazing the number of men who determine between the ages of twelve and fifteen what they want to be in their life. They want to be a fireman, they want to be an astronaut, whatever it is, and I decided I want to be a musician. I didn’t even know I could sing, but everybody laughed at everything Ray Charles said, they clapped for everything he sang, I thought, “Boy, I just want to do that.” That’s how I determined what I wanted to do.

MR: Ray Charles was another artist who straddled all sorts of genres, especially with country songs like “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”

KR: He did that album Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music, that was an eye-opener for me, because what he did was he sang country songs to R&B tracks and I thought, “Well I can do that!” so that’s when I got in touch with Lionel Richie because I loved all the stuff he did with The Commodores. When you break them down musically, they were really country songs. He’s incredible, he writes from the art, so I thought it would be fun to do this. I called Lionel and I said, “I’d love for you to write a song for my next album.” He said, “Well I’m really very busy,” and I said, “Okay, it’ll go on the greatest hits album and it’ll probably sell five or six million,” and he said, “How’s Sunday night at eight o’clock?” But it was really a good friendship and a great musical relationship. I think he put us through the years, too.

MR: Yeah. “Lady” is such a classic, but when I hear his “Stuck On You,” even back in the day I thought, “Wait, that could be a Kenny Rogers song.”

KR: Yeah, that’s what I told him! I said, “How dare you! How dare you write something and not let me have it.” I’m so selfish sometimes.

MR: What is your advice for new artists?

KR: Pay your taxes on time and put twenty percent aside. That’s it. If you’re going into it for the money, don’t get into it. The money only comes after years of unrewarded effort. I think that if you go into it because it’s what you want to do… My mom gave me the greatest advice when I was young. She said, “Son, always be happy where you are. Never be content to be there but if you’re not happy with where you are, you’ll never be happy.” It really worked for me. When I was at the low point of my career, when First Edition was breaking up, I was still happy. “Hey, I’m still making music, what do I need?” I think that’s what my advice would be. Assuming you have some talent going into it, stay true to yourself, because I’m a believer that we’re all three people–I’m who I think I am, I’m who you think I am, and I’m who I really am. Now, the question is, how close are those three together? When you look at the people who have survived, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, they are who they say they are. That’s how the longevity comes in.

MR: Making the transition from The First Edition to Kenny Rogers the solo artist must have been interesting.

KR: You know, when you think about First Edition songs, they were really country music. The First Edition had “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town,” we had another song called “But You Know I Love You,” it was really a country group who stepped out-of-bounds to do “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).” It was not a big leap for me. Plus my mom listened to country music forever when I was a kid, so I was very familiar with it. I actually got into jazz as an accident. I played upright bass and sang with this jazz group and loved it beccause I think it gave me a great musical comprehension of a different style of music. Then of course going with the New Christy Minstrels taught me the value of story songs with social significance. That was a big part of my career, I didn’t just do songs, I did songs that had something to say. “Coward Of The County” is about a rape, “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” is about a Vietnam veteran that came home. “Reuben James” is about a black man who raised a white child. They all have something to say and I think that’s the key to having long-range hits. But mostly you have to be true to yourself, because if you’re lucky enough to have a long career, the public does not like surprises. They like to know who you are.

MR: Yeah, and they like to love who you are as well. I think that’s a part of why fans follow artists beyond the creativity.

KR: That’s right. I’m always amazed at how much people will do for someone they like and how much they won’t do for someone they don’t like.

MR: [laughs] Kenny, many of your songs embedded themselves into the culture. For instance, you couldn’t turn on a radio or go out to a bar without hearing “Lucille” or “The Gambler” for decades. Are you aware you’ve impacted pop culture?

KR: I’m very aware of that. In fact, I just did a Geico commercial based on that and it’s really funny. I love songs like that, and I think I’ve had a couple of those, but “The Gambler” has just such repeatable dialog and it’s actually not about gambling, it’s a way of life. I think it sort of applies in so many different circumstances and situations.

Transcribed By Galen Hawthorne