RIP, Kenny Rogers - A Hero To Many

I remember growing up in Borden, Ontario, Canada, and listening to my dad's unending stream of country music. He was a farm kid from way back, and outside of a love of Elvis songs and music, if it was country, he listened to it. There was Mickey Gilley, the Statler Brothers, and The Oak Ridge Boys on a permanent playlist in my house, plus a singer I hadn't yet gotten familiar with: #KennyRogers.

Now, being around 10 or so when I first heard a Kenny Rogers tune, I was still listening to the early stages of 80s pop music, so at first I had dismissed Rogers' crooning as "old people music" or something like that. Then, I heard what is probably Rogers' definitive song: "The Gambler," a song which later led to several TV movies with Rogers in the lead role of Brady Hawkes. There was an undeniable draw to Rogers' songs back then, and I was hooked. His music, for a time, at least, became my guilty pleasure, and whether it was "The Gambler," "Ruby," or even "Islands In The Stream," I loved them all.

Kenny Rogers also played a significant part of my preteen and teenage years when I was living on a Canadian military base in Lahr, Germany. There was no satellite television back then, and certainly no streaming like you see today, so our television viewing pleasure was confined to whatever advertisement-free television shows were aired on the local air force channel or whatever movies we rented. My sister and I would routinely get irritated that our parents wouldn't let us watch shows like Delirious, even though we were teenagers by this point and every one of our friends had already seen it, in our view. One night, she held up the case for a movie called Six Pack, and even though I had no clue what it was about, though I guessed it was a racing flick, I shrugged and approved her getting it for us to watch.

As you might have guessed, it was all the cheesiness that one might have expected from a movie designed to showcase the acting talents of a singer, but the main song from the soundtrack - "Love Will Turn You Around" - reminded me once again about why I loved Kenny Rogers' music. While I wouldn't say that the man was a wholesome singer, he was definitely a heartfelt singer, and because of that, you couldn't really help but to sing along with whatever he was singing. He really could have been singing the phone book entries and because of how he was doing it, you could be hooked and not even realize it.

I did feel sorry for the man after what was clearly an unsuccessful plastic surgery. Gone was the handsome man with the salt and pepper beard and hair, replaced by someone I didn't recognize at all. Sure, he had the voice, but he sure didn't look like Kenny Rogers did and that actually made me sad. It wasn't as though I had a crush on him - I was far too young when I listened to his music to think of him like that - but when I was older and saw what he looked like following the plastic surgeries, I felt sad because he felt the need to do that in the first place, likely as a way to recapture his youth. I didn't understand that, as for me, his voice was what mattered - I didn't care what he looked like.

Now, I feel for his legion of fans and for his friends like the equally-legendary #DollyParton and #LionelRichie, who wrote "Lady" and also sang it as a duet with Rogers. I certainly feel for his family, as they won't be able to hold any sort of larger service in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and depending on how spread out the family members are, that could make grieving this loss even harder for those involved.

He will be missed.