He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted more than 420 hit singles across various genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His fame and career spanned multiple genres: jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country. He remade his career and was one of the most successful cross-over artists of all time.

Early life and education.

Rogers was born the fourth of eight children on August 21, 1938, at St Joseph's Infirmary in Houston, Texas.
His parents were Lucille Lois Rogers (née Hester; 1910-1993), a nurse's assistant, and Edward Floyd Rogers (1904-1975), a carpenter.
In 1986, on The Phil Donahue Show, Rogers told the audience that he was the first person in his family as far back as we know to graduate from high school. We were broke. We lived in a federal housing project. I think the most money my father ever made was $75 a week.
In 1949, Rogers won a talent show at the Texan Theatre. He served as a busboy at the Rice Hotel and swept floors at a hat store for $9 a week. He later attended the University of Houston.

National recognition.

Rogers's first outing for his new label was Love Lifted Me. The album charted and two singles, Love Lifted Me and While the Feeling's Good, were minor hits.
The song Runaway Girl was featured in the film Trackdown (1976).
The single Lucille (1977) was a major hit, reaching number one on the pop charts in 12 countries, selling over five million copies, and firmly establishing Rogers's post-First Edition career. On the strength of Lucille, the album Kenny Rogers reached No. 1 on the Billboard Country Album Chart.
In the late 1970s, Rogers teamed up with close friend and Country Music legend Dottie West for a series of albums and duets. Together the duo won two gold records (one of which later went platinum), two CMA Awards, an ACM nomination, two Grammy nominations and 1 Music City News Award for their two hit albums Every Time Two Fools Collide (No. 1) and Classics (No. 3), selling out stadiums and arenas while on tour for several years, as well as appearing on several network television specials which showcased them.

International success

In 1981, Rogers bought the old ABC Dunhill building and built one of the most popular and state-of-the-art recording studios in Los Angeles. The song "We Are the World" was recorded there and at A & M Records.
The next few years saw Rogers scoring several top country hits on a regular basis, including "Twenty Years Ago", "Morning Desire", "Tomb of the Unknown Love", among others. On January 28, 1985, Rogers was one of the 45 artists who recorded the worldwide charity song "We Are the World" to support hunger victims in Africa. The following year he played at Giants Stadium
In 1988, Rogers won a Grammy Award for "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals" with Ronnie Mils-ap: "Make No Mistake, She's Mine".
In doing so, he broke a 26-year-old record held by Hank Snow (who, in April 1974, was aged 59 when he scored with "Hello Love").
In the 21st century (and at age 61), Rogers was back at No. 1 for the first time in more than a decade with the 2000 single "Buy Me a Rose".

Kenny rogers's quote

Music should make you laugh, make you think If it doesn't do one of those three things, then you're wasting everybody's time
Youth is a frame of mind. If you get out there and enjoy it, you can have it at any time of your life.
You need three things in your life to be happy: someone to love, something to do and something to look forward to.
You can't make old friends. You either have them or you don't.
There's a story behind every person. There's a reason why they're the way they are. Think about that before you judge.
If you want people to know what your message is, just sing it.
I'm so totally future oriented that, for me, I don't know what the future's about, but I can promise you it's gonna be exciting.
Stay away from trouble when you can.
Here's what I've learned about raising boys... If you keep 'em busy, they're fine. You let 'em get bored, they'll dismantle your house board by board.
It is difficult to get played at my age on the radio.
There is a trade-off - as you grow older you gain wisdom, but you lose spontaneity.

Illness, burial and death

On March 20, 2020, Rogers, at age 81, died from natural causes while under hospice care at his home in Sandy Springs, Georgia. He is interred in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. For the first two-thirds of the show, an impressive array of stars — Reba McEntire, Lionel Richie, Chris Staple-ton, Lady A, Little Big Town and Idina Menzel each take a turn performing from Rogers' vast library of hits.

Movies and Roles