Charlie Daniels R.I.P | October 28, 1936 – July 6, 2020

Charlie Daniels, shown here in 1997, has died at age 83.

Brownie Harris/Getty Images

Charlie Daniels, Southern Rock Pioneer and Fiddle Great, Dead at 83

Leader of the Charlie Daniels Band was known for hits like “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and for his session work on Bob Dylan’s ‘Nashville Skyline’

By STEPHEN L. BETTS

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Daniels, who played bass and guitar on Bob Dylan’s 1969 Nashville Skyline LP and would go on to pioneer the burgeoning Southern rock movement with his namesake Charlie Daniels Band, died Monday at 83. His publicist confirmed Daniels’ death from a hemorrhagic stroke to Rolling Stone.

With his fiery fiddle at the forefront of much of his recorded output, the leader of the Charlie Daniels Band paved the way for the mainstream country-rock success of that group and others, including Alabama and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and crossed over into the pop charts with his best-known song, 1979’s Grammy-winning “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” A country chart-topper about a fiddle contest between a boy named Johnny and Satan, the song also spent a pair of weeks at Number Three on Billboard‘s Hot 100.

Charles Edward Daniels was born October 28th, 1936, in the seacoast town of Wilmington, North Carolina, the only child of teenagers William and LaRue Daniel — the “s” at the end of his name was the result of a mistake on his birth certificate. Two weeks after Daniels started elementary school, his family moved to Valdosta, Georgia, bouncing between there and Elizabethtown, North Carolina, until finally moving back to Wilmington. A feverish bout with childhood measles forced Daniels to wear eyeglasses for most of his life, making him a target of school bullies, but the youngster, who grew up on Saturday matinees of Western films and Saturday nights spent listening to the Grand Ole Opry, would soon find his niche performing and writing songs.

Daniels’ first musical gig was playing mandolin in a bluegrass band called the Misty Mountain Boys in the Fifties, but by the end of the decade, he was gigging around clubs in Washington, D.C. and Maryland. His band at the time, the Rockets, would change their name to the Jaguars after the success of their instrumental hit “Jaguar,” released as a single on Epic Records, the same label for which Daniels would again record by the mid-Seventies. His co-writer on “Jaguar” was Don Johnston, a Fort Worth, Texas songwriter and record producer better known as “Bob” Johnston who would play a major role in Daniels’ future Nashville career.

In 1967, Daniels followed Johnston to Nashville, with the latter producing sessions for Columbia Records. “I had always wanted to live in Nashville,” Daniels told Rolling Stone in 2017. “That was going to be it for me. Bob made it possible for me to come there.”

He soon began a steady stream of session work, playing fiddle, bass, and guitar on Leonard Cohen’s 1969 LP Songs From a Room and its 1971 follow-up Songs of Love and Hate, and appearing on recordings by Marty Robbins, Pete Seeger, Flatts & Scruggs, and Claude King.

But it was Bob Dylan who would give him his biggest boost. In 1969, he joined Johnston in the studio to record Dylan’s Nashville Skyline. Although initially admonished for playing too loudly in the sessions, Daniels would appear on three consecutive Dylan albums and also play on Ringo Starr’s 1970 post-Beatles foray into country, Beaucoups of Blues. During this period, Daniels had his songs cut by Barbara Mandrell and Tammy Wynette, and himself began to work as a producer, overseeing projects by Gary and Randy Scruggs and the Youngbloods.

In 1970, Daniels released his self-titled solo debut on Capitol Records, a collection that bridged rambling Sixties hippie-centric rock and blues with the more defined country-rock with which he would become most closely associated. In 1973, he had a hit with the single “Uneasy Rider,” a bluegrass-influenced talking-blues tune with a pot-smoking hippie as its counterculture protagonist, via the Kama Sutra label, and the next year released the LP Way Down Yonder, his fourth album and the first under “The Charlie Daniels Band.”

The CDB, as they were often abbreviated, released 1974’s Fire on the Mountain first on Kama Sutra and later on their longtime label, Epic, with whom they signed a then-lucrative $3 million contract in 1976. Offering the first real major helping of deep-fried Southern rock, Fire on the Mountain also featured a pair of live tracks from Daniels’ first Volunteer Jam at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium. By 2018, Daniels had hosted 20 such all-star gatherings, with Willie Nelson, the Allman Brothers, Ray Price, Roy Acuff, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Billy Joel, James Brown, Chris Stapleton, and Little Richard among the performers. Counter to the conservative stance he espoused later in life, in the mid-Seventies Daniels advocated for the legalization of marijuana and appeared at campaign fundraisers for Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in 1976.

The Charlie Daniels Band entered their most fertile commercial period in 1979 with the release of Million Mile Reflections and its fiddle-driven crossover hit “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” featured in the trendsetting 1980 film Urban Cowboy. The band’s breakthrough LP would be certified triple platinum, while the film’s soundtrack went platinum shortly after its release. A four-time nominee at the CMA Awards in 1979, Daniels’ “Devil” would be named CMA Single of the Year and earn the group a Grammy.

“I don’t know where the phrase ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’ came from or why it entered my mind that day in the rehearsal studio,” Daniels wrote in his 2017 memoir Never Look at the Empty Seats. “I don’t even know where the song idea came from… But when it started coming, it came in a gush. The band grabbed ahold, and when Taz [DiGregorio] came up with the signature keyboard lick behind the devil’s fiddle part, we knew we were on to something.”

The following year, Daniels and the band earned five CMA nominations, including Entertainer of the Year, and nods for the patriotic crossover hit “In America,” which just missed the pop Top Ten. Subsequent singles “The Legend of Wooley Swamp” and the post-Vietnam War tune “Still in Saigon” made the pop Top 40, and in 1982 the CDB appeared as musical guest on Saturday Night Live. The group’s next major country hit, “Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye,” reached the Top Ten in 1986. In addition to his role as a Southern rock pioneer, Daniels received Dove Awards for his religious recordings in 1995 and 1997.

In 1997, Daniels launched Blue Hat Records with longtime personal manager David Corlew, issuing a diverse slate of LPs including Tailgate Party, his first bluegrass album; Songs From the Longleaf Pines; and the 2007 duets album Deuces, featuring Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Brenda Lee, and Brad Paisley. The 2014 release Off the Grid – Doin’ It Dylan paid tribute to his former studio-session employer with versions of Dylan songs like “Tangled Up in Blue.”

Daniels was a tireless philanthropist, and he worked to raise funds and awareness for cancer and muscular dystrophy research, the physically and mentally challenged, farmers, and the armed forces. His annual Christmas for Kids concert became a Music City holiday tradition. In 2014, Daniels co-founded the non-profit Journey Home Project to aid U.S military personnel and their families. In recognition of his efforts on behalf of veterans, Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, named its new Veterans and Military Family Center after Daniels and his wife, Hazel, in 2016.

After the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001, Daniels wrote and recorded the controversial “This Ain’t No Rag, It’s a Flag,” which garnered even more attention when CMT refused to allow him to perform it during the Country Freedom Concert that October in Nashville. In March 2003, after peace activists began protesting the impending war on Iraq, Daniels penned an “open letter to the Hollywood bunch,” in which he branded actor Sean Penn a traitor for visiting Iraq. He also labeled liberal actors “pampered, overpaid, unrealistic children.” Daniels often stirred the pot with his “Soap Box” feature on his website, which chronicled his views on political, moral, and social issues, and he became an outspoken conservative voice on Twitter.

In 2017, Daniels recalled the lean years of his band and rough patches in his personal life in Never Look at the Empty Seats. “It’s all part of the growing process and defining yourself,” Daniels told Rolling Stone in 2017. “That’s why I wanted to include that. Looking back, we played some raunchy places and had some pretty wild times. But that makes you tougher. And you learn how to entertain people.”

Daniels underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 2001, and suffered a mild stroke in 2010 while snowmobiling. In 2013, he contracted pneumonia, after which he had a pacemaker installed.

A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry, Daniels continued to tour and record music up until his death. In 2019, he played a string of headlining shows with Travis Tritt and the Cadillac Three, and released his final album, Beau Weevils — Songs in the Key of E, in 2018.

“As I approach my golden years, I find that the creative juices still flow bountifully. I’ve got enough album concepts and ideas to take me years down the road,” he wrote in his memoir. “And as long as God gives me the strength, I’ll be writing and recording new music.”

Little Richard R.I.P | December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020

Little Richard, the massively influential rock & roll pioneer whose early hits inspired a generation of musicians, has died at 87.

Dezo Hoffmann/REX/Shutterstock

Little Richard, Founding Father of Rock Who Broke Musical Barriers, Dead at 87

Pianist-singer behind “Tutti Frutti,” “Good Golly Miss Molly,” and “Long Tall Sally” set the template that a generation of musicians would follow

By DAVID BROWNE

Little Richard, a founding father of rock & roll whose fervent shrieks, flamboyant garb, and joyful, gender-bending persona embodied the spirit and sound of that new art form, died Saturday. He was 87. The musician’s son, Danny Jones Penniman, confirmed the pioneer’s death to Rolling Stone. The cause of death was bone cancer, according to his lawyer, Bill Sobel.

Starting with “Tutti Frutti” in 1956, Little Richard cut a series of unstoppable hits – “Long Tall Sally” and “Rip It Up” that same year, “Lucille” in 1957, and “Good Golly Miss Molly” in 1958 – driven by his simple, pumping piano, gospel-influenced vocal exclamations and sexually charged (often gibberish) lyrics. “I heard Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, and that was it,” Elton John told Rolling Stone in 1973. “I didn’t ever want to be anything else. I’m more of a Little Richard stylist than a Jerry Lee Lewis, I think. Jerry Lee is a very intricate piano player and very skillful, but Little Richard is more of a pounder.”

Although he never hit the Top 10 again after 1958, Little Richard’s influence was massive. The Beatles recorded several of his songs, including “Long Tall Sally,” and Paul McCartney’s singing on those tracks – and the Beatles’ own “I’m Down” – paid tribute to Little Richard’s shredded-throat style. His songs became part of the rock & roll canon, covered over the decades by everyone from the Everly Brothers, the Kinks, and Creedence Clearwater Revival to Elvis Costello and the Scorpions. “Elvis popularized [rock & roll],” Steven Van Zandt tweeted after the news broke. “Chuck Berry was the storyteller. Richard was the archetype.”

Little Richard’s stage persona – his pompadours, androgynous makeup, and glass-bead shirts — also set the standard for rock & roll showmanship; Prince, to cite one obvious example, owed a sizable debt to the musician. “Prince is the Little Richard of his generation,” Richard told Joan Rivers in 1989, before looking at the camera and addressing Prince. “I was wearing purple before you was wearing it!”

“If you love anything about the flamboyance of rock & roll, you have Little Richard to thank,” says the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, a longtime fan. “And where would rock & roll be without flamboyance? He was the first. To be able to be that uninhibited back then, you had to have a lot of not-give-a-fuck.”

Born Richard Wayne Penniman on December 5th, 1932, in Macon, Georgia, he was one of 12 children and grew up around uncles who were preachers. “I was born in the slums. My daddy sold whiskey, bootleg whiskey,” he told Rolling Stone in 1970. Although he sang in a nearby church, his father Bud wasn’t supportive of his son’s music and accused him of being gay, resulting in Penniman leaving home at 13 and moving in with a white family in Macon. But music stayed with him: One of his boyhood friends was Otis Redding, and Penniman heard R&B, blues, and country while working at a concession stand at the Macon City Auditorium.

After performing at the Tick Tock Club in Macon and winning a local talent show, Penniman landed his first record deal, with RCA, in 1951. (He became “Little Richard” when he about 15 years old, when the R&B and blues worlds were filled with acts like Little Esther and Little Milton; he had also grown tired with people mispronouncing his last name as “Penny-man.”) He learned his distinctive piano style from Esquerita, a South Carolina singer and pianist who also wore his hair in a high black pompadour.

For the next five years, Little Richard’s career advanced only fitfully; fairly tame, conventional singles he cut for RCA and other labels didn’t chart. “When I first came along, I never heard any rock & roll,” he told Rolling Stone in 1990. “When I started singing [rock & roll], I sang it a long time before I presented it to the public because I was afraid they wouldn’t like it. I never heard nobody do it, and I was scared.”

By 1956, he was washing dishes at the Greyhound bus station in Macon (a job he had first taken a few years earlier, after his father was murdered and Little Richard had to support his family). By then, only one track he’d cut, “Little Richard’s Boogie,” hinted at the musical tornado to come. “I put that little thing in it,” he told Rolling Stone in 1970 of the way he tweaked with his gospel roots. “I always did have that thing, but I didn’t know what to do with the thing I had.”

During this low point, he sent a tape with a rough version of a bawdy novelty song called “Tutti Frutti” to Specialty Records in Chicago. He came up with the song’s famed chorus — “a wop bob alu bob a wop bam boom” — while bored washing dishes. (He also co-wrote “Long Tall Sally” while working that same job.)

By coincidence, label owner and producer Art Rupe was in search of a lead singer for some tracks he wanted to cut in New Orleans, and Penniman’s howling delivery fit the bill. In September 1955, the musician cut a lyrically cleaned-up version of “Tutti Frutti,” which became his first hit, peaking at 17 on the pop chart. “’Tutti Frutti really started the races being together,” he told Rolling Stone in 1990. “From the git-go, my music was accepted by whites.”

Its follow-up, “Long Tall Sally,” hit Number Six, becoming his the highest-placing hit of his career. For just over a year, the musician released one relentless and arresting smash after another. From “Long Tall Sally” to “Slippin’ and Slidin,’” Little Richard’s hits — a glorious mix of boogie, gospel, and jump blues, produced by Robert “Bumps” Blackwell — sounded like he never stood still. With his trademark pompadour and makeup (which he once said he started wearing so that he would be less “threatening” while playing white clubs), he was instantly on the level of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and other early rock icons, complete with rabid fans and mobbed concerts. “That’s what the kids in America were excited about,” he told Rolling Stone in 1970. “They don’t want the falsehood — they want the truth.”

“It is with a heavy heart that I ask for prayers for the family of my lifelong friend and fellow rocker ‘Little Richard,’” Lewis said in a statement. “He will live on always in my heart with his amazing talent and his friendship! He was one of a kind and I will miss him dearly.”

As with Presley, Lewis, and other contemporaries, Penniman was cast in early rock & roll movies like Don’t Knock the Rock (1956) and The Girl Can’t Help It (1957). In a sign of how segregated the music business and radio were at the time, though, Pat Boone’s milquetoast covers of “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally,” both also released in 1956, charted as well if not higher than Richard’s own versions. (“Boone’s “Tutti Frutti” hit Number 12, surpassing Little Richard’s by nine slots.) Penniman later told Rolling Stone that he made sure to sing “Long Tall Sally” faster than “Tutti Frutti” so that Boone couldn’t copy him as much.

But then the hits stopped, by his own choice. After what he interpreted as signs — a plane engine that seemed to be on fire and a dream about the end of the world and his own damnation — Penniman gave up music in 1957 and began attending the Alabama Bible school Oakwood College, where he was eventually ordained a minister. When he finally cut another album, in 1959, the result was a gospel set called God Is Real.

In 1964, with his gospel music career floundering, Little Richard returned to secular rock. Although none of the albums and singles he cut over the next decade for a variety of labels sold well, he was welcomed back by a new generation of rockers, including the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan (who played Little Richard songs on the piano when he was a kid). When Little Richard played the Star-Club in Hamburg in the early Sixties, the opening act was none other than the Beatles. “We used to stand backstage at Hamburg’s Star-Club and watch Little Richard play,” John Lennon said later. “He used to read from the Bible backstage and just to hear him talk we’d sit around and listen. I still love him and he’s one of the greatest.”

By the 1970s, Little Richard was making a respectable living on the rock-oldies circuit, immortalized in a searing, sweaty performance in the 1973 documentary Let the Good Times Roll. During this time, he also started smoking marijuana and became addicted to cocaine while, at the same time, returning to his gospel roots.

Little Richard also dismantled sexual stereotypes in rock & roll, even if he confused many of his fans along the way. During his teen years and into his early rock stardom, his stereotypical flamboyant personality made some speculate about his sexuality. But that flamboyance didn’t derail his career. In the 1984 biography The Life and Times of Little Richard (written with his cooperation), he denounced homosexuality as “contagious … it’s not something you’re born with.”

But while recalling a 1987 Playboy interview with Little Richard for The Guardian, filmmaker John Waters quoted him as saying, “I love gay people. I believe I was the founder of gay. I’m the one who started to be so bold tellin’ the world! You got to remember my dad put me out of the house because of that. I used to take my mother’s curtains and put them on my shoulders. And I used to call myself at the time the Magnificent One. I was wearing makeup and eyelashes when no men were wearing that. I was very beautiful; I had hair hanging everywhere. If you let anybody know you was gay, you was in trouble; so when I came out I didn’t care what nobody thought. A lot of people were scared to be with me.”

Later in life, he described himself as “omnisexual,” attracted to both men and women. But during an interview with the Christian-tied Three Angels Broadcasting Group in 2017, he suddenly denounced gay and trans lifestyles: “God, Jesus — He made men, men. He made women, women, you know? And you’ve got to live the way God wants you to live. So much unnatural affection. So much of people just doing everything and don’t think about God.”

Yet none of that seemed to damage his mystique or legend. In the 1980s, he appeared in movies like Down and Out in Beverly Hills and in TV shows like Full House and Miami Vice. In 1986, he was one of the 10 original inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1993, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys. His last known recording was in 2010, when he cut a song for a tribute album to gospel singer Dottie Rambo.

In the years before his death, Little Richard, who was by then based in Nashville, still performed periodically. Onstage, though, the physicality of old was gone: Thanks to hip replacement surgery in 2009, he could only perform sitting down at his piano. But his rock & roll spirit never left him. “I’m sorry I can’t do it like it’s supposed to be done,” he told one audience in 2012. After the audience screamed back in encouragement, he said — with a very Little Richard squeal — “Oh, you gonna make me scream like a white girl!”

Kenny Rogers R.I.P | August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020

Kenny Rogers, the country and pop singer known for hits like "The Gambler" and "Islands in the Stream," has died at 81. Paul Natkin/Getty Images

Kenny Rogers, Country Music’s ‘The Gambler,’ Dead at 81 Rogers was one of music’s true crossover artists, scoring hits in both country and pop with songs like “Islands in the Stream” and “Lucille”

By STEPHEN L. BETTS

From bold psychedelic rockers and cinematic story songs to sentimental country pop, Kenny Rogers covered considerable musical turf throughout six decades of recording and performing, using his gravel-tinged vocals to dramatic effect. Along the way, he also became a globally recognized actor, photographer, businessman, and philanthropist. When Rogers announced his final Nashville concert in 2017, after 60 years of performances, he acknowledged that his mobility had become more limited in recent years. Rogers died Friday night at age 81 from natural causes at home in Georgia, his rep confirmed in a statement. “The Rogers family is sad to announce that Kenny Rogers passed away last night at 10:25 p.m. at the age of 81,” his rep said. “Rogers passed away peacefully at home from natural causes under the care of hospice and surrounded by his family. The family is planning a small private service at this time out of concern for the national COVID-19 emergency. They look forward to celebrating Kenny’s life publicly with his friends and fans at a later date.”

from Kenny Rogers TV show Rollin' On The River and DVD Remember the 70's

Featured on a staggering 30 Number One singles across the U.S. pop, country, and adult contemporary charts from 1977 to 1999, Rogers earned three Grammys, five CMA awards, and eight ACM awards, along with membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide and charted internationally with enduring hits including “The Gambler,” “Lucille,” and “Islands in the Stream,” the breezy Bee Gees-penned 1983 collaboration with Dolly Parton.

“You never know how much you love somebody until they’re gone,” Parton wrote following news of Rogers’ death. “I’ve had so many wonderful years and wonderful times with my friend Kenny, but above all the music and the success, I loved him as a wonderful man and a true friend.”

In a statement to Rolling Stone, the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb called Rogers “a musical force and a character to be reckoned with. He made a huge impact on our lives, and we will miss him greatly.”

A founding member of folk-rock group the First Edition, Rogers was a staple on TV’s most influential variety series throughout the Sixties and Seventies, making regular appearances on shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Johnny Cash, and Glen Campbell. His final Nashville concert, in October 2017, featured his last-ever performance with Parton and appearances from Reba McEntire, Alison Krauss, the Flaming Lips, and others.

Born on August 21st, 1938, Kenneth Donald Rogers was the fourth of eight children, raised in the San Felipe Courts, a public-housing project in Houston’s Fourth Ward. Exposed to everything from jazz and R&B to pop and country, Rogers played guitar and sang in a doo-wop vocal group he formed at Jefferson Davis High School in 1956 called the Scholars. In 1958, he (then billed on the label as “Kenneth Rogers”) scored a solo hit for Carlton Records called “That Crazy Feeling.”

Rogers would learn to play bass for his next gig as a member of the Houston jazz trio the Bobby Doyle Three. Moving to Los Angeles, he joined popular folk group the New Christy Minstrels. In 1967, Rogers and three of the Minstrels, plus non-Minstrel drummer Mickey Jones, formed the First Edition, the genre-defying group that would reach the Top Five with their sophomore single on Reprise Records, Mickey Newbury’s trippy “Just Dropped In (to See What Condition My Condition Was In).” Featuring Glen Campbell on guitar, the tune was the first of the group’s seven Top 40 pop hits, which also included their chilling take on Mel Tillis’ “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town.”

Rogers’ gruff, smoldering vocals would also distinguish another of the group’s biggest hits, the Mac Davis-penned “Something’s Burning.” In 1969, the group released their fourth LP, Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town, which also featured their version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee.” The LP cover was the first to credit the group as “Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.”

Rogers was signed to United Artists Records in 1975 by producer and Nashville label head Larry Butler, and his first LP there, Love Lifted Me, produced only minor hits. But in 1977, he would earn his first Number One country smash (and first pop Top Five solo hit) with the mournful barroom ballad “Lucille.” A Number One in the U.K. and other countries, the Hal Bynum and Roger Bowling-penned weeper paved the way for Rogers’ conversational singing style to make blockbuster hits of story-to-screen tales, including “The Gambler” and “Coward of the County.”

Music video by Kenny Rogers performing The Gambler. © 2018 Capitol Records LLC, Courtesy of Capitol Records Nashville under license from Universal Music Ente...

With “The Gambler,” Rogers hit a musical trifecta: a ghostly allegory built around trains, the draw of the cards, and the wisdom of the aged. Nashville songwriter Don Schlitz would take home a Grammy and CMA Song of the Year honors for the song, but Rogers parlayed it into a mini empire, portraying fictional Old West gambler Brady Hawkes in five made-for-TV films from 1980 to 1994. The song also spawned a slot machine, a book series, and Rogers’ appearance in a humorous 2014 GEICO Insurance commercial, where his a cappella rendition of the song’s memorable chorus (“You got to know when to hold ’em/know when to fold ’em…”) annoys his fellow poker players.

While “The Gambler” was a country-to-pop crossover hit, Rogers’ next several singles, alternating between ballads (“She Believes in Me,” the Grammy-winning “You Decorated My Life”) and story songs (“Coward of the Country”), kept his feet firmly planted in both worlds, culminating in a six-week Number One pop tune in “Lady,” penned by Lionel Richie. He also scored a smash duet, “Don’t Fall in Love With a Dreamer,” with Kim Carnes, who wrote an entire concept album with husband Dave Ellingson at Rogers’ request. Gideon, which through its dozen tracks told the story of Texas cowboy Gideon Tanner, was Rogers’ fifth Number One country album and another Top 20 entry on the multi-genre Billboard 200. Interestingly, Rogers, with his former band the First Edition, had previously recorded a concept album about a California town, The Ballad of Calico, in 1972.

Rogers, who was one of country music’s first acts to sell out arenas, released his Greatest Hits LP in 1980, a compilation that has sold in excess of 24 million copies worldwide. The 1981 LP Share Your Love featured appearances from Michael Jackson and Gladys Knight, and included four songs penned by Lionel Richie. Teaming with Dottie West in the late Seventies and early Eighties, the pair notched five massive hits, including the Number Ones “Every Time Two Fools Collide,” “All I Ever Need Is You,” and “What Are We Doin’ in Love.”

Rogers’ sole starring role in a feature film was as race car driver Brewster Baker in the 1982 comedy-drama Six Pack. He also sang the film’s hit theme song, “Love Will Turn You Around.” A year later, he had yet another hit duet, with Sheena Easton, on Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight.”

HD - HQ Audio - ISLANDS IN THE STREAM

In 1984, he reunited with Dolly Parton to record the holiday LP Once Upon a Christmas. They also topped the country charts again in 1985 with “Real Love.” Other collaborations included the 1984 Grammy-nominated single “What About Me?” with Kim Carnes and James Ingram, and 1987’s “Make No Mistake, She’s Mine,” with Ronnie Milsap. Rogers was also a featured performer in the 1985 USA for Africa collaboration “We Are the World,” alongside Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, and Ray Charles. Rogers’ soft-rock-influenced 1985 LP, The Heart of the Matter, produced by George Martin, was the singer’s last to top the Billboard Country Albums chart. In 1986, under the pseudonym “Joey Coco,” Prince penned the power ballad “You’re My Love,” for Rogers, who cut it for his They Don’t Make Them Like They Used To album.

From 1992 to 1994, Rogers hosted the A&E history series The Real West. His 1993 album If Only My Heart Had a Voice featured “Ol’ Red,” later a hit for Blake Shelton. He returned to his musical roots as a member of the Bobby Doyle Three with the 1994 collection of jazz standards, Timepiece. In 1999, Rogers’ own Dreamcatcher label issued the She Rides Wild Horses LP, featuring “The Greatest,” penned by Don Schlitz. A subsequent release from the album, “Buy Me a Rose,” with Alison Krauss and Billy Dean, marked Rogers’ return to the top spot on the Country Singles chart for the first time in almost 13 years. In 2005, Rogers and Parton topped CMT’s 100 Greatest Duets with “Islands in the Stream.” It marked the last time the pair performed together onstage until Rogers’ farewell concert in Nashville in 2017.

A co-founder of the Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant franchise (which would form the basis of an entire 1996 episode of Seinfeld), the singer was involved in various ventures in the live-entertainment destination of Branson, Missouri. He also helped fund construction of the Kenny Rogers United Cerebral Palsy Center of Southeast Missouri, which was later rechristened the Kenny Rogers Children’s Center.

Rogers was an amateur photographer and published three photo books, including 2005’s This Is My Country, featuring black-and-white portraits of country stars Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and others. In addition, he authored the children’s books The Greatest, based on his hit song, and The Toy Shoppe, inspired by his touring musical play presented during his popular annual Christmas tour.

Rogers was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013, and received a Grammy nomination with Dolly Parton the following year for their duet “You Can’t Make Old Friends.” Not long before his 2017 retirement, Rogers played to hundreds of thousands of attendees at iconic music festivals including Bonnaroo and Glastonbury.

“I tried not to compromise. I did songs I believed in, because you do them with more authority and you do them with a greater sense of belief,” Rogers said of his legacy as an artist to Rolling Stone Country in a previously unpublished 2017 interview. “If you do that … if you have something you believe in, you have to stick to it and you have to commit to it. That’s what I think I’ve done best. I’ve believed in things and I’ve stuck to ’em.”

Fast & Furious Fan Fest | Maurice A. Ferré Park: Miami, FL

Production / Stage Management
NBC will televised “The Road to F9: Fast & Furious Fan Fest.” on Friday, Jan. 31, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, an hourlong special celebrating Universal Pictures’ Upcoming ninth chapter in the “Fast & Furious” series

Hosts: Tyrese Gibson and Maria Menounos

Featuring Artists: Cardi B, Wiz Khalifa & Charlie Puth, Ozuna and Ludacris

The special featured the world premiere of the film’s much-awaited trailer.

• The performances were part of a Fan Festival that took place in Miami on January 31 to celebrate the upcoming film, arriving in theaters on May 22.

• Special appearances by franchise stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster and Nathalie Emmanuel, as well as newcomer to the “Fast & Furious” family, John Cena, and director Justin Lin.

• The event was sponsored by Dodge, Xfinity, IMAX and Castrol Edge.

PRESS

FAST AND FURIOUS 9 IS GIVING FANS A LIVE CONCERT EXPERIENCE AND TRAILER DROP TOMORROW!

Jan 30, 2020

Watch the Fast and Furious 9 Concert and Trailer Drop

RYAN SCOTT — January 31, 2020 in MOVIE NEWS

RIDE OR DIE. HOW AND WHEN TO LIVESTREAM THE 'FAST & FURIOUS 9' TRAILER CONCERT.
The family returns.

ERIC FRANCISCO 1.31.2020 12:14 PM

First ‘Fast and Furious 9’ Trailer Arrives in January, Accompanied by a Live Concert in Miami

Posted on Thursday, December 19th, 2019 by Ethan Anderton

Super Bowl 2020: ‘Fast and Furious 9’ party with Cardi B, Ozuna, Ludacris, Charlie Puth

By BEN CRANDELL DEC 19, 2019 | 1:46 PM

INSIDE LOOK: Fast & Furious 9 Concert and After Party

mvigo January 31st

One Music Fest 2019 | Centennial Park: Atlanta, GA

Production & Stage Management / Technical Director
Providing Full Production Crew

Featuring Artists: Usher, Pharrel, T.I., Lil Nas X, Lil Jon, Waka Flocka, Crime Mob, Rotimilo, Fly, Wu-Tang Clan, Gucci Mane, Phony PPL, Queen Naija, Trick Daddy, Trina, T-Pain, Uncle Luke, Summer Walker, Rae Sremmurd, Musiq Soulchild, Ari Lennox, Teyanna Taylor, Lolo Zouaï, Greg Streets ATL, Busta Rhymes, Torey Lanez, Three 6 Mafia, DJ Paul & Juicy J, Gangsta Boo, Crunchy Black, Bonfyre, Snoh Aalegra, Tobe Nwigwe, Raphael Saadiq, DMX, Rick Ross, Cam the Artisan, James Davis, Kodie Shane, Baby Rose, Key!, Koffee, Parisalexa, 7am, Tayla Parx, Trinidad Jame$, Yung Baby Tate, Lloyd. Justin Ruff, Londynn B

DJ sets by: DJ Aasha Adore, DJ Aquaria, DJ Boogie Lov, DJ Danny M, DJ Deliver, DJ EU, DJ Euphoria, DJ Fudge, DJ Gio, DJ Hourglass, DJ Jah Prince, DJ Jay Envy, DJ Jeremy Avalon, DJ Joe Kollege, DJ Johnnie Dynamite, DJ Kemit, DJ Knotts, DJ Lillie Smalls, DJ LV, DJ Mike Flo, DJ Naturel, DJ Princess Cut, DJ Rasta Root, DJ Rasyrious, DJ Sense & Friends, DJ Skillz, DJ Sofa King Evil, DJ The Black Amigo, DJ Weaponz, DJ Whitney Abstrakt, DJ Xavier BLK

Our 10 Year Anniversary will be nothing less than LEGENDARY 🔥 Everybody from Gucci Mane, Summer Walker, Raphael Saadiq, Ari Lennox, DMX, The Return of Three 6 Mafia, Teyana Taylor, Tory Lanez, Wizkid, Wu-Tang, Rick Ross, KP w/ Pharrell, Usher & MORE 🤯😱 And on top of that: our music, art, fashion, food and culture!

OMF2019 was one for the books! Over 60 artists, 35 DJs and almost 50,000 beautiful music lovers and cultural purveyors over the weekend. Watch and share some of the amazing experiences and behind the scenes at OMF2019. What was your favorite moment of OMF2019?? And who do you want to see on the OMF2020 stage?!!

Candler Park Music & Food Festival 2019 | Candler Park: Atlanta, GA

Production / Stage Manager
Production Support for Rival Entertainment

Featuring Artists: Greensky Bluegrass, Stephen Marley, Funk You, Priscilla Block, Dispatch, Trampled By Turtles, Dr. Dog, Larkin Poe, Aqueous, Webster

Atlanta Jazz Festival 2019 | Piedmont Park: Atlanta, GA

Production / Stage Manager
Production Support for Rival Entertainment

Featuring Artists: Alicia Olatuja, Stefon Harris + Blackout, Rhonda Ross & Rodney Kendrick, Marcus Strickland ‘Twi-Life’ feat. Pharoahe Monche, Lizz Wright, Ofer Assaf Quartet, Delfeayo Marsalis, Takuya Kuroda, Richard Bona, Avery Dixon, Joel Ross, Christian Sands, Makaya McCraven, Lil’ John Roberts and the Senators, The Milkshake Quintet, Alex Lattimore, Gary Motley, Rhonda Thomas, The Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra, The Kenny Banks Jr. Trio, OKCello, Freelance, Kandace Springs, Rialto Jazz for Kids, Nicole Banks Long, Slim Gambill, Michael Mayo

Something in the Water Festival 2019 | Sony Stage: Virginia Beach, VA

Production / Stage Manager
Production Support for Sony Entertainment

Featuring Artists:  Lucky Daye, Polo G, DDG, Cautious Clay, Vanjess, Leikeli47, the Men In Black: International Party, Les Twins, Lil Tjay, Ade.