{"id":1318996,"date":"2020-03-21T07:45:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T13:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1725977\/cmt-all-time-top-40-kenny-rogers\/"},"modified":"2020-03-21T07:45:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T13:45:54","slug":"cmt-all-time-top-40-kenny-rogers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/cmt-all-time-top-40-kenny-rogers\/","title":{"rendered":"CMT All-Time Top 40: Kenny Rogers"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

by CMT.com Staff<\/a><\/span>
\n56m ago<\/span>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: This story first appeared on April 11, 2014. Kenny Rogers, 81, died on Friday (March 20, 2020) at home of natural causes in Sandy Springs, Georgia.
<\/em><\/p>\n

Kenny Rogers<\/a> arrives at No. 36 on CMT All-Time Top 40: Artist\u2019s Choice<\/i><\/a>
\n, a list of the greatest-ever artists chosen by country stars themselves. One by one, the countdown is revealed each week on CMT Hot 20 Countdown<\/i><\/a>
\n.<\/p>\n

Each influential musician or band is ranked based on an artist poll conducted by CMT among the biggest stars in country music. The ballot isn\u2019t limited to just country artists, so over the course of 2014, CMT All-Time Top 40<\/i> will highlight artists from all genres that influence country\u2019s biggest names.<\/p>\n

After standing out as a member of the vocal group the First Edition, Rogers\u2019 silky-smooth voice and debonair style made him a crossover solo hit with songs like \u201cLucille,\u201d \u201cCoward of the County\u201d and \u201cThe Gambler.\u201d He is also revered for duets with singers like Dottie West<\/a> on \u201cEvery Time Two Fools Collide\u201d and Dolly Parton<\/a> on \u201cIslands in the Stream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the humble superstar insists the songs he chose were the key to his success and not his memorable singing, country stars like Jason Aldean<\/a>, Luke Bryan<\/a>, Billy Currington<\/a> and Darius Rucker<\/a> disagree. And as for his peers, the Oak Ridge Boys<\/a> just call Rogers \u201cSweet Music Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKenny Rogers was the first concert I ever went to,\u201d remembers Aldean. \u201cLarry Gatlin<\/a> and the Gatlin Brothers<\/a> were the opening act, and I remember my mom taking me to see them when I was probably 4 or 5 years old. And at the time, Kenny Rogers was one of the biggest stars on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKenny Rogers is the definition of cool,\u201d Bryan agrees. \u201cThat little silver microphone and that white suit, that white hair and white beard, I mean he was just, crazy. What a figure, what an amazing person to watch, the whole deal. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember me and my producer had a talk about what a true recording artist is \u2014 I\u2019ve always tried to morph into what a true recording artist is \u2014 and I\u2019ve always felt like Kenny Rogers is at the top of the list of being just an honest recording artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rucker and Currington had very distinct childhood memories of Rogers.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenny Rogers was huge for me in the \u201970s [when I was] listening to too much radio,\u201d Rucker admits. \u201cHis records just fit right in whether you were on a country station or if you were on a pop station. His records just always fit right in \u2019cause he knew how to pick a song, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve loved him ever since I first went to his concert,\u201d says Currington. \u201cMy mom took me and he was performing with Dolly Parton, and for Christmas she got me his music and a little jam box to play it in. That\u2019s all I had, it was just me and Kenny Rogers every day, all the time, so I got to know every song he ever did on his 20 greatest hits. Everything he put out was magical.\u201d<\/p>\n

As fellow stars from the same era, the Oak Ridge Boys looked up to Rogers as someone to emulate. Without him, they say, hits like \u201cElvira\u201d may never have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenny Rogers and the First Edition was very influential, I\u2019d say on all of us,\u201d says tenor singer Joe Bonsall. \u201cThe big harmony with the good lead voice singing a great song. Kenny started it with those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe filled up every arena in the late \u201970s and early \u201980s in the United States, and he taught us how to do it,\u201d lead singer Duane Allen concludes. \u201cHe taught us all the things that we needed to know and how to work the big arenas, and we owe a lot of things to Kenny Rogers.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by CMT.com Staff 56m ago EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: This story first appeared on April 11, 2014. Kenny Rogers, 81, died on Friday (March 20, 2020) at home of natural causes in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Kenny Rogers arrives at No. 36 on CMT All-Time Top 40: Artist\u2019s Choice , a list of the greatest-ever artists chosen by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1318996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 13:48:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}