Through the Years with Kenny Rogers

Through the years

Through all the good and bad

I knew how much we had

I’ve always been so glad

To be with you

Through the years

It’s better every day

You’ve kissed my tears away

As long as it’s okay

I’ll stay with you

Through the years

Kenny Rogers is not just good to listen to, he’s also good to eat. Of course, I mean his music and the Roasted Chicken that carries his name.

His fans can do both when Rogers comes for his farewell concert on Thursday, Aug. 11, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. After all, hasn’t he been singing our lives through the years, through good and bad?

Yes, that song quoted above resonated with Filipinos even more after Zsa Zsa Padilla sung it at the final tribute to Dolphy, singing every lyric of every line of every stanza with so much feeling that, for a while, we expected the Comedy King to jump out of his coffin and hug Zsa Zsa and never let her go.

Through the Years is in Rogers’ repertoire, including his other hits like Someone Who Cares, Don’t Fall In Love With a Dreamer, You Decorated My Life, She Believes in Me and The Gambler.

After his world tour, Rogers will retire resting assured that he will forever be remembered for the songs nicely packaged in more than 120 million records worldwide.

A few days ago, Rogers talked to journalists from Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines in a tele-conference.

You’re retiring after this world tour. How would you assess your six decades in the industry? Have you achieved all your goals? Anything else that you’d like to do?

“You know, I have two older boys. I have accomplished everything I set out to accomplish and I really want to spend time with them. I haven’t been able to spend real time with them and I regret it. Now is the time to do it, to make up for it. My purpose is also to say thank you to everybody.”

Aren’t your children following in your footsteps?

“No. They don’t sing. They get onstage with me and they sing around but they don’t really want to do it as a career. I learned a long time ago that you couldn’t talk anyone into loving music. Either they love it or they don’t. I didn’t decide until I was 12 or 13 what I wanted to do with my life.”

No regrets?

“No regrets.”

One of your most touching songs is Through the Years. What other songs do you consider memorable?

“There’s also You Decorated My Life and She Believes In Me. Those three songs belong to the same category. I have always said that those are the songs that men and women love to hear.”

What will you miss the most about touring around the world?

“You know, I put together a film that I will be showing toward the end of my show; it’s all about the things that I will miss the most and the people that I have met. I will miss the bands and people I have performed with. I will miss them all. That’s the most often missed most…what I will miss most? I guess, every day as soon as I wake up, I will be missing the fact that I won’t be going to work anymore.”

By the way, we love your songs as much as we love the chicken named after you. I’m curious…do you taste other brands of chicken in places that you visit?

“I try to; I try to enjoy the flavors of every country that I visit. The food of every country is unique, it’s wonderful, and totally different from anything over here. Maybe I will try to taste your chicken when I go to the Philippines.”

What else are your thoughts now that you are retiring?

“When I was young, my mother told me, ‘Son, be happy where you are; don’t be content to be there. But if you are not happy where you are, you’ll never be happy.’ Actually, I set out with the intention of making music; I didn’t care what kind of music. I never dreamed of the success; I just wanted to make music.”

To what would you credit your longevity in the industry?

“If anything, I would say that it’s my choice of songs. I would say that I have great songs, some of them were sung by Sheena Easton and Dolly Parton. Those were big moments in my life and my career, and I’m glad I did those and I’m proud of them.”

There are young musicians today who turn to drugs. How were you able to stay away from that?

“I should thank my mom for the way she brought me up. She was very religious and she kept on warning me, ‘Don’t get into that stuff and stay out of trouble.’ She kept reminding me, ‘Treat it like a business and you will have a chance to be successful. If you don’t, you’ll have no chance.’ I have kept that in mind through the years.”

I’m amazed at the way you have preserved yourself and your voice. How do you do it?

“I don’t know. I think I’m just really lucky. I don’t do anything special. I just go out and sing, and come home and rah-rah with my boys. Maybe the songs that I have chosen were not very hard to do. I don’t know. Maybe I am just lucky with them.”

What were you thinking when you wrote You Decorated My Life? Who decorated your life the most?

“My wife, definitely! And my boys. I’m 77 years old now and I’ll be 78 sometime while I’m over there. There are other things in life aside from music and I want to go out and enjoy them.”

I read somewhere that you also love photography. Are you still into it?

“I still love photography but I can’t move around like I used to. It’s one of my great passions. They said that I am obsessive-compulsive. That’s what I am in everything that I do to see how good I am in it.”

What songs do you want to be remembered for?

“Oh, maybe more than my songs, the fact that I was a good person who has been nice to people that I work with and people whom I met. I was never rude to anybody and that’s what I want to be remembered for.”

 I will have to cap this Conversation with more excerpts from the same song:

Through the years

You’ve never let me down

You turned my life around…

…The sweetest days I’ve found

I’ve found with you

Through the years

(Kenny Rogers Final World Tour In Manila is presented by Ovation Productions. It is brought to you by Fox Channels, Philippine STAR, Manila Bulletin and BusinessWorld. It is also supported by Retro 105.9 DCG FM, MYX, Astroplus, Philippine Entertainment Portal [PEP], Philippine Concerts.com, G/ST, Legato, Manila Concert Scene, When In Manila, MNL, Odyssey Music & Video, Crossover 105.1 Manila, Wish 107.5, Inquirer.net, DWWW 774, 96.3 Easy Rock, Barangay LS 97.1, Philstar Global, ABS-CBN News.com, Pinas FM 95.5, Soundcheck MB, Clickthecity.com, Rapper and OptimaSignsolutions. Tickets priced at P7,920; P6,865; PP5,810; P4,755; P3,700; P2,640; and P1,060 are available, at all regular Ticketnet outlets [891-9999] and online at www.Ticketnet.com.ph.)

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