Dolly Parton Remembers Friend Kenny Rogers: ‘I Miss Him So Much. He Was Very Special’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Dolly Parton recently reflected on her longtime friendship with Kenny Rogers ahead of the third anniversary of his death.
Rogers passed away in March 2020 from natural causes. He was 81 years old.
“I miss him so much,” Parton said of her friend and musical collaborator. “I’ve lost so many wonderful people in my life in the last few years. But Kenny – he was very, very dear and special and I never get tired of hearing us sing, all the years that we were on stage together.”
“You know how sometimes you get tired of singing something because it just becomes routine?” Parton said, referring to the duo’s hit song “Islands in the Stream.”
She continued, “I would always lighten up when that particular song was due in the set-list. It just always made everybody feel so good in the audience and the audience always loved singing it. I never got tired of Kenny’s voice.”
Parton also spoke about her and Rogers’ 2013 collaboration, “You Can’t Make Old Friends.”
“[We recorded that song] just in time too, honestly,” Parton explained, referring to the health issues that led Rogers to step back from his musical career. “And now I can’t hardly sing it.”
“The song was written for the two of us. We sang it on the stage of the war memorial in Nashville and both of us were really choked up, because it’s kind of a poignantly sad song. It’s about what am I going to do when you’re gone.”
She continued, “You can make new friends that feel like old friends, but there’s just something about the people that have spent years together … You have a history, and you learn about each other, inside and out. I knew Kenny very well. We’re very similar. We’re like brother and sister really.”
“He’s up there singing,” Parton concluded. “I know that.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Rogers’ death:
Country music legend Kenny Rogers died over the weekend. “The Gambler” singer was 81.
“You never know how much you love somebody until they’re gone,” said Rogers’ long-time singing partner Dolly Parton. “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.”
News of Rogers’ death came in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced many people around the world into their homes under government orders. Parton acknowledged the virus in her tribute.
“I know that we know Kenny is in a better place than we are today,” she said. “But, I’m pretty sure he’s going to be talking to God sometime today, if he ain’t already, and he’s going to be asking Him to spread some light on a bunch of this darkness going on here.”
Parton concluded her tribute with a message of hope.
“Fly high, Kenny, straight to the arms of God,” she concluded. “And, to the rest of you, keep the faith.”
According to the Associated Press’ obit of Rogers:
The Houston-born performer with the husky voice and silver beard sold tens of millions of records, won three Grammys and was the star of TV movies based on “The Gambler” and other songs, making him a superstar in the ’70s and ’80s. Rogers thrived for some 60 years before retired from touring in 2017 at age 79. Despite his crossover success, he always preferred to be thought of as a country singer.
“You either do what everyone else is doing and you do it better, or you do what no one else is doing, and you don’t invite comparison,” Rogers told The Associated Press in 2015. “And I chose that way, because I could never be better than Johnny Cash or Willie or Waylon at what they did. So I found something that I could do that didn’t invite comparison to them. And I think people thought it was my desire to change country music, but that was never my issue.”
“Kenny was one of those artists who transcended beyond one format and geographic borders,” says Sarah Trahern, chief executive officer of the Country Music Association. “He was a global superstar who helped introduce country music to audiences all around the world.”
Rogers was a five-time CMA Award winner, as well as the recipient of the CMA’s Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, the same year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He received 10 awards from the Academy of Country Music. He sold more than 47 million records in the United States alone, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
Rogers was very vocal about his faith and released an album called The Love of God with his gravely country renditions of songs like “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “I’ll Fly Away,” and “Amazing Grace,” among others.
- Content: +4Share:
- Content: +1