Luck or Something Like It: A Memoir

by Kenny Rogers

Overview

A living legend of Country Music and a worldwide music icon, superstar Kenny Rogers has enjoyed a fascinating five decades in show business, and he tells the full story of his remarkable life and career in Luck or Something Like It. From his days with hit group The First Edition to his sterling solo work, the artist who "knows when to hold 'em and knows when to fold 'em" knows how to tell a captivating life story as well–bringing a golden era of Country Music to life as he recounts his remarkable rise to the top of the charts. An honest, moving, eye-opening view of a musician's life on the road, Luck or Something Like It is the definitive music memoir–a backstage pass to fifty years of performing and recording presented by the one and only Kenny Rogers, one of the bestselling artists ever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062088642
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/16/2012
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	395
Sales rank:	550,547
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Kenny Rogers is one of the bestselling artists of all time with more than 120 million albums sold worldwide. He has endeared himself to music lovers around the world with hit songs like "Lady," "The Gambler," "Islands in the Stream," and "Love or Something Like It." He is a three-time Grammy Award winner, and has won eighteen American Music Awards, eight Academy of Country Music Awards, and five Country Music Association Awards.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Prologue 1

Chapter 1 A Pair to Draw To 5

Chapter 2 Music and Country 23

Chapter 3 Lovesick Blues 33

Chapter 4 Moving On Up 39

Chapter 5 Goin' Solo 49

Chapter 6 Where It All Began … Jazz 61

Chapter 7 It's Not All Wet Towels and Naked Women 71

Chapter 8 Just Dropped In 85

Chapter 9 Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town 99

Chapter 10 Back on My Own 119

Chapter 11 Lucille 137

Chapter 12 The Gambler 157

Chapter 13 The Good Life 177

Chapter 14 A Life of Photography 199

Chapter 15 Around the World 209

Chapter 16 After the Gold Rush 225

Chapter 17 Wanda 237

Chapter 18 Comeback 261

Chapter 19 Looking Back 279

Acknowledgments 289

Editorial Reviews

"Engagingly honest."

Toronto Star

"In his aw-shucks, sit-down-and-listen-for-a-spell memoir.... he reminisces in never-before-told stories…Rogers gracefully recalls the ups and downs on his wild ride to fame."

BookPage

"Rogers is an exquisite storyteller, able to get across a range of ideas and emotions in songs like ‘Lucille’ and ‘The Gambler.’ That breezy, conversational tone comes across on the page."

Entertainment Weekly

Kenny Rogers waited until he was 74 years old to publish this memoir, probably because his life—while certainly full—lacks the over-the-top shenanigans of other mainstream celebrities. A nondrinker and nonsmoker, Rogers only experimented with drugs early in his career; women have been his biggest vice, and he writes candidly here about his five marriages and an early-'90s phone-sex scandal that seems almost quaint today. In the same relaxed, simple voice that delivered the massive crossover hits "The Gambler," "She Believes in Me" and "Lady," Rogers chronicles his childhood in the housing projects of Houston, where his sister Geraldine instilled in him a love of singing harmony that would later help him sell more than 125 million albums; his transition from bass player and singer in the First Edition to solo superstar status near the age of 40;and his various side projects, including USA for Africa, Kenny Rogers Roasters, tennis, television, photography and even theater. Along the way, Rogers takes swipes at Tom Jones, Lorne Greene, the Captain & Tennille and at least one of his ex-wives, while also sharing the catalysts for some of his most abiding hits. Ripe with nostalgia, this book should please Rogers's fans while encouraging newcomers to explore his diverse and deep body of work. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Rogers is an exquisite storyteller, able to get across a range of ideas and emotions in songs like ‘Lucille’ and ‘The Gambler.’ That breezy, conversational tone comes across on the page.” — Entertainment Weekly

“In his aw-shucks, sit-down-and-listen-for-a-spell memoir.... he reminisces in never-before-told stories…Rogers gracefully recalls the ups and downs on his wild ride to fame.” — BookPage

“Engagingly honest.” — Toronto Star

From the Publisher

The singer of such great country hits as “You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Lucille,” “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” and “The Gambler” offers a candid, unadorned memoir of his life’s journey. Traber Burns provides a simple declarative narration style. His husky growl evokes Rogers’s down-home country-western sound. But despite the logic of having a “regular guy” tell a “regular guy’s” story, Burns doesn’t maintain the listener’s interest. Fans will undoubtedly enjoy the homespun accounts of Rogers’s early efforts as a jazz bassist and his later work with The New Christy Minstrels and The First Edition before launching a solo career. Rogers also shares insights into the personalities of Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie, among others. Sadly, this may be an audio experience for Rogers enthusiasts only. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2013 - AudioFile

The singer of such great country hits as “You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Lucille,” “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” and “The Gambler” offers a candid, unadorned memoir of his life’s journey. Traber Burns provides a simple declarative narration style. His husky growl evokes Rogers’s down-home country-western sound. But despite the logic of having a “regular guy” tell a “regular guy’s” story, Burns doesn’t maintain the listener’s interest. Fans will undoubtedly enjoy the homespun accounts of Rogers’s early efforts as a jazz bassist and his later work with The New Christy Minstrels and The First Edition before launching a solo career. Rogers also shares insights into the personalities of Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie, among others. Sadly, this may be an audio experience for Rogers enthusiasts only. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2013 - AudioFile

Unassuming memoir by one-time chartbuster Rogers, he of "The Gambler" fame. The author's approach to memoir writing is consonant with his approach to song crafting and chicken making: crowd-pleasing, unchallenging and resolutely middle-of-the-road. Some might call it bland, but it's calculated not to offend. A child of hardscrabble East Texas, Rogers doesn't dig too deeply to find the well of the past; "I can't say for sure," he writes, "but I just took it for granted that I was part Irish, part Indian, and that was that." A talent for singing and playing guitar brought him early into professional music, and he got his first hit with a psychedelic-lite version of Mickey Newbury's "Just Dropped In," refreshed on the hip-o-meter when given a standout moment in The Big Lebowski. Though shot through with show-business anecdotes, Rogers' narrative doesn't dish much dirt; when he tells a joke, refreshingly, it's most often about himself, as when he mangled an expensive amplifier early on in his career: "We didn't have the heart to confess how truly stupid Mickey [Jones] and I were, so we did the next most honorable thing. We blamed the airlines." Neither does Rogers dig too hard into the touchier parts of his past, mentioning numerous ex-wives only in passing. The refrain, "What in the world were you thinking, Kenneth Ray?" runs throughout, but rarely does he stop to really turn the question over--though he does let us know why he never cozied up to drugs, for which, and for all the general mayhem that Rogers doesn't chronicle, please consult Keith Richards' Life. "The audience expects to be entertained 100 percent for their ticket dollar," Rogers writes. This doesn't really hit that 100 percent mark, but it's a light and pleasant read all the same.

Kirkus Reviews