| File Photo: Kenny Rogers (Photo: Enoch Wu/Sentinel-Tribune) |
Kenny Rogers didn’t always do a Christmas show. It was only when a fan demanded a Christmas song during a
holiday season concert that the singer obliged with "O Holy Night."
Over the years he developed a full-scale Christmas show to the point he had fans demanding he include a
few of his legend of hits.
When the veteran entertainer, who has more than a half century of experience including dozens of hits
under his belt, comes to the Stroh Center Wednesday he’ll present a balance.
The first half of the show will be packed with hits and the second half will be packed with Christmas
favorites and Yuletide spirit.
The performance starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $31 to $51. Call 877-BGSU-TICKET.
This is his 30th annual holiday tour, but it’s never the same show. Rogers, talking by telephone from a
stop in Fayetteville, Ark., said every year changes are made so it feels like a new production.
He’ll be joined by country star Billy Dean as well as the Voices of Ohio choir and six members of
Children’s Choir of Northwest Ohio.
But no matter the changes it still harks back to his days growing up in Houston, Texas and going to
Baptist church with his mother. Songs he heard in church such as "Away in the Manger" always
have a place in his set list as well as original holiday songs.
And the elaborate production includes footage of a corner gospel congregation like those he remembers
from living in the projects. In those days the Salvation Army and other charity groups helped provide
his family’s holiday cheer.
Christmas music didn’t figure largely in his early professional life. He had a brief stint with The
Scholars, a doo-wop group, but then joined the Bobby Doyle jazz group. Though he was a guitar player, he
switched to bass, as Doyle told him it was easier for a bad bass player to find work than a good guitar
player.
Rogers then hauled his bass over to the New Christy Minstrels where he met the members of what became The
First Edition, the group that launched his national career.
Rogers is revisiting all this as he writes his autobiography. When interviewed he said he’d been up until
2 that morning working on the book.
"I love remembering," he said, "but I hate typing."
He types everything out in full caps. He’s at the point now, he said, where he’s writing about "The
Toy Shop," a one-act play he took on the road. It was an unlikely venture, he said. And it turned
into an unlikely success. "Strange things happen out there on the road."
That shows people appreciate quality work, Rogers, 73, said, and he intends to continue to provide them.
Having just signed with Warner Music, he’s still out there looking for another hit. Getting something on
the radio "brings in the younger people and the older fans feel much hipper."
The key, he said, as it was with "Buy Me a Rose" and his other hits, is finding "a song
that on its own they cannot play."
That song is the key. "Everyone likes a great song."
Still while having yet another hit "makes it more fun for me," Rogers said, "if I don’t
get a hit, I’m O.K."
