Kenny Rogers Passes Away Aged 81

Legendary country singer Kenny Rogers has died aged 81, the star known for The Gambler song and movies passing away peacefully at his home in Sandy Springs, Georgia of natural causes.

Rogers produced a huge body of work over six decades spanning country, folk, pop and jazz music, but for poker players it was his 1979 version of the Don Schlitz-penned song The Gambler that resonates to this day.

The iconic lyrics are still part of every old-school players’ repertoire, the words describing a train traveller’s encounter with a gambler, who dispenses sage advice…

‘You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done
 
Every gambler knows
That the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away
And knowin' what to keep
'Cause every hand's a winner
And every hand's a loser
And the best that you can hope for is to die
in your sleep’ 

Rogers won a Grammy for the album that included the song and carried the song title, and it sparked a run of five number ones for the Houston-born singer.

Rogers would go on to star in five TV movies based on ‘The Gambler’, playing Brady Hawkes, a poker player travelling to meet the son he never knew.

Bruce Boxleitner co-starred as Billy Montana in all but one of the movies that spanned 1980 to 1994, Rogers attempting to keep his fellow poker pro Montana on the straight and narrow, with numerous adventures along the way.

Aside from his fame and fortune with The Gambler, Rogers had an incredible singing career that included duets with Dolly Parton, most notably ‘Islands in the Stream’, working with Lionel Richie on ‘Lady’, and also the hit song ‘Coward of the County’.