Country music legend Kenny Rogers dies at 81
American country music legend Kenny Rogers has died aged 81.
A statement from his family said that he died of natural causes at home in Sandy Springs, Georgia, where he was under hospice care.
“The Rogers family is sad to announce that Kenny Rogers passed away last night at 10:25pm at the age of 81. Rogers passed away peacefully at home from natural causes under the care of hospice and surrounded by his family,” they family said in a statement.
“In a career that spanned more than six decades, Kenny Rogers left an indelible mark on the history of American music.”
The family noted how the multi-Grammy Award-winning artiste’s songs had “endeared music lovers and touched the lives of millions around the world.”
A small private service will be planned “out of concern for the national Covid-19 emergency,” the family added, saying it would celebrate the Country Music Hall of Fame member’s life “publicly with his friends and fans at a later date.”
Rogers topped pop and country charts during the 1970s and 1980s and won three Grammy awards.
He spanned jazz, folk, country and pop with such hits as Lucille, Lady and Islands in the Stream and embraced his persona as The Gambler on record and on TV.
He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013 and, that same year received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Country Music Association.
Rogers charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres that included the Coward of the County which topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone and sold over 100 million records worldwide.
On September 25, 2015, Rogers announced on NBC’s that he was retiring from show business after a final tour to spend more time with his wife and twin sons.
Listen to the Coward of the County below: