Courtesy Pixabay
Willie Nelson doesn’t miss much. In his 87 years on Planet Earth, he has written hundreds of songs, and recorded several hundred songs, of his own, and others. But there was this one song that he didn’t record…and it made a career for a friend.
In a recent ‘Today’ Show interview, Willie revealed to Jenna Bush Hagar that his long-time friend Kenny Rogers actually tried to convince the Red-headed Stranger to record ‘The Gambler’.
“We were somewhere, I don’t know, and he was like, ‘I’ve got this song, I think you should do it,’ and he played it for me and I said, ‘You know, I think it’s a great song, but I don’t think I’ll do it,’ because, I was doing, every night, a song called ‘Red Headed Stranger’ which has 100 verses in it,” Nelson explained. “I said ‘I just don’t want to do another long song,’ so he said, ‘OK, I will record it myself,’ and so he did and, you know, there it is. That was Kenny’s song all the way. ”
Of course, Willie’s not hurting any. He has just released his 70th studio album, ‘The First Rose of Spring.”
Written by Don Schlitz, here is Kenny Rogers’ signature song, ‘The Gambler’.
How about that time that Willie and Kenny sang together on the ‘Kenny, Dolly, and Willie’ television special, in 2011? Notice Kenny Rogers playing a stand-up, doghouse bass.