Country Music HOF Honors Kenny Rogers
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, is paying tribute to Hall of Fame inductee Kenny Rogers with a new exhibition detailing his lengthy and ongoing career in the music industry. Entitled Kenny Rogers: Through the Years, the exhibition opens August 15 and will remain open to the public through to June 14, 2015. Visitors to the Country Music HOF will have the opportunity to view some of the numerous awards made to the popular singer-songwriter, who has sold more than 165 million records worldwide and charted over 120 hit singles in various genres.
Other items on show include Rogers’ costumes, sheet music and a vast array of memorabilia from the musician’s private collection, and well as from the various artists he has collaborated with over the years. Notable items on display include the rhinestone-studded velvet jacket and dress worn by Dolly Parton when performing their hit duo “Islands in the Stream” on her television show, Dolly, as well as a rhinestone-embellished denim outfit worn by Rogers in his 1970s era as frontman of Kenny Rogers and The First Edition.
Visitors will also see items from his stint in the Gambler television series, such as his brass-topped cane, gun belt, fedora, Western-cut jacket, shirt and brocade vest. An assortment of cameras used by Rogers in his photography work are on display, including his Linhof Master Technika Classic camera with which he took the portraits of country artists featured in his book Kenny Rogers: This Is My Country.
Awards on display include Grammy statuettes; the CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award; the Academy of Country Music’s Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award; and the Honorary Master of Photography Award from the Professional Photographers of America.
The guests at the special opening event at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on August 13, included members of the First Edition – the band with which he had his earliest recording success – as well as other musicians, music industry executives and media representatives.
