Turning 73, Kenny Rogers still looks every bit like the refined country gentleman he's portrayed since early on, with his perfectly coiffed hair, silvery beard and GQ three-piece apparel. But has the man whose ongoing list of hits famously included "The Gambler" really taken that much of a gamble with his career?
higher stakes and were needed in order to jumpstart his career. He
joined his first band, appropriately dubbed the Scholars, while he was
still in college, but then took his chances as a bass player and solo
artist and attained minor success. After that, he made a safer bet by
joining the long established New Christy Minstrels. He opted to gamble
when he and other members of the group broke away to form the First
Edition. Their wager paid off and they scored a run of hits, beginning
with the slightly psychedelic "I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition
My Condition Was In)." And from then on, Rogers was on a roll.