I feel like a piece of my childhood died today. I have so many memories that stir up whenever I hear any one of Kenny Rogers’ songs. Hearing the news that he had passed away was like a punch to the gut.

I never met him and didn’t really know that much about him. I do know that he was an absolute legend, a country music maverick to forged his own musical path instead of following the trails of others who had gone before him.

He had a very distinctive sound built around an immediately recognizable voice that was both warm and worn. So many of his songs are iconic and are part of the fabric of the 70s and 80s.

One of my favorite songs he recorded is 20 Years Ago about a nostalgic look back on growing up in the 60s. I love these words:

“All my memories from those days come gather round me
What I’d give if they could take me back in time
It almost seems like yesterday
Where do the good times go?
Life was so much easier twenty years ago” (Daniel Eugene Tyler, Wood A Newton, Michael I Noble, Michael Christoper Spriggs).