Reba McEntire is among the superstars paying tribute to Kenny Rogers during the new concert special, Kenny Rogers: All In For The Gambler, on Thursday (September 23rd). Reba says he was a good friend and absolutely saved her sanity after the tragic plane crash in March 1991 resulting in the deaths of several of her band members — Chris Austin, Kirk Cappello, Joey Cigainero, Paula Kaye Evans, Jim Hammon, Terry Jackson, Anthony Saputo, and Michael Thomas as well as with the pilot and co-pilot – when he asked her to be in The Gambler 5 (The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw).
She said, “I worked with Kenny in 1991. It was right after the plane crash, and Kenny’s manager called Narvel (Blackstock) and asked, ‘Would Reba be interested in doing Gambler 5?’ And Narvel said, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ It probably saved my sanity to get out of Nashville and go to California and work and be absorbed in dialogue and work and get up early, work hard and by the time you’re ready to go to bed, you went to sleep, which wasn’t happening.”
A side note – Reba first met her now-boyfriend, actor Rex Linn, on the set of The Gambler.
Reba also toured Australia for the first time when she opened for Kenny. She enjoyed spending time with him and said, “Kenny was funny, told the best stories, the best jokes, and I just loved being in his presence.”
Little Big Town, Chris Stapleton, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Idina Menzel and many others will also honor Kenny’s life and legacy during the celebration that was filmed before Rogers’ untimely passing. Kenny Rogers: All In For The Gambler airs Thursday (September 23rd) at 9pm ET on CBS.
Audio / Reba McEntire says working on The Gambler 5 saved her sanity after the tragic plane crash that took the lives of several of her band members in March 1991.
DownloadReba McEntire (Kenny Rogers) 1 OC: …with Kenny Rogers. :41
“I worked with Kenny in 1991. It was right after the plane crash, and Kenny’s manager called Narvel and asked, ‘Would Reba be interested in doing Gambler 5?’ And Narvel said, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ It probably saved my sanity to get out of Nashville and go to California and work and be absorbed in dialogue and work and get up early, work hard and by the time you’re ready to go to bed, you went to sleep, which wasn’t happening. And so, I went out there, and that’s the first time I met (now boyfriend) Rex Linn. We worked together on the movie, on The Gambler movie with Kenny Rogers.”
Audio / Reba McEntire loved being around her good friend Kenny Rogers.
DownloadReba McEntire (Kenny Rogers) 2 OC: …to a good friend. :22
“I just loved Kenny. Kenny was a super person. I toured Australia with him. That was my first trip and then went back on my own. But Kenny was funny, told the best stories, the best jokes, and I just loved being in his presence. So, when they asked if we would do the tribute, I said, absolutely to a good friend.”
