The Night Kenny Rogers Held Them in the Central Valley

Singer’s 2014 Merced Performance Brings Back Memories

Kenny Rogers belts out one of his classic hits at the Merced Theatre concert from October 2014. Photo: Merced Theatre Foundation

When Kenny Rogers sang the lyrics to his hit song The Gambler, “You’ve got to know when to hold them”, in a Central Valley show back in October of 2014, it was just another packed house for the entertainer. But it was a big deal for the Merced Theatre to host the singer.

It had been about two-and-a-half years since the Theatre completed renovations. A number of lesser known musical acts had taken to the stage during that time. But landing this Grammy and Country Music Association award winning artist was risky.

Would the crowds show up? Would the show be a success? As it would turn out, those fears about whether audiences would respond were erased.

“The Theatre re-opened after renovations in April 2012,” said managing director Heather Holt. “Kenny was our first sold out show.”

The marquee at the Merced Theatre points out that over one-thousand tickets were sold for the October 2014 concert by Kenny Rogers. Photo: Merced Theatre Foundation

Necola Adams remembers the night she met Kenny Rogers following that performance in Merced.

“We shook hands,” she said. “He had the softest hands I’ve ever touched.” Necola, who owns Mrs. Adams Gormet Cookies, had taken six dozen of her cookies to Kenny’s road manager.

The manager asked her to wait until the show was over so that he could introduce her to his boss.

“I heard the whole show from inside Kenny’s tour bus,” she said.

Necola Adams with Kenny Rogers. Photo: Necola Adams

After the show, Nicola was the first person Kenny met as security escorted him from the stage to his bus.

Following an introduction by the road manager, Kenny suggested a photo opportunity.

“I was the only person to get a picture taken with him,” she said.

Kenny Rogers had a career in music that dated back to the late 1950s. In the 1960s, he was the lead singer for the rock group First Edition (later to be called Kenny Rogers and the First Edition).

The group disbanded in the seventies and Kenny pursued a solo career in country music.

Kenny Roger’s October 2014 show at the Merced Theatre was a sell-out. Photo: Merced Theatre Foundation

He had a number of hit records in that decade including the iconic story song The Gambler.

That record sold three-million copies, led to a TV-movie career, and made him an arena-packing performer.

In 1983, he teamed with Dolly Parton for the song Islands in the Stream.

That hit record cemented his place in Country and Pop music. In the nineties and into the 2000s, he continued performing and releasing new music sporadically.

Then in the early twenty-teens he accepted the opportunity to play The Art Kamangar Center at The Merced Theatre

The Merced audience responded enthusiastically to Kenny Roger’s October 2014 show at the Merced Theatre.. Photo: Merced Theatre Foundation

By the time the Merced Theater show, he was just a few months away from announcing the start of a farewell tour.

“He was the first really big name to come to the Theatre since the renovation,” Heather Holt said.

That farewell tour started in 2015 and ended in 2018 with an announcement he would end performing on stage based on advice from his doctors.

A bladder cancer diagnosis led to his decision to end his touring.

He died in hospice care on March 20, 2020.

Nicola was saddened when she learned of Kenny’s passing, but she hangs on to pleasant memories of how nice he treated her right after his Merced show. “You can meet some really nice people if you don’t act crazy around them,” she said. “He was a genuinely nice guy.”

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His book Can Do Californians is available at Lulu.com and at BarnesAndNoble.com.

He had planned this column at the time of Kenny’s passing, but COVID closures kept him away from the Merced Theatre.

He thanks Tom Frazier and Susan Walsh for the information that helped this column.