One of the saddest moments that we will ever face in life is when we lose somebody we love. It’s not something that’s natural and it’s not something that we are well equipped to handle. Often, it happens out of the blue and even if we see it coming, it can deal a devastating blow on us, our family and anybody else in our lives. I’m sure that is how Dolly Parton felt when she lost a good friend of hers that had been performing with her for years. It happened recently when Kenny Rogers passed away, and the world really lost somebody special when that happened.
After Kenny Rogers passed away, Dolly Parton posted a tribute to her friend, Kenny Rogers. He died on Friday, March 20 while in hospice at home. He had been working with Dolly Parton for over three decades ever since they released “Islands in the Stream” in 1983. She wrote the following on Instagram: “You never know how much you love somebody until they’re gone. I’ve had so many wonderful years and wonderful times with my friend Kenny, but above all the music and the success I loved him as a wonderful man and a true friend. So you be safe with God and just know that I will always love you, dolly.”
The friendship these two shared was more than something most of us will experience in life. Dolly Parton says that they were soul mates and even considered the friendship she had with Kenny Rogers to be one of the most important things to her.
There may actually have been someone else involved in that friendship, an unexpected individual, Barry Gibb. It seems as if the famous song they sang together was written by the Bee Gees. Kenny didn’t want to cover the song at first but Barry insisted that he do it with Dolly. The two of them became fast friends.
Dolly was in the same building when they were having that conversation. Kenny said: “And my manager said, ‘I just saw her downstairs.’ So I said, ‘Go get her and bring her back. So he brought her back in and once she came in, that song was never the same. She lit it up and we became good friends from that point on.”
Islands in the Stream became a world famous hit. They continue to be a duet that partnered together for life. They sang a song on a Christmas album, “Once upon a Christmas” and then recorded Real Love in 1985. They also sang a song together about their friendship in 2013, “You Can’t Make Old Friends”.
When Kenny Rogers gave his farewell concert celebration, Dolly was on hand and they performed at the end of the show. It was reported:
“At the end of the concert, Parton said to Rogers, ‘How about me and you go out like rock stars?’ The two singers then held their microphones out, dropped them on stage, then walked off the stage arm-in-arm.”
People always ask if Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton ever dated. Kenny said that they just “flirted for 30 years” and he said he communicated with her via fax because he never had her personal phone number. Dolly said that they were soul mates and that the friendship meant more than any songs could ever have meant.
Source: Little Things
