Dann Rogers
Lets go and be still

Let's go and be still

Available Now

Lesson in Love

Lesson in Love

Available Now

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Tunesmate Podcast Episode 79 with Dann Rogers

Tunesmate welcomes author, singer, and songwriter Dann Rogers to the podcast to discuss his heartfelt music and illustrious career. Discover how this living legend became a songwriter, and what the music business means to him. During the interview, Dann reimincies how he and his Uncle Kenny Rogers set a unique record as the first two relatives at the same time to hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Singles chart. He also talks about what inspires him to create music and the story behind his latest song, “Let Go and Be Still”. 

An Interview with Dann Rogers

Family and music are two core components of Dann Rogers‘ life and soul, and as the nephew of the late great Kenny Rogers, they are one and the same; a man to look up to as both your flesh and blood, and also as the music icon that he became.  Over the years, Dann received advice in life, love and music from his legendary uncle, as well as support and inspiration to follow his own musical dreams.

View the full article at TheCountryNote.com

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BIO

Dann Rogers is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter on a mission. During his farewell tour in 2018, Kenny Rogers stopped in Newport Beach, California for a show, where he spent time with his nephew, Dann Rogers, in which Dann turned to his legendary three-time Grammy and six-time CMA Award winning uncle (and longtime musical idol) and said, “You sure turned out to be a great artist” - to which Kenny humbly and knowingly replied, “No, I’m an entertainer, you’re the true artist in the family.” Some 40 years earlier, the two had set a unique record as the first two relatives to hit the Top 10 in on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary singles chart at the same time – Kenny with “Coward of the County” (#5) and Dann, from his debut album HEARTS UNDER FIRE, with “Looks like Love Again” (#6).

During their time together, Kenny also told Dann, “you’ve gotta get back out there and play,” and Dann assured him, “I will carry on for a while. I’m not finished yet.” Understanding the importance of the Rogers family musical legacy even now more than ever in the wake of Kenny’s passing in 2020, Dann begins 2022 with all his vocal and songwriting talents blazing on his deeply heartfelt, soul transformative latest single “Lesson in Love.”

Produced by Dann’s longtime friend Bill Cuomo (Kim Carnes, Steve Perry, Trace Adkins, KISS, Lynyrd Skynyrd), the lilting, piano-driven ballad boldly tackles the reality of abortion – not from a controversy seeking, politically charged point of view, but with a sense of sorrow and compassion for the emotional and spiritual repercussions, and the loss of innocence that a young woman experiences after making the difficult choice. The stark black and white video features Dann singing the heart-rending lyrics intercut with beautiful images he selected, illustrating moments from that once-innocent life, the graceful movements of a ballerina (“a way to bring beauty to the pain,” he says) and, at one point, her hands clasped in prayer.

“I wrote ‘Lesson in Love’ a handful of years ago, along with a bunch of other songs that I eventually recorded for my double album LIFE, but then set it aside,” Dann says. “Six months ago, I really felt God talking to me, telling me I had to cut this song and share it with the world. I’m a purpose driven person, an all or nothing guy. So, once I committed to it, I reached out to Bill, who I’d known since the 80s, when both of us were at the same studios, working on sessions for other artists. I wrote it like I do all my songs on guitar, but Bill had the wonderful idea to turn it into a piano ballad. I wrote it long before abortion again became the political hot potato it is this year – and if people find it a controversial subject for an AC pop song…hey, at my age, I have nothing to lose.”

Though “Lesson in Love” finds Dann telling the story about what a woman goes through, he pulled some of the song’s raw emotions from hard lessons earlier in his life, decisions he regrets to this day – especially from the perspective of a loving father with four sons. “All I want is for people to remember me as a spiritual being on a human journey, who overcome a lot of adversity to help other people,” he says. “I hope the song and video will impact people’s lives. As a man, I can’t imagine what a woman must go through when faced with this moral decision, and I will never condemn anyone for it. I think it’s between her and God…but if one woman hears the song and decides not to get an abortion and has the opportunity to fall in love with her child, then what I’ve written will have served a greater purpose.”

“Lesson in Love” follows on the heels of Life, Dann’s long in the making collection which streams as a prolific output of 19 of Dann’s most compelling songs ever, but was conceived with the old school double album approach in mind, where the first LP/CD is LIFE REFLECTIONS, and the second is LIFE REVEALED. Leading up to the project’s release in September 2020 – six months after Kenny’s passing – Dann scored #1 radio hits on the FMQB AC chart in 2017-18 with the lead singles “Love Is the Fire” and “Just One of Those Days.”

LIFE marks Dann’s first commercial full length set since STILL RUNNIN’ in 1987 on MCA Records – a significant milestone album that was released after having moved to Nashville from L.A. to pursue recording opportunities.  Says Dann, “After the release of the album, I was offered a lowball deal for my publishing, encouraged by my label head and producer.  I grew up in the music business and I knew the value of publishing.  They wanted it all for pennies, and when I refused, my career in Nashville was canceled.  I came back to Los Angeles with my artistic integrity intact, and continued my songwriting career.”

Life definitely threw Dann some unexpected curveballs, and there was a time when he stepped away from music and bounced around a bit, saying, “I guess I never knew where home was.” All these experiences, plus years of industry and personal ups and downs – including a raw look at his emotional childhood being raised by a mother with mental illness - are part of Dann’s critically acclaimed, powerfully revealing 2011 biography “Love, Laughter and Rage,” which includes a foreward written by Kenny. It’s an intimate, plain-spoken way for readers to understand the forces that defined and drove Dann’s life, and where his passion for music began.

Thinking about his family’s multi-generational love affair with music, he now says, “Anytime the Rogers men of Apple Springs, Texas got together, there was always a good time to be had. My grandfather Floyd was a fiddle player and his brothers all played guitar -- and my great grandfather played string instruments at barn dances. And in my generation, I would say everything good that ever happened in my life and career was because of my two heroes – my dad and Kenny.”

While Kenny, one of eight children, became the legend in the family; his oldest brother and Dann’s father, Lelan Rogers, also made a mark on the music industry – from serving as A&M Records’ first radio promoter and being International Records’ first national promo guy, to producing Lightnin’ Hopkinds, The 13th Floor Elevators, Big Al Downing, Esther Phillips and Bettye LaVette. Dann caught the singing and songwriting bug by osmosis from all the unique artists Lelan worked with spending time in the house.  Dann was hooked, and by his mid-teens, was having his own songs recorded by major artists. At 15, his “My Merry Go Round” became a hit for Johnny Nash, and no less than John Lennon (another of Dann’s idols) called it “the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.”

Soon thereafter, Dann became a staff writer with the likes of Nash and Bob Marley at Cayman Music, and also began writing songs for himself to record – enhanced by his developing guitar skills under the mentorship of Ike Turner. Dann’s collaborators in those early days included Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Burton Cummings of The Guess Who, and members of ELO. Caring more about the hard work of writing and recording in the studio than chasing fame and fortune on the road, Dann never pitched songs directly to artists. In fact, one he had originally tossed in the trash was recorded by Glen Campbell.  Dann also wrote Dottie West’s “If It Takes All Night” produced by Larry Gatlin.  Others who became fans and encouraged him along the way include Johnny Cash, Prince and Lionel Richie.

“I always considered myself a true artist in that I never wrote songs strictly to make money,” Dann says. “To me, music is an art form, a mode of expression, and my way of being accepted as a person.” In the early 2010s, after too long away from writing and recording – during which time he did everything from real estate to recording jingles and voiceovers for a radio station – Dann undertook the discipline of fasting to see if he still “had it” as a songwriter and artist. All the songs that ended up on LIFE as well as “Lesson in Love” were the creative fruits from this unique period.

“I came to my current hometown of Newport Beach for the first time, rented a funky little apartment surrounded by only a metal chair, cafeteria table, pillow, blanket, an air mattressand eight guitars, and I went on a 40 day fast. I only allowed myself juice, broth and water. In these 40 days,” he adds, “I challenged myself to answer that question: Do I still have it in me to do music? And the songs fell right out.”
Dann continues, “After the fast, I went into the studio and cut about 20 vocal demos in one day – then took my time over the following years to develop them into the project whose title actually says it all -- Life.”   

Flaming Guitar
Life Album

AVAILABLE ON

Life Reflections / Life Revealed

Disc 1
  1. Why Are We Here
  2. Strange Definition of Love
  3. Why Are We Here
  4. Any Day Now
  5. Love Is the Fire
  6. Talk to Me
  7. When I Hurt
  8. Just One of Those Days
  9. Nuthin' but the Truth
  10. Only Love
Disc 2
  1. Just a Kid from Texas
  2. Things I've Learned from This Life
  3. When Love Comes Callin'
  4. It's Where the Ring Goes
  5. Change of Wife
  6. Heroes Never Die
  7. Family Reunion
  8. I Just Wanna Be Your Man
  9. A Better Me
Hearts Under Fire Album

AVAILABLE ON

Hearts Under Fire

  1. Hearts Under Fire
  2. Old Mexico
  3. Lucy
  4. Companions
  5. China
  6. Savannah
  7. I Got the Fever
  8. Looks Like Love Again
  9. Dream On

Book

Love Laughter and Rage

AVAILABLE ON

Love, Laughter, and Rage

With a foreword penned by his late Superstar Uncle Kenny Rogers, "Love, Laughter and Rage" offers a revealing, page-turning look inside a family whose "household name" status came with challenges that shaped the life of a boy raised in the shadow of success and childhood trauma. Dann Rogers' plain-spoken honesty energizing joy at the discovery of his own passion for music makes for a real-life adventure story not to be missed. Born of and into the top tier of the music industry, Dann's success might have been considered a foregone conclusion. Peppered with the stories of stars from Little Esther Phillips to Tony Orlando and Glen Campbell, "Love, Laughter and Rage" provides ample evidence that it was not. If you are not already a Dann Rogers fan, this book will bring you into his world, and Dann into yours.

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