In the fall of 1979, Kenny Rogers released his album, Kenny. The project contained popular songs like “Coward of the County” and “You Decorated My Life”. The album would go on to chart at No. 1 on the country chart for 25 weeks, giving Rogers his fourth of twelve No. 1s in this category.
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“Coward of the County” was written by Roger Bowling and Billy Edd Wheeler, and was the final single released. The song tells the story of Tommy, a usually nonviolent fellow, who chooses to fight the “Gatlin boys” after they attack his girlfriend, Becky.
The song became a crossover hit on the Billboard and country charts, and a top ten hit in multiple countries. However, when it came to Rogers’ professional reputation, it did a little more harm than good. The main reason is that the Gatlin Brothers was the name of another musical group at the time. Their names were Larry, Steve, and Rudy Gatlin, and let’s just say they were less than happy about being accused of sexual violence via song.
Songwriter Ed Wheeler even acknowledged the mistake in Chicken Soup For the Soul: Country Music.
“We chose the name Gatlin boys because we liked the sound of it,” he wrote. “I didn’t realize then that Larry Gatlin had dated a girl named Becky and had written a song about her and got mad about it later.”
It would seem that the writers had unknowingly paid a little too close attention to detail.
Kenny Rogers “Didn’t Think Anything Of” the Coincidence
Obviously, after the song came out, people started assuming that “the Gatlin boys” were a reference to The Gatlin Brothers, even though Rogers later said it wasn’t meant to be.
On The Adam Corolla Show, Larry Gatlin would share in an interview that Rogers said he “didn’t think anything of it” when he used the Gatlin brothers’ names. The two artists had toured together and were good friends, so this didn’t make sense to Gatlin.
“My mother, my dear sweet mother, called me about 30 years ago when that record came out. She was weeping,” he recalled. “So I found the song, and I played the song, and I heard it, and I called Kenny.”
“So I talked to Kenny about it, and the only thing I could do at that point in time was go ahead and laugh about it, be big about it,” Gatlin shared. At the time, it was words of wisdom from Johnny Cash that helped console him.
Apparently, while Gatlin was going through another bad publicity deal, Cash called him up to give advice. ‘Pilgrim, there ain’t no such thing as bad publicity unless they got a picture of you screwing a goat.’
Photo by: Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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