Kenny Rogers brought record crowds to California Mid-State Fair: ‘It was so jammed’
Kenny Rogers was one of the most popular entertainers to perform at the California Mid-State Fair.
The Paso Robles fair booked the singer-songwriter eight times — sometimes in duet shows, other times as a solo act. Only country stars Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw have performed more times at the Mid-State Fair.
Rogers, a Country Music Hall of Fame member, died on March 20 at the age of 81 after a period of declining health.
His husky voice was featured on hits including “Lady,” “Lucille” and “She Believes in Me,” as well as his signature song, “The Gambler.”
His first major hit was a song written by Mickey Newbury that featured and a guitar solo by session man Glenn Campbell. “Just Dropped In (To See What My Condition Was In)“ ended up going to No. 5 on the Billboard charts.
Rogers was then the lead singer for The First Edition. The psychedelic song was in tune with October 1967 but a departure for the country harmony band.
“Just Dropped In (To See What My Condition Was In)“ saw a renaissance when it was featured in the dream sequence from the Coen Brothers film “The Big Lebowski.”
The First Edition broke up in 1973 and Rogers worked on developing a solo career. “Lucille” broke through in 1977 and launched a steady string of hits in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
Rogers was generous with his fame. In 1968, before he was a famous solo star, he bumped into future Eagles co-founder Don Henley at a clothing boutique in Dallas.
Henley and his band at the time, Felicity, had gone to the store to buy bell-bottomed pants and ended up getting invited by Rogers to Los Angeles to record a single. Henley stayed at Rogers’ house for several months.
Rogers was remembered fondly by many of the big show business stars he performed with and he is remembered locally as well.
California Mid-State Fair spokesman said “Kenny Rogers was a county/pop legend, who brought smiles to people word-wide. We were honored to have him visit Paso Robles so many times. He will be dearly missed.”
When the fair booked Rogers at the peak of his popularity, the crowd exceeded expectations. The fair designed improved crowd circulation for concerts after Rogers’ concert on Aug. 7, 1982.
Phil Dirkx wrote the story excerpted below.
Concerts set new record at fair
Record crowds jammed the county fairgrounds and the surrounding streets in Paso Robles over the weekend as recording stars attracted people to the fair from all over Central California.
Saturday’s paid attendance, not counting pass holders, at the San Luis Obispo County Mid-State Fair set an all-time one-day record of 31,782.
That is over 10,000 more than the figure for the same day last year, then believed to have been the record.
The big attraction on Saturday was the Kenny Rogers show that sold all 20,000 available tickets, according to fair spokesman Russ James.
The paid attendance on the fairgrounds Friday was 14,701 and Sunday it was 23,248. These last three days more than offset the 48 percent drop in attendance on opening day of the fair Thursday and paid attendance is now running 15 percent ahead of last year, James said.
Although a handful of people arrived by chartered bus, most people arrived by car and parked as far as 12 blocks away and then hopped one of the fair’s shuttle buses.
Lt. Edwin Bryant of the Paso Robles Police said more than 100 parking tickets were written during the weekend.
Formal reports were filed on only two traffic accidents but there were many fender benders with drivers just exchanging information he said.
Paso Robles Fire Chief John Steaffans said he had eight of his volunteer firemen on duty at two stations Saturday night.
Because so many of his volunteers were at the fair, he feared they could not get out to respond to a fire call.
“It was so jammed, if we got a call down there we’d never have got through,” he said.
