Coward of the County

So I would just listen to these songs over and over, and that was my entertainment.

And so listening to "Coward of the County" or "The Gambler" or "Lucille," they had these characters, like there was life and death and love and violence and ... um, this whole world, um, and this huge chorus that you could sing along to.

And so I would just get lost and, you know, uh, emotionally connect to these songs and imagine that was my world and I was these characters.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

I had, uh, a- always liked playing, uh, me and Norm breaking down The Coward of the County.

[laughs] Yes.

From, we used to break down Kenny Rogers songs that were...

People think of Kenny Rogers sort of good time gambling guy, but h- he, Coward of the County and Ruby were two of the most depressing-

Right.

Of course

I'll say that.

They've been there a while.

The song we hear on the jukebox is Coward of the County by Kenny Rogers.

Now, this song was written by Roger Bowling and Billy Ed Wheeler.

It was released in November of 1979, so very recent to shooting this episode.

Everyone considered him the coward of the county.

It never stood one single time to prove the county wrong.

Coward of the County became a huge crossover hit.

It went to number one on the country chart and peaked at number three on the Hot 100.