0:00
/
0:00
JCW ARCHIVE: Kenny Rogers' Dark Side w/ Adam Carolla
JCW ARCHIVE: Kenny Rogers' Dark Side w/ Adam Carolla
0:00
0:00
0:00
0:00
About this episode
John Clay Wolfe and Adam Carolla dive into the darker, often overlooked themes in classic Kenny Rogers songs like "Ruby" and "Coward of the County." They humorously dissect the tragic stories behind the lyrics, including disability, infidelity, and violence, while drawing unexpected parallels between Rogers' storytelling and early gangster rap. The conversation includes witty banter about the impact of these songs on hip-hop culture and features nostalgic reflections on radio and music history.
Topics:
kenny rogers songs
song analysis
dark themes
adam carolla
norm macdonald
coward of the county
gangster rap origins
music storytelling
radio history
hip-hop influence
We were listening to some Kenny Rogers records with our buddy Adam Carrolla when Adam revealed the true story behind the music. It seems Kenny had a bit of a morbid streak on some of his hits, like "Ruby" and "Coward Of The County" which tell dark tales that we have a good laugh at! John's even got a theory that Kenny Rogers was influential in the beginnings of Gangsta Rap, which Adam, being the expert on all things gangsta, can confirm.
Thanks for joining us for this week's #JCWPodcast #JCWArchive. Please don't forget to Like, Share, and most importantly, Subscribe--to make sure you get the latest John Clay Wolfe Show materials as soon as they're released! So keep an eye out for those Gatlin boys...and we'll see you Saturday
Select text to request an explanation
The John Clay Wolf Show has appeared on terrestrial radio for a really, really, really long time.
So we dug into our pockets.
And on the other side of our d**k, we found something funny.
And yes, it's contagious.
Gather round as the Wolf Pack goes on this throwback adventure.
What it do is ya boi, DJ Pre-K with the John Clay Wolf Show digging around in the
archives.
I know how I do it.
And I'm bringing y'all a clip where we were just kicking it, jamming to some Kenny Rogers
records his players do.
When our friend at the show, Adam Carolla, chimed in on some of the darker parts of some
of Kenny's hits.
And John even wonders, who was the first gangster rapper, Eazy E, or the gambler himself?
I'll let y'all decide.
Check it out.
Now, back to the John Clay Wolf Show.
You know, Adam Carolla, we played this song because I was listening to a bit with you and
Norm MacDonald years ago, where y'all were breaking the song down.
And I didn't realize Ruby was such a whore.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Well, okay, so here's what I figured out with the help of the late great Norm MacDonald.
His legs are bent and paralyzed because he didn't go start that old asianic war.
But that war he's talking about is Korea.
It's not Vietnam.
People think it's Vietnam.
It's Korea.
So he's, his legs are bent and paralyzed.
He can't move.
He's also probably been poisoned by like Agent Agent Orange or something too, because
the doctors tell him it's not going to be long before he's not around.
She is much younger than him and she gets dolled up and heads to town.
And he's just basically saying, please don't have sex with another stranger.
I'm going to be dead in 10 minutes.
Can you spare me this humiliation?
But he makes a tactical error.
He goes, if I could move, he basically said, if I could stand up, I'd go get the gun
from the closet and put you in the ground, which is not really pillow talk, you know
what I mean?
That's not incentive that ladies have ladies here, right?
But I said, please stay.
I'd say I got you a Whitman sampler, not you're lucky.
Somebody put my gun on the upper shelf of the closet and I'm in a wheelchair.
That's the only thing between you breathing and me.
If I could stand, you'd be in the ground.
But please don't go.
Don't go.
Don't go.
Don't go.
Don't take your load of time.
He's taking the love.
I think here's where he explains it.
Because I just turned the slamming of the door.
Now here's how many times she's heard this before.
The way I know I've heard it slim 100 times.
100.
It's a lot of penis.
Yeah, that's a lot of penis.
So save her this one last time.
He could, if he could move, he'd get the gun and put her in the ground.
We need a new coward of the county, too, because that's worse.
Grab that one, Turley.
We were talking, we were breaking down Ruby a moment ago.
Kenny Rogers, you and Norm MacDonald did a bit of the well.
I got 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I have no idea.
But y'all were breaking these songs down, it was cracking me up.
Yeah, Norm was on my radio show and we just sort of stumbled into it and started
breaking it down.
Was it off the cover?
Did you have any of your lines produced?
No, no, it was all off the cover.
We weren't planning, he certainly wasn't planning on it.
I wasn't planning on it either because now we're playing some game or something and
somehow stumbled into this, but Norm's good on his feet and I'm good on my feet and
we both knew the song well enough.
So Ruby is about the disabled veteran whose wife is a whore and there's a crazy thing
about Carrot of the County.
His love Becky goes into town and gets gang raped by the, the, the thing that's, the,
the Gatlin boys, which is crazy because not the Gatlin brothers, but the Gatlin boys,
the Gatlin boys, but in a, in a part, in the part of the song, he goes, you know,
they had the Gatlin boys come to town, they had their way and he goes, there
were three of them and there are three Gatlin brothers.
And I've interviewed the Gatlin brothers and I said, did it piss you off?
And they go, yeah, we used to tour with Kenny.
Like, why couldn't you use another name?
There are other names available for gang rape purposes.
You know what I mean?
It's not just limited to Gatlin.
And, and by the way, there are three.
Did you have to say there were three of them?
So it was a big hit, but he accused the band of gang raping Becky.
And so the coward of the county, his dad was in jail for killing a man.
And his dad made him promise to never use his hands in anger.
So he got pushed around.
But once the Gatlin brothers had their way with Becky, he decided to fight it
out and mop the floor with the Gatlin brothers.
And then they moved on and Becky's still in therapy.
I mean, let's be honest.
So this is pre rap.
This is free rap.
But it was kind of the basis of opening up the NWA movement of a sort.
Oh, yeah, they owe all their success to Kenny Rogers and coward of the county.
Any rap, if you speak to Jay Z today, he'll he'll tell you it's
the coward of the county and any Rogers that, you know, grown up
in the projects in Chicago on the east side and listen to Kenny Rogers all day.
That's what motivated them.
Yeah, that's right.
They sampled.
Yeah, you're right.
And they'll tell you.
That's right.
You were here.
Were you living here during that movement?
Did you ever meet those guys?
Did you ever meet easy?
No, I'm a big fan.
You are. Yes.
Little Eric was a bad ass.
Yeah. No, I never met.
I mean, I probably ended up interviewing, you know, half those guys
over the over the years.
Right.
No, I don't think I ever, which one is the most talented
from your view?
I would say the richest is what's his name, Dre.
Well, there's also an unknown member called Lazy Z.
He was the worst.
He did almost nothing to help the bad.
He would be late.
His attitude was bad.
He'd be drunk on stage.
So that's the one you don't hear about from NWA.
I got to go Ice Cube, OK, because his eyebrows
are so expressive, you know what I mean?
He always looks angry, his eyebrows are.
Somebody shaped him so he was angry all the time.
I love that movie when that when that album came out.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was probably. Eighth grade coward of the county.
No, that was that was that was second grade
about how do you.
I'm fifty nine fifty nine a little older than me.
I'm fifty one.
But yeah, I do think that Kenny inspired them
and cleared the path for what do you call that?
There's no doubt.
I mean, you go to the B.T. Awards.
You see all the Kenny, Roger, Tattoos, all the rappers.
It's always an homage.
They love it.
All right, y'all know what to do.
Hit us up on JohnClayWolf.com.
You can check out all the episodes on there.
You know, stay up to date with what we got going on.
Get cool gear.
We got hats, shirts, all that.
Hit us up on Facebook.
You know, search John Clay Wolf Show.
We're on Instagram, John's on Twitter.
You know, you can holler at all of us.
Okay, you know how to spell it.
Okay, we appreciate y'all listening.
Keep on rocking with us.
Request an explanation for:
Request an Explanation
Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.
Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.
Want to learn more?
Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.