I wanted to pay tribute to the late KENNY ROGERS, who passed away Friday. Richard Amsel did a portrait of Rogers for the singer's 1982 album, LOVE WILL TURN YOU AROUND.
I had tried within the last two years to reach out to Rogers' team to see if he could be available to interview for the film, but I wasn't aware of his health issues. My thoughts go out to his family, friends, and generations of admirers.
In researching the album art, which is very evocative of Amsel's first poster of Harrison Ford in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, I found that the artist completed not one but two different portraits of Rogers. The first, textless image here was from a professional photographic transparency taken many years ago of the original artwork; the second image is the final album cover. All this time I just assumed they were one and the same...but when scrutinized side by side, you can see some slight differences between the two.
