Kenny Rogers' ballad 'Lucille' may be one of his most well-known works, but in his new book, Luck or Something Like It, Rogers says at least one person very close to him  wasn't amused by the song when it first released.

"That was my mother," Rogers spilled in an interview with Billboard. "Her name was Lucille. She called me up on the phone one day, and said 'Kenneth Ray, what are you doing?' I knew when she said that I was in trouble."

"She thought I was putting her business out on the street," he recalls. "She said 'How dare me tell people she had four hungry children.' I told her 'First of all, you have eight kids. Secondly, I didn't write it, and thirdly, it's not about you. Then she tamed down a little bit."

'Lucille,' written by Hal Bynum and Roger Bowling, went on to become Rogers' signature hit, topping not only the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, but also the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart and the UK Singles chart, as well as becoming a huge hit in Austria, Australia and New Zealand.

Rogers is now working on an upcoming album for Warner Brothers with producer Dan Huff, who has produced Faith Hill, Keith Urban and several other artists. Given the eclectic range of material Rogers has released over the years, it will be interesting to see what musical turns the singer will take next.

"I went through a period where on every album, I tried to do something different," Rogers says. "I worked with Lionel [Richie], Barry Gibb, David Foster, and did a wonderful album with Sir George Martin called 'The Heart Of The Matter.' I've always said I was a country singer with a lot of different influences. It was a chance to reach out and bring people who liked that kind of music into country music."

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