Hey Sean,

I just wanted to take a minute to respond to your scathing review of our new DVD, Remembering the 70s.  First, thank you for taking the time to check out some of the greatest performances by some of the greatest and legendary performers EVER in our business.  I'm sure you're too young to remember or probably have never even heard of some of these artists but I will do my best to enlighten you.

You are absolutely right on one point, things have changed in the last 30 years.  I think that if you look at any 30 year span in history, you will find that things do change.  It was pretty cool that a network (CBS) did devote prime time programming to showcase the TOP, not medium-sized artists but major artists that had the top ten chart busters of the day.  If you would have taken the time to do your homework, you would know that Rollin' On The River was the first television show of it's kind.  It opened the door to shows like Sonny & Cher and other musical variety show.  I guess you could call that a forerunner.

Kenny Rogers and The First Edition was much more than a rock band.  In fact, we never referred to ourselves as a band.  We were a group of entertainers. We did play and sing but we were performers that did it all.  We were also the first of our kind to play Las Vegas.  In the years that we played The Rivera, The International, (with Elvis) The Las Vegas Hilton or The Flamingo Hilton, I can't remember not playing to a full house.  In fact, at The Las Vegas Hilton, we still, today, hold the record for the most people for one show, the most people for an entire engagement and the most money made by the hotel for a single show and a single engagement.  Because things have changed, that record will never be broken.  So, to refer to us as a charmless rock band with a couple of medium sized hits is largely inaccurate.  Just so you will know, we had million sellers with "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town", "But You Know I Love You", "Something's Burning", "Tell It All Brother", "Heed The Call", "Ruben James" and others but there is not enough space here to list them all.

You mention Jim Croce.  Most artists I know still consider Jim to be one of the legendary singer/songwriters to ever come along.  His creepy sideman was truly one of the great guitar players ever.  You might want to check with Eric Clapton on that one.

Bill Withers' "Lean on Me" just happened to be the number 1 record in the country and had guested on every major variety show of the day.

The Grass Roots were friends of ours and had more top ten records that us. I would say that justifies them.

You referred to the legendary B.B. King and Ike and Tina Turner as "legit stars".  I'm not sure I would characterize them as legit stars.  I would have to call the true superstars.

You did mention that Al Green was GREAT.  You did get one thing right. Thanks for that.

You might want to take another look at "Remembering The 70s" just to check the, so called, lip sync.  Most performances were played live.  There were cases of pre-recorded tracks but you will find that there were NO LIP SYNCS.

Thank you very much for your last line.  "What in God's name are you waiting for?"  If you are old enough to remember these great artists, you will love "Remembering The 70s".

Sean, I wish you only the best.

Mickey Jones

The drummer with Kenny Rogers and The First Edition.