Roy “Dusty” Rogers Jr. and Dustin Roy Rogers
By Joshua Clark
From the Branson Tri-Lakes News
Yet another longtime Branson show is calling it quits as Roy Rogers Jr. and the Highriders are set to sing “Happy Trails” one last time in Branson as the 2013 season comes to a close.
“It is a little bittersweet, but we’ve been touring this past year, performing all over the country,” Roy Rogers Jr. (Dusty) said. “So we’ll still be performing, just not in Branson.”
The show’s final season was announced earlier this month by Dustin Rogers, general manager and the son of Roy Rogers Jr. The Rogers family first moved to Ozark Mountain Country in 2002 and opened the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum.
“We came to Branson over a decade ago with my grandmother to find a new home for the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum,” Rogers said in a press release. “When she set her feet down here in Branson, she fell in love with the area, as did the rest of the Rogers family.”
For six seasons, the museum was home to Roy Rogers Jr. and the Highriders until it closed at the end of 2009. The “Roy Rogers Jr. Show” then moved to the Mickey Gilley Theater for two seasons before calling RFD-TV The Theatre home since last season.
“RFD has been a great home for the show, even Trigger and Bullet call it home,” Rogers said. “Patrick Gottsch, (owner of RFD-TV and the theater) has an admiration for the American cowboy, so moving the show was a natural fit.”
While closing the show was bittersweet, Rogers Jr. looks back on his time performing in Branson as a blessing.
“It has been our extreme pleasure to carry on my father’s legacy and true cowboy music for all these years in Branson,” Rogers Jr. said. “Being able to perform next to my son and backed up by great musicians has been a highlight.”
While the family may not be performing in Branson next year, they still plan on keeping busy with tour dates and philanthropic projects.
“We have been performing in small towns in theaters that hold between 500 and 900 people, that were built in the late 1800s or early 1900s,” Rogers Jr. said. “The historical societies in those towns have restored them to their original beauty and we’ve been filling those venues, so we’ve been having a lot of fun.”
According to Rogers Jr., getting on the road has become very important.
“We decided to stop waiting for folks to come see us,” he said. “Now, we’re just going out to see them. It’s time to mosey on.”
Even though Rogers Jr. is set to take the show on the road, he still plans to call Branson home.
“This is our home, so we’ll always be in town,” he said. “And if they ever need us to play for a special event, we’d be happy to do it. I’ve been married for 46 years, and the reason why is I always come back home.”
In honor of the show’s last season in Branson, Rogers Jr. and the band are presenting a new show.
“Year before last, we did a tribute to my father who would have been 100 years old, then we did a tribute for Mom’s centennial birthday last year,” Rogers Jr. said. “This year, people have asked about me a lot, so we decided for this show, to let people know a little more about me, and the music that influenced me when I was a child.”
In addition to the music of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, the show highlights tunes from Marty Robins, Dean Martin and Al Martino, among others.
“When everybody was beboping to Elvis, those were the guys that I really loved,” he said. “We do include some Elvis, but this is a completely different show than what we’ve done in the past, and we really enjoy doing it.”
The show will feature a limited schedule for the remainder of the season, filling the 2 p.m. time slot on Wednesdays and Fridays in April and May.
Roy Rogers Jr. and the Highriders will return in September and November, performing Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.