Kenny Rogers – Planet Texas

About The Song

“Planet Texas” is a country single recorded by Kenny Rogers and released by Reprise Records on May 27, 1989. Written by Texas-born songwriter John Andrew Parks III and produced by Jim Ed Norman, it was issued as the second single from Rogers’ 1989 album Something Inside So Strong. On the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, the song peaked at No. 30, giving Rogers a modest but notable hit during his transition from RCA to Reprise. The 7-inch single paired “Planet Texas” with “When You Put Your Heart in It” on the B-side, linking the new sci-fi themed track to an already familiar ballad from the same project.

Something Inside So Strong was Rogers’ twenty-first studio album, recorded in 1988–1989 and released in 1989 on Reprise. The LP blended contemporary country and country-pop, with Jim Ed Norman as main producer and Steve Dorff contributing to one track. “Planet Texas” opens the album and sits alongside other singles such as “When You Put Your Heart in It,” “The Vows Go Unbroken (Always True to You),” “(Something Inside) So Strong” and “Maybe,” several of which reached the country Top 40. The track lists position “Planet Texas” as the lead-off cut, underlining its role as the album’s boldest stylistic statement.

The song’s narrative is an unusual hybrid of Western imagery and science fiction. The lyrics follow a cowboy narrator who encounters mysterious riders descending from the sky on “high-tech horses” equipped with futuristic gear. Their weapons fire beams of light rather than bullets and their outfits are described with space-age details, signalling that they are not ordinary cowboys. They invite the narrator to ride with them, and before he can fully react, he finds himself lifted far above the Earth on an interstellar journey through the solar system and beyond.

As the ride continues, the lyric describes passing over familiar world cities, then circling planets and skimming Saturn’s rings before heading into deeper space. The cowboys and their horses cross the “starless void” and even follow the tail of a comet, the music and words emphasizing the sense of distance from everyday life. Eventually they return the narrator safely to Earth. When he asks where they came from, they point to a spot on a star chart and answer that they are from Planet Texas, described as “the biggest place in outer space”—a tongue-in-cheek reference to Texas’ reputation for outsized geography and identity.

Musically, “Planet Texas” is built as a mid-tempo country track with late-1980s production. The album credits list players such as Matt Rollings (piano), David Hungate (bass), Paul Leim (drums), Steve Gibson (guitar) and additional keyboard and synthesizer work from Nashville session musicians. The arrangement combines a steady rhythm section, electric guitars and keyboards, with touches of contemporary country sheen rather than traditional fiddle or steel taking the lead. Rogers’ vocal sits at the centre, delivering the story in a straightforward, narrative style that recalls his earlier story-songs, even as the subject matter moves into science-fiction territory.

One of the most remarked-upon aspects of “Planet Texas” is its music video. Directed by British filmmaker Julien Temple, known for work with the Sex Pistols and other pop acts, the video used elaborate special effects to visualise the alien cowboys, space horses and cosmic landscapes described in the lyric. Contemporary reports put the production cost at around $600,000, making it one of the more expensive country videos of its time. The clip was created in connection with the television special Something Inside So Strong, featuring Rogers alongside Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, and helped draw attention to the single even as radio programmers were cautious about its unusual sound and theme.

In interviews from the period, Rogers called “Planet Texas” the most unusual or “most unique” piece of music he had recorded in many years, and later recalled that some country stations hesitated to play it because it did not fit their typical sound. Even so, the song has retained a place in retrospectives on his career and in discussions of Texas-themed country music as an example of how a mainstream star experimented with storytelling conventions. For John Andrew Parks III, the writer, the cut became an important credit and later led to his own recording of the song. Today, “Planet Texas” stands as a curiosity in Rogers’ catalogue: a fully produced late-’80s country single that turns a familiar Texas pride theme into a space-travel fable.

Video

Lyric

They rode like they was Rangers
When they came out of the skies
They had high-tech horses
With beacons in their eyes

My gun was cocked and ready
When I looked into their face
I seen they weren’t just common buckaroos
Born of the human race
No, sir, these cowboys came from space

Their shootin’ irons shot laser light
And their spurs was anodized
Bandannas caked with stardust
And their jeans was pressurized

Well, he handed me a halter
And said, “Tighten up the girth”
But before I hit the saddle
We were miles above the Earth
And I mean miles above the Earth

Yippie-aye-ay-e

I seen London, Paris
Budapest, Kashmir and Tokyo
And there ain’t no sight
Like a desert night looking down on Mexico

Through the moons of Mars and Jupiter
‘Round Saturn’s rings we rode
Past the frozen plains of Pluto
Where even the sunshine’s cold
Man, I do mean cold

Then our interstellar stallions
Sailed through the starless void
There was nothing to miss in that emptiness
Not even a stray asteroid

‘Til we picked up the trail of a comet’s tail
Man, you can’t even dream that far
And the gallopin’ beat
Like the rhythm of an old catgut guitar
Just a-strummin’ from the distant star

Yippie-aye-ay-e

Well, it could’ve lasted minutes
Or a hundred thousand years
But they got me down
I was safe and sound
And it hadn’t even popped my ears

And they rared back on their broncos
And they shot a bolt of light
I knew they were the good guys
Yes sir, you got it right
‘Cause their cowboy hats was white
So ask ’em as they pulled their reins
Towards the settin’ sun
“Before you go, I’d like to know
Just where you boys come from?”

Well, they opened up a star chart and said
“Right here where this ‘X’ is
It’s the biggest place in outer space
A planet known as Texas.”

Yippie-aye-ay-e
Yippie-aye-ay-e
Yippie-aye-ay-e
Yippie-aye-ay-e