Today (April 24), 4th Row Films released the film ‘All In: The Poker Movie’ nationally through digital retails like iTunes and Amazon, with the full DVD due to store shelves in July. The film, which features stars like Matt Damon and American poker player Chris Moneymaker, will also feature an interview with Kenny Rogers, but we’ve got your sneak peek of Rogers dishing on his hit ‘The Gambler’ right here!

“I think when I first recorded ‘The Gambler,’ there was something that I truly felt was unique about it,” Rogers says the in the exclusive clip below. “What bothered me, of course, is I think Johnny Cash had already recorded it — a couple of other people had recorded it already. But I just loved what it said, I loved the way it said it, and I loved — it’s called the ‘cadence’ — the way the song was written, and the rhythm of the lyric and the rhythm of the song. It just painted this wonderful picture, I think.”

In addition to the interview with Rogers, the film will follow the underground poker craze that began in clubs around New York City and eventually turned the card game into a national and international phenomenon. It also highlights the political hangups the game has faced as it has run up against politicians trying to make it an illegal game.

Featured interviews on the film include Rogers; Damon for his work in the film ‘Rounders,’; Peabody Award-winning sports journalist Frank Deford; NPR’s ‘This American Life’ host Ira Glass; Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and sports writer and historian Bert Sugar.

Speaking of his song in the below clip, Rogers says at the time he recorded ‘The Gamblers’ in the mid-’80s, he was just getting a little momentum in his career.

“I had had several other hits and I was starting to really build up, and this one of course just exploded like nothing I’d ever seen,” the country star remembers. “A lot of that is because, it’s not just … while it’s written specifically about gambling, there’s much more to that song than about gambling. It’s really more of a philosophy of life, how to live your life. I think that’s what people like about it. And I really have a knack for finding singalong songs with parts to them that everyone loves to sing. I think that’s the other part of it.”

To purchase ‘All In: The Poker Movie,’ click here.

Watch an Exclusive Clip of Kenny Rogers Talking about ‘The Gambler’

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