Country Music Hall of Famer Don Schlitz, songwriter behind hits for Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis and The Judds, has died at age 73 in Nashville.

Schlitz earned widespread recognition in 1978 when Kenny Rogers recorded “The Gambler,” a song that became a career-defining hit and pushed country music into the mainstream. Rogers credited the Durham,

Award-winning country songwriter Don Schlitz, whose work defined an era and shaped major artists’ careers, has died following a sudden illness in Nashville. Hundreds trying to storm Wisconsin beagle research facility met with rubber bullets,

Schlitz was among the most influential and beloved songwriters in the history of Country Music. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame member penned several chart-topping songs we all know and love.

Don Schlitz, songwriter of Kenny Rogers' 'The Gambler,' Randy Travis' 'Forever and Ever Amen' and Keith Whitley's 'When You Say Nothing at All,' has died.

His legendary songwriting career earned him two Grammy Awards and a place in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. “I will never be able to believe that I deserve this, unless I receive it as a representative of my family,

Regarded as one of country music’s greatest songwriters of all time, Schlitz was the recipient of two Grammy Awards, the first of which he won for Kenny Rogers’ 1978 hit “The Gambler.” The song, which Schlitz wrote at the age of 23,

Don Schlitz, a Hall of Fame songwriter whose catalog of country classics helped define modern country music, died Thursday at a Nashville hospital following a sudden illness, Page Six reports. He was 73.