With his long string of country Top 40 hits, Grammy-winning music star Larry Gatlin is sure to bring a new crowd to Memorial Auditorium when he stars in the Broadway classic "Annie Get Your Gun."

But Gatlin is quick to claim second-fiddle status when it comes to what he says is the show's real selling point: Raleigh-raised Broadway actress Lauren Kennedy as cowgirl Annie Oakley.

"Let's be perfectly clear: I'm just glad to be in the way," the rugged and forthright Texan says of working with Kennedy.

"Even when I'm off at the theater, when I have down time, I sit in and watch her do her scene work," he says. "She's going to take that stage and that role by storm. She's marvelous."

Gatlin is no stranger to Broadway, having taken over the title role in "The Will Rogers Follies" and toured in Frank Wildhorn's "The Civil War."

But his fame is far wider on the Nashville scene, where he was a mainstay on the charts in the 1970s and '80s with hits such as "All the Gold in California," "I Just Wish You Were Someone I Love," "Houston (Means I'm One Day Closer to You)" and "Broken Lady."

As with many a hit singer, Gatlin's dramatic rise in popularity was eventually followed by a fall, which he says left him embittered for years.

"I was mad," Gatlin, 59, said during a pre-rehearsal lunch interview last week. "My feelings were hurt. All of the sudden the industry kind of said collectively, 'Well, you're history. We're not going to play your records. Move on.'"

Gatlin eventually came to terms with fame's cyclical nature, he says. But it took awhile.

"I realized that that's the way of the world," he says. "It happened to Johnny Cash. It happened to Willie Nelson. It happened to Ray Price. It happened to Kenny Rogers. It happened to Glen Campbell. It happens to everyone who makes it. This thing, this stardom, this hot rock on the block, does not last forever."

Gatlin says he no longer resents the new generation of stars who essentially replaced him just as The Gatlin Brothers had once replaced their country music elders.

"Country music is very definitely different today than what it was when I went there in 1972," he says. "And I say, 'Vive la difference.' It's fine. I bless it. It's great. Those kids, those young people, are getting a chance to live out their dreams and making music their way, and I say that's fine."

Now that Gatlin has learned to love Nashville again, it's starting to love him back. The Gatlin Brothers recently signed their first major record deal in 15 years, with Nashville-based Curb Records. And Gatlin hopes to collaborate with some of Nashville's new generation of artists, including One Flew South, whom he met when both worked on "The Civil War," and the prolific songwriter Leslie Satcher.

But this time around, Gatlin has more to fall back on, including his increasing interest in theater. He wrote and starred in a country musical titled "The Texas Flyer" in 1998. He wrote another musical, pre-Katrina, about what might happen if a hurricane hit New Orleans.

Lyric Stage in Irving, Texas, presented a musical he co-wrote, titled "Look Homeward Honky-Tonk Angel," last fall, earning positive reviews. And he's working with Broadway, film and television star James Naughton on a new piece about Quanah Parker, the last Comanche chief. Gatlin also wrote a memoir in 1998 titled "All the Gold in California."

He's enjoying his occasional forays into acting, he says. And he hopes he'll always be ready when alluring roles like this one come up. He's had three throat surgeries to keep his voice primed. He runs and lifts weights several times a week, whether he's home in Austin or on the road.

"I cannot envision a time when I wouldn't want to go on stage," he says. "I'm too big a ham."

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