Las Vegas entertainer has held audiences with four U.S. presidents

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2000 | 10:01 a.m.

Jimmy Carter is warm and friendly. Ronald Reagan was a puppet. George Bush is aloof, and Bill Clinton is eager to please.

Al Gore is a stickler for details, but a fun guy, and if he wins the presidency in November it will be music to David Osborne's ears.

Osborne, who is becoming known as the "pianist to the presidents," plays piano full time at Cafe Lago at Caesars Palace Wednesdays through Sundays -- and occasionally at the White House.

From his bench at the presidential Steinway he's watched heads of state and seats of government as they've passed through receiving lines or milled around during receptions, observing politicians in unguarded moments.

"I realized these people are just people," Osborne, sitting in the music room of his Henderson home, said. "I thought presidents were very different, but they're not. They make mistakes, just like the rest of us."

The 42-year-old Oklahoma native will play at the White House in December during Clinton's final Christmas gala -- where he played last Christmas as well. The tone of this year's event, he says, will be set by the Nov. 7 presidential election. Things won't be so merry and bright for the Democratic Party if George W. Bush is victorious.

"But if Gore wins, I anticipate I will continue going to the White House," he said. "I would rather not say how I'm going to vote."

After the laughter subsided, Osborne said seriously, "Really, I haven't decided yet who I'm going to vote for."

The musician is not a political activist -- although he campaigned heavily when his friend, the late Democrat Lawton Chiles, ran for governor of Florida (he won). Osborne has a centrist political philosophy, votes for the man and not the party and considers himself socially moderate and morally conservative.

"I'm pretty much down the middle of the road on most issues," he said.

That road took a circuitous route to the White House, where Osborne has played on four or five occasions.

Born in the small, Northeastern Oklahoma town of Miami (pronounced "Mi-am-uh" in that part of the world), Osborne earned degrees in music at Tulsa's Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, and at Pittsburg (Kan.) State University.

After completing his education in 1984 he began playing piano in lounges and making records. Eventually he ended up at Marriott's Orlando (Fla.) World Center -- upstate from that other Miami (pronounced "Mi-am-ee" in that part of the world).

Carter Friendship

He met his first president in 1988 -- actually an ex-president by then. Jimmy Carter was at an Orlando bookstore signing copies of his book, "An Outdoor Journal." On an impulse Osborne went to the store and got an autographed copy of the book and gave Carter an autographed copy of one of his albums -- one on which the pianist had written his telephone number.

"I didn't think anything else about it. Then, a couple of months later, I received a call from the pastor of the Marantha Baptist Church in Plains (Ga.) inviting me to play for Jimmy's Sunday-school class," Osborne said.

He and Carter, president from 1977-81, quickly became close friends. Both are Southern Baptists. Both like to hunt and fish. Neither are political fanatics.

"Rosalynn is more interested in talking about politics than Jimmy is," Osborne said.

While living in Florida, Osborne frequently visited the Carters. Since moving to Nevada about six years ago he doesn't see them as often but he does talk to them on the telephone at least once a month.

Osborne is looking forward to June, when Carter will spend five days in Las Vegas on a project for Habitat for Humanity, an organization that builds new homes or refurbishes existing ones for low-income families.

Last year Osborne organized a party for Carter's 75th birthday and may put together another for his 80th. He also would like to have a 75th party for Rosalynn, who is now 72.

Carter's party made national headlines and raised $100,000 for the renovation of the historic Rylander Theatre in Americus, Ga.. Carter attended movies at the Rylander when he was growing up.

Of all the presidents he has met, Osborne likes Carter best. "He is such a great human being.

"My wife's brother was killed in an accident last year. He was only 27. Jimmy called the family's home in Kansas and offered his condolences. I had no idea he would do something like that. It was very thoughtful."

The Republican Years

The next former president Osborne played for was Ronald Reagan. By chance, Nancy Reagan held an 80th birthday party for her husband at the Marriott in Orlando, where Osborne was entertaining. It was February 1989. Reagan's eight years in office had just ended. He had not yet announced to the world that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

"My playing for Reagan wasn't because of anything special on my part. I just happened to be playing in the lobby when they needed a pianist," Osborne recalled.

It was the one-and-only time he met Reagan, and the encounter is etched in his memory.

"The hotel had prepared this huge cake in the shape of the White House and put 80 candles on it," Osborne said. "Nancy saw the cake and was horrified. She said her husband would have a fit if he saw all those candles. Mrs. Reagan said to take all the candles off, refrost the cake and just put three or four candles on it."

An hour later Osborne went to the presidential suite and saw Reagan sitting on a bench eating a piece of the refrosted cake.

"He had cake all over his tie," Osborne said. "You could tell he was slipping. It was so obvious."

It was obvious, too, he said, that Reagan had to be maneuvered.

"People have told me everything with Reagan was staged, and Mrs. Reagan played a very big role in that," Osborne said. "He struck me as being only a figurehead. He may have been a good person, but everything was like a movie set with him."

Osborne isn't certain how he got the invitation in 1992 to play at a media reception for George Bush, president from 1989-93. He thinks it may have been the result of Rosalyn Carter sending one of his CDs to a Bush assistant.

He described Bush as being somewhat cold.

"With Bush, it's like, 'OK, we're done. That's it. Lets get out of here.' He wasn't very nice. He was never warm or friendly," Osborne said. "Bush turns over little things, like me, to someone else.

"Clinton, on the other hand, seems to be genuinely interested in everyone."

The Democrat Years

The first time he met Clinton was when he first ran for president in 1992 and the candidate was at a campaign rally in Orlando attended by 5,000 people.

"I was in a long line with a friend of mine and Clinton was walking along shaking everyone's hand," Osborne recalled. "My friend asked him what he thought about term limits and Clinton said, 'We already have those, they're called elections,' and then continued down the line.

"He got 10 people down, stopped, turned around and came back to my friend and said to him, 'I didn't mean to be short with you, but I feel we can vote people out if we don't agree with them.' "

Osborne happened to have a picture of himself with Carter and showed it to Clinton, who seemed impressed.

"Last Christmas, when I was playing at a White House party, Clinton walked over to me and said he remembered my showing him the picture. That had happened seven years earlier," Osborne said. "I don't know how he does it. He has an incredible memory.

"If he's not extraodinarly sincere, he's a great actor."

Osborne said Clinton seems to show interest in everyone.

"He would walk over to me at the piano and say, 'How did you do that little lick?' He was interested in what I did.

"He once gave me a tour of the Oval Office," he said. "I saw parts of the White House the public never sees, like this back room where the Secret Service has a chalk board. They had written notes in chalk, things like, 'Take Socks (the cat) out for a walk; let Buddy (the dog) out at 3, back in at 3:15; make sure any dog defecation is cleaned up from the White House lawn.' "

Osborne said the Clintons and Carters make people feel comfortable. "I don't know George W. (Bush), but he is a Texan and may be friendlier than his dad," he said.

Osborne likes Gore on a personal level. "He's straight-laced, straight up-and-down moral," he said.

Like Clinton, he said Gore is very detail oriented. "But Clinton is a better salesman."

Osborne said being asked to entertain at the White House is a great honor. "It's being part of history. So many want to do it, it is hard to get in and actually do it," he said.

Osborne believes the upcoming election is more than one that pits George W. Bush against Al Gore -- it is about the race that took place eight years ago between Clinton and the elder Bush.

"In my honest opinion, I think the election is about vindication," he said. "If George W. is elected, it will be people saying his dad never should have been taken out of office and it was a mistake to put Clinton in. If Gore wins, it validates Clinton."

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