The musician known as the Pianist to the Presidents has finally played in Donald Trump’s White House – and credited DailyMail.com for continuing his unbroken run which started with playing for Jimmy Carter.
David Osborne is the in-house pianist at the Bellagio in Las Vegas but has played for every president since Jimmy Carter in 1979.
But in 2017 and 2018 the phone never rang.
He feared that publicly expressing his unhappiness at then-candidate Trump’s impersonation of a disabled New York Times reporter had cost him his invitation.
Devastated by the two-year snub, Osborne gave an exclusive interview to DailyMail.com in November 2018 in which he made an impassioned plea to the president to allow him to continue his legacy – and amazingly it worked.
David Osborne is known as the ‘Pianist to the Presidents’ and has played for Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and both Bushes
The pianist thanked DailyMail.com for an article last year where he gave and impassioned plea to the president to be invited back to the White House. It worked and he now says he’s ‘delighted’ to be back, pictured here playing at the White House on December 15 for Melania Trump
Osborne feared that publicly expressing his unhappiness at then-candidate Trump’s impersonation of a disabled New York Times reporter had cost him his invitation and told DailyMail.com the comments about Trump were a defensive reaction as his daughter Hannah is autistic, and his late father Bud walked with a limp
Osborne says staffers at the White House saw the story and decided to reach out to him earlier this year.
The pianist thanked DailyMail.com for the article and said he’s ‘delighted’ to be back.
‘My view was put across in the piece, beautifully raising the awareness of what was happening and that we had no bone to pick with anyone and I was willing to come back and play at The White House,’ he explained.
‘And it resonated, which I am delighted about. The White House saw your beautiful story and they got lots of letters from people, that I did not even orchestrate. It got the ball rolling.
While Osborne didn’t meet President Trump, he said he got to speak to First Lady Melania Trump at the party who coordinated a tour of the White House for him and his family the next day
‘They had many people that frequent the Bellagio, who have a connection to me and know me as the pianist to the presidents, and they were asking why are you not playing at the White House?
‘There were even a couple of White House ushers who were putting in a good word for me.
‘And there were two guys, Brad and Bob, who I understand are close to Vice President Mike Pence.
‘So I had so many people make them realize what had happened.’
Osborne, however, revealed that the White House told him that he would have to go through the same process as other performers do, filling out forms for potential Christmas entertainers, in October, before he could return.
‘And I was told ‘just go with it’, and low and behold I was asked to return,’ he said.
Osborne performed for President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s Christmas party on Sunday, December 15 in the East Room of the White House.
White House officials invited him into the room to play on its custom-built Steinway grand piano, ordered by Franklin D Roosevelt in 1938.
In videos posted online he’s seen playing holiday classics during the annual holiday open house – marking his first performance at the White House during the Trump administration.
A large sign in front of the piano had his name and where he’s from and also the words ‘The Spirit of America Christmas at the White House 2019.’
‘I want to thank the President and First Lady for a wonderful afternoon,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘Melania – Mrs Trump – just did the most wonderful job of decorating the White House. It looked fabulous. She was very nice. She walked down the stairs and passed a handwritten note down to the usher, which said I was the best entertainment they had this year at the White House Christmas parties.
‘Kindly she asked me what I would like as a gift, I said a tour for my family the next day. And she was lovely to arrange it, and my autistic daughter wanted to see The White House, which was lovely. My family had a blast.’
Osborne said he didn’t see President Trump, only Melania, but none-the-less was thrilled to be back.
‘That Steinway there is so special, it has such a romantic sound,’ he said.
‘The sound resonates throughout the whole building and perforates the pores and the music drifts throughout the White House.’
When he played for the Obamas, the president requested ‘some Stevie Wonder’ and slid on to the piano stool to sit beside him, Osborne explained to DailyMail.com
‘I was really nervous,’ he recalled of playing for President Bush. ‘President Bush told all those stars that night, “This boy can play,” especially after playing his wife’s favorite Gershwin numbers’
While Osborne never performed for President Carter, 94, at the White House, he has consistently played for him at functions, fundraisers and celebrations for almost 30 years. He has performed at every birthday bash since he turned 64
Osborne said: ‘I was a little standoffish with President Clinton. I didn’t know what he would be like… after I started playing… I felt a nudge on my right side and I looked over and he was sitting on the bench with me and he says, “How did you do that lick?”
Osborne said he arrived almost an hour early for his performance but security let him in anyway and he started playing around 1.30pm.
He said: ‘I set up and just started playing. Drew, who was part of the visitors office, was a very nice guy. He said, ”I will come and get you every 45 minutes for a break”.
‘But that time went by, then an hour, and then 90 minutes and I was thinking, ”even if I get up to take a break. I would not know where is the right place to go.” The rooms are different to the last time I played.
‘So I kept playing and then Drew came up and said, ‘Everyone is enjoying it so much, they didn’t want you to take a break. We really don’t want you to stop, because the guests are loving this.’ It really was a heartwarming process.’
Osborne eventually got a 15-minute break before Drew insisted: ‘You ready to go back. The guests are missing you.’
‘I went back and played solidly right through to six. It was crazy. One of the most momentous moments in my life,’ Osborne said.
The professional pianist insists he remains non-political despite a country bitterly divided by Trump’s impeachment.
‘Music is over the top of all that stuff, it had nothing to do with politics. It goes over the top of it all. Christmas too,’ he explains.
Osborne had voiced his sadness at not being invited to play by the Trump administration to DailyMail.com in 2018.
‘I felt an emptiness about it. That was our Christmas,’ he said last year.
‘It’s not unwrapping presents to me, it’s taking my music and playing it for other people. Not just White House people, but for people they would invite in, people who lived in D.C., staff, friends. It was always a part of our Christmas.’
Osborne had no clue why Trump gave him the cold shoulder but he feared that some ‘off hand’ comments he made briefly defending his autistic daughter may have upset the president.
The musician criticized Trump during his 2016 campaign for mocking New York Times reporter Serge F. Kovaleski, who suffers from the congenital joint contractures of arthrogryposis, apparently for his disability. Trump later denied he knew Kovaleski was disabled, but Kovaleski said the two were on a ‘first name’ basis for years when he covered New York real estate.
Pictured: Osborne’s invitation to play at the White House while Clinton was president in 1999
Pictured: Glowing notes Jimmy Carter has sent Osborne throughout the years
Osborne himself insists the comments about Trump were a defensive reaction as his daughter Hannah is autistic, and his late father Bud walked with one leg shorter than the other caused by osteomyelitis, a rare bone infection, leading to Osborne himself being mocked at school.
But when he attempted to amend relations with the White House, the Trump administration did not take his phone calls.
While he says he regrets what happened, he says it’s all water under the bridge now he’s back.
Osborne has sold more than 16 million records around the world.
He has performed for six presidents, starting with Carter in 1979.
Osborne’s long history with the White House stems from him growing close to former President Jimmy Carter through performing at his Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. Since then he has performed over and over for the Carters.
He played in the Reagan and George W. Bush White Houses, then there was a break until 1999, when he was invited to Washington to perform for President Clinton’s penultimate Christmas in 1999, where they dueted on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
‘I was a little standoffish with President Clinton. I didn’t know what he would be like and so after I started playing upstairs after the downstairs meet and greet, I felt a nudge on my right side and I looked over and he was sitting on the bench with me and he says, ‘How did you do that lick?’
‘And so I showed him, because he is very musical and he wanted to know how I was making the arpeggios and adding to the Christmas music… he actually sang a little bit. He has quite a good singing voice.’
Recalling how they dueted on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Osborne smiled: ‘I went back to the beginning of the song with Clinton and showed him what I was playing and then Laura Schwartz (then White House Director of Events) walked up, who’s an absolute sweetheart, and said: ‘Are you bothering the piano player, Mr President?’
‘We all laughed and I was quite amazed that he sat there that long.’
Osborne (pictured with Hillary Clinton) impressed Clinton so much with his piano skills that the then POTUS sidled up to him at an event to work on his own ivory tinkling
Osborne said of former President Jimmy Carter: ‘I am honored to be his friend, given that when I was a teenager I would walk around the neighborhood pounding his signs into the ground’
George W Bush and his wife Laura then made sure Osborne was first on their Christmas plans, playing repeatedly at the White House throughout their eight years there.
In 2005 Osborne recalls one of the ‘most touching’ moments ever during one White House staff Christmas party.
‘An intern told us the kids couldn’t come to the party, but when Laura (Bush) saw us, she asked ‘where are the kids and your wife?’ I said they were back at the Mayflower Hotel because of the rule. An hour later, they all walked in with the President and Laura, and their dogs to surprise me.
‘It was moments like those that made me feel like part of the family. I felt like a staff member and part of the furniture.’
When he played for the Obamas, the president requested ‘some Stevie Wonder’ and slid on to the piano stool to sit beside him.
‘During one session Obama slid in next to me, and asked: ‘how you doing tonight.. I would love some of that pop stuff you play.’
‘So I played Overjoyed by Stevie, and a big kids’ smile beamed from his face and Michelle waved at him.
‘I made sure I filled the session with more modern bands like Coldplay, Elton John, as the girls were young.’