David Osborne: Pianist and Friend of Jimmy Carter

Meet the man behind the presidential keys: David Osborne.

When pianist David Osborne gave Jimmy Carter a vinyl record of his music at the former president’s Orlando book signing in the 1980s, he never could’ve imagined where it would lead.

“I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from him again,” said Osborne.

Decades later, Osborne took the stage at Carter’s funeral service in Washington D.C. to bid farewell to a treasured friend.

“I said to my wife, I’m probably going to cry when I play,” said Osborne.

Just weeks after that fateful meeting in Orlando, years ago, Carter’s pastor asked Osborne to come play at their church in Plains, Georgia.

“We had so much fun with the people in plains, with the Carters, that it became like a bi-monthly deal,” said Osborne.

Osborne estimates he played for Jimmy and his wife Rosalyn several hundred times over the years, from their birthday parties to trips they took to see him perform at the Bellagio and Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

The former president not only became Osborne’s biggest fan but also a close friend.

“Of all the pianists I know … he’s my favorite, and I know a lot of them,” said the former president.

“We reached a level that he wasn’t really the president to me, he was more like a father to me,” said Osborne.

Twenty-five years ago, the Carters asked him for a big favor.

“They set me down after one of my concerts and said, ‘We’ve decided when we die, we want you to play for our funeral.’ There was a moment of silence. I said, ‘Well, I never really planned on you dying,'” said Osborne.

Osborne kept his promise and played at Rosalyn’s funeral in 2023, Carter’s public ceremony in the Capitol, and his private family service in Georgia.

“The end of something that I had planned for years, and it’s a very sad time for me,” said Osborne. “On the other hand, it’s also a beginning, because now I want to take with my life and do something for somebody else that Jimmy Carter would approve of.”

He hopes the former president’s legacy will inspire others to live their lives helping people as he did.

“There are no more Jimmy Carters in the world, and I’ll never forget him and the impact he’s had on my life,” said Osborne.

Osborne told WINK News that over the last few decades, every job he booked had a clause in his contract that he could drop everything to play at the Carters’ funerals.

Songs he played on Thursday included two of Carter’s favorites, “Imagine” by John Lennon and Bette Midler’s “Wind Beneath My Wings.”