Remembering Otto Kitsinger

Today, on my Facebook page, I posted a picture taken back in the "Old Days" (that is, in my previous 21-year career at WSM Radio and the Grand Ole Opry here in Nashville).  At the time of the photo, one of my tasks at WSM was to produce radio shows for the radio network we were running in partnership with the Westinghouse company called TNN Radio, or TNNR.  One of those shows was focused on country music oldies and was hosted by Grand Ole Opry star Bill Anderson.

In the 1989 photo I posted, which showed Bill, his fellow country superstar Eddy Arnold, me, and a guy most folks today wouldn't know--the late Otto Kitsinger.  Well, running across that picture again has given me pause to want to reflect a bit on this unique and special friend of mine.  I was also reminded that it was 20 years ago this week (in April, 1998) that we lost him.

Bill always referred to him as "The Great Otto," and to those of us who knew him, he was great.  I believe Otto was one of the kindest, funniest, most generous, friendliest, most considerate, and most intelligent men I've ever known.  His role on Bill's show, Yesteryear, was to write the show each week.  Actually, a more accurate title would be "researcher," because the show really wasn't scripted.  Otto and I would work together each week to develop a layout for the show, planning which songs we'd be featuring, and then Otto would set about gathering a multitude of facts, trivia, and other interesting tidbits from which Bill would choose the actual things he would talk about that week.

And boy, could he do that well.  With a thoroughness unknown to most, in these pre-Internet days, Otto would spend hours in the library of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Public Library, and at home poring through books, magazine articles, recordings, and other materials, to put together the packet of information used by Bill on the show.  Most of the time, he'd end up providing more information (many times more, actually) that Bill could possibly use hosting the show.

How did he do it, you may ask?  Well, it had to do with his background.  You see, Otto's training was as an attorney.  In fact, he was an attorney.  And not just any attorney--he had spent the previous three or more decades of his career working in the New York law firm that represented the interests of famous oilman J. Paul Getty.  Otto worked directly with Mr. Getty and his staff, dealing with their legal matters.  Raised and educated in his home state of Texas, Otto had spent virtually his entire career in New York on a very fast track.

While I don't purport to intimately know the details of Otto's personal life, I can tell you what he told me:  While he was very good at what he did, made more money than he could have every dreamed (and had all the things which go with it), his career was killing his soul.  What's more, it was taking a physical toll, leading to health problems culminating in a serious heart attack.  As time went on, he longed to break away from it all.  And one day, he did.

Leaving New York and his very lucrative and impressive job, Otto ventured to Nashville to pursue his lifelong love affair with country music.  All the time he had worked as a lawyer, Otto had been nursing that love affair by collecting records, attending shows, and reading everything he could about the true love of his life--heartfelt songs, augmented by fiddle and steel, sung with the twang which had been so familiar to him growing up in Texas.

Once in Nashville, he traded his three-piece suits for jeans, a sparse lifestyle, a jalopy to drive around, and a pretty good computer for word processing.  He began assembling an impressive library of recordings, books, artifacts, and other materials to serve as the basis for his new career.  It wasn't long before his name began appearing on magazine articles, liner notes, and other writings of all kinds.  Although he had only been in town a couple of years, he seemed an obvious choice when we were looking for a researcher for Yesteryear in 1988.

During the years we worked together and beyond, Otto and I became good friends.  Apart from our work, we would spend hours talking about music and sharing stories.   I personally spent a good deal of time laughing at Otto's incredibly dry wit, which showed through in the multitude of stories, jokes, expressions, legal phrases, and other sayings delivered in the dour way which only he could.

There's much more to Otto's story, but the point I want to make is this:  Money, power, and prestige don't buy happiness.  Perhaps that seems elementary to you, but Otto's life stands in my memory as a living, breathing example of the principle.  I know both from observation and my many conversations with him that with his career change, Otto had forfeited a life of financial security most people only dream of for one few people would want.  His peace of mind, you see, came at a very high cost.  But he would be quick to point out that he was glad to do it.  He took true joy in his work, and along the way, was able to share a lot of it with people like me.  He loved what he was doing, and was comfortable with who he was.  For me, it was a good lesson.

In time, his heart condition claimed his life.  But I can tell you that he died doing what he loved.  I can also tell you that he greatly enriched my life and changed my perspective on what's truly important.

L-R:  Otto Kitsinger, Eddy Arnold, Kyle Cantrell, Bill Anderson