JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In 1978, Kenny Rogers brought the world a timeless piece of advice.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE GAMBLER")
KENNY ROGERS: (Singing) You got to...
KENNY ROGERS AND DOTTIE WEST AND THE JORDANAIRES: (Singing) ...Know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away and know when to run.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The man who actually wrote the song "The Gambler" was Don Schlitz.
SUMMERS: He was given advice of his own before performing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DON SCHLITZ: Be sure to let them know you wrote the song before every song. Otherwise, you're going to think it's the worst karaoke singer that's ever been allowed to stand up in front of a microphone.
DETROW: That's Schlitz talking to American Songwriter magazine in 2022. The same year, he became the first nonartist songwriter to play at the Grand Ole Opry. So he decided to follow that advice.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCHLITZ: I wrote this.
(LAUGHTER)
SCHLITZ: (Singing) It's amazing how you can speak right to my...
(CHEERING)
SCHLITZ: (Singing) Without saying a word, you can light up the dark.
SUMMERS: That's Schlitz singing "When You Say Nothing At All," one of dozens of country hits that he wrote before his death last week at the age of 73.
DETROW: Don Schlitz was born in 1952 in Durham, North Carolina. He moved to Nashville, as he told "Country's Family Reunion in 2024," as fast as he could when he turned 20.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "COUNTRY'S FAMILY REUNION")
SCHLITZ: Four and a half very short years later of...
(SOUNDBITE OF GUITAR STRUMMING)
SCHLITZ: ...Walking the streets, working as an all-night computer operator...
(SOUNDBITE OF GUITAR STRUMMING)
SCHLITZ: ...And writing songs and trying to get anybody to cut one, I got my very first cut.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUITAR STRUMMING)
SCHLITZ: I don't try and sing it like Kenny Rogers 'cause I'm no fool.
(Singing) On a warm summer's evening, on a train bound for nowhere.
(APPLAUSE)
SUMMERS: "The Gambler" catapulted Kenny Rogers up the charts, and it earned Schlitz his first Grammy. And eventually the song was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2018.
DETROW: Schlitz told ASCAP that year that "The Gambler" changed everything.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCHLITZ: It kicked the door down for me to work the rest of my life as a songwriter and to write the songs that I wanted to hear.
DETROW: Including Randy Travis' "On The Other Hand" and "Forever And Ever, Amen," the latter of which won Schlitz a second Grammy Award.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FOREVER AND EVER, AMEN")
RANDY TRAVIS: (Singing) As long as old men sit and talk about weather, as long as old women sit and talk about old men. If you wonder...
SUMMERS: Schlitz was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters and Country Music Hall of Fame.
DETROW: And he told American Songwriter that as his career continued, it soon came down to him to be the one to step up to the mic.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCHLITZ: I know how to stand up in front of people and not take myself too seriously and know that I'm there because of these songs. And these songs deserve to be played, and the people that sing some of these songs are no longer around to sing them.
DETROW: Remembering songwriter Don Schlitz, who died at age 73.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCHLITZ: (Singing) Makes a young girl's red hair turn gray. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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