Don Schlitz, ASCAP Country Music Songwriting Legend, Dies at 73

Country music songwriting giant Don Schlitz passed away on April 16 in Nashville at age of 73. 

ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams commented: “Don was one of the all-time great storytellers. His gift for turning the lives of ordinary people into poetry is legendary, and it made him one of the most sought-after, beloved and celebrated songwriters in Country music. Big songs. An even bigger heart. We will miss him dearly.”   

Over his career Schlitz wrote more than 50 Top 10 hits, including 25 #1 songs, including “The Gambler” for Kenny Rogers, “Forever and Ever, Amen” for Randy Travis, “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” for Mary Chapin Carpenter and “When You Say Nothing at All” for Keith Whitley, among many others classic Country songs.

He was named ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year for four consecutive years, from 1988 to 1991, and in 2007, Kenny Rogers — the man who made "The Gambler" a phenomenon — presented Don with the ASCAP Creative Achievement Award. He took home two Grammys for Best Country Song, the first for "The Gambler" and the second in 1988 for "Forever and Ever, Amen.” He also earned three CMA Song of the Year awards, two ACM Song of the Year awards, inductions into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Country Music Hall of Fame, among other honors.

Schlitz also wrote the music and lyrics for the 1999 Broadway musical The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and was one of the songwriters instrumental in establishing the now-famous songwriters' circles at Nashville's Bluebird Café. 

As Kenny Rogers once put it, "Don doesn't just write songs — he writes careers.”