Slim Whitman Biography

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Slim Whitman
Country Music | 3 CD Set
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Otis Dewey Whitman Jr. was born in Florida in 1924, the victim of a stutter that was cured later but which caused him serious unhappiness as a youngster. It also made him self-conscious and quiet. As Slim Whitman, he has continued that somewhat serene attitude, choosing to stay away from public speaking and causing him to say little during his shows. However, he managed to make something positive from his voice impairment by learning to yodel. This came about when he became attached to the music of country/folk hero Jimmie Rodgers. He came from a musical family, picking up music at a young age. As a guitarist, he learned to play left-handed after losing a finger in a meat-packing job accident. Whitman later said his playing left-handed with an upside-down guitar helped a young Paul McCartney do the same after seeing Slim in a show in Liverpool, England. He married a preacher's daughter in 1941 and after working in a shipyard, joined the U.S. Navy in World War II, becoming a popular singer on the boat he was assigned to. (His captain was able to negate a potential transfer to another ship because his singing was so popular with the crew; the other ship was later sunk with all hands lost.) After the War, Whitman became a professional baseball player but that fell by the wayside when he began singing in bars to help his income. He took on the "Slim" name in tribute to singer Montana Slim Carter. He began recording in 1949 for RCA and achieved some popularity with "I'm Casting My Lasso To the Sky" and "Birmingham Jail." Whitman then appeared on the Louisiana Hayride country show where his wife embroidered black shirts for him and his band, later causing him to claim he was the original "Man in Black," the sobriquet Johnny Cash has always used. He was working days as a postman when his first single came out, "Love Song Of the Waterfall," and while it sold a half-million copies he continued working, commenting later that an artist should not quit his day job on the strength of one hit. His "Indian Love Call," from the operatta "Rose Marie," put him in music full time. The title song of that work also put Whitman at the top of the British charts for 11 weeks in 1955. Continuing major success in the UK, Slim Whitman has never scored a major hit in the U.S. country charts, although he has appeared at the Grand Ole Opry. He does a variety of music. And his popularity in the latter stages of his career has diminished while he's still a big star in Europe and England. His son Byron (b.1957) joined the act in 1977.

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