The Music Man
When the dry Las Vegas air was wreaking havoc on Johnny Cash’s famous baritone in the early 1990s, his road manager knew just who to call: Nashville otolaryngologist Robert Ossoff, D73, M75. Together, they designed a one-of-a-kind “misting” microphone that delivered much-needed moisture on stage. “Ossoff,” Cash once told People magazine, “is the man I trust with my voice more than anyone in the world.”
And when “Volkswagen”-size cysts on Larry Gatlin’s vocal cords limited his range, the Grammy Award–winning gospel crooner turned to Ossoff, who removed them in a June 1991 procedure that was filmed and broadcast on “Good Morning America.” Gatlin has had three subsequent tune-up surgeries at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Voice Center, Ossoff’s home base for some three decades.
“I can sing higher and better than I did thirty years ago,” Gatlin said recently, fresh off performing with the Gatlin Brothers at a Houston memorial service for President George H.W. Bush. “Whatever music my brothers and I have been able to make and whatever songs I’ve been able to sing—literally—over the last thirty-something years are directly attributable to the skill and care of one Robert Ossoff.”
And that’s the way it’s been for years: Country singers who have trouble with their most important instruments know they can count on the Voice Center. That’s because Ossoff and his team have long been on the cutting edge of vocal care, all the while training the best and the brightest in the field today. It was the end of an era when Ossoff retired in December—but his legacy will endure. Plus, colleagues and patients might not let him go just yet.