Donny Osmond had some competition from his own family to win over his wife of 47 years, Debbie.
“She dated my brother, and I stole her from my brother,” Osmond told Fox News Digital. “That’s a true story.”
He explained, “I was dating a girl named Tammy. And [my brother] Jay took Debbie out. We went on a double date to an Elton John concert. And I vividly remember when Elton sat down at the piano to sing ‘Your Song.’ I looked over at my brother’s date and thought to myself, ‘I think I’m going to marry that girl someday.’ And I did.”
Osmond said he later told Elton John the story.
Donny Osmond admits he “stole” his wife, Debbie, from his brother Jay after attending an Elton John concert on a double date. (Brian Ach/WireImage)
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“I said, ‘You’re responsible for my marriage.’ He thought that was kind of funny.”
The 67-year-old also revealed that the couple crossed paths in childhood.
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“I actually met her when she was 3. So I’ve literally known her all my life,” he said.
The entertainer was traveling through Billings, Montana, where Debbie was born, with his brothers and Andy Williams and were at the airport during a layover.
Osmond said he and his wife actually briefly met as children. (Robin Platzer/IMAGES/Getty Images)
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“Her family happened to be at the airport waiting for her uncle. And they said, ‘Oh, those are those little Osmond boys on the “Andy Williams Show,”’ and they got our autograph. So I met her when she was 3 and I was 5.”
The couple married in 1978 and have five children: Don, Jeremy, Brandon, Chris and Josh.
“I looked over at my brother’s date and thought to myself, ‘I think I’m going to marry that girl someday.’ And I did.”
“It’s a lifetime of bliss. I mean, she’s an amazing woman and very patient, you know?” Osmond said. “When you see your husband dancing with other women on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ that’s tough, I would imagine, on her. But we have such a great relationship. We were friends before we were married.”
The singer said it’s been “a lifetime of bliss” with Debbie. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Harrahs Entertainment)
Osmond’s entertainment career has spanned decades, and the legendary entertainer’s residency at Harrah’s in Las Vegas, which just announced an extension through November this year, has a modern technological element to it.
Osmond is featuring an AI hologram of himself at 14 in his Las Vegas residency. (John Nacion/Getty Images | Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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The singer will be joined onstage by an AI hologram of his 14-year-old self to perform a duet of his classic song, “Puppy Love.”
“I’ve always had this idea in my mind. Ever since I was a teenager, I thought, this kind of technology is going to happen someday,” he said.
Osmond worked with the company Zerospace, the same people behind the Robert Zemeckis movie “Here,” starring a de-aged Tom Hanks, to create a replica of himself as a teenager.
There’s a family element, too, as Osmond’s grandson, Daxton, provided the base model for the performance, then the singer’s face, body and voice are reworked through AI to recreate “Puppy Love”-era Osmond.
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“It’s quite difficult to begin with, the technology is there. But it’s to make it right without any artifacts or anything like that. It’s painstakingly difficult. With the voice and not just the face, to make it as authentic as possible,” he said, noting that the company explained having a look-alike on-hand made the job much easier.
When Osmond saw the final product, he was truly amazed.
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“Can you imagine what I feel like? You know, looking at myself every night? 53 years ago. It’s incredible. In fact, that’s exactly what my grandson said. He saw it last week for the first time, and he looked at me afterwards backstage as a grandpa. That was incredible. He’s looking at himself, but it’s grandpa.”
Daxton is already following in his famous grandfather’s footsteps, participating in musical theater, making him a natural fit for the role.
Osmond and his grandson both feel the final product is amazing. (George Wilkes/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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“He has stage presence. And so, he was the perfect candidate for it. Not just age-wise, but stage presence. And we have a cute little bond. I call him D14. It’s his nickname.”
But Osmond isn’t going to offer advice to the young performer.
“I’m not the father. I let [my son] Brandon, his dad, do that. But he nailed it.”
He continued, “I mean, he would rehearse at home. Brandon told me this, he said he would rehearse the lines at home and everything. And when we got to the studio, he was ready. It was all rehearsed. He had everything memorized. Extremely professional. And I only had to give him a couple little things, little notes here and there of how … to present himself in front of the camera. But he was all set. He was ready to go.”
Donny and his brothers formed The Osmonds. (Anwar Hussein/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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As a show business veteran, Osmond himself has received his share of advice, often from some well-known names like Elvis Presley and a member of The Rat Pack.
“Sammy Davis Jr. gave me some advice when I was a little boy because he said, ‘Do you get nervous when you go on stage?’ And I think I probably said yes. And he said, ‘Don’t ever stop getting nervous,’ which I thought was a very strange thing to say. And then he said, ‘The day you stop getting nervous is the day you should quit, because that means you don’t care anymore.’”
Osmond added, “So, you know, I don’t get nervous before stage, but they’re butterflies because you want to do the best you can, because every audience is a little bit different, and every show that I do in Vegas is slightly different because of a segment I call the request segment, and it’s 20 minutes of improv, and the audience could pick any song I’ve ever recorded from any one of the 65 albums. And so that always is different. So. I care about the show.”
Osmond has his own advice for anyone looking to become an entertainer.
Sammy Davis Jr. told a young Osmond to never stop feeling nervous about performing because “that means you don’t care anymore.” (Getty Images)
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“One thing that I always tell them is just don’t be afraid of work, because in order to stay relevant…you can have a lot of fun on stage, but get in front of a mirror and work your tail off. Just look at yourself as other people see you and don’t believe your own hype. You know, just when the curtain closes, you’re just a normal person. Come back down to earth.”
The work ethic has kept the “Too Young” singer in the game since the start, even when he made the rocky transition between teen idol to mature performer.
Osmond struggled to transition from teen adult to mature performer. (Photo by David Redfern/Redferns)
He recalled having “all kinds of crazy things” suggested to him to shake up his image and garner attention, good and bad.
“But I guess I did it the hard way with, you know, just doing with my music rather than trying to create headlines,” he said. “A lot of people just want to create headlines because they become popular, [they] get likes, just to be popular. But I don’t think it’s sustaining because it’s not based on talent. And it’s a harder way to go because you’d love to get those drastic headlines.
According to Osmond, he was offered things that would “shock” people to shake up his clean-cut teen idol image. (Michael Putland/Getty Images)
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“But I’ve turned down a lot of things that would shock people. But I’m not into that. I just want people to come to my show and just say I was thoroughly entertained.”
Osmond said he’d been offered roles that weren’t a fit.
“Just look at yourself as other people see you and don’t believe your own hype.”
“I thought, no, it’s not me. You know, I’d rather be authentic,” he said, adding, “and that’s the way I always will be, because I think authenticity wins out in the end. But I’d rather be known as an entertainer rather than a popular person, a personality.”
The Las Vegas mainstay has maintained his reputation as a consummate entertainer and said he’s continuing to find new audiences through social media.
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He explained the biggest change he’s seen in the industry since he got his start is that “the bar has been raised so much.”
“And with that bar, the expectations from the audience have been raised so much. That’s why I added this [AI element], I think, is because, I think, years ago, you just get up there and do a concert and that would be fine. But nowadays, the audience attention is that of a gnat. Oh, I like it. OK. What’s next, what’s next, what’s next? And so you constantly have to keep reinventing yourself, which I don’t mind because I love to produce and create and things like that. Be innovative.”
Osmond said audiences “want an experience, not just a show.” (Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images)
“They want an experience, not just a show,” he continued. “And with that experience, they want authenticity. And they want to walk away saying that was worth more than the price of admission. And that’s my philosophy in show business, is that I want the audience to say that was more than what I expected, and I hear it all the time. People say, ‘I didn’t know what to expect in a Donny Osmond show, but I wasn’t expecting that.'”
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