The perennial entertainer shares his thoughts on Michael Jackson, Marie, maturing and much more

By Sandi Berg

“I once heard something I absolutely love,” says Donny Osmond. “That throughout our lives, we climb a ladder of success – trying as hard as we can get to the top of the ladder. But getting to the top is only one thing. The more important thing is that we have made sure, all along, that the ladder we’ve been climbing has been leaning against the right wall.”

Osmond, of course, made it to the top rung of the ladder of success – before he was even out of his teens – and yet, his climb has been one of moving up, falling back, and then starting back up again. Having begun that climb in the mid-1960s by appearing on “The Andy Williams Show” with his four elder brothers, the early-1970s saw Donny become the lead singer of The Osmond Brothers and ultimately go solo, charting with covers of classic hits such as “Go Away Little Girl” and “Puppy Love.”

By the mid-1970s, Osmond began regularly appearing with his younger sister, Marie. Hugely popular as a duo, ABC offered Donny and Marie a variety show that aired from 1976 to 1979. The siblings also teamed up again from 1998 to 2000 to co-host a syndicated television talk show and have been regular Las Vegas headliners since 2008.

Between his meteoric rise in the 1970s to a re-launch of his career in the 1990s, Osmond lost his footing on the ladder of success during the 1980s. Shunned by fans for not moving forward with his style and musical offerings, Alice Copper had taken a swipe at his clean-cut-goody-two-shoes image in his protest song, “The Department of Youth,” and his longtime friend and peer, Michael Jackson, made the suggestion that he should reinvent himself and perhaps even change his name.

While he never changed his name, Osmond, who has sold over 80 million records and has earned 33 gold records, did slightly roughen up his image a bit and, in 1989, charted with two big-selling recordings, including, “Soldier of Love,” that was initially credited to a “mystery artist” by some radio stations.

On the personal side, Osmond married Debra Glenn in 1978, and, today, are the parents of five sons and three grandchildren (plus another on the way). Professionally, he is still going strong as a regular presence at The Flamingo Hotel on the Vegas strip and a 2009 returned to primetime television as a contestant, and ultimately, the oldest winner, on the ninth season of “Dancing with the Stars.”

“Life After 50” recently caught up with Osmond, who will turn 55 this year. Candid and quick with a laugh, he did just that when asked what he feels is the biggest misconception people have about him.

Donny: A lot of people think I’m older than I am until they meet me. When they do, they ask if I’m the real Donny Osmond. This is not a lie. It just happened to me the other day. I flew into Detroit to do a show and when I got into the cab the driver asked what I was doing in town. I told him I was doing a show and he said: ‘Oh, are you in show business?’ So obviously he didn’t know who I was. I said, ‘Yes – ‘The Donny and Marie Show,' and he said: ‘Oh yeah, I heard that’s in town. What do you do in the show?’ When I told him I was Donny, he said something I will never forget – which was a backhanded compliment. He asked me if I replaced the original Donny, because – 'He’s got to be what – 90 years old by now?’ Well hey, when you’ve worked with John Wayne, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope and Groucho Marx, people do think you’ve got to be 90. The thing they forget is that I was in my early teens when I worked with them.

Life After 50 (LA50): What are your memories of working with Lucille Ball?

Donny: Lucy was the consummate professional. We did a lot of pre-recording for certain things on the “Donny & Marie Show.” The recording studio was in the basement of our home. So Lucy came to our house to do the recording and our engineer didn’t show up. Well, I know how to run the console and I know how to run the tape machine, so I told Lucy I’d be the engineer and producer. So there I was – 16 or 17 years old with Lucille Ball on the other side of the glass at the microphone – and she was not a singer by any stretch of the imagination. She was really trying. And when I look back on this, I have to laugh, because I would say: ‘Lucy that was terrible, one more time; you’re flat.’ Here was this punk kid telling Lucille Ball what to do. But – and here’s the best part of the story – she took my direction! She was that much of a professional. She recognized the fact that I was one of the stars of the show, but at that moment I was her engineer and producer, and she took my advice. That’s how much of a professional she was.

LA50: You and Michael Jackson came upon the American music scene at the same time. You were both the front person of a brothers group. What are your thoughts about him?

Donny: We were considered contemporaries when we were in our teens. But then he totally left me in the dust and went on to superstardom. There was a point in time when he and I were neck-and-neck. We were always looking over the fence at one another – ‘What’s Mike doing?’ ‘What’s Donnie doing?’ It’s funny, because the comparisons are amazing. “One Bad Apple,” our first number-one record, was written for The Jackson Five. Mike once told me they had passed on that song because they pretty much had their album done with “I Want You Back” and “ABC.” So we got that song, and I think it was three or four months later, we had the number-one hit with it. I remember one time, years later, I said to him: ‘Okay Mike, I’ve got a story for you about your song “Ben.” I told him that it had been written for me. He said: ‘Get out of here.’ And I told him how I had met the writer years later who told me he had written “Ben” for me, but we were out on tour and had to finish a movie so he said: ‘Let’s just get Michael to sing it.’ It became Michael’s number-one solo record. He sang about a rat and I sang about a puppy. We would get together and would laugh our heads off at the comparisons of our families. He would always ask me about my mom, my brothers and how they were doing. Mike and I were both the seventh of nine children. He was the lead singer of The Jackson Five and I was the lead singer of The Osmonds. Our mothers' birthdays were the same day. His mom played clarinet, my mom played saxophone – it just goes on and on and on.

LA50: Were you and Michael close friends?

Donny: We kind of protected our relationship and I did especially during the last couple of years with all that’s happened. Today, everybody’s gotten on the bandwagon with their stories. But now that Mike is gone and Dr. Conrad Murray has been convicted and the headlines are over, I feel a bit better about coming out and telling some stories – like the last time we talked. He had called me – this is probably a year or more before his passing – and when I asked him where he was calling me from, he said he couldn’t tell me. I said: ‘Come on, you’re talking to me here, we’re buddies. Where are you?’ He asked me to promise not to tell anyone where he was and then told me he had rented a big motor home and, with his kids, had driven to Phoenix and was in hiding. I asked him who he was hiding from and he said, 'Well, things are hitting the fan and there’s so much pressure.’ I asked him if he would do me a favor – to get in his bus and drive up to Utah where he and his kids could stay with me. Nobody would know, and they could have a little normalcy in their life. He said he was going to take me up on it, but he never did.

LA50: How hard was it for you growing up in the limelight?

Donny: I don’t know any other light. I don’t have anything to compare it to. I was out on the road by the time I was seven years old. When I was 12, I remember this moment when I asked myself: ‘Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?’ I made the commitment right then and, had I not made that commitment to myself – that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I’d have gotten out of the business right then.

LA50: What was that life like for a kid?

Donny: The best part was that as brothers from a close family, we could rely on each other. It’s not easy on the road. A lot of people think that show business is glamorous, but it’s not. It just has its glamorous moments. So it was nice to be a member of a family band. I think probably the worst part about it was that we really never got to live a normal life. A lot of my schooling was done through the mail, so I didn’t have the opportunity to have peers or buddies to kick around with. I was always in the studio, always touring, always recording. That was the downside. But overall, the ups always outweighed the downs.

LA50: You and Debbie have been married for 34 years now. How have you been able to balance your demanding career while maintaining a successful marriage?

Donny: That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Debbie and I have had so many conversations about this. She realizes I’m married to two women – her and show business. It is such a demanding business. You can’t punch in at 9 a.m. and punch out at 5:30 p.m. You’ve got to constantly come up with ideas and then execute those ideas. But the key to everything is balance. You cannot disregard your children. I’ve seen so many people who have disregarded their family thinking that they would always be there. Well, they’re not always going to be there. I’ve missed out on a lot of things because of the nature of my traveling and work. But I do get home as much as I possibly can, because that’s where reality is. That’s where my foundation is and I don’t want to lose that. I’ve turned down some wonderful opportunities for the sake of just being home for a while.

LA50: You have said you consider yourself to be extremely romantic. Anything special planned for Valentine’s Day?

Donny: It won’t be a surprise if Debbie reads it in here before Valentine’s Day, but I’m going to surprise her and fly her to Cabo. We’re going to have a little romantic weekend there. I’m doing Las Vegas now, and Sundays and Mondays are my two days off. So Saturday night, after the show, we’ll take the first flight to Cabo.

LA50: Let’s talk about “Dancing with the Stars.” You and your partner, Kym Johnson, won the coveted Mirror Ball trophy. What was that experience like?

Donny: It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. This is not a wimpy little dance show. It was a really difficult thing for me. I was doing it while also doing Las Vegas every night. How I did it? I just don’t know where I got the energy.

LA50: You do get quite a workout when you perform every night. Is there anything else you do to keep in shape?

Donny: I go to the gym, but I don’t do that much cardio. I concentrate on keeping my muscles from atrophying. I do light weight training. I don’t want to be a body builder, so I don’t use heavy weights – your body just can’t do that when you get over 50.

LA50: Any philosophies on the subject of aging?

Donny: It’s just a number. Barring any diseases or unforeseen problems, I think a lot of people make themselves sick thinking about it. I know that some older people tend to withdraw from society. I think you should stay involved. Have friends, do not isolate yourself. The only way to do that is to get out there and keep your circle of friends – find new friends – and always keep re-inventing yourself.

LA50: Do you ever think about retiring?

Donny: I don’t think I ever will. I really like this business. As long as I balance it out –make sure I don’t neglect my wife, my children, my grandkids – I don’t see myself retiring. A lot of people look at that 'R' word as their only alternative, because they’re getting old. I am in total disagreement with that philosophy. You can do anything you want to do as long as you stay in shape, and I’m not just talking physically, but mentally. You have to keep challenging yourself. Always be on the lookout for another task to take on and conquer. It might take you a little longer than when you were 20, but just do it. You have got to do all you can to stay physically agile and mentally alert, and the only way to do that is to keep fighting and working hard. Yes, it’s a challenge, but it’s worth it in the end.

LA50: You come from a large family and you have one yourself. What are some of the family values you have instilled in your children?

Donny: I think the first thing that comes to my mind is a firm belief of God and tolerance – to love everybody. I’m a Christian. I follow the life of Jesus Christ. Being non-judgmental is the main principle that I try to instill in my children. I believe that whether someone is Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, gay, straight, Muslim, whatever – love them! Love thy neighbor. One of the most important principles you can teach a child is to be tolerant, loving, and kind towards everybody.

LA50: Baby boomers grew up with you and your sister as a part of their lives. Can you share with us how Marie is doing?

Donny: She’s had a tough life. She’s hit a few big bumps in her life, but she’s always been able to get over them. Still, sometimes I wonder how she has gotten over some of the atrocities that have taken place in her life. I can only think it has been the principles and the foundation that our parents taught both of us about God that has seen her through. Faith and hope is a part of our belief system. Without faith and hope, you’ve got nothing. You might as well just pack it in.

LA50: In your autobiography, “Life is Just What You Make It” (Hyperion, 2000), you reveal that you suffered from an anxiety disorder. How did you deal with that in your career and life?

Donny: It was probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to deal with. It was utter hell. I sought professional help. I had to take medication. It got to the point where I couldn’t go on stage. Try going on stage in front of a couple thousand people feeling like you’re going to die. That’s how bad it got for me. I still get those pangs every once in a while, but now I know how to deal with it. I know I’m not going to die. I didn’t conquer it – I embraced it. I learned that if you try and fight it, it’ll fight you back even harder.

LA50: You seem to have done it all from a career standpoint. Are there still more rungs of the ladder you hope to climb?

Donny: I’m currently working on my 60th album. I’ve got a television show in the works with CBS and some solo touring coming up this summer. I’m also designing a new home. What else? I’d like to go back to Broadway. There are some parts being offered to me right now that I may be looking at doing over the next three or four years. I don’t know how much longer Vegas is going to last. Even though they want Marie and me to stay on, I’m really looking for another mountain to climb. I really don’t know what the next thing will be for me because things have a way of changing on a dime nowadays. But I always think of something my mom used to say: ‘Prepare yourself and the opportunity will come.’

Sandi Berg has worked in both film and television and is a regular contributor to “Life After 50” and a frequent contributor to "Written By," the Writers Guild of America magazine.