Donny Osmond Speaks Candidly About His Most Difficult Hour

Be honest with us, folks. Did you have any idea that Donny was suffering behind the scenes? Well, even his biggest fans wouldn’t have seen the cracks show. And he can’t be disappointed with his career now. From making his breakthrough as a child prodigy on TV to captivating audiences in Las Vegas, the singer has practically seen and done it all.

Donny isn’t done, either. Even today, he’s still touring and releasing records. Not bad for a guy who’s been in showbiz since the 1960s! But at one point, things could have been very different. We may even have lost Donny the star altogether.

Yep, there have been a few bumps in the road for Donny. What happened? Well, to get a better understanding of his bleakest period, we need to take a closer look at his rise in the entertainment industry. That way, you’ll know exactly what brought Donny to his lowest point – and why he was considering a seriously shocking plan to get him out of the doldrums.

So, here’s a question for you: what were you doing when you were five? Playing in a sandpit? Learning your ABCs? Well, we bet you weren’t appearing on TV. But Donny was. At that age, the youngster made his small-screen debut on The Andy Williams Show. And that takes guts – especially if you’re just a kindergartner.

Mind you, Donny wasn’t alone in front of the TV cameras. He had been added to his brothers’ existing musical group, who eventually took the world by storm over the next few years. Yep, there were few bigger bands in the ’60s and ’70s than The Osmonds, and the youngest sibling certainly played his role in that.

Thanks to his fantastic voice and boyish good looks, Donny captured the hearts of young girls everywhere. There weren’t too many artists back then who could elicit louder screams from their audience than him! Plus, the music was also pretty memorable. It all came together perfectly, launching the singer’s career into the stratosphere.

Don’t believe us? Well, get a load of this. Donny dominated the radio charts as a 13-year-old. Incredibly, no fewer than four of his songs reached the top ten during that period. Most artists struggle to achieve that as adults!

And Donny didn’t stop there. As the years went on, he established himself as a solo star, too, which led to this amazing figure. According to the Deseret News, he’d reached the top 40 charts 12 times by his 17th birthday. That’s an unbelievable achievement for a teenager.

Donny’s face was everywhere back then. He even had his own program on TV, as the singer and his sister hosted Donny and Marie from 1975 to 1979. Like we said, it was a stratospheric rise. But of course, he’s not the only young musical artist to have enjoyed such an explosion in popularity.

One of the more recent examples is Justin Bieber. Yes, it could be argued that he was the Donny Osmond of his generation, as Justin made his breakthrough as a 13-year-old. That’s just when Donny’s star was really on the rise. Yet their respective career trajectories didn’t follow identical paths.

While Donny was introduced to the music world through his TV appearances, Justin got noticed on a slightly different platform. Yep, the singer was recording songs on YouTube as a teen, clips which eventually caught the attention of the industry. After that, his life changed forever – much as it did for the Osmonds star.

Beyond the obvious parallels, though, there’s another similarity that Donny and Justin apparently share. This detail came up when the latter dropped his latest single in 2020, titled “Lonely.” The track provided an unflinching glimpse of his life after he became music’s new wunderkind. Plus, as the name suggests, it also covers the loneliness he experienced back then.

The track’s unflinching lyrics hit Donny hard, as he recognized Justin’s struggles away from the spotlight. The famous singer went into more detail on that front during an interview with People magazine in November 2020. So you might need a tissue or two for this next part – it gets pretty emotional!

Donny said, “I can really relate [to the song] because I’ve been through it and I came out through the other end of the tunnel. And I admire Justin because he’s changed his life. He’s married. He wants to focus on the relationship with his wife.” Then, the older man looked back on the issues he had faced as a youngster.

“When you go from hysteria and people screaming your name and you go back to pure silence and you’re so alone, you can’t go out,” Donny continued. “You can’t show your face, you can’t do anything. I remember crawling up into a ball in a corner and crying my eyes out really from loneliness.”

Donny then added, “So I know what Justin’s going through, what he’s been through. And it was at that time in my life, I thought, ‘I need to take care of myself.’” But loneliness wasn’t the only issue that the musical superstar had to confront during that particular period.

Let’s go back to when Donny was seemingly on top of the world. Thanks to the success of Donny and Marie on the small screen, the siblings had their own line in toys and even an Osmond-focused magazine in the ’70s. The latter was particularly interesting, as it detailed their time away from the cameras.

Oh, and we can’t forget about the small matter of being invited to sing for the crowd after Ronald Reagan became America’s latest president. That’s quite an honor! Yet all those highs were soon replaced by the lowest of lows when Donny’s life threatened to spiral out of control in the 1980s.

What happened? Well, let’s start with the money situation. Unsurprisingly, Donny and his famous relatives had accumulated plenty of wealth thanks to their work in the entertainment industry. We’re talking millions of dollars here. But according to Deseret News, the clan took a sizable hit after some “bad financial management.”

How much did the Osmonds lose? We hope you’re sitting down – the newspaper article estimated the figure at between $60 million and $70 million. That’s not a typo! We can’t imagine how the clan felt when that money slipped away from them. All the same, the Donny and Marie star didn’t consider that to be his darkest moment.

You see, Donny’s career seemed to hit an immovable wall in the early part of the 1980s. And from his perspective, one project played a key role in that. Yes, the former child star was cast as the lead in a Broadway production during that spell, titled Little Johnny Jones.

It was a relaunch of an old stage production that boasted some recognizable songs. Sounds like a winner, right? Well, unfortunately for Donny it didn’t turn out that way. At all. Little Johnny Jones was an utter disaster, with the opening show proving to be its last. The crew didn’t get a second chance.

To Donny’s credit, he was seen as one of the bright lights in that sole showing on Broadway. But the singer didn’t take any comfort from that. Would you? Instead, self-doubt started to seep into every pore. As he informed Deseret News in May 2021, “You really begin to wonder, ‘Maybe I’m not any good?’”

Now these doubts didn’t just crop up because of the Broadway flop. Donny was 24 during that period, and he believed there was a bigger issue simmering in the background – his own image. Yep, even though he wasn’t a kid any longer, his image in the eyes of the public had barely changed. And that proved to be hugely significant.

In simple terms, Donny’s brand was becoming outdated as the 1980s progressed. That clean style just didn’t seem to connect like it had in the past. So as a result of that, he hit rock bottom, leading to a pivotal moment. With his career on the skids, someone came up with a crazy plan.

As Donny recounted to Deseret News, one of his representatives pitched the following idea – that he should go to jail. We’re serious! They proposed that the singer could deliberately get himself caught on the American border carrying narcotics. That’s insane, right? Surely he dismissed it straight away and moved on? Well... not quite.

Shockingly, Donny admitted he had been in such a bad place mentally that he seriously mulled the idea over in his head. Happily, though, he didn’t go through with the hare-brained scheme. Instead, the musician decided to sever his ties with the guy who had come up with the plan. Can you blame him?

All the same, Donny had recognized the tangible merits that might’ve come if he’d gone ahead with the twisted suggestion. He told the newspaper, “The problem was I knew it would work from a short-term point of view. But long-term, it would kill me.” With that in mind, he devised a more sensible strategy to get things back on track.

Yes, Donny knew that he had to adapt to the times to keep his career afloat. So, he got to work on some new tunes in the mid-1980s, hoping that would reconnect him to music fans. The Osmonds star went into more detail when he spoke to the Los Angeles Times in 1986.

Donny told the publication, “The whole image stigma of Donny Osmond has really been a problem. It’s amazing how time freezes in people’s minds, as to what people think I’m doing and how they think I sound. I really am serious about the music now. It’s not just a music-by-the-pound situation like it used to be.”

“I’m going to be saying some stuff on this album that’s tough for me to say about my personal life, growing up with this type of [image] problem, yet growing up with the advantages I’ve grown up with,” Donny continued. “Hopefully those songs I’m working on right now are going to turn out real well.”

Then, to wrap up the interview, Donny added, “I can’t wait to see people’s reaction to the new album – I really think we’re going to blow a lot of people away with it.” Unfortunately, though, the record didn’t drop on its planned date in 1987, as he failed to find a label that would release it.

Because of that, Donny seriously considered a change in profession the following year. Yet those plans were dramatically halted in 1989. At that stage, things finally started to turn around for the former TV superstar. The gears began to spin when his latest track hit the airwaves. It was called “Soldier of Love.”

There was just one problem – the track wasn’t credited to Donny whenever it reached the air. Huh? Why’s that? Well, the higher-ups on those shows believed that listeners might tune out if they knew who the performer was. Ouch! Then again, as “Soldier of Love” became more popular, DJs asked folks to name “the mystery artist” over the phone.

Looking back on that bizarre spell, Donny told Deseret News, “[My manager said], ‘I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is you’ve got a hit song. The bad news is nobody knows it’s you!’ I was excited and hurt at the same time. But I realized that this was an amazing opportunity.”

It certainly was. As the track climbed up the Billboard Hot 100 charts to number two, Donny eventually got his recognition on the radio. And after releasing a popular follow-up track, the dark spell was truly behind him. Since then, he’s enjoyed a very successful time in the entertainment industry.

For instance, Donny bounced back from his Broadway disaster with a star turn in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the 1990s. He also fronted a new television program with his sister during that period, as well as lending his dulcet tones to Disney’s Mulan. Yep, when Shang sings, that’s all Donny.

Donny’s racked up some other exciting credits in recent times, too, highlighting his longevity. All the while, he’s been able to maintain an appearance that harkens back to his earlier days. He may be in his 60s, yet those boyish good looks haven’t gone away! A vegan diet, fitness and a lack of alcohol could explain how the singer’s managed it.

As for what Donny hopes to get out of his Las Vegas performances in 2021, he informed Deseret News that for him, the pay-off revolves around one question. “Who am I?” he said. “I was a little kid on The Andy Williams Show. Then I’m this little teeny-bopper. Then Donny of Donny and Marie is the Sonny Bono, the fall guy, the stupid guy. This is a chance for me to tell me who I am.” We hope he finds his answer!