Donny Osmond transcends over 50 years of show biz and fame

Photo Courtesy of Donny.com

In addition to Donny Osmond being, both a beloved and iconic performer, he’s also a huge—dare we say, epic?—fan of all things Kansas City. We were .04 seconds into our interview before he started shamelessly touting his love for our fair city. “Well, I gotta tell you—the first thing I got to do when I hit Kansas City is go to Q39. That’s my jam,” the singer admitted with a laugh. “After I go to Q39, then I can do a show—and not the other way around. Burnt ends is my middle name. Donny ‘Burnt Ends’ Osmond. That’s my name.”

That was merely one of a handful of KC references he peppered into our 20-minute chat-fest to dish on his sold-out performance on June 11th at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. 

Seems Osmond is taking his wildly popular Vegas show on the road—a singing/dancing culmination of his six-decade career. Osmond confessed that his residency at Harrah’s features extravagant theatrics, but he wasn’t going to tour unless producers could duplicate all the show’s bells and whistles for his fans across the country. “I thought if I’m going to take this award-winning Vegas show on the road, then I better take the entire thing,” he says. “Sometimes artists and management will pare it down for the sake of being cost-efficient, and I just am doing the opposite. I’m bringing the whole thing. I’m bringing Las Vegas to Kansas!”

The affable Osmond chuckled throughout much of the interview, where we touched upon everything from the Chiefs winning the big game in February to his general disdain for karaoke. “I sing for a living. I don’t want to get up and do karaoke,” he joked. 

And, again, ladies—not to beat a dead cow—but if you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of Osmond in the wild, your best bet is, yes, Q39. “Yeah, it’s one of my favorite places—best barbecue on the planet.”

The Pitch: Out of the 8 billion songs in your repertoire, what’s your favorite one to perform live? Or maybe the one that gets the biggest audience reaction?

Donny Osmond: I hate to admit it, but it’s 9 billion—but who’s counting? They added something that’s probably my favorite part of the show, and it’s called the request segment. And what I do is, I put all 65 of my albums on the big screen behind me. And during this segment—which is about 15-20 minutes long—the audience can pick any song that they want, any song I’ve ever recorded on an album. We’ll do it just like that. And so, what’s fun about it is the show changes, every show is different because the audience picks what they want to hear. 

Well, speaking of songs, can I ask, what song do you crush in karaoke that no one would ever anticipate?

I don’t do karaoke. But, if I were to answer that, give me any Stevie Wonder song and I’ll crush it. (proceeds to sing “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)”)

Photo Courtesy of Donny.com

Alright, alright, I hear you. I hear what you’re putting out there. So, I’ve easily seen you a half dozen times in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Question, where is that dream coat today? Please tell me you have one. 

Well, there’s only one that was made. I’ll give you the full story—it’s kind of an interesting story. When I made the Joseph movie, it was the last thing I did. Because I had done Joseph for, like, six years. 

I know! I saw you in Chicago. I saw you in Minneapolis. I saw you in all the places, Donny. 

Well, that’s really kind of cool, because that coat that you saw, there’s only one of them. They have made others for other touring companies, but that particular one was the one that stayed with me for all six years. 

So, as we were completing the last scene at Pinewood Studios just outside London—the jail scene or something—I turned to my dresser Steven and I said, ‘Steve, here are the keys to my car. There’s two big suitcases in the back of the trunk. I want you to steal the coat, the armor, I want you to steal everything. Put it in my trunk. And I’m going to drive away after this last scene.’ He said, ‘Are you sure you want me to do this?’ And I said, ‘Steal! It!’

So, I actually stole the coat. And where it is now is at my theater in Las Vegas. Just before you walk into the theater, there’s a huge glass display, and it’s much like the chronology of my entire life. It’s got the coat, the peacock outfit from The Masked Singer, it’s got my “Soldier of Love” outfits, it’s got my jumpsuits from the ’70s. It’s even got my first jacket I wore when I was five years old when I made my debut. So that coat resides right now under lock and key. 

It’s right up there with Princess Diana’s dress, for real.

Well, exactly. It belongs in the Smithsonian, but I have it.

Every time I turn around, you’re on my social media feed singing Happy Birthday to someone. How did that birthday bonanza come about?

It’s a funny story because American Greetings called me and said, ‘Would you be willing to do a customized birthday thing?’ I said, ‘Well, let me do some research.’

So, full disclosure, I got on the website. I saw some of these things that people were doing and it was cheese. I mean, just bad cheese. And I said, ‘No, thanks. I’m gonna pass on this because if you want me to do this, I want to write the song, I want my dancers in it, I want to produce it, the whole thing.‘ And they said, ‘Well, we don’t have that kind of budget.’ I said, ‘Thank you. It’s nice talking to you.’

Three days later, they called me back up and said, ‘Well, we found the money.’ So, I said, ‘Okay, I’ll get to work!’ And I wrote the song. And it took forever because I actually sang everybody’s name five different times—and there’s key changes and drifts, so I couldn’t replicate the same name. And that was just the audio. Then, I had to do the visual—and I did like 1,000 names, so you do the math. It took me forever to get that done. 

Well, it’s now your legacy because, like I said, not a day goes by that you aren’t magically popping up on my feed somewhere. Okay, when was the last time you got starstruck, Donny Osmond? Like, legit flustered.

Boy, that’s a really interesting question because I’ve been around huge stars since I was five years old. But it’s probably when I met Stevie Wonder. Since that time, he’s become a dear friend. But, the first time I was tongue-tied and didn’t know what to say. This was back in the 1800s. You’re talking to somebody who’s been in the business since dirt was created, so I just don’t really get tongue-tied by people.

Photo Courtesy of Donny.com

Is it true you and Michael Jackson once dressed up in disguise to go to a movie? Was it a Jim Henson movie? Is that a legit story?

It’s a legit story. The Dark Crystal was the movie and we wore trench coats, wigs, and sunglasses. I think we even had mustaches on. And I’m sure everybody in the theater knew exactly who we were and were laughing inside. These two little kids trying to dress up.

So, you were absolutely not convincing in your disguise is what you’re saying?

Come on. We both had afros on! Afro wigs, trench coats, sunglasses, and mustaches! You figure that one out. 

I know it’s been 15 years, but I have to know, is Marie still jealous that you won Dancing with the Stars?

You’ll have to ask her because I am not going to answer that. First of all, she was the trailblazer on that thing. She set the example. And she came in third, so I had to at least come in second because I gotta beat her. And when I won, I was like, ‘Uh-oh.’ It was probably the hardest accolade I’ve ever worked to achieve.

At 51, don’t you still hold the record for oldest celeb to win Dancing With the Stars?

I do! I do hold that record. Yeah, baby!

You’re taking your full-tilt Vegas show on the road. What are the best and worst parts of touring?

Well, the worst part is touring. And the best part? It’s touring. It’s a catch-22 because you’re on the road and there’s nothing extremely glamorous about it, other than the fact that I wanted to make this tour extremely comfortable. So, we got these beautiful custom buses for the cast, the crew, and the dancers—everybody, including myself. So, it’s like a three-bus and four-truck tour. 

It’s the multimedia, the band, the dancers, the costumes, the lighting, the whole thing. I said, ‘I don’t know how you’re going to do it but work it out.’

But to answer your question, the worst part is the wear and tear on the road. But the best is something that you can manufacture. And that’s creating as much comfort on the road as possible, and making sure that you visit places like Q39. Those are the kinds of things that make the tour worth it. Because you’ve got to have fun. You’ve got to enjoy it. And the fun for me—and I know sounds like a cliché—but the show in itself is fun. Every time we hit that stage—particularly the request segment and the rap. And wait ’til you see the dancers. We just have the time of our lives on that show. 

Please tell me you’re as much of a fan of KC as KC is of you. Did I know you and Andy Reid were so tight?

Andy Reid’s a good buddy of mine, so I’ll probably look him up when I get there. He just came to see my show in Vegas. And since then, we’ve just stayed in touch, and I’m just so excited about his success.

But yeah, they invited me to come to the game here in Vegas for the Super Bowl. And unfortunately, I was all set and I couldn’t go. I had to be home in Utah with my family, and that comes first, obviously. So, I had to cancel, but I was looking forward to seeing them during the Super Bowl. But again, what a game that was! Probably one of my favorite Super Bowls.

Are you a Chiefs fan? Is that what I’m secretly hearing?

Please? I mean, is there any question? Absolutely!

Photo Courtesy of Donny.com

I’ll take “Things I Didn’t Know about Donny Osmond for $200,” Alex. Alright, then. Here’s a question from a reader: What fan experience has left the greatest impression on you and why?

There are so many things that are going through my mind right now. I did a program called the MAD Experience. “Make a Difference” is what the acronym is. And it was years ago. Long story short, it was a competition for twelve fans who got up on stage. And I gave them each $300 for winning the competition questions and things like that. I said, ‘You could take this $300 and you could go gamble, you can throw it away, you can buy yourself something, or you can do something with it that makes a difference.’ Hence, the acronym.

Two ladies went on to create businesses—philanthropic businesses out of that $300. And they’re flourishing like crazy. So, there’s that side of the fan experience. 

And then there’s another one on the other side of the spectrum. This lady was staying in our hotel in Miami—The Diplomat Hotel. We were performing this back in the ’70s and nobody was allowed on our floor. This is at the height of ‘Osmond-mania,’ as they called it. And she checked into the floor above us, actually the room above us. She got a rope, tied it onto her balcony, and she was attempting to repel down the building! To get to our balcony! And we saw the rope. We walked out to the balcony as she was climbing over. We talked her out of it and said, ‘Look, why don’t you just come down to our floor?’ And we told the guards to let her in. But that one was pretty darn extreme. 

I could spend all day telling you amazing stories of what some of the fans have done. Most of my fans that I have, by and large, they’re the greatest fans in the world because of their loyalty. Some of these ladies have been with me since the beginning. That’s 60 years of following me, and how many artists get that opportunity?

A lot of my contemporaries saw you for the very first time at the Iowa State Fair, way back in the early ’70s. They’re still obsessed. 

I used to play all kinds of fairs. Iowa State Fair. The Ohio State Fair was a big one that we played. Just thinking back, I have a timeline on Donny.com. And people send in their tickets and ticket stubs, and it’s when I look at this timeline of the things that I’ve done throughout my life—it’s tiring. In fact, what I do in this show that I’m bringing, I have what I call the Donny Rap-ography. It’s a 10-minute rap. It’s kind of like Hamilton, where everything is in rhyme. 

And it’s just almost data overload because I start from four years old to the current time that I’m doing right now. It’s just so fast and everything I say, you actually see visually as well. And after one show, this lady comes up to me and she says, ‘That was the most amazing show I’ve ever seen. How long did it take you to put that show together?’ And I said, ’60 years!’ You’ve got to see this rap. It’s pretty amazing. It took me, like, three months to memorize this whole thing. It’s six decades of show business in about a two-hour show. So, if you get a chance to see it, check it out!

The interview has been edited for content and clarity.