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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob West That's podcast.

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Speaker 1: My guest today is the one and only Donny Osben. Donnie,

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Speaker 1: good to have you here. I'm nice to be with you. Bob. Okay,

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Speaker 1: you have a new album entitled Start Again? Why record

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Speaker 1: a new album now? Well? Why stop at sixty? I'm

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Speaker 1: actually you know, there's that side of it. But the

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Speaker 1: music business has changed dramatically since you had your first

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Speaker 1: hits about fifty years ago. I was certainly conscious. Sounds

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Speaker 1: like a big, you know, chuck of time. But we're

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Speaker 1: all here where there were a limited number of labels.

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Speaker 1: As you got on the radio, everybody knew you. Now

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Speaker 1: you can be a very famous name, put out a

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Speaker 1: new record and no one can be aware of it.

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Speaker 1: So it's sort of the landscape. So did that affect

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Speaker 1: your thinking? How did you decide to actually make the record?

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Speaker 1: Before I answer that, I just have to go back

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Speaker 1: and say I have that situation going on in my

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Speaker 1: career right now as well, because I'm the the singing

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Speaker 1: voice of Captain Schang in the Disney movie Mulan and

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Speaker 1: it streams millions every month and a lot of people

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Speaker 1: don't know it's me and when I do my show

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Speaker 1: in Vegas. That this happened just the other night. This

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Speaker 1: this eighteen year old aspiring singer UM came to the show.

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Speaker 1: She said, I heard that you were Captain Shang and Mulan,

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Speaker 1: but I thought, you know, this isn't my kind of show.

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Speaker 1: This is for the old old farts. You know, it's whatever,

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Speaker 1: and and I'll watch Mulan and then I'll leave. And

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Speaker 1: she said, I couldn't leave because not just the production,

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Speaker 1: but the music. Um is stuff that I listened to,

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Speaker 1: and it kind of answers your question why sixty albums.

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Speaker 1: It's because I'm reinventing and a lot of people don't

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Speaker 1: know my voice as Captain Schang, and when they discover

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Speaker 1: the new music, well this is and then they hear

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Speaker 1: they go with a little girl and popular stuff that

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Speaker 1: what is that? And then they start realizing, yeah, I've

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Speaker 1: had a six decade career. Okay, So I know that

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Speaker 1: you did the Voice of Mulam because I saw it

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Speaker 1: on Spotify and I listened to it. There's the average

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Speaker 1: we say the movies unbelievably successful. Do you find that

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Speaker 1: people know that issue? Well, that's just the thing. It

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Speaker 1: depends on the age. It depends on the demographic. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it depends on if they're an avid Donny Osmond follower

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Speaker 1: for years. Um, they know it because I've talked about

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Speaker 1: it in my social and stuff like that. But by

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Speaker 1: and large, every time, every once in a while, I'll

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Speaker 1: come up with somebody and they'll say, you gotta be

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Speaker 1: kidding me, you're Captain Shang. And I get a kick

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Speaker 1: out of it actually, because it's the same feeling I

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Speaker 1: got when I was the first mass singer on the

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Speaker 1: show The Massing and I was the first one, and

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Speaker 1: I walked out there Bob with this mask on, and

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Speaker 1: it was such a cool feeling because there was no baggage,

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Speaker 1: there was no expectations, there was no history. It was

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Speaker 1: just my singing and my entertaining and and and what

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Speaker 1: I did on stage. So it was a reset almost

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Speaker 1: and I almost one t pain got it from me,

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Speaker 1: but uh, it was. It's the same feeling. It's like, Wow,

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Speaker 1: you are that person. I didn't know. How did you

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Speaker 1: get the gig with Milan? Dina cats is the She's

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Speaker 1: she books the talents, And Dina booked me on Dancing

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Speaker 1: with the Stars, which I won on season nine and

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Speaker 1: Dina called me up and said, you know you're you're

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Speaker 1: my first call. Um, I'd like you to to be

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Speaker 1: this the mass singer, the first mass singer. So I

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Speaker 1: called my manager, Jim Moorey who I think you know? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So I said, Jim, I need you to call your

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Speaker 1: friends at Fox. I want you to find out if

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Speaker 1: this show is real. He called me back the next

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Speaker 1: day says, Donnie, this is really real. They got millions

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Speaker 1: of dollars behind it. So I called Dina back and

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Speaker 1: I said, Dina booked me because I got the joke. Bob.

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Speaker 1: I knew if there was money behind this show, it's

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Speaker 1: going to work. And um, I remember walking out. Now,

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Speaker 1: keep in mind, Bob, nobody in the audience, the panel

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Speaker 1: didn't know who I was. The audience didn't know. There

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Speaker 1: were only probably three people in the booth that knew

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Speaker 1: who I was, President of Fox, the director, Dina, and

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Speaker 1: maybe one more. So I walk out there and everybody's like,

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Speaker 1: what is going on? We're watching a peacock walk on stage.

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Speaker 1: And let me just backtrack a little bit. Before I

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Speaker 1: walked on stage, the producers called me, Sadani, what song

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Speaker 1: do you want to sing? And I said, well, it's

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Speaker 1: got to be This is the greatest show. It's got

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Speaker 1: to start with that. So they called me back the

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Speaker 1: next day. So the publisher is not going to release it,

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Speaker 1: and so why say, Well, they don't get the show.

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Speaker 1: It's a stupid show with masks, and we gotta protect

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Speaker 1: the music. And I said give me a day. So

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Speaker 1: I found a minus track online and uh, I put

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Speaker 1: my voice on it and sent it to the producers

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Speaker 1: and I said, walk us over to the publisher and

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Speaker 1: they said, well, they said no, but we'll do it.

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Speaker 1: So they walk in. The publisher said, guys, look, I said, no,

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Speaker 1: you can't have the song, and he said, just listen

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Speaker 1: to this, and they played my version and after it

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Speaker 1: was over he said, who is that? He says, we

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Speaker 1: can't tell you. All we can say he's going to

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Speaker 1: be a peacock. He said, well, based upon what I heard,

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Speaker 1: the song is yours. And I got it based on

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Speaker 1: that just that because I love the fact they didn't

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Speaker 1: know it was me. It was just gonna be a peacock. Okay.

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Speaker 1: The Milan gig, how did you get that gig? Pam Coats,

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Speaker 1: She calls me up and said, you know, we're doing

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Speaker 1: this movie called Mulan and would like you to be

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Speaker 1: the singing voice of Shang. And I said, I'd loved it,

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Speaker 1: but I'm doing a musical in in Chicago right now.

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Speaker 1: She said, what are your days off? I said, Sunday, Monday.

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Speaker 1: Can you fly into l A on Sunday, recorded Monday,

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Speaker 1: get back for your show on Tuesday. I said, I'd

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Speaker 1: love to be part of a Disney film. Little did

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Speaker 1: I know it become a classic. And they showed me

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Speaker 1: a couple of pencil drawings of Shang and one sequence

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Speaker 1: where he gets hit in the stomach and said, pretend

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Speaker 1: you're getting hit in the stomach, and I said, let's

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Speaker 1: get down to business. And I just threw myself into it,

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Speaker 1: and little did I know would become one of the

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Speaker 1: most popular songs I've ever recorded, and it was so

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Speaker 1: cool to be part of it. So it was Pam Coats.

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Speaker 1: Did you know Pam previously? I didn't Pam, and I

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Speaker 1: don't think ever cross paths. It was just a wild

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Speaker 1: her idea of hers. You know, I love his voice.

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Speaker 1: I guess. I guess she was a fan back in

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Speaker 1: the Puppy Love days, and I guess they did some

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Speaker 1: comparisons to Beati Wong who was the speaking voice, and

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Speaker 1: there was some you know, comparisons, and she took a

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Speaker 1: chance on me. I threw myself into the part and

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Speaker 1: got it. Okay, you're telling the story of the Masked

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Speaker 1: Singer where you're aggressive. Aggressive's got a bad kind. Let's

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Speaker 1: say proactive? Okay? Uh? Is that the history of your career?

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Speaker 1: Are you making things happen? Are you waiting for the

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Speaker 1: phone to ring? Are you waiting for the phone to

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Speaker 1: ring and then becoming very active? How does it go down?

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Speaker 1: This is why I love talking to you because even

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Speaker 1: Jim told me, he says he's going to ask you

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Speaker 1: questions you've never been asked. I love that question. And

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Speaker 1: the it's yes and no. It depends on my age.

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Speaker 1: The phone stopped ringing after the Donnie and Marie show ended,

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Speaker 1: which we're putting out of right, and my my I

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Speaker 1: had no career. I couldn't even get arrested. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: get a record deal, nothing. So the answer to your

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Speaker 1: the quick answer is yeah, you've got to be extremely

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Speaker 1: proactive if you want to a long career, particularly when

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Speaker 1: you start out as a teeny popper and you've got

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Speaker 1: this really squeaky clean image from Puppy Love and Gay

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Speaker 1: Little Girl, not stuff which I I'm not putting down anymore.

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Speaker 1: It is great for the time, Bob. In fact, in

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Speaker 1: my Vegas show here I treat Puppy Love with respect

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Speaker 1: and I sing it right with a beautiful arrangement a

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Speaker 1: little bit. Do you also sing One Bad Apple? I

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Speaker 1: do One Bad Apple in its original form with the

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Speaker 1: costumes and my four other male dancers, and we recreate, uh,

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Speaker 1: one bad Apple. But at the end of this not

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Speaker 1: the end, We're going to go into this cool groove

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Speaker 1: and I sell say to the audience, you know, I

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Speaker 1: can't hit the high notes anymore. But I got on

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Speaker 1: my TikTok account and I asked, is there anybody out

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Speaker 1: there that could sing it for me? And I got

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Speaker 1: flooded with all of these videos of kids singing my part.

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Speaker 1: Learned the choreography as well, and we play that at

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Speaker 1: the end of One Bad Apple. It's it's kind of

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Speaker 1: a cool little thing. No, that's cool. But I have

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Speaker 1: to ask, were you TikTok savvy or your kid or

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Speaker 1: somebody you know in passing? How you know how Internet savvy?

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Speaker 1: How social media savvy? Are you personally. Well, you're talking

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Speaker 1: to someone who's who's been an engineer all his life.

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Speaker 1: I engineer all my stuff. I noticed that in the

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Speaker 1: credit to you. I almost gonna get to that, but

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Speaker 1: keep going. But I um that that's my hobby, if

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Speaker 1: you will. I've built a lot of things. The computer

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Speaker 1: system that I've kind of designed the whole thing. I've

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Speaker 1: got some great people that work with me, but I

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Speaker 1: designed the whole computer system that runs this show. Uh

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Speaker 1: so uh. To answer your social media question right from

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Speaker 1: the get go, can you imagine, Bob, what I could

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Speaker 1: have done with TikTok and and Instagram during the Puppy

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Speaker 1: Love days, I mean, can you imagine? Yes? So, No,

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm extremely social media savvy. So you're saying posting

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Speaker 1: on social media you personally are doing it or somebody

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Speaker 1: on your team, No, I do it. I do it.

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Speaker 1: I have somebody that helps me figure out and say

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Speaker 1: this is when you should post it, this is the

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Speaker 1: time that works, this is the content, this is what

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Speaker 1: is current right now, this is what is people are

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Speaker 1: are trending with. Because my life is so busy, I

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Speaker 1: need I need feedback, I need information, And I mean

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Speaker 1: that's what I do uh. And then these people say

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Speaker 1: you gotta do this, you gotta do that, and this

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Speaker 1: is what we recommend. Yeah, yea, yea, And then I'll

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Speaker 1: go produce it and edit it myself and post it

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Speaker 1: because I like to be involved in every single bit

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Speaker 1: of what I do. Because there was a day, Bob,

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Speaker 1: there was a day when I wasn't in control, and

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Speaker 1: I vowed that someday, when I grew up, I would

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Speaker 1: take the reins. Because I look back at some of

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Speaker 1: the songs that I recorded, and again, I've got to

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Speaker 1: be careful here, Bob, that I don't put my earlier

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Speaker 1: career down. But let's face it, there were some songs

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Speaker 1: that I came out with it were just so sugary

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Speaker 1: sweet that it left me with this really interesting image

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Speaker 1: that I've spent a lifetime reinventing myself. It was fine

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Speaker 1: for the time, but there were songs that were thrown

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Speaker 1: at me, Bob. If you and believe this thrown at

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Speaker 1: me five minutes before I recorded it. They became gold records.

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Speaker 1: But it's like, and here's the juxtaposition I was in

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Speaker 1: as a as a young teenager, I would be in

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Speaker 1: and this was in at MGM studios on Fairfax. They're

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Speaker 1: right there Fairfax in Beverly. Um, I was in mtwo,

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Speaker 1: studio M two. They built us a studio M three,

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Speaker 1: So I was in M two recording this bubblegum music,

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Speaker 1: and then I would go to M three with my

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Speaker 1: brothers and record this rock and roll music because that

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Speaker 1: was a whole other direction that we were taking. But

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Speaker 1: my bubblegum music was overshadowing any rock and roll that

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Speaker 1: we were doing, which is kind of a catch twenty

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Speaker 1: two because if it's selling, if it's working, you keep

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Speaker 1: feeding that, right, But it overshadowed everything that we were

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Speaker 1: doing as a band in a rock and roll sense. Okay,

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Speaker 1: to what degree was Mike Curb the Leave, the Guy

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Speaker 1: Ran the Lebel, hands on, hands on all my early hits,

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Speaker 1: Puppy Love Away, Little Girl, Um, you name all those albums.

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Speaker 1: He was the one that that really selected a lot

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Speaker 1: of those songs. And I have him to thank for

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Speaker 1: all that he's done. And there were songs that he

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Speaker 1: threw up me I really didn't like, but you know,

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Speaker 1: we were trying to fill up an album. In seventy two,

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Speaker 1: I had released four albums in one year, two with

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Speaker 1: my brothers and two. As a solo artist, you're in

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Speaker 1: the studio constantly, let alone out on tour. I didn't

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Speaker 1: have time to even think. So Mike would would give

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Speaker 1: me songs to record that he thought would play into this,

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Speaker 1: this whole Donny Osmond image that was the little pre

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Speaker 1: pubescent teenager girls were buying into. And I was safe

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Speaker 1: because the parents said, he's safe, let's buy it. So

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Speaker 1: that was the mentality of my curb at the time. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so let's look, so you're working in Vegas now and

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Speaker 1: hair and Harrows. What what kind of deal do you

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Speaker 1: have there with heros? Now, it's a long term deal,

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Speaker 1: but there's options obviously on both sides. But I mean

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Speaker 1: it could go on and on. I mean, the Donny

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Speaker 1: and Marie thing was supposed to be six weeks and

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Speaker 1: it ended up being eleven years. So why did the

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Speaker 1: Donny Marie thing end? It was time Marie and I

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Speaker 1: felt that Marie, I think, wanted to go a little

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Speaker 1: bit longer. She wanted to go to twelve years and

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Speaker 1: maybe break a record or something. And I thought, I

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Speaker 1: think I'm done, and she said, yeah, I think we're done.

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Speaker 1: And it's a good thing. We did, because it's almost

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Speaker 1: like we knew the COVID thing was coming, because as

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Speaker 1: soon as we stopped COVID hit, we would have stopped anyway. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so you're that was it the Flamingo, right, and now

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Speaker 1: you're at Heros. Why one casino is opposed to another.

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Speaker 1: I didn't want to try to look like I was

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Speaker 1: recreating um, the Donny and Marie success UM. I wanted

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Speaker 1: something different because when you reinvent yourself, I don't like

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Speaker 1: to rest on my laurels. So I didn't want people

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Speaker 1: to think we're coming back and oh, where's Marie because

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Speaker 1: this show has nothing to do with what we did

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Speaker 1: as Donnie and Marie. Donnie Marie is just one part

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Speaker 1: of my career, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was

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Speaker 1: eleven great years working with my sister. But now we've

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Speaker 1: gone on. She's doing her thing. I'm doing my thing.

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Speaker 1: But when I designed this show, I wanted it to

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Speaker 1: be all inclusive, Bob. I wanted it to be everything

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Speaker 1: right from the beginning to what I'm doing now. And

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Speaker 1: I had this idea. Raj Kapoor. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: that name means anything to you. He's he's like the

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Speaker 1: go to guy. He directs and produces the Grammys and

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Speaker 1: the the Oscars that I mean, he's just the most

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Speaker 1: creative man you can imagine. I called him up and

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Speaker 1: I said, Raj, we're trying to fit six decades in

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Speaker 1: the ninety minutes. What do you think of this idea?

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Speaker 1: It's a little crazy. What if I did a rap?

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Speaker 1: And he said, excuse me? I said, I did a

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Speaker 1: rap about my entire life. He said, it's brilliant. It's

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Speaker 1: like Hamilton's. I said, exactly, And and I start out,

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Speaker 1: you know it. I'll begin back in Utah I was

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Speaker 1: four years old, started singing with my brothers in The

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Speaker 1: sound was like gold. So my folks took a leap

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Speaker 1: and said, what the hey, we gotta get these monsters

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Speaker 1: out to California. And it gets faster and faster and faster.

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Speaker 1: It turned out to be almost a ten minute rap.

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Speaker 1: And by the time it's over, it's everybody's like, you've

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Speaker 1: got to be kidding me. You did all that stuff?

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Speaker 1: And he he said, this is gonna work. And Keith

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Speaker 1: Harris and my music director, he's he's an alien. He's

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Speaker 1: just so talented. He was the main man that put

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Speaker 1: all this stuff together for me. I supplied all the

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Speaker 1: product of the the clips and things like that, and

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Speaker 1: it's like one of the highlights of the show. It's

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Speaker 1: gone viral and my social people have videoed it, and

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Speaker 1: when I start to introduce it, I can hear the

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Speaker 1: audience say, here it comes, here, it comes, here, it comes,

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Speaker 1: we go into it. Okay, So obviously you wrote that,

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Speaker 1: and on the new album you co wrote every track.

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Speaker 1: When did you start to write and what was your incentive.

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Speaker 1: I started writing when I was a teenager. But it

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Speaker 1: wasn't um, it wasn't the well, actually there were some

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Speaker 1: good songs. I'm Sorry and I'm Flying into the Wind,

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Speaker 1: and those were actually pretty good songs. I wrote that

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Speaker 1: when I was around eighteen or something like that. But

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Speaker 1: if this goes back to where we're talking about earlier,

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Speaker 1: Bob about taking the reins, and I thought, if I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna be known as an artist, I can't be singing

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Speaker 1: covers because that was the basis of all my success

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Speaker 1: in the seventies and Puppy Love Too Young, all those

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Speaker 1: songs were covers. If I've if I'm gonna gain some respect,

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Speaker 1: I've got to write my music and over the years,

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Speaker 1: I would hone in my efforts and my talents a

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Speaker 1: little bit more work on the lyrics. I started this

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Speaker 1: album about three years ago, and I surrounded myself with

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Speaker 1: some really really good people and uh, but you know

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Speaker 1: they can't write it for you. You've got to come

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Speaker 1: up with the concept. And so that's how it all began.

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Speaker 1: I I would come up with the concept and come

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Speaker 1: up with the groove. I wrote this song that we

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Speaker 1: closed the show, Let's All Dance with Rant Stopson and

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Speaker 1: aunt Clemens. I mean they're the furthest people you think

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Speaker 1: Donnie As will be working with it. I mean that

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Speaker 1: that's the Bruno mars Camp of the world, that type

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Speaker 1: of stuff. And when I called him up, he said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this might be interesting. Um, and so we started and

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Speaker 1: I'm not dance too and whatever, dot Dom rev up.

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Speaker 1: I just started coming up with sounds. Peter Gabriel taught

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Speaker 1: me that. At the beginning of Sledgehammer, he said them

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Speaker 1: a little bad at you. And when he was involved

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Speaker 1: in one of my albums as an executive producer, and

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Speaker 1: I said, Peter, what do you singing at the beginning

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Speaker 1: sledge Hammer? And he said, nothing, it sounds. He said

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Speaker 1: that's the where I write whatever it sounds good. So

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Speaker 1: when Aunt Clemmens came aboard on let's all dance, he said,

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Speaker 1: he's singing this one like love it write up an it?

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Speaker 1: Then does hound that sound up? Somebody that about to do?

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Speaker 1: And I wrote all those sounds down. I said, left

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Speaker 1: left foot, rad foot, magical dance and shoes, let's yop.

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Speaker 1: And then I came up, let's saw bat it do?

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Speaker 1: And it wants to do? And all came from sounds

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Speaker 1: and that Peter Gabriel taught me how to do. And

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Speaker 1: so that's one way to write. That's the way I

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Speaker 1: wrote Let's all Dance with with Aunt Clemmens, and and

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Speaker 1: Rad stops it. But when it came to a song

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Speaker 1: like the Way You Are, which I wrote with Amy,

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Speaker 1: watch Amy wrote picking out loud with that Charon and

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Speaker 1: she said. I met her just before COVID started and

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Speaker 1: she said, Donny, I want to write a song with you.

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Speaker 1: And I said, Amy, let me come up with the concept.

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Speaker 1: I don't want you to write this. It's got to

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Speaker 1: come from me. It took me six months and one

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Speaker 1: day I was getting ready and my wife is getting

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Speaker 1: ready on her side of the bathroom, and I ware

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Speaker 1: you know the way you do just make it sounds,

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Speaker 1: the way you follow that doll that gotten bum and

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Speaker 1: it's you know what the concept is, the way you are.

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Speaker 1: It's good enough for me. I picked up the point

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Speaker 1: that Amy. I got it the way you are, the

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Speaker 1: way you and I produced that four different ways until

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Speaker 1: I finally got it the way I liked. But it

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Speaker 1: all begin with that lyric, the way you are. So

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Speaker 1: it all depends on where you're headed with the song

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Speaker 1: because it's all different the way you write. Okay, you

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Speaker 1: talk about people a little lot of your genre with

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Speaker 1: a lot of success. How do you actually hook up

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Speaker 1: with them? You call them directly, You get phone number

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Speaker 1: and say this is Donny Osman, or you have your

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Speaker 1: so called I'm doing my air quotes now, people contact them.

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Speaker 1: You know, I do it myself. I gotta do it myself, Bob,

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Speaker 1: because I don't know. I'm a little different in that respect.

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Speaker 1: I don't play the star role. I don't do that

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Speaker 1: because I get down in the gutter with everybody else.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, you know, you just talk to anybody

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Speaker 1: I've written with and they say you actually do this.

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Speaker 1: There's uh, there's a song on the album called Don't Stop.

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Speaker 1: And I'm in the booth with Rants and Blush and

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Speaker 1: and Seth Reager on guitar, and we're coming up with it. Dude,

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Speaker 1: it's such a great, good groove and it's we're just

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Speaker 1: feeling it. And all of a sudden, I said, stop, stop, stop, stop, Rants,

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Speaker 1: this this song has got a problem. It needs a bridge.

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Speaker 1: And he said, well, there's a piano out in the studio.

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Speaker 1: Go right one. It's okay. So I go out there

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Speaker 1: by myself and I sit down at the piano and

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking what would Stevie do? Because I'm such a

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Speaker 1: Stevie fan, And I start playing these courts, don't forget

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Speaker 1: who you are, read your mood. And I start playing

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Speaker 1: these chords and Rants comes out and says, what is that.

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Speaker 1: I said, it's our bridge, and he said, come on in,

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Speaker 1: and I play it on the on the Roads, in

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Speaker 1: the in the in the in the control room, and

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Speaker 1: it just happened like that, Dad, If Dad, if you

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Speaker 1: reach your movie. It's one of my favorite tracks. It's

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Speaker 1: a second track on the album. Now you mentioned the Roads,

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Speaker 1: and in the credits you have percussion credits, guitar credits,

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Speaker 1: What instruments do you play and how proficient are you? Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm a keyboardist. That's what I do. I mean, I've

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Speaker 1: tried a lot of instruments. I'm so uncoordinated when it

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Speaker 1: comes to drums. I've tried guitar, but I'm a keyboard guy,

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Speaker 1: so I'll get into programming. Um, there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: ways you can write a song. Uh. Splice dot com

397
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Speaker 1: is someplace where you can find some really cool grooves,

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Speaker 1: and then you split strip him apart and find sounds,

399
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Speaker 1: and then you strip those apart and create new sounds,

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Speaker 1: something that hasn't been heard before, and then you just

401
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Speaker 1: keep experimenting. Uh. In my booth here, I just spend

402
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Speaker 1: hours and hours and hours creating sounds, creating ideas. I

403
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Speaker 1: wrote maybe over forty songs for this album and narrated

404
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Speaker 1: down to these twelve. But I'll do something with those

405
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Speaker 1: songs someday. But it's all about creating something that's different.

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Speaker 1: And that's what goes back to your first question, why

407
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Speaker 1: do a sixty fifth album? Because I love music. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is what I do. I like to create. I

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Speaker 1: like to be an artist. I want to did you

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Speaker 1: pay for the recording? Of the album. Did you have

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Speaker 1: a record deal in place? No, I paid for it,

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Speaker 1: and then uh n n b MG came in and

413
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Speaker 1: heard it and said, oh my goodness. I met with

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Speaker 1: Thomas and and he said this could be your new home.

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Speaker 1: I said I'd love it. And then over time it

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Speaker 1: just got get We got closer and closer and close.

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Speaker 1: He said, we gotta do this deal. We have to

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Speaker 1: do this deal because the music is too good, not

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Speaker 1: too so. Okay, obvious question. How did you meet and

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Speaker 1: hang with Peter Gabriel. It was a kind of a

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Speaker 1: fluke thing. It was Eunice seph concert in New York,

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Speaker 1: and uh, we're both doing it. It was for a

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Speaker 1: charitable thing and I did my number and then Peter

424
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 1: did his number, and I just want to meet him because, um,

425
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 1: I like Shocked the Monkey and all that stuff. I

426
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 1: love those songs. I just wanted to meet it. And

427
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 1: and this is classic you know Peter. I do not

428
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:00,520
Speaker 1: know him personally, know this is classic Peter. He has

429
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:02,400
Speaker 1: a way of just looking through you, into your eyes,

430
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:06,760
Speaker 1: into your soul. And he asked me a question, what

431
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:11,199
Speaker 1: are you doing with your music? Because I really like

432
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: your voice. I can't say I bought any of your records,

433
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,320
Speaker 1: but I think you've got a great voice. And I

434
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:20,159
Speaker 1: told him the challenges of being Donnie Osman and I

435
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:22,240
Speaker 1: can get a record deal and all this kind of stuff,

436
00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:26,199
Speaker 1: and he said, I'll tell you what. Why don't you

437
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,159
Speaker 1: come over to my studio is when he has studio

438
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:31,960
Speaker 1: called Ashcombe House before he built his big place in

439
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 1: what's called Box and Ashcombe House is a barn. That's

440
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 1: where he did Shock the Monkey and sledge hammer and

441
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,199
Speaker 1: all those things. And I was the last artist to

442
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:42,520
Speaker 1: perform there before he moved it over a little bit

443
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:46,399
Speaker 1: of trivia, but he said, tell you what, Donnie, I

444
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:51,199
Speaker 1: want you to come over to England and start cutting music.

445
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 1: Just have a producer Georgia Cockney is his name, and

446
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:58,200
Speaker 1: just start cutting music. And I want to hear what

447
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 1: you're doing because I love your voice and I think

448
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:05,240
Speaker 1: you could reinvent yourself. Bob. It was a breath of

449
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,199
Speaker 1: fresh air to hear that, because I was fighting like

450
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:11,879
Speaker 1: crazy just to be heard. I was singing demos for people,

451
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 1: for Pete's sakes. So we went over there and and

452
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:20,240
Speaker 1: we released a few singles. But it wasn't until I

453
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: met Carl sturk And and and Evan Rodgers and start recording

454
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 1: in in uh New Jersey at a place called the Loft.

455
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:31,119
Speaker 1: I can't believe. I remember that they're the ones that

456
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:34,240
Speaker 1: that pretty much found Rihanna and made her who she

457
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:36,919
Speaker 1: is today. But they're the ones that wrote Soldier of

458
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:40,920
Speaker 1: Love and produced it for me. So coupled with Peter

459
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:44,600
Speaker 1: Gabriel giving me some interesting credibility, people say, well, if

460
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,840
Speaker 1: Peter likes it, maybe I should listen. But nothing happened.

461
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,480
Speaker 1: I released four singles over in the UK on Virgin

462
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:58,119
Speaker 1: They sign me as a favor to Peter, and I

463
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,080
Speaker 1: think Soldier got up to like thirty one and and

464
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,160
Speaker 1: then dropped off, and the other songs didn't do much.

465
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:06,679
Speaker 1: So I went home really discouraged Bob, this is Christmas.

466
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:11,680
Speaker 1: And there was a guy in the name of Loose Simon.

467
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:14,760
Speaker 1: He was a programmed director and I got the record

468
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 1: in his hands and he said, this is a hit record,

469
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:24,720
Speaker 1: but there's one problem. It's you. And then I went

470
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:29,919
Speaker 1: back to I think three before Michael released Thriller, and

471
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:31,879
Speaker 1: he said the same thing. Because I said, Mike, how

472
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:33,800
Speaker 1: do I get back on the charge, He said, your

473
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:38,359
Speaker 1: name is poison. I said, crap, I mean, can't people

474
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:41,199
Speaker 1: just listen to the music without getting my name in

475
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 1: the way, And everybody said, no, you have an image problem.

476
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: Quincy Jones signed me to Quest and Ed Epstein, the

477
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: president of the of the label, got a call from

478
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 1: one of his radio promotion guys out in the field

479
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: because Quincy was going to produce me as a no

480
00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 1: name right as a as a mystery art. Well, they

481
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:03,560
Speaker 1: all got cold feet because this radio promotion guy out

482
00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:05,479
Speaker 1: in the field said, we don't know how to promote

483
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:09,200
Speaker 1: promote Donnie Osman. He'll never get played, kicked me off

484
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:15,640
Speaker 1: the label before we even got started. Um So Peter said,

485
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:17,639
Speaker 1: let's just get started, and one thing led to another,

486
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: got this record in loose Simon's hands. He calls his

487
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:23,200
Speaker 1: friends all over the country, said, I got the ultimate

488
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:27,399
Speaker 1: promotional campaign for you. It's a hit record and it's

489
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 1: gonna be called the Mystery Artist, and then he'll come

490
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:32,480
Speaker 1: in and reveal who he is. I went to w

491
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:36,720
Speaker 1: p LJ in New York and number one station, number

492
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:42,199
Speaker 1: one market, p one station. They did the promotion and

493
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 1: my manager calls me. He said, Donnie, I got good

494
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:48,320
Speaker 1: news and I got bad news. The good news is

495
00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:51,439
Speaker 1: you have a hit record. The bad news is nobody

496
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,239
Speaker 1: knows it's you, and P LJ wants to fly in

497
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,400
Speaker 1: and reveal who this mystery artist is. Bomb. I didn't

498
00:27:57,400 --> 00:27:59,440
Speaker 1: want to do it because I didn't want to kill

499
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:02,639
Speaker 1: the request, so I flew in anyway. They snuck me

500
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: into the building. It was dried time Friday morning. I'll

501
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 1: never forget it, and they do the big drum road

502
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 1: mystery artist, who are you? And with a little trepidation,

503
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 1: I said, I'm Donny Osmond Bob. The phone lines lit

504
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:22,000
Speaker 1: up and it was just the opposite of what I

505
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:25,640
Speaker 1: thought would happen. Everybody came out of the closet, as

506
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:27,680
Speaker 1: it were, and said, I've been a fan of yours

507
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 1: all the time. He said, yeah, right, where were you

508
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 1: in the Lene years? And then it just one after another,

509
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 1: one station after another, all across the country. I did

510
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 1: the same thing, revealing a mystery artist and soldier of

511
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,040
Speaker 1: love put me back on the charts. Okay, let's go

512
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: back to today for a second. You have a deal

513
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: with heroes. How many uh seats in that venue? It's

514
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 1: uh six and a half six times six fifty or

515
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:54,520
Speaker 1: something like that. To what degree do you feel a

516
00:28:54,560 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 1: responsibility to fill the seats total total, because how do

517
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:04,120
Speaker 1: you act on that. Well, you're talking to a guy

518
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 1: here that comes from the old school. I mean, I

519
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,920
Speaker 1: get out there and I promote. You can't expect, you know, Yeah,

520
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: you need a lot of people. Get out there. It's

521
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,240
Speaker 1: the machine. You know this, You've been around the block

522
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 1: a lot. It's the machine that you've got to get working.

523
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: But the machine will quit if that machine realizes, well,

524
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:24,480
Speaker 1: the artist could care less. So I get out there.

525
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 1: I promote like crazy. I'm I'm traveling, I'm doing interviews,

526
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 1: I'm doing all kinds of stuff. I balanced my life

527
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,400
Speaker 1: obviously because I've seen so many artists lose it because

528
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 1: I don't balance. But if you're going to be an

529
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: artist in this business, particularly one that wants a long career,

530
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,479
Speaker 1: you've got to reinvent yourself, like I'm saying earlier, And

531
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 1: with reinvention comes hard work. I mean, I get this

532
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,800
Speaker 1: question all the time, Donny, what do I do? I

533
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 1: want to be in the business and I want to

534
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,680
Speaker 1: be an artist. It was a four letter word, buddy,

535
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: It's called work. And you gotta do the old fashioned

536
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,240
Speaker 1: way by promotion. Yes, you social media. You get all

537
00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 1: that stuff, but get out there on the road and

538
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:06,320
Speaker 1: play every single gig you can possibly play. That will

539
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:08,280
Speaker 1: give you experience, but it will also get your name

540
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:11,400
Speaker 1: out there. And then once you hit then the work

541
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 1: really begins and it gets harder and harder because now

542
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,760
Speaker 1: you have to prove yourself every time. And that's why

543
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:19,800
Speaker 1: I did a sixty album. And going back to that

544
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:24,120
Speaker 1: original question, Okay, so you have the six hundred fifty

545
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 1: seats to sell to the degree you know your perception.

546
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: How many people are buying Donny Osmond tickets and then

547
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 1: flying to Vegas to see you? How many people are

548
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 1: in Vegas? Ay, I want to see a show. I

549
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: can get tickets to Donny os Uh, good question, I think. Uh.

550
00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 1: Initially it's a large percentage, But lately we've been getting

551
00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:50,760
Speaker 1: getting a lot of walk up and the ticket sells.

552
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 1: President of Entertainment of Caesar's called me and said, Donny,

553
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,520
Speaker 1: it looks like we're on the trajectory for another huge

554
00:30:56,560 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 1: hit because the advanced sales are great. And I saw

555
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 1: this with the Donnie and Mari show. It's it's it's

556
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 1: all a bell curve. Everything's a bell curve. So you

557
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 1: get that initial inertia. I guess I'll call it an

558
00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 1: initial wave. And then, as with anything, the hype is

559
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,800
Speaker 1: over and now again the work begins. But I have

560
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 1: so much faith in this show that the word of

561
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 1: mouth has become not is because, but has become and

562
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 1: it's becoming stronger, that it's an amazing show. It's not

563
00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: just for grandma and grandpa. Like this little eighteen year

564
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:36,800
Speaker 1: old girl I told you about a little while ago,

565
00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 1: she said, I had no idea this is the kind

566
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 1: of stuff I listen because I'm a Charlie Pooth fan.

567
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:45,160
Speaker 1: I love that kind of music. And she she even

568
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:47,760
Speaker 1: mentioned Charlie poos some of this stuff sounds like Charlie Pooth.

569
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: And I said, you couldn't have said anything better. Yeah, okay,

570
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:57,840
Speaker 1: to what degree if you changed the show now that

571
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:01,880
Speaker 1: it's playing in front of an audience zero, not at all,

572
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 1: no feedback, nothing, whatever. This is the show zero. And

573
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,960
Speaker 1: you do one or two shows a night, one five ships,

574
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 1: five shows a week, and it's literally time, it's vague,

575
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: it's literally timed down. In the minute ninety minutes show,

576
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 1: I averaged around something like that. All depends on on

577
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 1: a segment that I call the request segment where anybody

578
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:26,720
Speaker 1: in the audience did I mentioned this to you that

579
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:29,720
Speaker 1: I put all of my albums on the on the

580
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 1: wall behind me, and anybody in the audience can pick

581
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 1: any album, any song from any album, and we do

582
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 1: it well. You obviously have a prompter. No, no prompter.

583
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: You can remember sixty albums worth the lyrics. It's the band.

584
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,320
Speaker 1: They have music that pops up, but they've like last night,

585
00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: we played songs that they haven't they've never played before,

586
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 1: and they've got three seconds or so to scan. And

587
00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: that was part of the audition process. Can you read?

588
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: There were so many great musicians I wanted to hire,

589
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,840
Speaker 1: and we went for the process of audition, and I

590
00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: couldn't hire them because of that one factor. They couldn't

591
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 1: site read and um. But these four musicians, five musicians,

592
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:17,000
Speaker 1: I said, we have a six saxophonist monster and they

593
00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:23,000
Speaker 1: all sit read. So when that cheap music pops up, um,

594
00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:25,240
Speaker 1: they play it. Last night I forgot the words at

595
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 1: this point, so I can't remember which one it was.

596
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:30,360
Speaker 1: But the show changes every night and people think they're

597
00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:32,400
Speaker 1: looking around. They even told me it's the ground. Where

598
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: is the prompter? There's no prompter and I'm ready to

599
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 1: do any song I've ever recorded. Okay, so you have

600
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:46,680
Speaker 1: a consistent does your number per week change on the

601
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: attendance or is it a firm number? Which number you're

602
00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 1: talking pay? It's uh, it's guarantee with percentage. So it

603
00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,800
Speaker 1: behooves me to get out and promote, because the better

604
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:04,200
Speaker 1: the room does, the better everyone does, including myself. Okay, Well,

605
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:07,080
Speaker 1: you're obviously successful. Otherwise they would have canceled you over

606
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 1: all these years. What do you do with the money? Well,

607
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:15,600
Speaker 1: it's um, see, I love talking to you. Nobody asks

608
00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:20,839
Speaker 1: those questions. Um, I'm very protective of the money. There's

609
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:24,640
Speaker 1: a portion of it I invest back into myself. Um.

610
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,359
Speaker 1: And the recent I am very responsible with my money

611
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 1: is because I lost it. I almost had to take

612
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:34,239
Speaker 1: out bankruptcy when the Donny Mishow ended in our Our

613
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:38,360
Speaker 1: attorneys said, guys, you don't have anything. And I remember

614
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:42,200
Speaker 1: sitting in that conference room thinking, you've gotta be kidding me.

615
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:46,439
Speaker 1: After you know, sixty uh, sixty million dollars we hadn't

616
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:47,960
Speaker 1: been This is in the early seventies, right or in

617
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:50,319
Speaker 1: the late seventies. Sixty million. Imagine the value of that now.

618
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 1: And UH said, it was just floundered, bad decisions by

619
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: your advisors, and we have to start selling your assets.

620
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, you gotta hitting me. One of the

621
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 1: most successful boy bands in the early seventies are bankrupt.

622
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:11,799
Speaker 1: And they said, yeah, So I hit the road and

623
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: I said, okay, that's that's the fire behind underneath me.

624
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:18,560
Speaker 1: Bob said, Okay, I can't go back and do what

625
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 1: I've done because it's over. I can't go back and

626
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 1: do the Puppy Loves and even the one Bad Apples stuff.

627
00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:27,600
Speaker 1: I've got to reinvent myself. I've moved to Los Angeles,

628
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 1: moved to Irvine. I set up a little studio and

629
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,400
Speaker 1: I started. That was really good time. I said, okay,

630
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 1: you've got to be an artist. You gotta start writing.

631
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:39,560
Speaker 1: And I listened to some stuff I wrote. It's pretty bad,

632
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:42,919
Speaker 1: but some of it's kind of clever. But I realized, Okay,

633
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 1: you gotta surround yourself with great people. But now I've

634
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 1: got all this baggage, and I hired a great PR firm.

635
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,239
Speaker 1: Actually it was Michael Jackson's PR firm at the time

636
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:55,600
Speaker 1: as well. They came up with this idea of Bob

637
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,799
Speaker 1: where I was gonna get busted for drugs coming in

638
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:02,640
Speaker 1: from an international like I said, dude, you're gonna be

639
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 1: so have so much street cred and and it's the

640
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 1: Donny Osman. You will be in every paper and every

641
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:12,600
Speaker 1: magazine all of the world, and then people will accept you.

642
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,520
Speaker 1: And I thought, and I'm the kind of person who says, okay,

643
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 1: I will listen to an idea, assimilated, and then let

644
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:23,280
Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about or what I think about.

645
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,919
Speaker 1: So I went home that day thinking he's absolutely right.

646
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 1: I will be on every cover in every magazine and

647
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:38,279
Speaker 1: newspaper in the world. But then what then? And I

648
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 1: started thinking, I'm trying to do a trick here. I'm

649
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:46,840
Speaker 1: trying to do a marketing ploy to become popular again.

650
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,359
Speaker 1: And I said, no, I'm going to do it with

651
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:53,279
Speaker 1: my music. I did it the hard way. I said,

652
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:54,759
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it with my music because I

653
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:58,480
Speaker 1: want to be respected as a musician, not a clever

654
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:02,319
Speaker 1: marketing person. Because that would have lasted five minutes and

655
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:04,759
Speaker 1: then people would have chewed me up and spit me out,

656
00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:06,640
Speaker 1: and I would have lived with that for the rest

657
00:37:06,719 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 1: of my life. But then you know, there are are

658
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:17,799
Speaker 1: people should I say names. Okay. Simon Leban told me

659
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:20,400
Speaker 1: one time. He said, Donny, I would love for you

660
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:22,239
Speaker 1: to come out on the road with us and tour

661
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: with us. I said, are you serious? Um? He said,

662
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:28,880
Speaker 1: I would love for you to come out and shock

663
00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 1: everybody and we all do Crazy Horses together. And I

664
00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:35,840
Speaker 1: thought that would be a hilarious that would be so

665
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 1: much fun. But but it's a trick. It's it's a

666
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: one off thing. It's like whatever. Um. Ozzy Osborne told me.

667
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:47,319
Speaker 1: He said, one of my most favorite rock and roll

668
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:50,440
Speaker 1: songs is Crazy Horses. Now this is just blowing me

669
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:54,399
Speaker 1: away because these guys respected in the rock and roll

670
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 1: industry are saying, we like your talent, but we don't

671
00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 1: want your name. Save. Happened with Phil Collin from Deaf Leopard.

672
00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 1: I did an album This is when I moved down

673
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:10,680
Speaker 1: to Irvine in the late eighties. Um nose, Yeah, it

674
00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 1: was late eighties or something like that, and Phil did.

675
00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:17,160
Speaker 1: I called him up. I said, Phil, I need a

676
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:19,200
Speaker 1: guitar solo and I think you're one of the greatest

677
00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 1: guitar players. He said, dude, I would love it. Tell

678
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:26,400
Speaker 1: me when I'm there, he comes in, we record this

679
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:30,359
Speaker 1: this solo and he just rips it apart. It's fantastic.

680
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:34,160
Speaker 1: So I'm getting ready to release the album and I

681
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:37,440
Speaker 1: get a call from him. He said, Donny, I gets

682
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:40,040
Speaker 1: some bad news for you. He said what he said,

683
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:45,280
Speaker 1: I can't be on your album. I said why? He said,

684
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: management in the band they don't want didn't want death

685
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:53,120
Speaker 1: Leopard associated with Donnie Osmin. I said, I get it.

686
00:38:53,239 --> 00:38:56,399
Speaker 1: I understand. I've been through it all my life. I

687
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 1: got I can't lose this solo. He said, no, you

688
00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:02,799
Speaker 1: use my alias. So Phil collind had to use as

689
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 1: alias because Donny Osman's name was just too uncool. Let's

690
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:10,680
Speaker 1: go back to the money. So are you hands on

691
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:14,320
Speaker 1: with the money? And are is it in cashes and stocks?

692
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,560
Speaker 1: Is in real estates as restaurants or do you have

693
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:20,759
Speaker 1: somebody you trust that deals with it? What's going on there?

694
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:25,040
Speaker 1: I deal with a team of people. I have one person,

695
00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:27,920
Speaker 1: Shane Edwards is his name, who watches my money. I

696
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: do everything in a triangle. Okay, that's the way I

697
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 1: make decisions. I'm at the top. My business managers here,

698
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,600
Speaker 1: and my professional manager, Jim Moorey is right here. And

699
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 1: NASA has the same principle when they launch a rocket.

700
00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 1: It's three computers, if three people. If three computers have

701
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: a green light, then everything is to go because the

702
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:52,399
Speaker 1: chances of a problem statistically go way down when you've

703
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 1: got three people looking at it or three computers. Not

704
00:39:55,280 --> 00:40:01,480
Speaker 1: too because it's you know, it's so um Shane watches

705
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 1: my money, and I watched him like a hawk. Jim

706
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 1: watches my career. I watched him like a hawk. And

707
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:09,480
Speaker 1: when I come up with an idea and I green lighted,

708
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:12,960
Speaker 1: they make sure it's not an emotional thing. They look

709
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:14,319
Speaker 1: at the market, and they look at the money, they

710
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:16,720
Speaker 1: look at the potential. If I get three green lights,

711
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:21,839
Speaker 1: I moved forward. And so I'm very hands on with

712
00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:26,120
Speaker 1: every single thing, including the money. In fact, I have

713
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:29,760
Speaker 1: access to my quick books from my computer and anywhere

714
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:32,920
Speaker 1: I were, anywhere I'm at, I can see my my

715
00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:38,040
Speaker 1: income and my outcome, my my assets, my liabilities, and

716
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:41,440
Speaker 1: I just make sure. I remember when I was doing

717
00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:45,239
Speaker 1: Joseph an amazing technical of the Dream Code, UM, I

718
00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:49,160
Speaker 1: was in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and I was gonna be

719
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:53,520
Speaker 1: there for about three weeks, and my family had moved

720
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 1: to Chicago to wait for me to arrive there, but

721
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:58,320
Speaker 1: I had a three week gig up there in Edmonton.

722
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 1: I called my accountant and I said, guess what, I

723
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:09,759
Speaker 1: got some news for you. You're fired. She said what

724
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:13,879
Speaker 1: I said, You're fired? She said why because I don't

725
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:17,080
Speaker 1: even know what at ten forty is and you're my accountant,

726
00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:19,839
Speaker 1: you're my business manager. I want you to pack up

727
00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:23,160
Speaker 1: every single file that you have on me and send

728
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:26,680
Speaker 1: it to me, ups it to me up here to Canada. Bob.

729
00:41:26,719 --> 00:41:29,920
Speaker 1: I got, I think forty file boxes, and I for

730
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,600
Speaker 1: those three weeks, I went through every single file, and

731
00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:35,359
Speaker 1: I would read books, I'd read articles, and I learned

732
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:37,400
Speaker 1: what a ten and forty was and at a W

733
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:42,360
Speaker 1: two and all this atten and I threw away probably

734
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:44,719
Speaker 1: three quarters that stuff that had nothing to do with

735
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:47,719
Speaker 1: my life anymore. And then I went to Chicago and

736
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:51,879
Speaker 1: I hired this Arlen Simon, great guy. He taught me

737
00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:56,760
Speaker 1: the ropes of finance, and we started building up the cash,

738
00:41:57,120 --> 00:42:00,719
Speaker 1: started building up my bank account and to the point

739
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:06,799
Speaker 1: where I really don't have to worry much anymore. So

740
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:10,000
Speaker 1: when I do make a decision and I get three

741
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:13,360
Speaker 1: green lights, I'll throw the money at it. Because I

742
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:16,319
Speaker 1: believe in myself. I believe in what I do, and

743
00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 1: that's why I spent a lot of money on this

744
00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:25,879
Speaker 1: show because I know, Bob, I'm sure that I'm gonna

745
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:30,319
Speaker 1: make the money back, plus because it's a great show.

746
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:33,560
Speaker 1: You're investing in yourself. But just like any any any

747
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:37,480
Speaker 1: educated investor, they usually balance it out with other things.

748
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:39,759
Speaker 1: As you're in cash, as it is, stock is in

749
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:43,120
Speaker 1: real estate. I try to stay away from real estate

750
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 1: because it's volatile. I do have a lot of equities,

751
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:53,360
Speaker 1: and even though it's scary, you don't day trade, you

752
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 1: don't do you don't watch the market like Alco Hawk,

753
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:59,000
Speaker 1: because I don't know what I'm doing in it. Um.

754
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:03,240
Speaker 1: But to sticklely, Bob, if you look at history, even

755
00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:07,920
Speaker 1: after the depression, it always climbs, it always comes back,

756
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:10,760
Speaker 1: and it's if if you want to play the market,

757
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:13,840
Speaker 1: I mean there's people who do that. I don't date trade.

758
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:17,759
Speaker 1: It's tempting, but it's scary and you can lose your

759
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:21,400
Speaker 1: shirt and I lost it once. I ain't losing it again. Okay,

760
00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:23,640
Speaker 1: So you have your kids. Now, you had your kids

761
00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 1: relatively young, and they have kids. To what degree do

762
00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:30,920
Speaker 1: you support them and give them money? I've I've decided

763
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:34,359
Speaker 1: along with my wife that um, we want to take

764
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:37,120
Speaker 1: the sting out of life for my kids. I don't

765
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:40,960
Speaker 1: flaunt them, I don't. I don't throw money at him,

766
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:43,360
Speaker 1: but I give them just enough to help them with

767
00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 1: their mortgages and food on the table. I told them

768
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,399
Speaker 1: I'll pay for all my grandkids education because you don't

769
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 1: want to take the motivation out of a parent, um,

770
00:43:54,040 --> 00:43:59,280
Speaker 1: but just enough to where they can enjoy life. And

771
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:02,160
Speaker 1: for Debbie and myself, it's important that all of our

772
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:07,239
Speaker 1: children are equal and nobody yet some may have a

773
00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:10,040
Speaker 1: better job or whatever. This so maybe out of work

774
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:14,600
Speaker 1: will help them because that's what parents do. But if

775
00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 1: you help too much, then the others say, well, you know,

776
00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:20,359
Speaker 1: what are you doing that? What about me? So it's

777
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:23,760
Speaker 1: always balanced out from what's what I call a capital account,

778
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 1: so they know, at the end of our lives, everybody's

779
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:33,240
Speaker 1: equal and you're gonna leave your money equally to them. Well,

780
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:36,439
Speaker 1: I'm trying to avoid a state tax, so so you're

781
00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:39,600
Speaker 1: giving you to him along the way. Well, there's there's investments, obviously,

782
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 1: and there's there's distributions that you can take advantage of,

783
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:46,360
Speaker 1: um that the I R S allows and I'm taking

784
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 1: as much as I possibly can, because you don't want

785
00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:52,600
Speaker 1: to have an enormous bank account that that the government's

786
00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 1: going to grab at the end of your life. They

787
00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:57,120
Speaker 1: might as well use it now to help them out

788
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:00,879
Speaker 1: in investments. Again, I don't flaunt them, flaunt my money

789
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:03,799
Speaker 1: with them. With him, I don't overdo it, but just

790
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:08,359
Speaker 1: enough to hopefully drain our account when our lives are over,

791
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:10,120
Speaker 1: which I'm thinking. You know, I'm gonna go to a

792
00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:12,040
Speaker 1: hundred and six. I don't know about you, but I'm

793
00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:14,799
Speaker 1: gonna I'm not gonna make it that far. So how

794
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:18,239
Speaker 1: did you meet Debbie? She was dating my brother. My

795
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:21,120
Speaker 1: brother j dated her and U jo a little but

796
00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:24,600
Speaker 1: set the scene a little bit more. What's the age difference?

797
00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 1: And we're we're we're we're You and your brother and

798
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:32,080
Speaker 1: Debbie living when all this happened. We're in Provo, Utah.

799
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:37,600
Speaker 1: We've moved there in seventy four, and my brother heard

800
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:42,000
Speaker 1: about her sister, Pam Glenn, and because she was miss

801
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:46,160
Speaker 1: Provo for his so she dated him. He dated her, uh,

802
00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:50,080
Speaker 1: and then Jay, I mean he just played the market. Uh.

803
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:53,200
Speaker 1: And then he met little Debbie Glenn, who was a

804
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:56,279
Speaker 1: cheerleader at Provo High and I was in love with

805
00:45:56,320 --> 00:46:00,280
Speaker 1: this girl named Tammy, And uh so they we're where's

806
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 1: Tammy from? Okay, Tammy's from Fro. She was a cheerleader

807
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:06,760
Speaker 1: as well. And so you're famous. Not that she doesn't

808
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:10,080
Speaker 1: have assets. How do you meet Tammy? She was a cheerleader.

809
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:11,800
Speaker 1: I just you know, I walked up on Donny Osmond.

810
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:14,279
Speaker 1: I'd love to take you on a date. Were you

811
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:17,200
Speaker 1: going to that high school? No? No, I never really

812
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 1: went to school. I was always correspondence. It was I

813
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:22,120
Speaker 1: went to Okay, we'll get to that a second. So

814
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:25,759
Speaker 1: go back to Debbie. Okay, So Debbie was we went

815
00:46:25,800 --> 00:46:28,600
Speaker 1: to this to an Elton John concert up at the

816
00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:30,879
Speaker 1: Salt Palace. Insult. You know you're good with your memory.

817
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:38,440
Speaker 1: You know what year? It is? Seventy six, seventy end possibly.

818
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:42,080
Speaker 1: So we go up to Salt Palace and I'm sitting

819
00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 1: there with Tammy, who I really really liked, and Jay

820
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:49,480
Speaker 1: was had Debbie next to him, and I definitely remember

821
00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:52,520
Speaker 1: this Bob he sat down to sing it's a little

822
00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:57,000
Speaker 1: bit funny. I just feeling inside to look over to

823
00:46:57,120 --> 00:47:00,800
Speaker 1: Debbie and I think to myself, I'm gonna marry that girl.

824
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 1: Some day I think, where did I come up with that?

825
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:10,440
Speaker 1: And about a month later we'd switch. I took out

826
00:47:10,520 --> 00:47:13,800
Speaker 1: Debbie and Jay took out Tammy. He didn't marry Tammy.

827
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:16,920
Speaker 1: That would have been ironic, but it's started. The romance

828
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:19,520
Speaker 1: started there. But I had to keep it secret because

829
00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:24,799
Speaker 1: if the fan magazines found out I was dating somebody, seriously,

830
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:28,200
Speaker 1: I would have been ostracized, which I was after I

831
00:47:28,239 --> 00:47:31,239
Speaker 1: got married, and so was she by by a lot

832
00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:35,200
Speaker 1: of the fans. But um, that's how it all happened.

833
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:47,360
Speaker 1: And I just fell in love with this girl. Okay,

834
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:50,560
Speaker 1: you're a musician, you know, certainly in these this era

835
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:53,239
Speaker 1: of the rock stars, one of the reasons they did

836
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:56,799
Speaker 1: it was to meet women. And they were traveling all

837
00:47:56,800 --> 00:48:00,480
Speaker 1: over the country in the pre cell phone camera days. Whatever. Yep,

838
00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:06,520
Speaker 1: you know you're meeting a million girls. Nope, no, why

839
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:11,360
Speaker 1: not after a concert? I guess I'm gonna tell you

840
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:13,759
Speaker 1: this story because this is what really led me to

841
00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:21,200
Speaker 1: I want to get married. Um. Being um a member

842
00:48:21,200 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 1: of the Church of Jesus Christ Larity Saints, the moral

843
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:26,960
Speaker 1: code is high. Okay. I lived in Utah for a

844
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:30,040
Speaker 1: couple of years, so you know, all about it. Where

845
00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:34,200
Speaker 1: it stal City? Yeah, okay, one one year down in Sandy,

846
00:48:34,239 --> 00:48:38,319
Speaker 1: one year in the avenues, Oh okay. So we would

847
00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:44,160
Speaker 1: finish this these concerts, girls screaming my names. They're screaming

848
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:47,919
Speaker 1: my name, and um, I couldn't do anything about it.

849
00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:50,920
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, I'm a normal guy, hormonal tsia.

850
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:53,920
Speaker 1: But we would go back to the hotel and go

851
00:48:54,040 --> 00:49:01,280
Speaker 1: from mass hysteria to silence, and um, Gerald sciences silence.

852
00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:05,400
Speaker 1: There was one concert, um, actually there's several, but this

853
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 1: one in particular. It was in Hawaii. We had performed

854
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 1: at this huge arena packed and girls screaming my name

855
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:17,520
Speaker 1: like crazy. After the show, we go to we had

856
00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:19,360
Speaker 1: an apartment there. So I go back to the apartment

857
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:22,440
Speaker 1: and I go to the corner of this room and

858
00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:25,720
Speaker 1: I roll up into a ball and I just started

859
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:29,879
Speaker 1: crying profusely. My brother Jay walks in. He said, Donny,

860
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:34,040
Speaker 1: it wasn't matter. And I looked up at him and said,

861
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:39,680
Speaker 1: I'm lonely. He said, what thousands of girls just screaming

862
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:45,200
Speaker 1: your name and you're lonely. I said, I'm lonely. And

863
00:49:45,239 --> 00:49:50,239
Speaker 1: then I met this debby Glen, and before she was

864
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:54,560
Speaker 1: my lover She was my best friend and I needed

865
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:57,960
Speaker 1: that in my personal life. Several songs on this album

866
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:01,239
Speaker 1: are about her. Beacon Girl is about her, The Way

867
00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:04,760
Speaker 1: You Are is about her. She literally saved my life because,

868
00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:10,120
Speaker 1: as Justin Bieber released Lonely, UM, I said, when I

869
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:12,839
Speaker 1: saw that video and heard the song, I thought, if

870
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:15,680
Speaker 1: anybody knows what that's like, it's me because I went

871
00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:18,720
Speaker 1: through the same teeny boper thing that he did, and

872
00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:23,040
Speaker 1: it inspired the song on my album called Life After Loneliness.

873
00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:28,279
Speaker 1: And but that that's what begin the process of saying,

874
00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:31,560
Speaker 1: you know what, Donnie, take care of yourself. Okay, So

875
00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:35,640
Speaker 1: you're together with Debbie almost fifty years. You're on the road,

876
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:38,680
Speaker 1: which makes things more difficult. How do you keep the

877
00:50:38,719 --> 00:50:43,120
Speaker 1: marriage together? I realized what I'd lose. I realized that

878
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:47,000
Speaker 1: I would lose respect for my children, my grandchildren, and

879
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:52,920
Speaker 1: I have a conviction of my beliefs. Um, not everybody

880
00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:55,759
Speaker 1: believes the same way, and I certainly don't hold that

881
00:50:56,080 --> 00:50:59,480
Speaker 1: them into contempt or anything is live and let live.

882
00:51:00,560 --> 00:51:07,040
Speaker 1: But I would rather keep my marriage. UM. I don't

883
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:11,880
Speaker 1: want used were pure. I would keep my marriage pure.

884
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:16,800
Speaker 1: I would rather uh be have Debbie be the only

885
00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:23,480
Speaker 1: one that i've I've I've had a relationship with and uh,

886
00:51:24,160 --> 00:51:26,399
Speaker 1: but that's not the same as as as everyone. I mean,

887
00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:31,480
Speaker 1: there's been wonderful marriages without judging that whether people are

888
00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:36,760
Speaker 1: lds or something else. It takes two. You can believe

889
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:39,640
Speaker 1: in this all day long. You have siblings, at least

890
00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:43,000
Speaker 1: one sibling I'm aware of, got divorced couple. Actually, so

891
00:51:44,600 --> 00:51:47,399
Speaker 1: how does she feel she's raising the kids, you're out

892
00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:52,640
Speaker 1: on the road, etcetera, etcetera. There must be some arguments, uh,

893
00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:56,400
Speaker 1: you you think, And yeah, we've had some I wouldn't

894
00:51:56,400 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 1: say arguments, but very serious discussions. And comes down to

895
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:06,600
Speaker 1: one little word, and it may sound trite, and that

896
00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:09,680
Speaker 1: word is trust. You know, she trust me, I trust her.

897
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:14,200
Speaker 1: And and in this world with social media the way

898
00:52:14,239 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 1: it is, Bob, if I did something, it certainly would

899
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:21,480
Speaker 1: be out there. Okay, but let's move on beyond that,

900
00:52:21,520 --> 00:52:23,279
Speaker 1: because there are plenty of people who are faithful in

901
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:26,279
Speaker 1: the relationships. And anyway, I mean, do you ever sit

902
00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 1: at home or sit on the road whatever I say.

903
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:30,520
Speaker 1: You know, I gotta do something for Debbie because I'm

904
00:52:30,520 --> 00:52:34,520
Speaker 1: out here alone. She's alone. How often do you communicate

905
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:39,200
Speaker 1: every day? Every single day via phone, via email, text. Well,

906
00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:42,759
Speaker 1: now you know FaceTime, you know duo. Since I'm an

907
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:46,160
Speaker 1: Android user, it's duo. Um. Why why are you an

908
00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:48,720
Speaker 1: Android user? I just think it's a better operating system.

909
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:51,080
Speaker 1: I think I can do more with it. Well, certainly

910
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:56,920
Speaker 1: it's more flexible. But you have issues of less security.

911
00:52:56,960 --> 00:53:02,480
Speaker 1: Shall we say? I'm pretty I've got security. Um, I'm

912
00:53:02,560 --> 00:53:05,279
Speaker 1: very secure in what I do, uh and where I

913
00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:07,880
Speaker 1: put things? Which phone do you have? I've got the

914
00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 1: Note twenty okay, and you have the latest osh you okay, okay,

915
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 1: good to know. So what's your computer? What do you

916
00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:20,080
Speaker 1: use for a computers? Apple? I'm an Apple guy. I'm

917
00:53:20,160 --> 00:53:23,840
Speaker 1: that guy. So I do cross platforms and it sometimes

918
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:28,560
Speaker 1: it's difficult because Apple is so proprietary, uh and they

919
00:53:28,600 --> 00:53:31,960
Speaker 1: make the sinking so simple. But I love the challenge

920
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:35,680
Speaker 1: of of the you know, the the abilities of what

921
00:53:35,719 --> 00:53:39,239
Speaker 1: I can do with this thing, um, and the ease

922
00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:41,520
Speaker 1: of Apple because that's where you know, I use Cube

923
00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:44,880
Speaker 1: as as my dog and it's it's it's it's so

924
00:53:45,040 --> 00:53:47,080
Speaker 1: user friendly when it comes to writing music and things

925
00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:51,360
Speaker 1: like that and editing. Um. Although you know a lot

926
00:53:51,400 --> 00:53:53,920
Speaker 1: of people love the PC, but I am a Mac guy.

927
00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:56,800
Speaker 1: Tell me one thing you can do on your Android

928
00:53:56,800 --> 00:54:02,080
Speaker 1: phone you cannot do on an iPhone. Probably nothing. I

929
00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:05,319
Speaker 1: can't think of anything right now. There's some apps that

930
00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:11,120
Speaker 1: I absolutely love that don't come on OS x or

931
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:18,200
Speaker 1: iOS iOS um. Probably nothing. I just I like the

932
00:54:18,239 --> 00:54:21,160
Speaker 1: flexibility of being able to drill down to the OS

933
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:25,400
Speaker 1: and make some changes and and and customize what I want.

934
00:54:26,160 --> 00:54:29,040
Speaker 1: I've always been that way. Okay, let's go back to

935
00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:33,600
Speaker 1: the beginning. So you grow up in Ogden. Certainly, No,

936
00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:37,480
Speaker 1: not really, Well, I love you. Then let's just drill

937
00:54:37,520 --> 00:54:41,000
Speaker 1: down a little bit deeper. You were born where Ogden?

938
00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:45,439
Speaker 1: You were born in Ogden. Now, ultimately the family moves

939
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:48,600
Speaker 1: to Provo, which is certainly more of an LDS hub.

940
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:53,359
Speaker 1: But you you were born. What are your first memories? Well,

941
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:56,600
Speaker 1: my first memories, Um, we're kind of like like my

942
00:54:56,719 --> 00:55:00,880
Speaker 1: last memories of Ogden because I moved when I was three,

943
00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:04,000
Speaker 1: and I grew up in San San Fernando Valley in

944
00:55:04,080 --> 00:55:08,919
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles area. That's home, Um, some of valley, dude,

945
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:11,839
Speaker 1: I guess, But I really grew up on the road.

946
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:14,000
Speaker 1: I grew up out of a suitcase. Okay, Well, the

947
00:55:14,040 --> 00:55:16,799
Speaker 1: way you moved to the San Fernando Valley. What point

948
00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:19,960
Speaker 1: do they put you to work? So I started working

949
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:24,000
Speaker 1: UH singing when I was four, and finally went professional

950
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:27,000
Speaker 1: at five and a debut at five, and I became

951
00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:31,960
Speaker 1: a full fledged member of the band when I was seven. Um,

952
00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:35,560
Speaker 1: and then I had my first recording experience one number

953
00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:39,040
Speaker 1: one UH and solo art and solo career at twelve,

954
00:55:40,080 --> 00:55:43,239
Speaker 1: and then the TV things started at sixteen. Okay, but

955
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:45,680
Speaker 1: let's go back when you're living in the San Fernando Valley.

956
00:55:45,719 --> 00:55:47,839
Speaker 1: Do you ever tell your father I don't want to

957
00:55:47,880 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 1: do this. I want to watch television. I want to

958
00:55:49,880 --> 00:55:53,279
Speaker 1: play baseball. Well, put yourself in his situation. But yeah,

959
00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:56,680
Speaker 1: the short answer is yeah, I didn't. Nine, I wrote

960
00:55:56,680 --> 00:55:58,320
Speaker 1: a letter back to my mom. I was in Sweden

961
00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:01,600
Speaker 1: and touring, and I said, I don't really want to

962
00:56:01,640 --> 00:56:06,479
Speaker 1: I want to come home. Well what is my father

963
00:56:06,560 --> 00:56:12,400
Speaker 1: supposed to do? Stop the tour? Um? No, So you

964
00:56:12,480 --> 00:56:14,719
Speaker 1: do your job, You get out there and you sing.

965
00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:17,680
Speaker 1: We do three shows a day, and we set up

966
00:56:17,680 --> 00:56:19,600
Speaker 1: sounding lights and we did every show is in a

967
00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:23,920
Speaker 1: different town. I'm so glad I went through that, Bob,

968
00:56:23,960 --> 00:56:26,239
Speaker 1: because yeah, I hated it as a little kid. I

969
00:56:26,239 --> 00:56:29,880
Speaker 1: wanted to go play at home with my toys. But

970
00:56:30,360 --> 00:56:34,200
Speaker 1: I liked the training. I like the discipline that I

971
00:56:34,239 --> 00:56:39,320
Speaker 1: was taught by my dad. I liked the the work.

972
00:56:40,120 --> 00:56:43,879
Speaker 1: I liked the harmonies that we were doing on stage now.

973
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:46,040
Speaker 1: And now keep in mind, let's go back to the

974
00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:51,600
Speaker 1: beginning of It's four. I'm hearing barbershop harmonies constantly. So

975
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:55,640
Speaker 1: that's my foundation was harmony. And then when I joined,

976
00:56:56,000 --> 00:56:59,759
Speaker 1: we went to five part harmony, modern harmony with the

977
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:02,280
Speaker 1: lines and the sixes and all that kind of stuff

978
00:57:02,280 --> 00:57:07,000
Speaker 1: in the cord. And so now my my training, my

979
00:57:07,040 --> 00:57:09,360
Speaker 1: ear had already been trained at such a young age

980
00:57:10,120 --> 00:57:15,480
Speaker 1: in barbershop, but now I'm doing modern harmonies. So when

981
00:57:15,520 --> 00:57:21,520
Speaker 1: I record, I listened to, um, Jacob Collier. Do you

982
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:24,480
Speaker 1: know that the artist, Jacob Collier. I know Jacob. Yeah,

983
00:57:24,600 --> 00:57:27,320
Speaker 1: So I love that guy because of what he does

984
00:57:27,400 --> 00:57:32,640
Speaker 1: with harmonies and with pitch and with he's he's a genius.

985
00:57:32,720 --> 00:57:36,040
Speaker 1: And so I try to with my foundation do the

986
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:39,600
Speaker 1: same thing with my voice and try not to use

987
00:57:39,640 --> 00:57:43,760
Speaker 1: auto tune too much, but just the real thing, you know. Um.

988
00:57:43,800 --> 00:57:47,280
Speaker 1: So that's what was really going on in my mind

989
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:52,000
Speaker 1: when I moved to San Fernando Valley was all these harmonies,

990
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:54,480
Speaker 1: and then Andy Williams were on The Andy Williamshow and

991
00:57:54,480 --> 00:57:57,960
Speaker 1: he would challenge us to do all kinds of stuff

992
00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:01,280
Speaker 1: and Earl Brown but was Orge Wild who did all

993
00:58:01,320 --> 00:58:03,240
Speaker 1: of our arrangements at that point in time, and he

994
00:58:03,280 --> 00:58:07,600
Speaker 1: would stretch us. And I remember sitting down at this piano. Um,

995
00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:12,200
Speaker 1: we had this piano. I hated the hours in front

996
00:58:12,240 --> 00:58:15,680
Speaker 1: of it. It was the same piano that Sonny, thank

997
00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:19,120
Speaker 1: you Father, Love that you give to me was written

998
00:58:19,120 --> 00:58:23,760
Speaker 1: on this piano. And we would spend countless hours plunking

999
00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:27,560
Speaker 1: our parts out. But when it all came together, it

1000
00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:32,680
Speaker 1: was euphoric because pre auto tune, all of our ears,

1001
00:58:32,720 --> 00:58:36,120
Speaker 1: all five of us, we would balance, we would listen

1002
00:58:36,160 --> 00:58:38,720
Speaker 1: to our pitch and all this stuff, and we would

1003
00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:45,920
Speaker 1: do harmonies that were just so complex. And I loved

1004
00:58:45,920 --> 00:58:48,600
Speaker 1: every bit of it because that's where my training was,

1005
00:58:48,640 --> 00:58:51,040
Speaker 1: that that was my foundation. I don't know if this

1006
00:58:51,080 --> 00:58:55,800
Speaker 1: is answering your question, but there's ale. So you say

1007
00:58:55,840 --> 00:58:59,240
Speaker 1: that you were not h you know, involved with girls

1008
00:58:59,240 --> 00:59:02,080
Speaker 1: when you were on the road, What perks did you

1009
00:59:02,160 --> 00:59:04,120
Speaker 1: get for being famous? I mean, this is a day

1010
00:59:04,120 --> 00:59:08,240
Speaker 1: of three network TVs channels, and you know, every kid

1011
00:59:08,240 --> 00:59:11,760
Speaker 1: wanted to be famous. You were, So what were the

1012
00:59:11,760 --> 00:59:14,800
Speaker 1: benefits of that they opened Disneyland early? I mean, what

1013
00:59:14,800 --> 00:59:18,960
Speaker 1: what was you get? All those perks? But what better perk? Um?

1014
00:59:19,080 --> 00:59:21,080
Speaker 1: And I know this may sound a little interesting to

1015
00:59:21,120 --> 00:59:25,600
Speaker 1: your listeners because they're you know, hardcore rock and rollers

1016
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:29,040
Speaker 1: or you know what musos, and that's the last thing

1017
00:59:29,040 --> 00:59:30,880
Speaker 1: they think of when they think of Donny Osmond. But

1018
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:34,680
Speaker 1: what better perk than to get on stage and to

1019
00:59:34,800 --> 00:59:37,560
Speaker 1: do your music? You know, as teeny bopper as it

1020
00:59:37,680 --> 00:59:39,760
Speaker 1: was my stuff, but although also the rock and roll

1021
00:59:39,800 --> 00:59:42,920
Speaker 1: stuff I was doing my brothers. What better perk do

1022
00:59:42,960 --> 00:59:46,360
Speaker 1: you want than an audience just screaming and yelling your

1023
00:59:46,440 --> 00:59:51,320
Speaker 1: name and being able to create music. That's what I

1024
00:59:51,400 --> 00:59:54,840
Speaker 1: was doing as a musician. I was honing all those

1025
00:59:54,840 --> 00:59:58,800
Speaker 1: skills um. And I know again that might sound you know,

1026
00:59:58,960 --> 01:00:03,800
Speaker 1: odd to someone who does really understand the deep cauldrons

1027
01:00:03,880 --> 01:00:07,400
Speaker 1: of my life, But those were my perks, my music.

1028
01:00:07,440 --> 01:00:09,919
Speaker 1: I would I would, I would listen, let's just put

1029
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:12,760
Speaker 1: a wall between that. Obviously very into that you're not

1030
01:00:12,840 --> 01:00:17,160
Speaker 1: on stage, you mean, you meet the president? What are

1031
01:00:17,200 --> 01:00:21,800
Speaker 1: some cool things you got to do because you were famous? Yeah?

1032
01:00:22,040 --> 01:00:23,680
Speaker 1: You get to meet the president, you get to do

1033
01:00:23,720 --> 01:00:26,360
Speaker 1: all kinds of I gotta listen to this story. This

1034
01:00:26,400 --> 01:00:29,360
Speaker 1: is kind of cool. So this I don't know if

1035
01:00:29,360 --> 01:00:33,920
Speaker 1: this is considered a perk, but in in a in

1036
01:00:33,960 --> 01:00:36,320
Speaker 1: a roundabout kind of way, it is. I got a letter,

1037
01:00:36,880 --> 01:00:42,320
Speaker 1: Bob from a fan in Sweden, and I'm in Utah

1038
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:46,000
Speaker 1: and the person in charge of our fan club hands

1039
01:00:46,040 --> 01:00:50,000
Speaker 1: me this letter. All it says on there it's Donnie Osmond.

1040
01:00:50,160 --> 01:00:54,480
Speaker 1: There's no address. She allegedly put it in the mailbox,

1041
01:00:54,640 --> 01:00:58,440
Speaker 1: no stamp, and in the post the postman picks it

1042
01:00:58,480 --> 01:01:00,400
Speaker 1: up and says, Donny Osbo I get They send it

1043
01:01:00,440 --> 01:01:02,400
Speaker 1: to the United States. It gets to the shore. Oh,

1044
01:01:02,480 --> 01:01:03,960
Speaker 1: Donny Osmond, send it to you. Though we get a

1045
01:01:03,960 --> 01:01:05,560
Speaker 1: lot of these, I guess you. Oh, I know exactly

1046
01:01:05,560 --> 01:01:07,520
Speaker 1: where this goes. It gets to my fan club. They

1047
01:01:07,560 --> 01:01:10,520
Speaker 1: see it. It's you know, stamped or not stamped, but

1048
01:01:10,720 --> 01:01:12,360
Speaker 1: it's it's um what do they call that? When they

1049
01:01:13,080 --> 01:01:16,400
Speaker 1: run it through the male thing and it's um canceled

1050
01:01:16,640 --> 01:01:20,920
Speaker 1: They canceled. It's canceled. So it's canceled with no stamp

1051
01:01:21,240 --> 01:01:24,560
Speaker 1: and it says Donny Osmond on it from Sweden. All

1052
01:01:24,600 --> 01:01:30,280
Speaker 1: the way to you tak with no address, that's for sure.

1053
01:01:30,880 --> 01:01:33,880
Speaker 1: Was there ever a period of time where you felt

1054
01:01:34,040 --> 01:01:37,360
Speaker 1: you couldn't go out, you couldn't go to the grocery

1055
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:41,600
Speaker 1: store or shopping in the department store because either people

1056
01:01:41,640 --> 01:01:43,880
Speaker 1: would mob you or you felt that people were looking

1057
01:01:43,960 --> 01:01:47,160
Speaker 1: at you. That only got to me later on in

1058
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:51,439
Speaker 1: my life, because when the name Donnie Osmond became a joke,

1059
01:01:52,600 --> 01:01:56,320
Speaker 1: then I wanted to hide myself and because I said

1060
01:01:56,320 --> 01:01:58,760
Speaker 1: to myself, they're talking about me, you know, in a

1061
01:01:58,840 --> 01:02:04,320
Speaker 1: derogatory sense. Prior to that, it was like, yeah, I'm

1062
01:02:04,320 --> 01:02:06,640
Speaker 1: a monkey in occasion, I'm loved being a being a

1063
01:02:06,720 --> 01:02:09,520
Speaker 1: monkey right now because of all the perks you know

1064
01:02:09,560 --> 01:02:12,960
Speaker 1: that you mentioned Disneyland stuff like that, and Donny Osma,

1065
01:02:13,000 --> 01:02:17,200
Speaker 1: oh free mill, let me buy a free mill. And yeah,

1066
01:02:17,400 --> 01:02:19,360
Speaker 1: there's all kinds of perch you get when you have

1067
01:02:19,520 --> 01:02:22,920
Speaker 1: that kind of career. But my dad was really I

1068
01:02:22,960 --> 01:02:26,280
Speaker 1: don't know how he did it. Yeah, in a way,

1069
01:02:26,320 --> 01:02:29,919
Speaker 1: I do know how he did it because he never

1070
01:02:31,440 --> 01:02:34,720
Speaker 1: let us live a an opulent life. He never let

1071
01:02:34,840 --> 01:02:39,840
Speaker 1: us get caught up in the celebritism um. In fact,

1072
01:02:40,400 --> 01:02:44,200
Speaker 1: when we we moved to Westwood and come on, we

1073
01:02:44,280 --> 01:02:48,240
Speaker 1: could have afforded a huge mansion. Right. He bought this

1074
01:02:48,360 --> 01:02:51,600
Speaker 1: apartment complex and he'd cut holes in the walls to

1075
01:02:51,680 --> 01:02:54,320
Speaker 1: the next complex or to the next apartment, and made

1076
01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:57,600
Speaker 1: a huge house out of it because he cut these

1077
01:02:57,880 --> 01:03:00,840
Speaker 1: holes in the walls and it was like a twelve

1078
01:03:00,880 --> 01:03:04,520
Speaker 1: plex or something like that. And then his thinking was,

1079
01:03:05,160 --> 01:03:09,600
Speaker 1: we're going to keep a very nice um. Oh, what's

1080
01:03:09,600 --> 01:03:13,560
Speaker 1: a good word, um unopulent? I can't think of think

1081
01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:19,680
Speaker 1: of the word um unostentatious place to live. And when

1082
01:03:19,760 --> 01:03:23,240
Speaker 1: we're done, when we move out, you know, put the

1083
01:03:23,720 --> 01:03:25,800
Speaker 1: walls back together, and we sell it as a twelve

1084
01:03:25,840 --> 01:03:29,880
Speaker 1: back plex. It was a great business, um way to

1085
01:03:29,960 --> 01:03:32,960
Speaker 1: do it. But we never drove fancy cars. Do you

1086
01:03:33,040 --> 01:03:37,560
Speaker 1: know what my first car was? It was a Chevy Chevette.

1087
01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:42,640
Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, that was my first car. And you

1088
01:03:42,720 --> 01:03:45,840
Speaker 1: know why I got it. I did a commercial. It

1089
01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:48,000
Speaker 1: was it was called a n Acadian. It was a

1090
01:03:48,040 --> 01:03:50,640
Speaker 1: Canadian commercial and they said, we'll give you two cars,

1091
01:03:51,680 --> 01:03:53,920
Speaker 1: one for Marie and one for yourself. I said, you

1092
01:03:54,000 --> 01:03:58,480
Speaker 1: gotta be kidding me. I'm gonna get a Chevette. I

1093
01:03:58,600 --> 01:04:05,040
Speaker 1: could have warded a Lambert game. Okay, your father was

1094
01:04:05,160 --> 01:04:10,160
Speaker 1: the manager entertainment is littered with parents who were managers.

1095
01:04:10,760 --> 01:04:14,040
Speaker 1: There's some good stories, but a lot of bad stories. Okay,

1096
01:04:14,600 --> 01:04:18,920
Speaker 1: where you know, whether it be Joe Jackson or Murray Wilson,

1097
01:04:19,520 --> 01:04:22,760
Speaker 1: where they're you know, they're controlling the money, they're the

1098
01:04:22,880 --> 01:04:25,680
Speaker 1: money whatever. So what we're what was it like having

1099
01:04:25,720 --> 01:04:28,520
Speaker 1: your father be a manager? And with hindsight were the

1100
01:04:28,680 --> 01:04:31,320
Speaker 1: things he did that you wish he didn't? Well, he

1101
01:04:31,560 --> 01:04:34,760
Speaker 1: was kind of a pseudo manager. Jim Moorey and Ed Leffler.

1102
01:04:34,800 --> 01:04:37,760
Speaker 1: Did you ever know Ed Leffler and Great Kats? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

1103
01:04:37,880 --> 01:04:39,280
Speaker 1: used to be an agent and then became the manager.

1104
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:43,320
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, So they were the managers at the beginning

1105
01:04:43,400 --> 01:04:46,320
Speaker 1: stages of One Bad Apple and all that kind of stuff. Uh.

1106
01:04:46,600 --> 01:04:50,240
Speaker 1: Prior to that, um, it was like, you know, hand

1107
01:04:50,320 --> 01:04:52,880
Speaker 1: the mouth, It was really trying hard to make it

1108
01:04:53,040 --> 01:04:58,240
Speaker 1: get a career going. So my dad very wise, he

1109
01:04:58,800 --> 01:05:01,240
Speaker 1: in a managerial kind of way. He surrounded us with

1110
01:05:01,520 --> 01:05:05,080
Speaker 1: very talented people. That's where I learned that philosophy, and

1111
01:05:05,560 --> 01:05:08,120
Speaker 1: I think he knew where his limitations were. That's when

1112
01:05:08,160 --> 01:05:10,919
Speaker 1: he brought in Ed Lethler and Ray Cats and Jim

1113
01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:14,560
Speaker 1: Morey And I don't know why we parted ways a

1114
01:05:14,680 --> 01:05:16,840
Speaker 1: few years after that, but I'm back with Jim after

1115
01:05:16,920 --> 01:05:20,240
Speaker 1: all those years. You have to have good representation because

1116
01:05:20,240 --> 01:05:23,240
Speaker 1: there's only so much an artist can do because you've

1117
01:05:23,280 --> 01:05:25,240
Speaker 1: got to have people out there all the time work

1118
01:05:25,320 --> 01:05:29,000
Speaker 1: in it, and I work with them. But I can't

1119
01:05:29,040 --> 01:05:32,760
Speaker 1: look at my dad and say he made erroneous mistakes

1120
01:05:33,520 --> 01:05:36,240
Speaker 1: other than the fact he let other people start controlling

1121
01:05:36,280 --> 01:05:39,880
Speaker 1: the money, and that was the biggest mistake, which he

1122
01:05:39,960 --> 01:05:42,360
Speaker 1: didn't really want to do. He was kicking and screaming

1123
01:05:42,920 --> 01:05:45,960
Speaker 1: to let that happen. But thank goodness, he had a

1124
01:05:46,280 --> 01:05:48,280
Speaker 1: you know, a business sense about him because he bought

1125
01:05:48,520 --> 01:05:52,040
Speaker 1: shopping centers and almond ranches and all these other things

1126
01:05:52,720 --> 01:05:55,120
Speaker 1: that we had to start selling off when we started

1127
01:05:55,320 --> 01:05:57,880
Speaker 1: going bankrupt because he said, I'm not going to take

1128
01:05:57,920 --> 01:06:00,360
Speaker 1: out bankruptcy because I don't want to screw an anybody.

1129
01:06:00,760 --> 01:06:02,680
Speaker 1: I want all of our debtors to be paid off.

1130
01:06:03,240 --> 01:06:05,680
Speaker 1: And we ended up with nothing thanks to the business

1131
01:06:05,720 --> 01:06:09,960
Speaker 1: acumen of my dad. Okay, tell me about the education component.

1132
01:06:11,080 --> 01:06:12,840
Speaker 1: So I never really had time to go to school

1133
01:06:13,280 --> 01:06:15,760
Speaker 1: because I was always working at the age of five,

1134
01:06:16,440 --> 01:06:20,360
Speaker 1: so I went and got my primary education UM in

1135
01:06:20,560 --> 01:06:23,160
Speaker 1: Baltimore at Calvert School. I've never been to my school.

1136
01:06:23,200 --> 01:06:25,360
Speaker 1: It was all through the mail. And then my high

1137
01:06:25,400 --> 01:06:27,440
Speaker 1: school was at a place called American School in Chicago,

1138
01:06:27,520 --> 01:06:31,080
Speaker 1: which I've never been at either. So, um, that's how

1139
01:06:31,120 --> 01:06:32,960
Speaker 1: I got my education. I went to public school for

1140
01:06:33,240 --> 01:06:35,919
Speaker 1: two weeks of the second grade, a couple of weeks

1141
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:38,360
Speaker 1: of the sixth grade, and one semester of college. And

1142
01:06:38,520 --> 01:06:41,960
Speaker 1: that's all I've done. Okay, So tell me the experience

1143
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:44,480
Speaker 1: of doing the correspondence. I mean, did you have a

1144
01:06:44,720 --> 01:06:47,200
Speaker 1: tutor there? Your mother say you got to spend X

1145
01:06:47,320 --> 01:06:49,479
Speaker 1: number of hours a day? How does it work? Yeah?

1146
01:06:49,600 --> 01:06:52,480
Speaker 1: I kind of cheated my way. I'll be completely honest.

1147
01:06:52,520 --> 01:06:54,680
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pull any punches with you, Bob. There are

1148
01:06:54,720 --> 01:06:57,120
Speaker 1: holes in my education that I wish weren't there because

1149
01:06:57,200 --> 01:07:00,959
Speaker 1: I just didn't focus. I loved electronics, I love math,

1150
01:07:01,480 --> 01:07:04,800
Speaker 1: hated history all this kind of stuff, and so English.

1151
01:07:05,080 --> 01:07:07,320
Speaker 1: I didn't like English. And that's why sometimes I'm a

1152
01:07:07,360 --> 01:07:11,320
Speaker 1: little timid when it comes to speaking because I can't

1153
01:07:11,320 --> 01:07:16,360
Speaker 1: find the words. Um, So I wish I wish those

1154
01:07:16,360 --> 01:07:18,280
Speaker 1: holes weren't there. And I've really tried hard later on

1155
01:07:18,280 --> 01:07:20,920
Speaker 1: in my life to figure out how to fill those holes.

1156
01:07:21,880 --> 01:07:24,320
Speaker 1: But that's where I got my love of electronics and

1157
01:07:25,000 --> 01:07:27,520
Speaker 1: and math and things like that, which has helped me

1158
01:07:27,680 --> 01:07:31,000
Speaker 1: in from the technical point of view or technical sense

1159
01:07:31,680 --> 01:07:35,080
Speaker 1: of my recording, because I love computer technology. If I

1160
01:07:35,160 --> 01:07:37,080
Speaker 1: were to sing, I probably worked for Apple or something

1161
01:07:37,160 --> 01:07:40,880
Speaker 1: like that. Okay, you grew up in a large family,

1162
01:07:41,480 --> 01:07:46,560
Speaker 1: one story, real fast. Okay, this is kind of a

1163
01:07:46,600 --> 01:07:50,080
Speaker 1: funny story. So back in the day when when Disney

1164
01:07:50,440 --> 01:07:53,840
Speaker 1: Walt Disney would launch a ride, uh there was no

1165
01:07:53,960 --> 01:07:57,400
Speaker 1: social media, you know, they only three networks, so they

1166
01:07:57,440 --> 01:08:02,200
Speaker 1: would produce a television show, Disney After Dark or whatever

1167
01:08:02,240 --> 01:08:06,960
Speaker 1: it might be. And uh so when they launched The

1168
01:08:07,080 --> 01:08:10,880
Speaker 1: Haunted Mansion, they got the Osman Brothers with Kurt Russell

1169
01:08:11,360 --> 01:08:15,880
Speaker 1: and we produced a television special. I was ten, maybe

1170
01:08:16,040 --> 01:08:19,080
Speaker 1: something like that, so obviously still in school. I had

1171
01:08:19,120 --> 01:08:23,200
Speaker 1: to have a welfare worker slash teacher, and they had

1172
01:08:23,240 --> 01:08:25,120
Speaker 1: to find us school, and they had to find a

1173
01:08:25,160 --> 01:08:27,920
Speaker 1: place for me to have school. There was a room

1174
01:08:28,640 --> 01:08:32,720
Speaker 1: in the Haunted Mansion. It wasn't being used, but I

1175
01:08:32,760 --> 01:08:34,439
Speaker 1: think the second floor or something like that they made

1176
01:08:34,439 --> 01:08:37,040
Speaker 1: a little schoolroom. I think I'm the only person ever

1177
01:08:37,760 --> 01:08:39,920
Speaker 1: in existence to be able to say the Haunted mansion

1178
01:08:40,200 --> 01:08:42,640
Speaker 1: was my school house. Right go to school in the

1179
01:08:42,680 --> 01:08:48,080
Speaker 1: Haunted Mansion. So there's nine kids. What about civiling, ribrry,

1180
01:08:48,400 --> 01:08:52,280
Speaker 1: side nightbrar, Sibling rivalry, it was there. Obviously it was there.

1181
01:08:53,479 --> 01:08:57,000
Speaker 1: But again pointing to my dad, we had this philosophy

1182
01:08:57,160 --> 01:09:01,120
Speaker 1: that there was a boss and when it came to

1183
01:09:01,280 --> 01:09:05,120
Speaker 1: the band, Alan was the boss if father wasn't there,

1184
01:09:05,840 --> 01:09:09,080
Speaker 1: and Allen was a great boss. I mean, um, but

1185
01:09:09,200 --> 01:09:12,240
Speaker 1: there were times where you couldn't really voice your opinion

1186
01:09:12,320 --> 01:09:15,479
Speaker 1: because we had so much to get done, especially when

1187
01:09:15,479 --> 01:09:18,120
Speaker 1: you're on the road where on stage and something happens,

1188
01:09:18,200 --> 01:09:20,320
Speaker 1: we all look at Alan, he makes a decision, Boom,

1189
01:09:20,400 --> 01:09:24,680
Speaker 1: we we executed. That gets difficult when you grow up

1190
01:09:24,680 --> 01:09:26,960
Speaker 1: a little bit more and you want to have a

1191
01:09:27,040 --> 01:09:30,639
Speaker 1: voice and you can't. That's when I started pulling away

1192
01:09:30,720 --> 01:09:34,760
Speaker 1: from the band and starting my own career in the

1193
01:09:34,840 --> 01:09:41,000
Speaker 1: mid eighties. It was difficult. It's very difficult. Um, But

1194
01:09:41,680 --> 01:09:46,519
Speaker 1: that was the philosophy and it kind of curtailed. I

1195
01:09:46,560 --> 01:09:49,519
Speaker 1: guess it the best word to use any sibling rivalry

1196
01:09:49,800 --> 01:09:53,320
Speaker 1: arguments because it's like, this is the way we're gonna

1197
01:09:53,360 --> 01:09:55,280
Speaker 1: do it, and boom was snapped in. It was almost

1198
01:09:55,320 --> 01:09:57,519
Speaker 1: like we were soldiers in a way. And some people

1199
01:09:57,560 --> 01:10:00,920
Speaker 1: will say, oh, that's sad, you didn't live a childhood

1200
01:10:00,960 --> 01:10:04,640
Speaker 1: you were a soldier. I looked a different kind of childhood.

1201
01:10:05,680 --> 01:10:08,920
Speaker 1: It was. Yes, it was very strict, and but look

1202
01:10:09,000 --> 01:10:13,200
Speaker 1: what we did, Look what we're able to accomplish. And

1203
01:10:14,080 --> 01:10:20,439
Speaker 1: it was that that regiment of respecting authority and whoever

1204
01:10:20,520 --> 01:10:22,400
Speaker 1: is in charge, listen, like for on this show, in

1205
01:10:22,439 --> 01:10:26,680
Speaker 1: the Vegas Show, I put the show together. But when Raj,

1206
01:10:27,000 --> 01:10:29,120
Speaker 1: who I hired to be my director, even Jim Morey

1207
01:10:29,160 --> 01:10:32,479
Speaker 1: told me this, if Raj says something, listened to him,

1208
01:10:34,040 --> 01:10:37,080
Speaker 1: can it took me right back to the days. I

1209
01:10:37,160 --> 01:10:41,639
Speaker 1: will listen to you. I will assimilate it because I'm

1210
01:10:41,760 --> 01:10:44,960
Speaker 1: smart enough to know that all of my ideas aren't

1211
01:10:44,960 --> 01:10:48,320
Speaker 1: the best ideas. So I have this ability to listen

1212
01:10:48,880 --> 01:10:52,559
Speaker 1: and then assimilate and then execute. But when you hire

1213
01:10:52,600 --> 01:10:55,880
Speaker 1: somebody to do a job, listen to him. Otherwise don't

1214
01:10:55,920 --> 01:10:58,560
Speaker 1: hire him. Okay, you've had a lot of experience in

1215
01:10:58,680 --> 01:11:02,040
Speaker 1: fifty years. Tell me what makes a good manager. Tell

1216
01:11:02,080 --> 01:11:05,760
Speaker 1: me about some bad managerial experiences you've had. Okay, I

1217
01:11:05,840 --> 01:11:09,679
Speaker 1: love Jim Moray because he listens to me, and because

1218
01:11:09,720 --> 01:11:12,360
Speaker 1: he listens to me. I mean, he'll present opportunities to

1219
01:11:12,479 --> 01:11:17,000
Speaker 1: me and he lets me make the decision. And if

1220
01:11:17,080 --> 01:11:20,560
Speaker 1: I don't make the right decision, he'll let me know it.

1221
01:11:21,080 --> 01:11:24,720
Speaker 1: But he but I'll say, Jim, I just don't want

1222
01:11:24,720 --> 01:11:28,240
Speaker 1: to do that, and he respects that decision. Some managers

1223
01:11:28,720 --> 01:11:30,439
Speaker 1: they don't listen to the artists. They just say, look,

1224
01:11:30,439 --> 01:11:31,840
Speaker 1: you gotta do this, and you gotta do that, you

1225
01:11:31,880 --> 01:11:33,479
Speaker 1: gotta do this, you gotta do that, and they'll work

1226
01:11:33,560 --> 01:11:36,760
Speaker 1: you to death. You know what, Jim tells me, do

1227
01:11:36,880 --> 01:11:39,040
Speaker 1: what you want to do. Do it feels right. And

1228
01:11:39,120 --> 01:11:42,880
Speaker 1: you know who else told me that. We go back

1229
01:11:42,920 --> 01:11:47,719
Speaker 1: to that car ride with Michael Jackson and when I said, Michael,

1230
01:11:48,080 --> 01:11:50,600
Speaker 1: what kind of what kind of material? What kind of

1231
01:11:50,760 --> 01:11:53,679
Speaker 1: songs should I sing to get back on the charts?

1232
01:11:54,040 --> 01:11:56,280
Speaker 1: Do you know what? He said? What do you want

1233
01:11:56,320 --> 01:12:06,960
Speaker 1: to do? What do you want to do? Yeah? Okay,

1234
01:12:07,040 --> 01:12:12,320
Speaker 1: how well did you know Michael Jackson and other celebrities? Um?

1235
01:12:13,360 --> 01:12:17,120
Speaker 1: I knew Mike pretty well. Um. And that started when

1236
01:12:17,160 --> 01:12:19,360
Speaker 1: we were thirteen, because we're about the same age and

1237
01:12:19,520 --> 01:12:23,120
Speaker 1: Mike six months older than me. And it all started

1238
01:12:23,200 --> 01:12:27,680
Speaker 1: at the Ciene Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. We were

1239
01:12:27,680 --> 01:12:31,000
Speaker 1: playing a show there as daytime show, and the Jacksons

1240
01:12:31,000 --> 01:12:33,960
Speaker 1: were performing the following night or following day, and I

1241
01:12:34,080 --> 01:12:36,439
Speaker 1: wanted so badly to stay and watch the show, because

1242
01:12:36,800 --> 01:12:39,439
Speaker 1: you know, they were watching our show, and obviously I

1243
01:12:39,560 --> 01:12:42,479
Speaker 1: wanted to watch Mike, but we had to leave and

1244
01:12:42,600 --> 01:12:46,920
Speaker 1: do another gig in another town. But they came to

1245
01:12:47,000 --> 01:12:52,600
Speaker 1: our hotel room, and my memories of that are so

1246
01:12:52,880 --> 01:12:57,960
Speaker 1: interesting because Tito and Wayne and and Jermaine and Merrill

1247
01:12:58,200 --> 01:13:00,479
Speaker 1: and Jackie and Alan and Marlon and j they were

1248
01:13:00,520 --> 01:13:04,240
Speaker 1: all talking, and and Joe and Catherine, We're talking to

1249
01:13:04,320 --> 01:13:06,479
Speaker 1: my mom and dad. Do you know what Mike and

1250
01:13:06,520 --> 01:13:09,719
Speaker 1: I were doing. We were over in the corner playing

1251
01:13:09,720 --> 01:13:14,719
Speaker 1: with toys. And from looking back after all these years,

1252
01:13:15,920 --> 01:13:19,240
Speaker 1: it's such a weird thing because just these two little

1253
01:13:19,280 --> 01:13:22,920
Speaker 1: teenagers wanted to be kids. We were having number one records,

1254
01:13:23,760 --> 01:13:28,240
Speaker 1: We just wanted to be kids. And so that relationship

1255
01:13:28,360 --> 01:13:30,680
Speaker 1: grew from there, and I remember going over his home

1256
01:13:30,840 --> 01:13:35,640
Speaker 1: at Havenhurst when he lived out in Encino, Um. We

1257
01:13:36,320 --> 01:13:39,080
Speaker 1: we would laugh our heads off at the comparison of

1258
01:13:39,160 --> 01:13:42,000
Speaker 1: each family, and he loved to show me all of

1259
01:13:42,040 --> 01:13:44,360
Speaker 1: his gold records and stuff like that, and that was fine.

1260
01:13:44,600 --> 01:13:48,200
Speaker 1: That's fine, Mike, but we would talk about, you know,

1261
01:13:48,320 --> 01:13:50,519
Speaker 1: the nine children. They had nine children, We had nine children.

1262
01:13:50,520 --> 01:13:52,920
Speaker 1: Our mother's birthdays are on the same day, and it's

1263
01:13:52,960 --> 01:13:57,240
Speaker 1: just a similar similar experiences. But Joe told us something

1264
01:13:57,320 --> 01:14:01,000
Speaker 1: that was kind of interesting. Told my dad no, because

1265
01:14:01,040 --> 01:14:03,960
Speaker 1: we were always blamed copying the Jackson five because they

1266
01:14:04,000 --> 01:14:05,840
Speaker 1: came out first with I Want You Back. I think

1267
01:14:05,880 --> 01:14:08,600
Speaker 1: it was the first one, right mistake, and then we

1268
01:14:08,680 --> 01:14:12,120
Speaker 1: came up with one that apple. Um. So they said

1269
01:14:12,120 --> 01:14:14,600
Speaker 1: the Osman's are trying to be be the white Jackson's,

1270
01:14:14,760 --> 01:14:18,680
Speaker 1: and and that started that that that rivalry between the

1271
01:14:18,720 --> 01:14:21,400
Speaker 1: Jackson's and the Osmonds and Mike and I just had

1272
01:14:21,560 --> 01:14:24,120
Speaker 1: the time of our life about you know, the comparisons

1273
01:14:24,160 --> 01:14:30,519
Speaker 1: because we were friends, um, and we were going to

1274
01:14:30,600 --> 01:14:34,640
Speaker 1: do a duet together. This is you know, years and

1275
01:14:34,720 --> 01:14:38,880
Speaker 1: years later after things really started becoming a mess for Mike.

1276
01:14:39,800 --> 01:14:41,880
Speaker 1: So I went and we were gonna do I Wish

1277
01:14:41,960 --> 01:14:47,040
Speaker 1: those days good come back. And it was a perfect song.

1278
01:14:47,160 --> 01:14:50,360
Speaker 1: He was gonna start looking back on where was a

1279
01:14:50,479 --> 01:14:53,840
Speaker 1: little nappy headed boy. Lyrically it was perfect. I went

1280
01:14:53,880 --> 01:14:56,479
Speaker 1: over to Stevie's um studio and I played him the

1281
01:14:56,560 --> 01:15:00,479
Speaker 1: track and so I got Stevie's bussings. She said, it's

1282
01:15:00,520 --> 01:15:03,559
Speaker 1: going to be amazing. So I went over to Neverland.

1283
01:15:03,800 --> 01:15:07,640
Speaker 1: I played it for Mike and he said, Oh, this

1284
01:15:07,840 --> 01:15:09,840
Speaker 1: is gonna be fun. This is gonna be great. We

1285
01:15:09,920 --> 01:15:14,599
Speaker 1: set a date for our vocals three weeks from that time.

1286
01:15:15,360 --> 01:15:17,360
Speaker 1: He calls me the following week he said, Donnie, can

1287
01:15:17,400 --> 01:15:19,839
Speaker 1: we postpone it a little bit. I'm just getting hounded

1288
01:15:19,880 --> 01:15:22,599
Speaker 1: by the press and things are crazy right now. I said, Mike,

1289
01:15:23,400 --> 01:15:26,040
Speaker 1: you postpone it however long you want, because when it's right,

1290
01:15:26,120 --> 01:15:31,120
Speaker 1: we'll do it. And it never happened. So the relationship

1291
01:15:31,439 --> 01:15:36,760
Speaker 1: over the years kind of got a little strange as

1292
01:15:37,200 --> 01:15:39,519
Speaker 1: he started making some weird decisions. I remember getting a

1293
01:15:39,560 --> 01:15:43,040
Speaker 1: call from him, Bob. I was on the road and

1294
01:15:43,840 --> 01:15:47,880
Speaker 1: my phone rings. I pick it up and he says hello.

1295
01:15:48,640 --> 01:15:55,680
Speaker 1: I said, hello, Donnie. Who's it? Mike? Hi Donnie. And

1296
01:15:55,880 --> 01:16:00,360
Speaker 1: we had this conversation and I said, where are you?

1297
01:16:01,640 --> 01:16:03,720
Speaker 1: I can't tell you. I said, Mike, come on, you're

1298
01:16:03,720 --> 01:16:05,360
Speaker 1: talking to me. Where Where are you? Where are you?

1299
01:16:05,520 --> 01:16:08,320
Speaker 1: He said, I'm in Phoenix. I rented a tour bus

1300
01:16:08,439 --> 01:16:09,840
Speaker 1: and I put my kids in it, and I just

1301
01:16:09,920 --> 01:16:11,559
Speaker 1: had to get out of l A and just escape.

1302
01:16:11,560 --> 01:16:14,680
Speaker 1: I just need to get away. I said, Mike, you're

1303
01:16:14,680 --> 01:16:19,080
Speaker 1: a nine hour drive from my home. I'm done this Saturday.

1304
01:16:19,439 --> 01:16:21,960
Speaker 1: I will be home. You get a net bus and

1305
01:16:22,080 --> 01:16:24,599
Speaker 1: you drive up to Utah. No one, I'll know you're there.

1306
01:16:24,720 --> 01:16:26,880
Speaker 1: Your kids can go swimming with my kids. I'm going

1307
01:16:26,920 --> 01:16:30,320
Speaker 1: to give you a weekend of normalcy. And he said,

1308
01:16:30,920 --> 01:16:33,720
Speaker 1: I really need that right now. He never took me

1309
01:16:33,840 --> 01:16:35,439
Speaker 1: up on it was the last time I spoke with him.

1310
01:16:36,840 --> 01:16:40,160
Speaker 1: Why do you think he never grew up? And when

1311
01:16:40,240 --> 01:16:44,519
Speaker 1: in his direction where you're so grounded and an adult,

1312
01:16:44,880 --> 01:16:47,360
Speaker 1: that's a million dollar questions. We could pontificate on that

1313
01:16:47,479 --> 01:16:50,639
Speaker 1: all you want, and you know, blame Joe or whatever,

1314
01:16:51,560 --> 01:16:55,439
Speaker 1: but um, you really want me to go there. Sure,

1315
01:16:56,439 --> 01:17:02,720
Speaker 1: he made a big mistake when you're that popular, and

1316
01:17:02,920 --> 01:17:06,720
Speaker 1: he was a genius. I you got to give him that,

1317
01:17:07,560 --> 01:17:09,960
Speaker 1: whether you really liked his music or not. But it

1318
01:17:10,160 --> 01:17:14,479
Speaker 1: was fantastic. He was a genius and yes, Quincy added

1319
01:17:14,640 --> 01:17:19,000
Speaker 1: so much to that. That was an amazing team. But

1320
01:17:19,120 --> 01:17:22,120
Speaker 1: he started surrounding himself with yes people. I saw it happening,

1321
01:17:23,720 --> 01:17:27,360
Speaker 1: and there was a saying that started going around his circles.

1322
01:17:27,840 --> 01:17:30,920
Speaker 1: Unbeknownst to him, the air is rare up there when

1323
01:17:30,960 --> 01:17:36,599
Speaker 1: you start breathing your own oxygen, and that can be very,

1324
01:17:36,720 --> 01:17:40,679
Speaker 1: very dangerous. When you know you're good and everybody's telling

1325
01:17:40,720 --> 01:17:45,080
Speaker 1: you you're good, it just gets dangerous. It's tip Coin

1326
01:17:45,160 --> 01:17:49,080
Speaker 1: a phrase of his dangerous, And I think that's maybe

1327
01:17:49,200 --> 01:17:53,240
Speaker 1: one factor I heard for him. Because he and I

1328
01:17:53,320 --> 01:17:55,680
Speaker 1: had such a great relationship. I knew him in a

1329
01:17:55,840 --> 01:17:58,080
Speaker 1: in a way that nobody else the world didn't know

1330
01:17:58,600 --> 01:18:02,240
Speaker 1: the world knew him wacko jacko, and I knew him

1331
01:18:02,240 --> 01:18:04,960
Speaker 1: as that thirteen year old kid that we met in

1332
01:18:05,080 --> 01:18:09,760
Speaker 1: Toronto at Cene, and I hold on to that and

1333
01:18:10,360 --> 01:18:15,040
Speaker 1: nothing else. Okay, you're over sixty. You have brothers in

1334
01:18:15,120 --> 01:18:19,240
Speaker 1: their seventies. Uh, you have a couple of younger siblings.

1335
01:18:21,000 --> 01:18:24,200
Speaker 1: Obviously the heyday of the group was, you know, the

1336
01:18:24,280 --> 01:18:28,519
Speaker 1: late sixties, early bid seventies. To what degree do you

1337
01:18:28,680 --> 01:18:34,040
Speaker 1: feel responsible for the family. You didn't want to ask

1338
01:18:34,120 --> 01:18:39,840
Speaker 1: me that, Yeah, you really wanted to get me in trouble. No,

1339
01:18:40,080 --> 01:18:41,760
Speaker 1: I mean not that my goal is not to get

1340
01:18:41,800 --> 01:18:45,439
Speaker 1: you in trouble. But you know, when one sibling, this

1341
01:18:45,600 --> 01:18:49,360
Speaker 1: is more complicated than any situation you normally come across

1342
01:18:50,320 --> 01:18:53,240
Speaker 1: because you know, a lot of groups, a lot of families,

1343
01:18:53,360 --> 01:18:56,000
Speaker 1: kids grow up equal and then one becomes to make

1344
01:18:56,040 --> 01:19:00,840
Speaker 1: us successful. You're all successful together, so you have the

1345
01:19:00,960 --> 01:19:05,560
Speaker 1: exact same roots and then you have gone on to

1346
01:19:05,800 --> 01:19:09,120
Speaker 1: have a career in show business. Not everybody in the

1347
01:19:09,400 --> 01:19:11,760
Speaker 1: family has been able to do that. As you say,

1348
01:19:11,840 --> 01:19:14,680
Speaker 1: you've been in hard times. You know, comes down to

1349
01:19:14,840 --> 01:19:22,080
Speaker 1: money and opportunities. It's it's complicated in absolutely every family. Um,

1350
01:19:22,360 --> 01:19:25,280
Speaker 1: this is not an easy answer. I'm going to start

1351
01:19:25,560 --> 01:19:32,479
Speaker 1: by saying this, it's really hard to answer this, Bob,

1352
01:19:32,600 --> 01:19:36,160
Speaker 1: because um, as I mentioned earlier, and I don't want

1353
01:19:36,160 --> 01:19:37,840
Speaker 1: to repeat myself, but I have to a little bit.

1354
01:19:39,200 --> 01:19:41,200
Speaker 1: I had two careers going on at the same time.

1355
01:19:41,439 --> 01:19:43,880
Speaker 1: This prior to the Donni and Re career, which is,

1356
01:19:43,960 --> 01:19:49,160
Speaker 1: you know, three careers. But the Tea Popper career that

1357
01:19:49,240 --> 01:19:52,000
Speaker 1: I had kind of ruined my rock and roll career.

1358
01:19:53,400 --> 01:19:55,960
Speaker 1: And because it ruined my rock and roll career, my

1359
01:19:56,080 --> 01:19:59,080
Speaker 1: brothers were part of that rock and roll career. Case

1360
01:19:59,160 --> 01:20:04,240
Speaker 1: in point um, we did an album called The Plan

1361
01:20:05,520 --> 01:20:10,160
Speaker 1: and for for those who really drilled down into the

1362
01:20:10,720 --> 01:20:15,320
Speaker 1: depths of my career. For the Osman's careers, the Plan

1363
01:20:15,479 --> 01:20:19,280
Speaker 1: was way ahead of its time, and um, so my

1364
01:20:19,400 --> 01:20:22,439
Speaker 1: brother Alan White labeled it did pretty much what I

1365
01:20:22,479 --> 01:20:24,640
Speaker 1: did was with Soldier of Love. White labeled it and

1366
01:20:24,680 --> 01:20:26,479
Speaker 1: took it to I think it was Kalos there in

1367
01:20:26,640 --> 01:20:31,760
Speaker 1: l A and the program director and music director met

1368
01:20:31,800 --> 01:20:35,400
Speaker 1: with my brother Alan from a new band they played.

1369
01:20:35,520 --> 01:20:38,080
Speaker 1: He played the album to him, said, dude, this sounds

1370
01:20:38,160 --> 01:20:42,960
Speaker 1: like led Zeppelin influences and the Who and and uh

1371
01:20:43,240 --> 01:20:46,680
Speaker 1: all these these bands, the Stones. What's the name of

1372
01:20:46,760 --> 01:20:51,080
Speaker 1: the band? He said, it's the Osmand's. Do you know what?

1373
01:20:51,160 --> 01:20:55,800
Speaker 1: They said? I'm sorry, we can't play it. Do you

1374
01:20:55,880 --> 01:21:01,920
Speaker 1: know why? Because of me? And this is kind of

1375
01:21:02,000 --> 01:21:05,200
Speaker 1: like a round about, convoluted way to answer your question.

1376
01:21:06,960 --> 01:21:11,960
Speaker 1: Because of me? Because I was enjoying such success in

1377
01:21:12,120 --> 01:21:18,439
Speaker 1: the other career and so that really hurts. And so

1378
01:21:18,680 --> 01:21:23,559
Speaker 1: to answer this question of yours, Um, it's very difficult

1379
01:21:23,640 --> 01:21:29,320
Speaker 1: because of what our careers could have been like. But

1380
01:21:29,479 --> 01:21:32,240
Speaker 1: I don't want to put down my teeny bopper career

1381
01:21:32,360 --> 01:21:36,840
Speaker 1: because it was amazing. But the two couldn't exist in

1382
01:21:36,920 --> 01:21:41,200
Speaker 1: the same world. It's impossible. I found that out. I

1383
01:21:41,280 --> 01:21:43,320
Speaker 1: know that the hard way, and my brothers found that

1384
01:21:43,360 --> 01:21:46,759
Speaker 1: out as well. But then an interesting dynamic took place

1385
01:21:47,560 --> 01:21:51,280
Speaker 1: as all that was taking place, an opportunity from Freddy Silverman,

1386
01:21:51,760 --> 01:21:57,439
Speaker 1: president of ABC, offer the Donnie and Mury Show. And

1387
01:21:58,360 --> 01:22:02,320
Speaker 1: I immediately realized, there goes my record career, because if

1388
01:22:02,320 --> 01:22:04,200
Speaker 1: people can watch me every week on television, they're not

1389
01:22:04,200 --> 01:22:06,679
Speaker 1: gonna buy my records. And sure enough, that's what happened.

1390
01:22:07,840 --> 01:22:11,280
Speaker 1: For an interesting thing took place with my brothers. The

1391
01:22:11,400 --> 01:22:14,519
Speaker 1: show was so successful, I mean we were getting thirty

1392
01:22:14,640 --> 01:22:21,599
Speaker 1: thirty two shares. It was crazy. Um my brothers jumped

1393
01:22:21,640 --> 01:22:24,800
Speaker 1: in and they were behind the scenes because let's sell.

1394
01:22:24,840 --> 01:22:26,679
Speaker 1: It's all for one, one for all kind of a situation,

1395
01:22:27,280 --> 01:22:32,640
Speaker 1: and we all made this show very, very successful. But

1396
01:22:32,800 --> 01:22:35,920
Speaker 1: the the second part of this story I want to

1397
01:22:35,960 --> 01:22:38,680
Speaker 1: tell you was we were in Las Vegas. I want

1398
01:22:38,720 --> 01:22:49,759
Speaker 1: to say the years four maybe and um, the brothers,

1399
01:22:50,520 --> 01:22:55,400
Speaker 1: Marie and Jimmy. So it's the Austin Brothers with Donnie,

1400
01:22:55,520 --> 01:23:00,840
Speaker 1: Marie and Jimmy on the billboard. Bob. I was in

1401
01:23:01,000 --> 01:23:08,880
Speaker 1: every single song, in every segment. I don't hold anyone

1402
01:23:09,000 --> 01:23:13,320
Speaker 1: can in contempt. I don't hold my brothers. I don't

1403
01:23:13,320 --> 01:23:15,800
Speaker 1: have ill feelings towards anyone who made me do that.

1404
01:23:17,960 --> 01:23:19,720
Speaker 1: But I'm just telling you the truth. I'm just being

1405
01:23:19,760 --> 01:23:23,880
Speaker 1: honest with you because you can spot a liar a

1406
01:23:24,000 --> 01:23:27,200
Speaker 1: million miles away. You haven't done you know, you haven't

1407
01:23:27,200 --> 01:23:32,519
Speaker 1: been You've been around the block. And if I went down,

1408
01:23:33,800 --> 01:23:39,439
Speaker 1: that was a problem. We couldn't cut anything, and it

1409
01:23:39,600 --> 01:23:43,439
Speaker 1: really took its toll on me, and I thought, I'm

1410
01:23:43,600 --> 01:23:47,800
Speaker 1: I can't get out because everything is being dependent upon

1411
01:23:48,840 --> 01:23:51,559
Speaker 1: you know, make sure you're there, make sure. I had

1412
01:23:51,600 --> 01:23:54,519
Speaker 1: to stay healthy. I had to stay strong and um

1413
01:23:54,760 --> 01:23:57,560
Speaker 1: and I hope that if my brothers are here hearing this,

1414
01:23:58,560 --> 01:24:00,680
Speaker 1: they don't hold me in contempt. Are saying this, but

1415
01:24:01,439 --> 01:24:03,400
Speaker 1: it's the truth. I mean, let's let's just be honest.

1416
01:24:03,560 --> 01:24:12,559
Speaker 1: I was a part of all three careers and I'm glad.

1417
01:24:12,720 --> 01:24:17,560
Speaker 1: I mean, it kept me busy, but it was it

1418
01:24:17,640 --> 01:24:20,960
Speaker 1: kept me dependent as well as it as it as

1419
01:24:21,000 --> 01:24:24,800
Speaker 1: it no dependent. Yeah, that's right. Okay. Do you feel

1420
01:24:24,800 --> 01:24:30,120
Speaker 1: any resentment? Well, how can I say that? Because if

1421
01:24:30,280 --> 01:24:35,760
Speaker 1: I if I blatantly made mistakes and said I don't

1422
01:24:35,840 --> 01:24:37,400
Speaker 1: want to do this and I don't want to do that,

1423
01:24:37,640 --> 01:24:40,479
Speaker 1: I'm I'm Donny Osmond. You know I've got my career.

1424
01:24:40,880 --> 01:24:43,400
Speaker 1: If I had said all that, yeah, then I I

1425
01:24:43,439 --> 01:24:46,599
Speaker 1: would hold resentment because they made me do these other things,

1426
01:24:47,840 --> 01:24:50,439
Speaker 1: so I can't say that I got resentment because I

1427
01:24:50,560 --> 01:24:54,599
Speaker 1: learned from it. Yeah, it was very difficult going through

1428
01:24:54,680 --> 01:24:59,560
Speaker 1: that lonely tunnel, as I referred to earlier, But I

1429
01:24:59,680 --> 01:25:03,639
Speaker 1: learned so much from the business and how to how

1430
01:25:03,720 --> 01:25:08,200
Speaker 1: to evolve a career and how to write music because

1431
01:25:09,520 --> 01:25:12,680
Speaker 1: I was down at rock bottom. You talk about motivation, Bob,

1432
01:25:13,400 --> 01:25:16,840
Speaker 1: you gotta pull yourself out from rock bottom, below rock

1433
01:25:16,880 --> 01:25:20,360
Speaker 1: bottom because you have to pull yourself up. Now you're

1434
01:25:20,360 --> 01:25:24,080
Speaker 1: at ground zero. Okay, but did your brothers resent you

1435
01:25:24,880 --> 01:25:28,680
Speaker 1: that you ultimately pulled away and found future success. I

1436
01:25:28,720 --> 01:25:31,519
Speaker 1: don't think so, because they started their own country career.

1437
01:25:32,080 --> 01:25:34,200
Speaker 1: They had, you know, some marginal hits with that, but

1438
01:25:34,560 --> 01:25:38,040
Speaker 1: some talented guys. And I'm not just saying that because

1439
01:25:38,120 --> 01:25:41,599
Speaker 1: you know, to play Kate, they're very, very talented. Alan

1440
01:25:41,680 --> 01:25:45,040
Speaker 1: wrote the plan. Merrill had one of the greatest rock

1441
01:25:45,080 --> 01:25:49,240
Speaker 1: and roll voices of all time. Wayne played the down down,

1442
01:25:49,680 --> 01:25:54,880
Speaker 1: all the guitar stuff on Crazy Horses. Jay an amazing drummer. Um.

1443
01:25:56,439 --> 01:25:59,400
Speaker 1: So they went on and started doing some other things.

1444
01:25:59,600 --> 01:26:02,439
Speaker 1: We went on to do her career and this is interesting.

1445
01:26:03,600 --> 01:26:07,000
Speaker 1: After the Donnie and Marie Show ended, Uh, Marie went

1446
01:26:07,080 --> 01:26:09,679
Speaker 1: on to have hits, you know, country hits and stuff

1447
01:26:09,720 --> 01:26:14,519
Speaker 1: like that. Donny Osmond, let's put out the pasture. It's like, Okay,

1448
01:26:14,520 --> 01:26:16,639
Speaker 1: everybody else is now doing their own thing. Everything's split.

1449
01:26:16,960 --> 01:26:21,240
Speaker 1: You're on your own now. I had to figure out

1450
01:26:21,400 --> 01:26:23,000
Speaker 1: what I was going to do on how I was

1451
01:26:23,080 --> 01:26:25,000
Speaker 1: going to reinvent myself. That's when I moved to Los

1452
01:26:25,040 --> 01:26:32,400
Speaker 1: Angeles and said, okay, I gotta I gotta start again. Okay,

1453
01:26:33,439 --> 01:26:40,160
Speaker 1: So when the TV show was happening, the family built

1454
01:26:40,200 --> 01:26:44,760
Speaker 1: a studio in are Um. Yeah, the conventional wisdom was

1455
01:26:45,080 --> 01:26:48,600
Speaker 1: ultimately that was a cause it was expensive and you

1456
01:26:48,760 --> 01:26:52,679
Speaker 1: lost money. So what really happened there? And then after

1457
01:26:52,800 --> 01:26:55,880
Speaker 1: the show was over, what happened to the space? Well,

1458
01:26:56,080 --> 01:27:03,040
Speaker 1: it's now a worldwide, famous agree place for stars, it's true,

1459
01:27:03,600 --> 01:27:06,439
Speaker 1: and stars from all over the world. And I obviously

1460
01:27:06,560 --> 01:27:08,880
Speaker 1: don't have I'm not privy to that information because it's

1461
01:27:09,120 --> 01:27:14,120
Speaker 1: hip hop. But um, the guy who owns it, it's

1462
01:27:14,120 --> 01:27:16,640
Speaker 1: a good friend of mine. He said, I wish I

1463
01:27:16,760 --> 01:27:19,240
Speaker 1: could tell you who's in there in your studio. I

1464
01:27:19,479 --> 01:27:23,680
Speaker 1: wish he would be shocked. So it went from this

1465
01:27:24,200 --> 01:27:28,320
Speaker 1: amazing state of the art facility and then it went

1466
01:27:28,360 --> 01:27:31,120
Speaker 1: through these dark years because this is the mistake that

1467
01:27:31,320 --> 01:27:34,599
Speaker 1: was made in my life. The wrong people were hired

1468
01:27:34,760 --> 01:27:37,000
Speaker 1: to make these decisions, who had no idea what they

1469
01:27:37,040 --> 01:27:40,400
Speaker 1: were doing show business, but they were spending money. They

1470
01:27:40,439 --> 01:27:42,479
Speaker 1: had a commercial division, a movie division, of filling, you know,

1471
01:27:42,920 --> 01:27:46,360
Speaker 1: an airline division, all kinds of stuff that we had

1472
01:27:46,479 --> 01:27:51,840
Speaker 1: no knowledge in. You said something earlier, when we're talking

1473
01:27:51,880 --> 01:27:56,720
Speaker 1: about money. That's so true. Invest in yourself, because that's

1474
01:27:56,760 --> 01:28:00,160
Speaker 1: what you know. And they were investing our money in things,

1475
01:28:00,160 --> 01:28:03,439
Speaker 1: so we had no business being in and that's when

1476
01:28:03,479 --> 01:28:07,519
Speaker 1: it all crumbled and we lost the studio, and and

1477
01:28:08,120 --> 01:28:11,679
Speaker 1: the rest is history. And how often do you speak

1478
01:28:11,760 --> 01:28:14,479
Speaker 1: with the other members of your family these days? All

1479
01:28:14,520 --> 01:28:16,640
Speaker 1: the time? I just got a text for Marie um

1480
01:28:16,800 --> 01:28:18,880
Speaker 1: a couple of days ago, and Jimmy was over at

1481
01:28:18,880 --> 01:28:22,200
Speaker 1: the house. Uh last night, Alan, I talked with him

1482
01:28:22,200 --> 01:28:25,000
Speaker 1: all the time. We have a family thread and uh

1483
01:28:26,080 --> 01:28:29,040
Speaker 1: so all the time. It's it's kind of nice when

1484
01:28:29,040 --> 01:28:32,559
Speaker 1: not business partners anymore and it's just family stuff. Doubt

1485
01:28:32,600 --> 01:28:36,280
Speaker 1: does anybody in the family say, Hey, my grandkid wants

1486
01:28:36,320 --> 01:28:37,880
Speaker 1: to be in the business, can you hire them on

1487
01:28:37,960 --> 01:28:43,519
Speaker 1: your show? I think they know better than that. First

1488
01:28:43,560 --> 01:28:47,880
Speaker 1: of all, there's no room in the show. But nobody

1489
01:28:47,920 --> 01:28:50,040
Speaker 1: has ever said that to me. How about even behind

1490
01:28:50,080 --> 01:28:54,120
Speaker 1: the scenes, you know, working with the crew. Oh, there

1491
01:28:54,200 --> 01:28:56,680
Speaker 1: are several nephews and nieces that have come to me

1492
01:28:57,680 --> 01:29:00,880
Speaker 1: and they say, what do I love the music business?

1493
01:29:01,400 --> 01:29:04,320
Speaker 1: And I'll sit and spend hours with them and just

1494
01:29:04,560 --> 01:29:06,040
Speaker 1: give him a piece of my mind. And you know

1495
01:29:06,200 --> 01:29:10,080
Speaker 1: from my experience. Um, but it all gets back to

1496
01:29:10,600 --> 01:29:13,840
Speaker 1: the island. Yeah, it all gets back to you. You know.

1497
01:29:13,920 --> 01:29:15,960
Speaker 1: I can give you as much advice as anybody can

1498
01:29:16,000 --> 01:29:19,040
Speaker 1: give you, as much advice as you want, but you

1499
01:29:19,200 --> 01:29:21,320
Speaker 1: gotta do it. That's what I learned when I had

1500
01:29:21,360 --> 01:29:25,439
Speaker 1: to reinvent myself. I can't rest on anybody anymore. It's you,

1501
01:29:26,320 --> 01:29:32,880
Speaker 1: especially nowadays. Okay, so what's the next step? Have a

1502
01:29:33,520 --> 01:29:38,080
Speaker 1: have a residency till the end of time? Tire another

1503
01:29:38,160 --> 01:29:41,439
Speaker 1: mountain to climb. Well, I just started the residency here,

1504
01:29:41,520 --> 01:29:44,519
Speaker 1: so this is this is where my focus is right now. Yeah.

1505
01:29:44,640 --> 01:29:46,120
Speaker 1: Well you're not that old though. I mean, you could

1506
01:29:46,120 --> 01:29:48,240
Speaker 1: do the residency for ten years, you'd still be in

1507
01:29:48,280 --> 01:29:52,200
Speaker 1: your you know, seventies. Yeah exactly, And I might do that.

1508
01:29:52,360 --> 01:29:55,840
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll see what happens. But I'm an artist.

1509
01:29:56,120 --> 01:29:59,280
Speaker 1: I've already started plans and ideas and concepts on my

1510
01:29:59,400 --> 01:30:04,880
Speaker 1: sixty six the album, so I'm constantly writing. I got

1511
01:30:05,000 --> 01:30:09,240
Speaker 1: so many ideas in this little thing that I will

1512
01:30:09,400 --> 01:30:12,920
Speaker 1: act upon when things settled down a little bit. I

1513
01:30:13,080 --> 01:30:17,600
Speaker 1: just committed to well, first of all, I'm promoting, you know,

1514
01:30:17,760 --> 01:30:20,320
Speaker 1: my sixty fifth album that so those two projects are

1515
01:30:20,560 --> 01:30:23,720
Speaker 1: primary for me. But I'm in the process right now

1516
01:30:23,920 --> 01:30:28,040
Speaker 1: of learning a new show. I committed to do what

1517
01:30:28,360 --> 01:30:33,120
Speaker 1: is touted to be, um, the biggest show in England

1518
01:30:33,560 --> 01:30:37,759
Speaker 1: for the month of December. Um. I'm sure you're familiar

1519
01:30:37,800 --> 01:30:41,639
Speaker 1: with with panto, pant pantomime. It's it's a British cultural

1520
01:30:41,720 --> 01:30:43,160
Speaker 1: thing and it's starting to make its way here in

1521
01:30:43,160 --> 01:30:48,280
Speaker 1: the United States. So um. Michael Harrison called me, he's

1522
01:30:48,320 --> 01:30:50,640
Speaker 1: the producer. He said, would you be interested in playing this?

1523
01:30:51,680 --> 01:30:56,320
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, Michael, it's Christmas. I want to

1524
01:30:56,360 --> 01:30:59,280
Speaker 1: be home with my wife and kids and grandkids, and

1525
01:30:59,479 --> 01:31:01,679
Speaker 1: so I I talked it over with my wife. She said,

1526
01:31:02,280 --> 01:31:04,280
Speaker 1: let's do it. Let's go over there and just have

1527
01:31:04,400 --> 01:31:06,320
Speaker 1: Christmas in London. Some of the kids are coming over,

1528
01:31:06,400 --> 01:31:08,519
Speaker 1: some of the grandkids are coming over, and we're gonna

1529
01:31:08,560 --> 01:31:12,360
Speaker 1: have a blast, huge show. I'm the m C I'm

1530
01:31:12,439 --> 01:31:16,680
Speaker 1: the Wizard, and uh it's they said. Michael said, it's

1531
01:31:16,720 --> 01:31:20,360
Speaker 1: going to be the biggest Panto show they've ever done,

1532
01:31:20,439 --> 01:31:23,160
Speaker 1: because last year they started it, they did six shows

1533
01:31:23,200 --> 01:31:25,760
Speaker 1: and they had to cancel it because of COVID. And

1534
01:31:25,880 --> 01:31:29,080
Speaker 1: he said, we're taking that show and we're gonna multiply

1535
01:31:29,240 --> 01:31:31,880
Speaker 1: it by ten. It's gonna be the biggest Panto show

1536
01:31:32,080 --> 01:31:36,759
Speaker 1: we've ever done. So if someone asks you to do something,

1537
01:31:38,040 --> 01:31:41,800
Speaker 1: what touches your buttons? What makes you say no, how

1538
01:31:41,880 --> 01:31:46,519
Speaker 1: important our money, how important schedule, etcetera challenge? That's the

1539
01:31:46,560 --> 01:31:48,840
Speaker 1: first thing that comes to my mind. It doesn't challenge

1540
01:31:48,880 --> 01:31:51,439
Speaker 1: me as an artist. So panto is going to challenge

1541
01:31:51,439 --> 01:31:54,080
Speaker 1: me because I'm playing this character and I've got to

1542
01:31:54,520 --> 01:31:57,439
Speaker 1: play this role. I really loved theater when I did Joseph.

1543
01:31:58,080 --> 01:31:59,880
Speaker 1: And you do the same thing when you record music,

1544
01:32:00,040 --> 01:32:02,559
Speaker 1: you throw I close my eyes, I go into another

1545
01:32:02,640 --> 01:32:04,840
Speaker 1: world as an artist, and I say, I know this

1546
01:32:04,920 --> 01:32:07,800
Speaker 1: may sound silly to some people, but musicians understand this.

1547
01:32:09,520 --> 01:32:12,760
Speaker 1: Will it challenge me as an artist? Will people walk

1548
01:32:12,760 --> 01:32:15,080
Speaker 1: away and say I had no idea he could do that?

1549
01:32:15,840 --> 01:32:19,120
Speaker 1: I mean, I I thrive on that. You know, It's

1550
01:32:19,160 --> 01:32:22,720
Speaker 1: like have I had to because after a teeny bop

1551
01:32:22,800 --> 01:32:25,120
Speaker 1: of career, you want to surprise people all the times.

1552
01:32:25,360 --> 01:32:28,160
Speaker 1: When people expect the right turn, you go left. And

1553
01:32:29,479 --> 01:32:32,839
Speaker 1: I eat that up as an artist when I reinvent

1554
01:32:32,960 --> 01:32:41,320
Speaker 1: myself and and do something totally different. Um, some people

1555
01:32:41,800 --> 01:32:45,280
Speaker 1: find it kind of interesting that I did. I'm on

1556
01:32:45,400 --> 01:32:51,040
Speaker 1: Chicago seventeen and David Foster called me up and he said,

1557
01:32:51,880 --> 01:32:54,960
Speaker 1: not that Chicago really bought your albums like I said

1558
01:32:55,000 --> 01:32:59,160
Speaker 1: with Peter Gabel, but we want your sound. And he

1559
01:32:59,240 --> 01:33:03,479
Speaker 1: was pretty soon the two at the time and Build

1560
01:33:03,520 --> 01:33:06,920
Speaker 1: Build Champlain wrote the Weekend stop the hurting for a while.

1561
01:33:07,560 --> 01:33:10,920
Speaker 1: So he said, I want your sound. I want that

1562
01:33:11,040 --> 01:33:17,360
Speaker 1: Osmond sound. So I said, I'm there. And the fact

1563
01:33:17,439 --> 01:33:20,880
Speaker 1: that I would do an album like that, it's surprises.

1564
01:33:20,920 --> 01:33:24,040
Speaker 1: People said, you were in Chicago seventeen when Dweeesel Zappa

1565
01:33:24,160 --> 01:33:25,920
Speaker 1: called me and said, would you be willing to do

1566
01:33:26,560 --> 01:33:31,200
Speaker 1: Staying Alive with all these amazing guitar players? And yes,

1567
01:33:31,280 --> 01:33:33,080
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a tongue in cheek kind of

1568
01:33:33,120 --> 01:33:36,960
Speaker 1: a thing, uh saying staying Alive and I'm I'm singing

1569
01:33:37,000 --> 01:33:40,800
Speaker 1: about you know, staying alive as an artist. But it

1570
01:33:41,439 --> 01:33:44,280
Speaker 1: turned people's heads. Peter Gabriel, I mean it turned your

1571
01:33:44,360 --> 01:33:47,599
Speaker 1: head when Peter Gabriel was involved in Donny Osmond's career.

1572
01:33:48,080 --> 01:33:52,240
Speaker 1: I love that because it's like I gotta hear this.

1573
01:33:52,400 --> 01:33:56,760
Speaker 1: It's that's just different. I love that. Okay. Know they

1574
01:33:56,840 --> 01:34:00,880
Speaker 1: say they're not going to use the netword Mormons anymore.

1575
01:34:02,040 --> 01:34:07,320
Speaker 1: Church of the Latter Day Saints real reality television has

1576
01:34:07,360 --> 01:34:10,040
Speaker 1: become very big over the last twenty years. What they

1577
01:34:10,200 --> 01:34:14,799
Speaker 1: noticed is a lot of the winners were LDS people,

1578
01:34:15,200 --> 01:34:17,599
Speaker 1: And they said, because they knew how to get along

1579
01:34:18,000 --> 01:34:22,280
Speaker 1: in large families. To what degree is your religious background

1580
01:34:22,439 --> 01:34:24,880
Speaker 1: benefited your career? Well, let me clark correct you on

1581
01:34:24,960 --> 01:34:27,160
Speaker 1: one other thing. Yeah, people say l d S two,

1582
01:34:27,240 --> 01:34:29,880
Speaker 1: but it's the Church of Jesus Christ Letter Saints, the

1583
01:34:29,880 --> 01:34:31,960
Speaker 1: longest name I know. I know you're not supposed to

1584
01:34:32,040 --> 01:34:34,280
Speaker 1: use ld S either, not thinking what could I say?

1585
01:34:34,560 --> 01:34:36,599
Speaker 1: You can use it if you want, it doesn't matter.

1586
01:34:37,040 --> 01:34:39,360
Speaker 1: And the reason why they're getting away from Mormons because

1587
01:34:39,400 --> 01:34:42,400
Speaker 1: it sounds like a cult. And and that was the

1588
01:34:42,479 --> 01:34:47,000
Speaker 1: whole purpose behind President Nelson, our prophet. He said, you know,

1589
01:34:47,280 --> 01:34:50,800
Speaker 1: we're not a cult. You know, we're Christians, but it's

1590
01:34:50,840 --> 01:34:52,960
Speaker 1: not in your name, it's not in the church's name.

1591
01:34:53,000 --> 01:34:56,600
Speaker 1: It's Mormon. In fact, I've read an interesting article. I

1592
01:34:56,640 --> 01:35:00,840
Speaker 1: think it was over in Russia. They said, no Mormon church,

1593
01:35:01,000 --> 01:35:03,120
Speaker 1: we don't we won't allow you here because that's a cult.

1594
01:35:04,520 --> 01:35:06,280
Speaker 1: And then they found out what we were really where

1595
01:35:06,280 --> 01:35:08,000
Speaker 1: as the Church of Jesus Christ. I said, oh, you

1596
01:35:08,040 --> 01:35:12,120
Speaker 1: mean you're Christians? Okay, come on it. So you question

1597
01:35:12,240 --> 01:35:15,040
Speaker 1: how how big of a role has it played? What

1598
01:35:15,400 --> 01:35:19,080
Speaker 1: restate the question? Yes, I mean to what degree are

1599
01:35:19,200 --> 01:35:25,160
Speaker 1: the values in the environment responsible for your success, your career,

1600
01:35:25,360 --> 01:35:28,360
Speaker 1: your ability to fly straight, get along with people. I

1601
01:35:28,400 --> 01:35:33,080
Speaker 1: don't think it. Obviously it plays a role because it's

1602
01:35:33,120 --> 01:35:37,960
Speaker 1: my life, but I don't think it has dictated my career.

1603
01:35:39,040 --> 01:35:41,160
Speaker 1: It has to a certain extent because I won't sing,

1604
01:35:41,439 --> 01:35:46,920
Speaker 1: you know, certainly um explicit sexual lyrics or things like that.

1605
01:35:47,720 --> 01:35:50,200
Speaker 1: But so I guess in a small way it has.

1606
01:35:51,240 --> 01:35:54,599
Speaker 1: But I don't let my personal beliefs dictate my career.

1607
01:35:55,920 --> 01:35:58,680
Speaker 1: You might think, well, there's a there's a wrong rub there,

1608
01:35:58,720 --> 01:36:01,840
Speaker 1: because it should know. No, you talked to a lot

1609
01:36:01,920 --> 01:36:05,800
Speaker 1: of rock and rollers. I find it quite interesting that

1610
01:36:06,240 --> 01:36:11,680
Speaker 1: when um seventy two. I want to say we were

1611
01:36:11,720 --> 01:36:17,200
Speaker 1: playing Earl's Court in London and the band that was

1612
01:36:17,240 --> 01:36:20,400
Speaker 1: playing the night before was led Zeppelin, and we wanted

1613
01:36:20,439 --> 01:36:25,040
Speaker 1: to go see it. So we were were in the

1614
01:36:25,080 --> 01:36:28,439
Speaker 1: audience and this guy comes up and says, they want

1615
01:36:28,479 --> 01:36:33,679
Speaker 1: to meet you. Said, that's what said the guys. Let's

1616
01:36:33,760 --> 01:36:37,240
Speaker 1: let Zeppelin the band. They want to meet you. So

1617
01:36:37,439 --> 01:36:39,840
Speaker 1: we said sure, it's fifteen minutes before the show starts.

1618
01:36:40,439 --> 01:36:43,000
Speaker 1: So we get up and we walked backstage. Guess what

1619
01:36:43,160 --> 01:36:48,599
Speaker 1: was going on backstage? Sexual activities? Absolutely not. They were

1620
01:36:48,640 --> 01:36:53,280
Speaker 1: playing frisbees with their kids. Now, obviously the sexual activities

1621
01:36:53,320 --> 01:36:55,320
Speaker 1: and then the Jack Daniels and all that stuff. You know,

1622
01:36:55,479 --> 01:36:59,240
Speaker 1: obviously that gets sex rock and roll and you know,

1623
01:36:59,320 --> 01:37:03,120
Speaker 1: all the drugs whatever. But they were playing frisbee with

1624
01:37:03,160 --> 01:37:06,040
Speaker 1: their kids, and and I thought, now, this is just

1625
01:37:06,280 --> 01:37:09,920
Speaker 1: not what I thought it would be back here. Um.

1626
01:37:11,479 --> 01:37:17,320
Speaker 1: But what's really interesting, Bob, is that sometimes a hardcore

1627
01:37:17,479 --> 01:37:23,559
Speaker 1: image UM plays into as an advantage to a rock

1628
01:37:23,600 --> 01:37:30,280
Speaker 1: and roller, when sometimes you know, they're good, solid people

1629
01:37:31,000 --> 01:37:34,120
Speaker 1: and they use it as as a promotional tool because

1630
01:37:34,200 --> 01:37:38,600
Speaker 1: it's cool, you know. And I thought, what a juxtaposition

1631
01:37:38,720 --> 01:37:48,559
Speaker 1: that was to see that so, um, it's my way

1632
01:37:48,600 --> 01:37:52,160
Speaker 1: of life, uh, to be a member of the church.

1633
01:37:52,240 --> 01:37:56,360
Speaker 1: And I don't shove it down people's throats. I'm not

1634
01:37:57,240 --> 01:38:01,599
Speaker 1: a zeal it. Uh. It's great for me. It's kept

1635
01:38:01,680 --> 01:38:07,120
Speaker 1: me safe. But you know, everybody's different, and I acknowledge that.

1636
01:38:07,720 --> 01:38:10,880
Speaker 1: Have you read have you seen Book of Mormon? And

1637
01:38:10,960 --> 01:38:13,760
Speaker 1: have you read the John krak Our book. I haven't

1638
01:38:13,760 --> 01:38:18,200
Speaker 1: read the John krack Uh, John crack crack Hour. I

1639
01:38:18,240 --> 01:38:21,719
Speaker 1: haven't read that book, and I haven't seen the musical,

1640
01:38:22,360 --> 01:38:24,439
Speaker 1: but I understand there's a reference to me in there.

1641
01:38:26,240 --> 01:38:29,240
Speaker 1: They say something and a smile like Donny Osmond in

1642
01:38:29,360 --> 01:38:32,680
Speaker 1: a very condescending way. I think that's funny. But no,

1643
01:38:32,840 --> 01:38:34,720
Speaker 1: I have not. I have not seen them. Well, there

1644
01:38:34,800 --> 01:38:37,800
Speaker 1: was a story in the Wall Street Journal that actually, uh,

1645
01:38:38,640 --> 01:38:43,040
Speaker 1: members of your church embraced the show completely. Hey, they

1646
01:38:43,120 --> 01:38:46,679
Speaker 1: bought ads in the play bill. They have missionaries standing

1647
01:38:46,720 --> 01:38:51,880
Speaker 1: out by the theater. Explain that to me, Well, you know,

1648
01:38:52,040 --> 01:38:54,840
Speaker 1: it's like, now you heard their story. Here's the real story.

1649
01:38:55,160 --> 01:38:57,560
Speaker 1: Because it's from what I understand, and I've listened to

1650
01:38:57,640 --> 01:39:01,600
Speaker 1: the music and it's it's it's uh pretty derogatory, but

1651
01:39:01,720 --> 01:39:04,679
Speaker 1: it's an all done tongue in cheeks the South Park guys,

1652
01:39:04,720 --> 01:39:08,120
Speaker 1: you know, And if you could accept it for what

1653
01:39:08,280 --> 01:39:12,840
Speaker 1: it is, it's fine. Uh I don't take it. I

1654
01:39:12,880 --> 01:39:16,759
Speaker 1: don't take offense to it. I take my religion seriously.

1655
01:39:17,320 --> 01:39:19,519
Speaker 1: But I can laugh at myself just as much as anybody.

1656
01:39:19,600 --> 01:39:22,080
Speaker 1: I thought it was so funny. During the two thousand

1657
01:39:22,120 --> 01:39:25,680
Speaker 1: two Olympics, Marie and I actually were in the opening ceremonies.

1658
01:39:26,720 --> 01:39:32,520
Speaker 1: There was a sign it was so funny and derogatory

1659
01:39:32,680 --> 01:39:35,640
Speaker 1: is all get out. And it was on right off

1660
01:39:35,680 --> 01:39:39,439
Speaker 1: of if you know where that is. It was an

1661
01:39:39,520 --> 01:39:42,680
Speaker 1: average advertisement for beer. I think it was course and

1662
01:39:42,760 --> 01:39:44,519
Speaker 1: there was a can on the left hand side and

1663
01:39:44,640 --> 01:39:47,479
Speaker 1: a six pack on the right hand side, and it

1664
01:39:47,640 --> 01:39:50,280
Speaker 1: said buy one for yourself and get a six pack

1665
01:39:50,320 --> 01:39:59,479
Speaker 1: for the wives. That that's funny advertising. But little does

1666
01:39:59,560 --> 01:40:03,360
Speaker 1: the world. No, we don't practice polegamy, but that's the perception,

1667
01:40:03,600 --> 01:40:08,200
Speaker 1: right And uh So I thought, if if people can't

1668
01:40:08,320 --> 01:40:13,559
Speaker 1: laugh at that, you're taking life too seriously. Okay, Utah

1669
01:40:13,920 --> 01:40:16,640
Speaker 1: is seen as a red state. Where are you on

1670
01:40:16,760 --> 01:40:20,760
Speaker 1: the political spectrum? I'm not going there. Okay, I'm not

1671
01:40:20,800 --> 01:40:25,519
Speaker 1: going to press you, but tell me you're thinking why

1672
01:40:25,640 --> 01:40:28,200
Speaker 1: you don't want to go there because it's a no

1673
01:40:28,360 --> 01:40:31,800
Speaker 1: win situation. I've seen I see what they did do, uh,

1674
01:40:32,080 --> 01:40:35,600
Speaker 1: CARDI b I see all these other people who have

1675
01:40:36,080 --> 01:40:38,240
Speaker 1: you know, made statements. Look what they did to the

1676
01:40:38,320 --> 01:40:44,560
Speaker 1: Faith Hill, you know, just innocent statements. Innocent And in

1677
01:40:44,720 --> 01:40:48,479
Speaker 1: this world of social media, everyone's a critic. And I'm

1678
01:40:48,479 --> 01:40:50,760
Speaker 1: not gonna go there because I'm an entertainer. I just

1679
01:40:50,880 --> 01:40:54,600
Speaker 1: want to entertain. Uh. I have a little bit of

1680
01:40:54,680 --> 01:40:58,200
Speaker 1: a problem when celebrities get on a platform, a political platform. Yes,

1681
01:40:58,280 --> 01:41:02,160
Speaker 1: we're all citizens, Yes we have opinions, and they have

1682
01:41:02,320 --> 01:41:04,920
Speaker 1: every right as anybody else a politician, to say what

1683
01:41:05,000 --> 01:41:08,320
Speaker 1: they want to say, what they're thinking. I do my

1684
01:41:09,680 --> 01:41:12,439
Speaker 1: I do my I let my opinions know with my votes.

1685
01:41:13,840 --> 01:41:17,720
Speaker 1: And I mean that could go down a rabbit hole

1686
01:41:17,920 --> 01:41:21,880
Speaker 1: just that conversation, let alone, whether I'm red or blue.

1687
01:41:22,880 --> 01:41:27,800
Speaker 1: And so I'm not going to go there because I'm

1688
01:41:27,840 --> 01:41:33,400
Speaker 1: a singer. I'm a politician. I'm not a politician. Okay,

1689
01:41:33,560 --> 01:41:36,040
Speaker 1: who do you talk to about other than your wife?

1690
01:41:36,479 --> 01:41:41,320
Speaker 1: You have close friends? I well, it depends on who

1691
01:41:41,640 --> 01:41:45,160
Speaker 1: what I want to talk about. Give me an example. Well,

1692
01:41:45,280 --> 01:41:50,200
Speaker 1: some people like Jerry Seinfeld legendarily talks to a comedian

1693
01:41:50,280 --> 01:41:52,920
Speaker 1: friend every day, and then there are other people talked

1694
01:41:53,000 --> 01:41:55,600
Speaker 1: friends once a week, and then there are people you

1695
01:41:55,760 --> 01:41:58,960
Speaker 1: see live. But you know, if something, if you have

1696
01:41:59,080 --> 01:42:01,439
Speaker 1: more questions than answers, she had an interesting day. Is

1697
01:42:01,479 --> 01:42:03,840
Speaker 1: there's somebody you pick up the phone and talked to

1698
01:42:04,000 --> 01:42:05,439
Speaker 1: to the agree it. You know, we're living in a

1699
01:42:05,520 --> 01:42:08,680
Speaker 1: world where it's more communication in terms of text. But

1700
01:42:08,800 --> 01:42:10,880
Speaker 1: do you have a friend like that? I do. His

1701
01:42:11,000 --> 01:42:15,519
Speaker 1: name is sick Nick and who is that? His name

1702
01:42:15,560 --> 01:42:18,600
Speaker 1: is Nick, and I call him sick Nick. Okay, is

1703
01:42:18,640 --> 01:42:21,400
Speaker 1: he in the business? How do you know him? He is? UM?

1704
01:42:22,120 --> 01:42:28,400
Speaker 1: He interned uh during the Donnie maritsho and plays guitar musician.

1705
01:42:28,479 --> 01:42:31,560
Speaker 1: He wanted to learn his way around the studio. I

1706
01:42:31,600 --> 01:42:34,320
Speaker 1: took him under my wing and I taught him everything

1707
01:42:34,360 --> 01:42:39,280
Speaker 1: I know about the studio and recording and writing and UH,

1708
01:42:39,640 --> 01:42:43,320
Speaker 1: prolific guy. I'm just very very talented. Lived in um

1709
01:42:44,120 --> 01:42:46,240
Speaker 1: Over and I ran for a while. His dad was

1710
01:42:47,320 --> 01:42:50,439
Speaker 1: a member the FBI. I'm if I'm not mistaken, and

1711
01:42:51,120 --> 01:42:56,040
Speaker 1: our secret service. And so he's been around the world,

1712
01:42:56,680 --> 01:42:59,920
Speaker 1: very well educated. UM. And so when I want to

1713
01:43:00,080 --> 01:43:04,680
Speaker 1: talk about deep things, UM, I'll call sick Nick. UM.

1714
01:43:06,520 --> 01:43:11,280
Speaker 1: There's there's uh in our ward where I go to church.

1715
01:43:11,400 --> 01:43:13,920
Speaker 1: I uh there, there's several people that I will call

1716
01:43:14,800 --> 01:43:19,439
Speaker 1: and uh and talk. But I would rather have a

1717
01:43:19,479 --> 01:43:23,640
Speaker 1: wonderful conversation with my wife. And because if I'm going

1718
01:43:23,680 --> 01:43:28,080
Speaker 1: to spend time talking with somebody, and time is a

1719
01:43:28,479 --> 01:43:32,519
Speaker 1: very very precious commodity in my life, I'll spend it

1720
01:43:32,640 --> 01:43:37,160
Speaker 1: with the one I absolutely love and a door and

1721
01:43:37,479 --> 01:43:39,800
Speaker 1: I'll talk to my children. My two of my sons

1722
01:43:39,840 --> 01:43:42,360
Speaker 1: were here last week. One is a great photographer. He's

1723
01:43:42,920 --> 01:43:49,080
Speaker 1: a great advertising UM executive. UM shot the show and

1724
01:43:49,240 --> 01:43:53,080
Speaker 1: we just spent hours talking. And I love talking to

1725
01:43:53,120 --> 01:43:55,160
Speaker 1: my kids, love talking to my grandkids. I'll get them.

1726
01:43:55,640 --> 01:43:58,400
Speaker 1: You know. I planted a tree of a fruit tree

1727
01:43:58,479 --> 01:44:00,800
Speaker 1: for every one of my grandkids. So when they come over,

1728
01:44:00,840 --> 01:44:03,120
Speaker 1: they say, oh my god, go see my tree. And

1729
01:44:03,360 --> 01:44:07,040
Speaker 1: it's such a bonding moment. Just as you say, you say,

1730
01:44:07,080 --> 01:44:12,000
Speaker 1: come over, where is this location? You can? Okay, So

1731
01:44:13,479 --> 01:44:16,720
Speaker 1: other than your own music, two albums on a on

1732
01:44:16,840 --> 01:44:21,320
Speaker 1: a desert aisle, what do you bring so kind? So

1733
01:44:21,880 --> 01:44:26,880
Speaker 1: Peter Gabriel, right, I love that album. UM, I would

1734
01:44:26,960 --> 01:44:33,320
Speaker 1: probably pick um maybe obviously a Stevie song. They have

1735
01:44:33,400 --> 01:44:37,160
Speaker 1: songs in the Key of Life. Okay, those two I

1736
01:44:37,280 --> 01:44:40,639
Speaker 1: probably are my go to Okay, you have a double

1737
01:44:40,680 --> 01:44:45,439
Speaker 1: album there to uh give you more music to two

1738
01:44:46,040 --> 01:44:49,400
Speaker 1: peaks of your career that you're most proud of, two

1739
01:44:49,479 --> 01:44:54,080
Speaker 1: peaks of my career. Soldier of Love was my major comeback.

1740
01:44:55,000 --> 01:44:57,639
Speaker 1: Just so you know, it's not on Spotify. I don't

1741
01:44:57,680 --> 01:44:59,519
Speaker 1: know who owns these. That came out on Capitol. I

1742
01:44:59,560 --> 01:45:02,439
Speaker 1: don't know. It's not on the surface. There's a live version,

1743
01:45:02,760 --> 01:45:05,919
Speaker 1: but the original studio version not there. It's on YouTube

1744
01:45:05,960 --> 01:45:08,439
Speaker 1: but not Spotify. I didn't check the other surfaces. Bob,

1745
01:45:08,640 --> 01:45:11,719
Speaker 1: you're good. You know what you're doing. That's my fault.

1746
01:45:11,840 --> 01:45:14,560
Speaker 1: I owned the masters of that and I just have

1747
01:45:14,680 --> 01:45:17,120
Speaker 1: to get through it. Well, that's like one of your

1748
01:45:17,160 --> 01:45:20,360
Speaker 1: biggest records. It was, yeah, and so I will you

1749
01:45:20,960 --> 01:45:22,880
Speaker 1: just lit a fire underneath me. I'll probably get it

1750
01:45:22,960 --> 01:45:25,920
Speaker 1: up soon. So a Soldier of Love and then the

1751
01:45:26,000 --> 01:45:35,240
Speaker 1: other I'd probably say, See, this is tough because I

1752
01:45:35,600 --> 01:45:38,679
Speaker 1: want to stay dancing with the stars. But I'm gonna

1753
01:45:38,880 --> 01:45:42,960
Speaker 1: say Joe's iph an amazing technical the Dreamcoat because that

1754
01:45:43,160 --> 01:45:45,960
Speaker 1: was what I did right after Soldier. I spent ten

1755
01:45:46,080 --> 01:45:48,360
Speaker 1: years to get back on the charts. I released Soldier

1756
01:45:48,360 --> 01:45:51,360
Speaker 1: of Love Sacred Emotion, and then I put it all

1757
01:45:51,400 --> 01:45:53,800
Speaker 1: on hold, and people said, Donny, what are you doing.

1758
01:45:54,160 --> 01:45:55,880
Speaker 1: You spent all this time to get back on the charts,

1759
01:45:55,920 --> 01:45:59,000
Speaker 1: and now you're gonna go do theater. I said, I

1760
01:45:59,120 --> 01:46:03,639
Speaker 1: have to because ten years ago I failed miserably on Broadway.

1761
01:46:03,760 --> 01:46:07,479
Speaker 1: I opened and closed the same night, and I said,

1762
01:46:07,600 --> 01:46:10,400
Speaker 1: it's a six month run and I'll get back to recording.

1763
01:46:11,040 --> 01:46:15,519
Speaker 1: That six months turned into six years. And um, so

1764
01:46:15,680 --> 01:46:18,280
Speaker 1: I guess I point to that one. But then again,

1765
01:46:18,400 --> 01:46:20,639
Speaker 1: you know, it's like trying to pick a favorite child.

1766
01:46:20,760 --> 01:46:22,800
Speaker 1: You can't do it. I mean, there's so many things.

1767
01:46:22,880 --> 01:46:26,879
Speaker 1: One bad Apple, the Andy Williams Show, Uh, the Peacock

1768
01:46:27,160 --> 01:46:31,200
Speaker 1: on the Mass, singer winning, Dancing with the Stars. Um,

1769
01:46:31,720 --> 01:46:33,680
Speaker 1: there's so many things that I can point to, but

1770
01:46:33,760 --> 01:46:36,759
Speaker 1: I will. I'll if you want to, I'll go Soldier

1771
01:46:36,800 --> 01:46:41,200
Speaker 1: of Love and Joseph. Okay, you're a very friendly, charismatic guy.

1772
01:46:42,120 --> 01:46:45,120
Speaker 1: Do you know this is business? Let's be frank, But

1773
01:46:45,280 --> 01:46:48,759
Speaker 1: in your everyday life, are you trying to make everybody

1774
01:46:48,880 --> 01:46:51,680
Speaker 1: like you? Or you fine? Or if you fine, if

1775
01:46:51,720 --> 01:46:54,640
Speaker 1: people don't like you, not fine? Because I believe me

1776
01:46:55,600 --> 01:46:58,920
Speaker 1: when you grow up with the name Donny Osmond. You know,

1777
01:46:59,000 --> 01:47:01,639
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that don't like you because

1778
01:47:01,760 --> 01:47:05,920
Speaker 1: you're a joke. Um, so I guess you know, if

1779
01:47:05,960 --> 01:47:08,479
Speaker 1: you're my psychiatrist right now and I'm sitting on the couch,

1780
01:47:08,600 --> 01:47:12,080
Speaker 1: I probably would maybe say to you, Yeah, maybe I

1781
01:47:13,000 --> 01:47:15,200
Speaker 1: I want people to like me, and maybe that's what

1782
01:47:15,600 --> 01:47:17,799
Speaker 1: motivates me. And then I have to say to myself,

1783
01:47:18,560 --> 01:47:21,559
Speaker 1: is there anything wrong with that? Is there really anything

1784
01:47:21,600 --> 01:47:24,880
Speaker 1: wrong with that? Yeah? There it is if you have

1785
01:47:25,000 --> 01:47:27,280
Speaker 1: a fake personality and you're just putting on a show

1786
01:47:27,360 --> 01:47:31,080
Speaker 1: for people. But then then you have to look at

1787
01:47:31,120 --> 01:47:32,920
Speaker 1: yourself in the mirror say are you really real? I

1788
01:47:33,000 --> 01:47:36,920
Speaker 1: wrote a song that's that that that spoke of that

1789
01:47:37,080 --> 01:47:39,719
Speaker 1: are you Really Real? And it's called Faces in the Mirror,

1790
01:47:40,800 --> 01:47:44,320
Speaker 1: Faces in the Live, very much like a Prince kind

1791
01:47:44,320 --> 01:47:48,240
Speaker 1: of pump pump, very funky thing. It was gonna be

1792
01:47:48,280 --> 01:47:52,080
Speaker 1: a single on Capitol and then the President switched and whatever.

1793
01:47:52,200 --> 01:47:55,160
Speaker 1: It got lost in the shovel. But I wrote that

1794
01:47:55,360 --> 01:48:00,519
Speaker 1: song saying, basically like a ventriloquist, who are you doing now?

1795
01:48:01,400 --> 01:48:03,640
Speaker 1: What hap do you have on? Now? Are you the

1796
01:48:03,720 --> 01:48:06,160
Speaker 1: puppy lover? Are you the soldier of lover, Are you

1797
01:48:06,240 --> 01:48:08,920
Speaker 1: the Joseph? Are they dancing with the stars? Are you

1798
01:48:08,920 --> 01:48:11,160
Speaker 1: there a little kid on Andy Williams? Are you this

1799
01:48:11,240 --> 01:48:13,920
Speaker 1: guy trying to be somebody? Or not? Who are you

1800
01:48:13,960 --> 01:48:18,760
Speaker 1: trying to be? And with that song it was it

1801
01:48:18,840 --> 01:48:24,799
Speaker 1: was almost a euphoric eye opening awakening, like just be yourself.

1802
01:48:26,040 --> 01:48:30,920
Speaker 1: So when you say I'm charismatic and very friendly, am

1803
01:48:30,960 --> 01:48:33,720
Speaker 1: I putting on a show? No, I don't think so.

1804
01:48:34,800 --> 01:48:39,519
Speaker 1: I don't think so, because just walk around Ask anybody

1805
01:48:39,600 --> 01:48:44,360
Speaker 1: that I work with, you know they absolutely. I had

1806
01:48:44,400 --> 01:48:47,799
Speaker 1: this conversation with my dancers last night before the show started.

1807
01:48:48,439 --> 01:48:51,000
Speaker 1: They walk up and say, I love coming to work.

1808
01:48:51,800 --> 01:48:55,800
Speaker 1: I said, why because you make it fun. And my

1809
01:48:55,960 --> 01:48:58,439
Speaker 1: band I've got. It's rumored right now that I have

1810
01:48:58,560 --> 01:49:03,080
Speaker 1: the best banded Las Vegas, and I have to agree.

1811
01:49:03,560 --> 01:49:08,439
Speaker 1: They are amazing. And they all tell me the same thing, Donny,

1812
01:49:09,320 --> 01:49:12,280
Speaker 1: we love coming to work because you just make it fun.

1813
01:49:13,040 --> 01:49:17,080
Speaker 1: There's a moment in the show where I just improv

1814
01:49:17,560 --> 01:49:20,439
Speaker 1: with the band and I just let them go and

1815
01:49:20,479 --> 01:49:23,840
Speaker 1: I started to start scatting and Earl Campbell on drums

1816
01:49:23,880 --> 01:49:26,080
Speaker 1: and I just do these things. I just try this group,

1817
01:49:26,160 --> 01:49:28,160
Speaker 1: try that group, try this group. We tried one the

1818
01:49:28,200 --> 01:49:30,320
Speaker 1: other night, went to a jazz field. Didn't quite work,

1819
01:49:30,400 --> 01:49:33,080
Speaker 1: but we still had fun. And I think the audience

1820
01:49:33,240 --> 01:49:37,160
Speaker 1: enjoys it because they see these four musicians up there

1821
01:49:37,560 --> 01:49:42,400
Speaker 1: with me, scatting and just trying stuff, experimenting, whether it

1822
01:49:42,479 --> 01:49:45,240
Speaker 1: be for thirty seconds or a minute, whatever it might be.

1823
01:49:46,160 --> 01:49:48,639
Speaker 1: And then we go into the show a little bit more.

1824
01:49:50,320 --> 01:49:52,400
Speaker 1: I make it fun now, and I have to I

1825
01:49:52,520 --> 01:49:55,080
Speaker 1: have to ask you, Bob, Well, well, I'm gonna ask

1826
01:49:55,080 --> 01:49:56,680
Speaker 1: you this question, then you can well go ask me.

1827
01:49:56,760 --> 01:49:59,479
Speaker 1: Go ahead, I'm gonna ask you. Are you talking to

1828
01:49:59,560 --> 01:50:01,920
Speaker 1: a fake person? Are you? Are you? Because you do

1829
01:50:02,080 --> 01:50:05,120
Speaker 1: this all the time. Okay, you do this constantly. You've

1830
01:50:05,160 --> 01:50:10,400
Speaker 1: interviewed the best of the best. Do you see a facade?

1831
01:50:12,360 --> 01:50:14,600
Speaker 1: I will be honest you please, I want you to

1832
01:50:14,640 --> 01:50:18,400
Speaker 1: be completely, whether it hurt whatever. No, No, I don't

1833
01:50:18,479 --> 01:50:23,960
Speaker 1: think I have a percent nailed. That's why I'm asking

1834
01:50:24,080 --> 01:50:29,880
Speaker 1: these questions. First and foremost. You're a pro. Most people

1835
01:50:29,920 --> 01:50:33,920
Speaker 1: are not. You understand what's going on. You understand the situation.

1836
01:50:34,680 --> 01:50:37,200
Speaker 1: And a lot of times because they're even people are

1837
01:50:37,320 --> 01:50:39,720
Speaker 1: very famous or not pros in this area, you know,

1838
01:50:39,880 --> 01:50:44,280
Speaker 1: kind of stunned. You know, they don't know how to

1839
01:50:44,439 --> 01:50:46,600
Speaker 1: do it, and you know how to sell whatever, and

1840
01:50:46,640 --> 01:50:47,880
Speaker 1: then it to be. I've been talking to you for

1841
01:50:47,920 --> 01:50:51,559
Speaker 1: a better part of two hours. I was stunned at

1842
01:50:51,600 --> 01:50:54,920
Speaker 1: the charisma. So as I say, I lived in Utah,

1843
01:50:55,320 --> 01:50:57,960
Speaker 1: I know some of the background, not recently, but I've

1844
01:50:57,960 --> 01:51:00,439
Speaker 1: been to Utah recently. It's really changed a lot over

1845
01:51:00,479 --> 01:51:05,600
Speaker 1: the last decades, and I'm trying to figure out. And

1846
01:51:05,680 --> 01:51:10,320
Speaker 1: then as you as you were talking right then, I said, well,

1847
01:51:10,360 --> 01:51:12,519
Speaker 1: maybe this is really who the guy is, and maybe

1848
01:51:12,560 --> 01:51:15,080
Speaker 1: the joke is on the rest of us. You know,

1849
01:51:15,240 --> 01:51:18,200
Speaker 1: you grew up in this environment, etcetera. I don't know,

1850
01:51:18,560 --> 01:51:21,960
Speaker 1: but I also know that you're so good at what

1851
01:51:22,200 --> 01:51:26,880
Speaker 1: you do. Most people, most people are pros. You're getting

1852
01:51:27,000 --> 01:51:32,160
Speaker 1: trying to get them off their spiel. A lot of times.

1853
01:51:32,280 --> 01:51:35,280
Speaker 1: They've talked to so many interviewers. They know the subject,

1854
01:51:35,520 --> 01:51:38,760
Speaker 1: they know the length to answer, etcetera, etcetera. So you're

1855
01:51:38,840 --> 01:51:40,920
Speaker 1: trying to get them to be real. I know I

1856
01:51:41,000 --> 01:51:42,880
Speaker 1: was talking to you know, one person who did stick

1857
01:51:43,160 --> 01:51:45,360
Speaker 1: didn't get real to like two thirds the way through.

1858
01:51:45,560 --> 01:51:50,080
Speaker 1: You have been consistent, and as I say, I would

1859
01:51:50,160 --> 01:51:53,920
Speaker 1: have to hang with you personally more to give a

1860
01:51:54,000 --> 01:51:56,880
Speaker 1: definitive reading. Maybe we should let's go out to dinner

1861
01:51:56,920 --> 01:51:59,120
Speaker 1: one of these days. Okay, I definitely what I mean,

1862
01:51:59,200 --> 01:52:02,080
Speaker 1: you picked the restaurant, I'll be there. Okay. Well, you

1863
01:52:02,160 --> 01:52:04,639
Speaker 1: know you're in Utah, so when you're in when you're

1864
01:52:04,640 --> 01:52:08,800
Speaker 1: in Vegas a lot? Okay. Do you own a home

1865
01:52:08,880 --> 01:52:13,600
Speaker 1: in Vegas? No? No? Not okay? Final question? Was it

1866
01:52:13,720 --> 01:52:17,040
Speaker 1: ever done? Or is it always Donnie? I did an

1867
01:52:17,080 --> 01:52:21,640
Speaker 1: album with Holland. Does your hollow you remember that? That?

1868
01:52:21,720 --> 01:52:26,439
Speaker 1: Of course? Um? Oh, what's his name? It was one?

1869
01:52:26,520 --> 01:52:29,840
Speaker 1: It was Holland's first name. Anybody did an album with him?

1870
01:52:30,600 --> 01:52:36,599
Speaker 1: And uh, the year would have been nineteen seventy five

1871
01:52:37,280 --> 01:52:41,960
Speaker 1: ish um, and it was called Donald Clark Osmond because

1872
01:52:42,000 --> 01:52:47,560
Speaker 1: I was going to change my yeah whatever. It's like,

1873
01:52:48,360 --> 01:52:50,200
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you can't do it that way.

1874
01:52:50,960 --> 01:52:53,920
Speaker 1: It was never done. It's always gonna be Donnie. It's

1875
01:52:53,960 --> 01:52:56,880
Speaker 1: kind of like saying, uh, change your name to Steve Wonder.

1876
01:52:57,439 --> 01:53:00,960
Speaker 1: It just doesn't work. Okay, So back stage someone says,

1877
01:53:01,040 --> 01:53:03,680
Speaker 1: you know, they never say don what about this? They

1878
01:53:03,720 --> 01:53:08,360
Speaker 1: always say Donny. It's always Donnie. Yeah. And it's funny

1879
01:53:08,400 --> 01:53:10,880
Speaker 1: because when you say are you really being really? Are

1880
01:53:10,880 --> 01:53:14,000
Speaker 1: you being fake? If somebody calls me don I know

1881
01:53:14,120 --> 01:53:17,639
Speaker 1: they're trying to be cool, you know. But what's really

1882
01:53:17,840 --> 01:53:23,760
Speaker 1: what's really fascinating is that in the last i'd say

1883
01:53:23,840 --> 01:53:28,640
Speaker 1: ten years, maybe a little more, I don't hear the

1884
01:53:28,760 --> 01:53:31,960
Speaker 1: sarcastic Donnie or the you know, putting on a facade.

1885
01:53:32,120 --> 01:53:36,080
Speaker 1: Hey don how are you doing? You know? Police, don't

1886
01:53:36,120 --> 01:53:37,920
Speaker 1: take this as a as a kind of like a

1887
01:53:38,280 --> 01:53:44,519
Speaker 1: self aggrandizing statement. That's gonna sound like that. Say it anyway,

1888
01:53:45,240 --> 01:53:51,160
Speaker 1: Donnie is cool again. It's a similar path to Tom

1889
01:53:51,280 --> 01:53:55,280
Speaker 1: Jones when he came out with Kiss. You know, that

1890
01:53:55,439 --> 01:53:59,640
Speaker 1: just turned everything around because the association with Prince and

1891
01:54:00,240 --> 01:54:04,519
Speaker 1: you don't have the big followed and the way he

1892
01:54:04,680 --> 01:54:08,080
Speaker 1: sang it, I mean, he became cool again, and I

1893
01:54:08,439 --> 01:54:12,800
Speaker 1: certainly think Soldier of Love played that role. The other

1894
01:54:12,920 --> 01:54:15,439
Speaker 1: thing is we get older and there's so many people

1895
01:54:15,439 --> 01:54:18,639
Speaker 1: who got you know, we're castigated back then and people realized,

1896
01:54:18,640 --> 01:54:23,439
Speaker 1: like the carpenters. People hated the carpenters, and now decades

1897
01:54:23,520 --> 01:54:25,720
Speaker 1: later say oh, there's nothing better than the carpenters. So

1898
01:54:25,840 --> 01:54:30,120
Speaker 1: in the funny, it's our business is replete with stuff

1899
01:54:30,200 --> 01:54:33,600
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, Richard genius to think what he

1900
01:54:33,760 --> 01:54:36,400
Speaker 1: was doing back in those days, without auto tune, without

1901
01:54:36,520 --> 01:54:38,760
Speaker 1: you know, digital, all that kind of stuff. By the way,

1902
01:54:38,800 --> 01:54:41,000
Speaker 1: he was singing those armies and I knew Karen very well,

1903
01:54:41,520 --> 01:54:45,280
Speaker 1: amazing voice. But you couldn't say I like the Carpenters,

1904
01:54:45,520 --> 01:54:48,280
Speaker 1: I like bread, I like you know, if a picture

1905
01:54:48,400 --> 01:54:53,640
Speaker 1: paints a thousand words, Oh my goodness, what a beautiful song.

1906
01:54:53,920 --> 01:54:57,480
Speaker 1: But Making with You, which was their breakthrough, real breakthrough track,

1907
01:54:57,840 --> 01:55:00,880
Speaker 1: just to put it all together, beautiful. But you know,

1908
01:55:01,000 --> 01:55:04,000
Speaker 1: you just couldn't say I like bread, because boy, then

1909
01:55:04,040 --> 01:55:07,160
Speaker 1: you were pigeonholed, and if anybody knows about pigeonholes, you're

1910
01:55:07,200 --> 01:55:11,120
Speaker 1: looking at him. Well. The other thing is, I'll be

1911
01:55:11,360 --> 01:55:13,800
Speaker 1: very specific, talk a little out of school. I went

1912
01:55:13,880 --> 01:55:19,640
Speaker 1: to see Neil Diamond. He was phenomenal, phenomenal, played for

1913
01:55:19,680 --> 01:55:23,280
Speaker 1: a long time, no sense of humor about himself. Oh really,

1914
01:55:23,680 --> 01:55:26,960
Speaker 1: you know, no, he's sick now whatever, But I bring

1915
01:55:27,080 --> 01:55:29,040
Speaker 1: that up, and you know, we're living in the real worlds.

1916
01:55:29,040 --> 01:55:31,960
Speaker 1: I'll tell a real story. The other thing about you,

1917
01:55:32,320 --> 01:55:34,640
Speaker 1: you've had a sense of humor, You've poked fun at yourself,

1918
01:55:35,280 --> 01:55:38,480
Speaker 1: and people like that, especially in an era will we're

1919
01:55:38,600 --> 01:55:43,440
Speaker 1: all the same online, nobody is really above anymore, and

1920
01:55:43,560 --> 01:55:46,480
Speaker 1: I think that pays dividends. Listen, it's still working for

1921
01:55:46,640 --> 01:55:49,480
Speaker 1: you because you're working and a lot of people can't work.

1922
01:55:49,520 --> 01:55:51,160
Speaker 1: I will say one final thing. I'll let you go.

1923
01:55:51,720 --> 01:55:54,560
Speaker 1: I listen to your record. What do you think the

1924
01:55:55,000 --> 01:55:59,920
Speaker 1: it's certainly good start again as it hits all thank you? No, really,

1925
01:56:00,040 --> 01:56:04,160
Speaker 1: I'm being clear. You know, maybe someone else has to

1926
01:56:04,240 --> 01:56:07,280
Speaker 1: see it. I don't know. You know, that's that's interesting.

1927
01:56:07,800 --> 01:56:10,240
Speaker 1: But it's a hit song, all right. When I I've

1928
01:56:10,280 --> 01:56:12,080
Speaker 1: just got to do this for the last few minutes

1929
01:56:12,200 --> 01:56:15,360
Speaker 1: of what we're talking about here. The album is going

1930
01:56:15,400 --> 01:56:19,480
Speaker 1: to be called Who because I thought, what a cool title,

1931
01:56:19,520 --> 01:56:24,040
Speaker 1: because I like so who. It played into the whole thing.

1932
01:56:24,800 --> 01:56:28,200
Speaker 1: But then I started listening to Start Again a little

1933
01:56:28,240 --> 01:56:32,879
Speaker 1: bit more and reproduced it, and I read the lyrics,

1934
01:56:33,520 --> 01:56:36,320
Speaker 1: and I thought, I gotta tell you, after what we've

1935
01:56:36,360 --> 01:56:39,200
Speaker 1: gone through with COVID and everything, we're all starting again.

1936
01:56:39,800 --> 01:56:42,160
Speaker 1: What an amazing message right now for us. I mean,

1937
01:56:42,280 --> 01:56:46,240
Speaker 1: just if you, if you will, please let me just

1938
01:56:46,360 --> 01:56:49,800
Speaker 1: read the first verse. You know, life's not always simple.

1939
01:56:50,640 --> 01:56:54,120
Speaker 1: You stumble and fall, and things don't always work out,

1940
01:56:54,160 --> 01:56:57,920
Speaker 1: and you feel small and when the night goes on forever,

1941
01:56:58,280 --> 01:57:01,000
Speaker 1: and you're looking for a ray of hope when there

1942
01:57:01,040 --> 01:57:05,440
Speaker 1: seems to be no answer. Believe me, I know it's

1943
01:57:05,520 --> 01:57:08,800
Speaker 1: never too late to start again. It's never too late

1944
01:57:08,880 --> 01:57:11,600
Speaker 1: to find your way. So keep your head up and

1945
01:57:11,720 --> 01:57:14,640
Speaker 1: keep your hearts strong, and remember you're not on your own,

1946
01:57:14,760 --> 01:57:18,960
Speaker 1: because it's never too late to start again. Well about

1947
01:57:19,000 --> 01:57:21,280
Speaker 1: a bing. But the other thing is, if you've lived

1948
01:57:21,440 --> 01:57:27,320
Speaker 1: long enough, those message really rings true. Life does. Life

1949
01:57:27,360 --> 01:57:29,680
Speaker 1: does not work out the way you planned it whatsoever,

1950
01:57:29,880 --> 01:57:32,640
Speaker 1: no matter how are you trying right? And but it's

1951
01:57:32,680 --> 01:57:35,000
Speaker 1: not only the lyrics. The changes are good. I mean, really,

1952
01:57:35,400 --> 01:57:38,600
Speaker 1: thank you. That's okay, Donny. I think we've come to

1953
01:57:38,680 --> 01:57:40,840
Speaker 1: the end of the feeling we've known. I have thoroughly

1954
01:57:40,920 --> 01:57:44,000
Speaker 1: enjoyed this, buddy, I did too, As I say, you

1955
01:57:44,040 --> 01:57:45,280
Speaker 1: know you ask me about you. I'll been trying to

1956
01:57:45,280 --> 01:57:47,560
Speaker 1: figure out the whole time who you are, and I

1957
01:57:47,640 --> 01:57:49,800
Speaker 1: love to hearing all the stories. You've done a lot

1958
01:57:49,840 --> 01:57:52,600
Speaker 1: in your career. But that's as far as we're gonna

1959
01:57:52,640 --> 01:57:55,440
Speaker 1: go today. And we're gonna have that dinner one of

1960
01:57:55,480 --> 01:57:58,120
Speaker 1: these days, absolutely, And I'd like to see the show.

1961
01:57:58,160 --> 01:58:00,600
Speaker 1: I don't get the Vegas that much. But I would

1962
01:58:00,640 --> 01:58:02,560
Speaker 1: like to see the show. Please let me know. Be

1963
01:58:02,720 --> 01:58:05,080
Speaker 1: my guest. Okay, i'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm gonna check

1964
01:58:05,080 --> 01:58:09,320
Speaker 1: out that rap to the rep. You know, everything's easy

1965
01:58:09,400 --> 01:58:12,280
Speaker 1: now you go online. Drake. Okay, I'm not Drake, but

1966
01:58:12,440 --> 01:58:14,880
Speaker 1: I do rap for ten minutes. Well, I think it's

1967
01:58:15,000 --> 01:58:17,160
Speaker 1: it's funny that it would be, you know, the story

1968
01:58:17,200 --> 01:58:20,640
Speaker 1: of your life, Allah, Hamilton's, etcetera, and any of that. Donny,

1969
01:58:20,720 --> 01:58:23,600
Speaker 1: thanks so much for doing this. Thank you, buddy. Until

1970
01:58:23,680 --> 01:58:25,640
Speaker 1: next time, This is Bob left Sets