WEBVTT - Donny Osmond 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.560 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob West That's podcast. 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:17.040 My guest today is the one and only Donny Osben. Donnie, 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.960 good to have you here. I'm nice to be with you. Bob. Okay, 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.320 you have a new album entitled Start Again? Why record 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:28.920 a new album now? Well? Why stop at sixty? I'm 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.680 actually you know, there's that side of it. But the 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.640 music business has changed dramatically since you had your first 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.000 hits about fifty years ago. I was certainly conscious. Sounds 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.160 like a big, you know, chuck of time. But we're 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.199 all here where there were a limited number of labels. 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:46.240 As you got on the radio, everybody knew you. Now 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.680 you can be a very famous name, put out a 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:51.519 new record and no one can be aware of it. 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.360 So it's sort of the landscape. So did that affect 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.280 your thinking? How did you decide to actually make the record? 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.600 Before I answer that, I just have to go back 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.080 and say I have that situation going on in my 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.360 career right now as well, because I'm the the singing 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.720 voice of Captain Schang in the Disney movie Mulan and 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:13.119 it streams millions every month and a lot of people 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.279 don't know it's me and when I do my show 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:17.240 in Vegas. That this happened just the other night. This 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.600 this eighteen year old aspiring singer UM came to the show. 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.520 She said, I heard that you were Captain Shang and Mulan, 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:28.160 but I thought, you know, this isn't my kind of show. 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:30.880 This is for the old old farts. You know, it's whatever, 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:36.280 and and I'll watch Mulan and then I'll leave. And 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.280 she said, I couldn't leave because not just the production, 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.320 but the music. Um is stuff that I listened to, 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.640 and it kind of answers your question why sixty albums. 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.559 It's because I'm reinventing and a lot of people don't 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.800 know my voice as Captain Schang, and when they discover 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:58.520 the new music, well this is and then they hear 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:00.480 they go with a little girl and popular stuff that 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:04.520 what is that? And then they start realizing, yeah, I've 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.480 had a six decade career. Okay, So I know that 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:10.360 you did the Voice of Mulam because I saw it 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.560 on Spotify and I listened to it. There's the average 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:18.120 we say the movies unbelievably successful. Do you find that 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.440 people know that issue? Well, that's just the thing. It 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:26.040 depends on the age. It depends on the demographic. I mean, 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.760 it depends on if they're an avid Donny Osmond follower 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.880 for years. Um, they know it because I've talked about 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.600 it in my social and stuff like that. But by 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:38.440 and large, every time, every once in a while, I'll 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.600 come up with somebody and they'll say, you gotta be 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.960 kidding me, you're Captain Shang. And I get a kick 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.360 out of it actually, because it's the same feeling I 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.360 got when I was the first mass singer on the 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.240 show The Massing and I was the first one, and 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.720 I walked out there Bob with this mask on, and 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.960 it was such a cool feeling because there was no baggage, 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.840 there was no expectations, there was no history. It was 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.200 just my singing and my entertaining and and and what 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.040 I did on stage. So it was a reset almost 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.600 and I almost one t pain got it from me, 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.800 but uh, it was. It's the same feeling. It's like, Wow, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.840 you are that person. I didn't know. How did you 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:25.280 get the gig with Milan? Dina cats is the She's 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.239 she books the talents, And Dina booked me on Dancing 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.120 with the Stars, which I won on season nine and 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.200 Dina called me up and said, you know you're you're 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:37.200 my first call. Um, I'd like you to to be 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.160 this the mass singer, the first mass singer. So I 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.560 called my manager, Jim Moorey who I think you know? Yeah, 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:46.840 So I said, Jim, I need you to call your 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.120 friends at Fox. I want you to find out if 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.080 this show is real. He called me back the next 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.880 day says, Donnie, this is really real. They got millions 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:55.560 of dollars behind it. So I called Dina back and 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.480 I said, Dina booked me because I got the joke. Bob. 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:00.880 I knew if there was money behind this show, it's 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:05.760 going to work. And um, I remember walking out. Now, 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.800 keep in mind, Bob, nobody in the audience, the panel 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.000 didn't know who I was. The audience didn't know. There 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.240 were only probably three people in the booth that knew 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.680 who I was, President of Fox, the director, Dina, and 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.159 maybe one more. So I walk out there and everybody's like, 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:24.560 what is going on? We're watching a peacock walk on stage. 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:30.000 And let me just backtrack a little bit. Before I 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.880 walked on stage, the producers called me, Sadani, what song 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.840 do you want to sing? And I said, well, it's 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.000 got to be This is the greatest show. It's got 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.279 to start with that. So they called me back the 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.120 next day. So the publisher is not going to release it, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.159 and so why say, Well, they don't get the show. 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.679 It's a stupid show with masks, and we gotta protect 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.120 the music. And I said give me a day. So 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:57.000 I found a minus track online and uh, I put 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.000 my voice on it and sent it to the producers 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.360 and I said, walk us over to the publisher and 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:04.520 they said, well, they said no, but we'll do it. 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.360 So they walk in. The publisher said, guys, look, I said, no, 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:09.839 you can't have the song, and he said, just listen 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:13.359 to this, and they played my version and after it 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.800 was over he said, who is that? He says, we 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:18.160 can't tell you. All we can say he's going to 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.880 be a peacock. He said, well, based upon what I heard, 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.120 the song is yours. And I got it based on 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:26.920 that just that because I love the fact they didn't 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.239 know it was me. It was just gonna be a peacock. Okay. 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.920 The Milan gig, how did you get that gig? Pam Coats, 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.840 She calls me up and said, you know, we're doing 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.839 this movie called Mulan and would like you to be 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.640 the singing voice of Shang. And I said, I'd loved it, 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.240 but I'm doing a musical in in Chicago right now. 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.360 She said, what are your days off? I said, Sunday, Monday. 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.320 Can you fly into l A on Sunday, recorded Monday, 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:55.480 get back for your show on Tuesday. I said, I'd 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:57.400 love to be part of a Disney film. Little did 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.320 I know it become a classic. And they showed me 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.760 a couple of pencil drawings of Shang and one sequence 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:05.440 where he gets hit in the stomach and said, pretend 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.520 you're getting hit in the stomach, and I said, let's 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.680 get down to business. And I just threw myself into it, 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:16.960 and little did I know would become one of the 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:21.440 most popular songs I've ever recorded, and it was so 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:23.360 cool to be part of it. So it was Pam Coats. 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.960 Did you know Pam previously? I didn't Pam, and I 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.599 don't think ever cross paths. It was just a wild 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.120 her idea of hers. You know, I love his voice. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.480 I guess. I guess she was a fan back in 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:41.760 the Puppy Love days, and I guess they did some 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:45.480 comparisons to Beati Wong who was the speaking voice, and 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:50.160 there was some you know, comparisons, and she took a 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.240 chance on me. I threw myself into the part and 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.679 got it. Okay, you're telling the story of the Masked 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.960 Singer where you're aggressive. Aggressive's got a bad kind. Let's 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:05.800 say proactive? Okay? Uh? Is that the history of your career? 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.360 Are you making things happen? Are you waiting for the 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:11.240 phone to ring? Are you waiting for the phone to 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:13.960 ring and then becoming very active? How does it go down? 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.240 This is why I love talking to you because even 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.160 Jim told me, he says he's going to ask you 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.280 questions you've never been asked. I love that question. And 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:26.320 the it's yes and no. It depends on my age. 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.440 The phone stopped ringing after the Donnie and Marie show ended, 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:37.360 which we're putting out of right, and my my I 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.080 had no career. I couldn't even get arrested. I couldn't 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:44.280 get a record deal, nothing. So the answer to your 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.200 the quick answer is yeah, you've got to be extremely 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:51.120 proactive if you want to a long career, particularly when 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.880 you start out as a teeny popper and you've got 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.840 this really squeaky clean image from Puppy Love and Gay 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.520 Little Girl, not stuff which I I'm not putting down anymore. 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.680 It is great for the time, Bob. In fact, in 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.240 my Vegas show here I treat Puppy Love with respect 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.760 and I sing it right with a beautiful arrangement a 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.840 little bit. Do you also sing One Bad Apple? I 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.760 do One Bad Apple in its original form with the 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:19.320 costumes and my four other male dancers, and we recreate, uh, 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.360 one bad Apple. But at the end of this not 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.920 the end, We're going to go into this cool groove 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:27.960 and I sell say to the audience, you know, I 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:29.920 can't hit the high notes anymore. But I got on 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.839 my TikTok account and I asked, is there anybody out 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.040 there that could sing it for me? And I got 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.240 flooded with all of these videos of kids singing my part. 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.840 Learned the choreography as well, and we play that at 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.440 the end of One Bad Apple. It's it's kind of 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.320 a cool little thing. No, that's cool. But I have 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:51.480 to ask, were you TikTok savvy or your kid or 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.760 somebody you know in passing? How you know how Internet savvy? 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.040 How social media savvy? Are you personally. Well, you're talking 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:03.680 to someone who's who's been an engineer all his life. 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.680 I engineer all my stuff. I noticed that in the 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:08.240 credit to you. I almost gonna get to that, but 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:13.800 keep going. But I um that that's my hobby, if 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.640 you will. I've built a lot of things. The computer 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:18.959 system that I've kind of designed the whole thing. I've 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.280 got some great people that work with me, but I 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:25.640 designed the whole computer system that runs this show. Uh 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.400 so uh. To answer your social media question right from 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.560 the get go, can you imagine, Bob, what I could 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.360 have done with TikTok and and Instagram during the Puppy 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:39.080 Love days, I mean, can you imagine? Yes? So, No, 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:43.480 I'm I'm extremely social media savvy. So you're saying posting 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.840 on social media you personally are doing it or somebody 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.000 on your team, No, I do it. I do it. 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.280 I have somebody that helps me figure out and say 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:52.960 this is when you should post it, this is the 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.400 time that works, this is the content, this is what 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:59.200 is current right now, this is what is people are 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.560 are trending with. Because my life is so busy, I 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.280 need I need feedback, I need information, And I mean 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.280 that's what I do uh. And then these people say 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:11.280 you gotta do this, you gotta do that, and this 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:13.720 is what we recommend. Yeah, yea, yea, And then I'll 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:18.080 go produce it and edit it myself and post it 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:21.560 because I like to be involved in every single bit 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:23.880 of what I do. Because there was a day, Bob, 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.480 there was a day when I wasn't in control, and 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.240 I vowed that someday, when I grew up, I would 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:34.400 take the reins. Because I look back at some of 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.440 the songs that I recorded, and again, I've got to 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.520 be careful here, Bob, that I don't put my earlier 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:44.040 career down. But let's face it, there were some songs 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.480 that I came out with it were just so sugary 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:51.920 sweet that it left me with this really interesting image 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:56.679 that I've spent a lifetime reinventing myself. It was fine 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.320 for the time, but there were songs that were thrown 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.600 at me, Bob. If you and believe this thrown at 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.800 me five minutes before I recorded it. They became gold records. 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.880 But it's like, and here's the juxtaposition I was in 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.120 as a as a young teenager, I would be in 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.000 and this was in at MGM studios on Fairfax. They're 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.280 right there Fairfax in Beverly. Um, I was in mtwo, 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.679 studio M two. They built us a studio M three, 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.079 So I was in M two recording this bubblegum music, 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:28.240 and then I would go to M three with my 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:33.040 brothers and record this rock and roll music because that 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.000 was a whole other direction that we were taking. But 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.880 my bubblegum music was overshadowing any rock and roll that 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.040 we were doing, which is kind of a catch twenty 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.640 two because if it's selling, if it's working, you keep 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:47.040 feeding that, right, But it overshadowed everything that we were 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:51.360 doing as a band in a rock and roll sense. Okay, 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.000 to what degree was Mike Curb the Leave, the Guy 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.880 Ran the Lebel, hands on, hands on all my early hits, 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:02.800 Puppy Love Away, Little Girl, Um, you name all those albums. 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:05.920 He was the one that that really selected a lot 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.559 of those songs. And I have him to thank for 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.720 all that he's done. And there were songs that he 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:13.440 threw up me I really didn't like, but you know, 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.760 we were trying to fill up an album. In seventy two, 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.679 I had released four albums in one year, two with 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.440 my brothers and two. As a solo artist, you're in 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.640 the studio constantly, let alone out on tour. I didn't 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.120 have time to even think. So Mike would would give 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:35.280 me songs to record that he thought would play into this, 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.520 this whole Donny Osmond image that was the little pre 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.760 pubescent teenager girls were buying into. And I was safe 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.800 because the parents said, he's safe, let's buy it. So 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:51.800 that was the mentality of my curb at the time. Okay, 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:57.480 so let's look, so you're working in Vegas now and 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.760 hair and Harrows. What what kind of deal do you 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.680 have there with heros? Now, it's a long term deal, 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.400 but there's options obviously on both sides. But I mean 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:07.360 it could go on and on. I mean, the Donny 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:09.840 and Marie thing was supposed to be six weeks and 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.480 it ended up being eleven years. So why did the 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.840 Donny Marie thing end? It was time Marie and I 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.960 felt that Marie, I think, wanted to go a little 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:23.920 bit longer. She wanted to go to twelve years and 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.960 maybe break a record or something. And I thought, I 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:30.080 think I'm done, and she said, yeah, I think we're done. 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.880 And it's a good thing. We did, because it's almost 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:36.920 like we knew the COVID thing was coming, because as 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:41.319 soon as we stopped COVID hit, we would have stopped anyway. Okay, 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.760 so you're that was it the Flamingo, right, and now 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:49.040 you're at Heros. Why one casino is opposed to another. 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:51.320 I didn't want to try to look like I was 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:58.040 recreating um, the Donny and Marie success UM. I wanted 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:03.000 something different because when you reinvent yourself, I don't like 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.520 to rest on my laurels. So I didn't want people 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.320 to think we're coming back and oh, where's Marie because 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.520 this show has nothing to do with what we did 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:13.600 as Donnie and Marie. Donnie Marie is just one part 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.760 of my career, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.760 eleven great years working with my sister. But now we've 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.080 gone on. She's doing her thing. I'm doing my thing. 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.680 But when I designed this show, I wanted it to 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.400 be all inclusive, Bob. I wanted it to be everything 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:34.920 right from the beginning to what I'm doing now. And 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:36.800 I had this idea. Raj Kapoor. I don't know if 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:38.760 that name means anything to you. He's he's like the 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:43.040 go to guy. He directs and produces the Grammys and 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:46.680 the the Oscars that I mean, he's just the most 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.520 creative man you can imagine. I called him up and 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.400 I said, Raj, we're trying to fit six decades in 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.320 the ninety minutes. What do you think of this idea? 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:58.480 It's a little crazy. What if I did a rap? 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:03.240 And he said, excuse me? I said, I did a 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:08.960 rap about my entire life. He said, it's brilliant. It's 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.600 like Hamilton's. I said, exactly, And and I start out, 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.320 you know it. I'll begin back in Utah I was 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:17.640 four years old, started singing with my brothers in The 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:19.680 sound was like gold. So my folks took a leap 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:21.840 and said, what the hey, we gotta get these monsters 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.360 out to California. And it gets faster and faster and faster. 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.520 It turned out to be almost a ten minute rap. 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.240 And by the time it's over, it's everybody's like, you've 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.920 got to be kidding me. You did all that stuff? 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:36.640 And he he said, this is gonna work. And Keith 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.920 Harris and my music director, he's he's an alien. He's 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:42.320 just so talented. He was the main man that put 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.400 all this stuff together for me. I supplied all the 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.160 product of the the clips and things like that, and 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.800 it's like one of the highlights of the show. It's 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.120 gone viral and my social people have videoed it, and 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.320 when I start to introduce it, I can hear the 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.360 audience say, here it comes, here, it comes, here, it comes, 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:02.840 we go into it. Okay, So obviously you wrote that, 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:05.600 and on the new album you co wrote every track. 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.280 When did you start to write and what was your incentive. 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.160 I started writing when I was a teenager. But it 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:16.960 wasn't um, it wasn't the well, actually there were some 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.720 good songs. I'm Sorry and I'm Flying into the Wind, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.280 and those were actually pretty good songs. I wrote that 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.800 when I was around eighteen or something like that. But 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:28.600 if this goes back to where we're talking about earlier, 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:32.320 Bob about taking the reins, and I thought, if I'm 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.520 gonna be known as an artist, I can't be singing 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.240 covers because that was the basis of all my success 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:40.920 in the seventies and Puppy Love Too Young, all those 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:45.440 songs were covers. If I've if I'm gonna gain some respect, 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.120 I've got to write my music and over the years, 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.880 I would hone in my efforts and my talents a 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.560 little bit more work on the lyrics. I started this 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.560 album about three years ago, and I surrounded myself with 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:03.360 some really really good people and uh, but you know 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:05.280 they can't write it for you. You've got to come 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:10.159 up with the concept. And so that's how it all began. 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:12.280 I I would come up with the concept and come 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.119 up with the groove. I wrote this song that we 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.720 closed the show, Let's All Dance with Rant Stopson and 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.160 aunt Clemens. I mean they're the furthest people you think 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:23.639 Donnie As will be working with it. I mean that 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.160 that's the Bruno mars Camp of the world, that type 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.880 of stuff. And when I called him up, he said, yeah, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:36.080 this might be interesting. Um, and so we started and 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:42.320 I'm not dance too and whatever, dot Dom rev up. 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.920 I just started coming up with sounds. Peter Gabriel taught 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:50.280 me that. At the beginning of Sledgehammer, he said them 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.680 a little bad at you. And when he was involved 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.000 in one of my albums as an executive producer, and 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:01.040 I said, Peter, what do you singing at the beginning 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:05.720 sledge Hammer? And he said, nothing, it sounds. He said 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.000 that's the where I write whatever it sounds good. So 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:13.000 when Aunt Clemmens came aboard on let's all dance, he said, 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.680 he's singing this one like love it write up an it? 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.520 Then does hound that sound up? Somebody that about to do? 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.080 And I wrote all those sounds down. I said, left 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:29.960 left foot, rad foot, magical dance and shoes, let's yop. 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.800 And then I came up, let's saw bat it do? 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:37.200 And it wants to do? And all came from sounds 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.959 and that Peter Gabriel taught me how to do. And 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.040 so that's one way to write. That's the way I 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.040 wrote Let's all Dance with with Aunt Clemmens, and and 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:50.600 Rad stops it. But when it came to a song 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.480 like the Way You Are, which I wrote with Amy, 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.040 watch Amy wrote picking out loud with that Charon and 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.359 she said. I met her just before COVID started and 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:02.080 she said, Donny, I want to write a song with you. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:07.119 And I said, Amy, let me come up with the concept. 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:09.639 I don't want you to write this. It's got to 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.919 come from me. It took me six months and one 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.880 day I was getting ready and my wife is getting 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.640 ready on her side of the bathroom, and I ware 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:24.560 you know the way you do just make it sounds, 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:30.000 the way you follow that doll that gotten bum and 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.600 it's you know what the concept is, the way you are. 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:34.760 It's good enough for me. I picked up the point 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:39.920 that Amy. I got it the way you are, the 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:44.480 way you and I produced that four different ways until 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:46.919 I finally got it the way I liked. But it 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.960 all begin with that lyric, the way you are. So 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:53.240 it all depends on where you're headed with the song 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.960 because it's all different the way you write. Okay, you 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:58.200 talk about people a little lot of your genre with 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.159 a lot of success. How do you actually hook up 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.760 with them? You call them directly, You get phone number 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:06.360 and say this is Donny Osman, or you have your 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.560 so called I'm doing my air quotes now, people contact them. 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.280 You know, I do it myself. I gotta do it myself, Bob, 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.400 because I don't know. I'm a little different in that respect. 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:18.840 I don't play the star role. I don't do that 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.520 because I get down in the gutter with everybody else. 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.040 And I mean, you know, you just talk to anybody 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.760 I've written with and they say you actually do this. 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.520 There's uh, there's a song on the album called Don't Stop. 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:36.240 And I'm in the booth with Rants and Blush and 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:41.160 and Seth Reager on guitar, and we're coming up with it. Dude, 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:45.119 it's such a great, good groove and it's we're just 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:49.680 feeling it. And all of a sudden, I said, stop, stop, stop, stop, Rants, 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.920 this this song has got a problem. It needs a bridge. 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:58.439 And he said, well, there's a piano out in the studio. 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.880 Go right one. It's okay. So I go out there 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:05.000 by myself and I sit down at the piano and 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.680 I'm thinking what would Stevie do? Because I'm such a 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:12.480 Stevie fan, And I start playing these courts, don't forget 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.639 who you are, read your mood. And I start playing 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:20.520 these chords and Rants comes out and says, what is that. 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:25.439 I said, it's our bridge, and he said, come on in, 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:27.960 and I play it on the on the Roads, in 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:31.080 the in the in the in the control room, and 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.919 it just happened like that, Dad, If Dad, if you 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:39.760 reach your movie. It's one of my favorite tracks. It's 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.159 a second track on the album. Now you mentioned the Roads, 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.240 and in the credits you have percussion credits, guitar credits, 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.520 What instruments do you play and how proficient are you? Well, 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.280 I'm a keyboardist. That's what I do. I mean, I've 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.000 tried a lot of instruments. I'm so uncoordinated when it 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:59.440 comes to drums. I've tried guitar, but I'm a keyboard guy, 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:04.120 so I'll get into programming. Um, there's a lot of 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:08.160 ways you can write a song. Uh. Splice dot com 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:10.760 is someplace where you can find some really cool grooves, 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:13.720 and then you split strip him apart and find sounds, 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:18.080 and then you strip those apart and create new sounds, 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:20.639 something that hasn't been heard before, and then you just 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:25.359