Michael Jackson didn’t hold back when he once gave career advice to Donny Osmond.
Both Osmond and Jackson became famous at a young age as members of their family bands before moving on to successful solo careers. But for Osmond, the shift from teen idol to adult artist wasn’t easy. He eventually turned to Jackson — who died in 2009 at age 50 — for guidance.
“The name Donny Osmond was a joke, years ago,” Osmond said in a clip he recently shared on Instagram, taken from his 2023 appearance on The Adam Carolla Show. “I mean, if you said you like Donny Osmond music, you were ousted.”
He explained that New York radio station WPLJ once got a copy of his 1988 single “Soldier of Love” as an import. “They played the record to test it because they liked the song, but they just didn’t want to say my name,” Osmond said.
Around 1983, after the huge success of Jackson’s Thriller album, Osmond recalled asking him, “Mike, how do I get back on the charts?”
“He said, ‘Your name’s poison, Donny. You gotta change your name,’” Osmond remembered, laughing.
“It was very offensive,” he admitted. “It was tough to hear that. But he was right, because in ’89, radio stations all across the country played my music, but didn’t say my name.”
According to Osmond, that actually helped him. “They did me a favor by not saying who I was, and it became a hit. Then they found out it was me.”
Osmond has also spoken before about his friendship with Jackson. In MTV Entertainment Studios’ documentary Larger than Life: Reign of the Boybands, he reflected on the close ties between their families.
“I spent a lot of time with Michael Jackson. I mean, you look at the Osmonds and the Jackson 5, the comparisons of the two families are just uncanny,” he said. “There’s nine children in each family. Mike and I are both the seventh child of nine. Our mothers’ birthdays are on the same day. Michael and I are the same age.”
The “One Bad Apple” singer added that he and Jackson often got together to laugh and share memories about their unusual childhoods.
“Michael said something to me one day,” Osmond recalled. “‘Donny, you’re the only person on this planet that knows what my childhood was like.’”
