My fight To walk again..
»»Osmond got crippling infection after spine surgery
STEPPING out for the final song of his last Las Vegas show with sister Marie, Donny Osmond knew something was wrong.
He says: “I couldn’t feel my arms, then suddenly my legs too.
“I didn’t tell anyone what was happening to me... I just kept dancing and finished the show.”
For the thousands of fans packed into the Flamingo Hotel to witness the end of Donny and Marie’s 11-year residency in Sin City, they were none the wiser.
But that incident in November 2019 set in motion a 12-month nightmare that marked one of the most challenging moments in Donny’s 60-year career.
Doctors found his spine had shifted due in part to previous injuries, including one sustained when he won the US version of Strictly Come Dancing in 2009.
Back and neck surgery was a success but Donny suffered a fresh blow at his home in Utah.
He says: “I got a secondary infection which meant I wasn’t able to move.”
Donny endured months of rehab to get on his feet again, relying on a walking frame to hobble around.
Asked if he was worried he would never be able to walk again, he says: “Oh sure, absolutely. But I didn’t take no for an answer.”
As well as assembling a crack team of professionals to get him moving again, Donny also credits his Mormon beliefs as being central to his recovery.
He says: “It was my faith, a lot of hard work and positive thinking.” During his nightmare, Donny had the support and love of his wife of 43 years Debbie, with whom he has five sons and 12 grandchildren.
He says: “She knows exactly the sort of determination that I have and she knew I would be fine.”
Slowly but surely, he managed to walk again after several months.
Donny, 63, jokes the ordeal was in some ways a blessing in disguise as he retreated to his home studio.
He says: “It enabled me to focus on my lyrics and on a new record.”
Incredibly, these dark times coincided with some of the best music Donny has ever made.
His new album Start Again is the first he has entirely co-written and produced, with the first single Who topping the itunes chart.
It is only after you learn of his health woes do you realise how the song’s video, in which Donny dances, must have meant a lot to
»»Singer endured months of rehab ... now he’s back
him. He says: “I made the video a year and two months after it all happened.
“Just to get back to walking, let alone dancing, was really something.”
Following his recovery, Donny has now landed a new solo Vegas residency at Harrahs where he sings – and dances – several times a week.
He says: “Last night’s show was wild... the amount of dancing and singing and everything.
“I started from below ground zero but it feels like coming back from the dead. I’m pain-free now, maybe even stronger than I was before.”
It is little wonder Donny was able to pick himself up off the floor after an amazing career in which he has been forced to reinvent himself constantly.
Bursting on to the scene aged just five alongside his brothers in The
Osmonds, he soon stole the show and became a solo star, singing hits such as Puppy Love to his legions of teenage fans.
By the time he was 17, he’d had 12 top 40 hits, either solo or as a group.
But his career hit the buffers in his 20s when his fans were all grown up.
To make matters worse, his family had lost close to £50million through bad financial planning.
And a Broadway show that Donny starred in closed after only one performance in 1982.
But he says these tough knocks and
stinging words from critics hardened him to deal with whatever life threw at him.
He says: “I still quote Rolling Stone magazine when they say the worst day in rock’n’roll history was the day Donny Osmond was born.
“It killed me at the time but it was probably good for me because it built up some calloused skin because I realised you can’t please everyone.”
It was not until 1989 when his promoter released Soldier Of Love – without revealing Donny as the singer as he feared fans would be put off – that things took off again.
It was a surprise hit and after his identity was revealed Andrew Lloyd Webber cast him as the lead role in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Broadway.
A winning turn on Dancing with the Stars followed, as well as selling more than 100 million albums.
His latest is, amazingly, his 65th and he is coming to the UK this Christmas to star in Pantoland at The Palladium.
Donny says: “Those British fans have always been so loyal to me.”
Throughout it all has been wife Debbie, who Donny met when she was a cheerleader at high school. He jokes: “People have said I robbed the cradle and I was still in it.
“She was dating my brother and I moved in. I fell in love.
“She was my best friend before she was my lover.”
There have been other friendships, including fellow child star Michael Jackson.
Donny says: “We related on so many levels. I remember him saying, ‘You’re the only person that knows what my childhood was like’.”
He laughs as he recalls the pair donning trench coats and wigs to go to the cinema together in disguise.
Donny says: “We were just kids... I am sure people knew who we were.”
But Jacko was also on hand to offer some tough love.
Donny says: “Just as Thriller was kicking in, I said, ‘Mike, how do I get back on the charts?’.
“The first thing he said, ‘Well, you’ve got to change your name, your name’s poison’. Which hurt but it was true.
“He then said I needed to be true to myself and I’ve never forgotten that.
“This album is what I want to be. This really shows who I am.”
Start Again is out now via BMG. Pantoland at The Palladium runs from December 4 until January 9. www. palladiumpantomime.com.
I started from below ground zero but it feels like coming back from the dead
DONNY OSMOND ON HIS INCREDIBLE RECOVERY AFTER SURGERY