Osmonds star Merrill hungry for slice of the action in Brum
The 70s heartthrob will be entertaining diners at PizzaExpress. GRAHAM YOUNG reports
HE knew Elvis and Michael Jackson and was lead singer of the biggest boy band in the world.
Fifty years on, Merrill Osmond will sing for his supper in PizzaExpress in Birmingham’s Brindleyplace – and he can’t wait for his dough ball starter.
“I’ve never had a pizza from PizzaExpress,” he says. “But anything with cheese, cheese and cheese and I’m all over it.”
Merrill’s gig at the Waters Edge restaurant on Thursday, October 7, is one of a series of bigname shows coming to the gentler side of the Broad Street entertainment district.
The line-up ranges from Pop Idol star Gareth Gates (Friday, September 17) to local soul queen Jaki Graham (Saturday 25) with tickets no more than £25.
But it’s Merrill who is the big draw if his £40 ticket prices are anything to go by – or £75 if you fancy a meet and greet package.
Not that you can blame Merrill for the price inflation, having sung lead vocals on five international No 1 hits and 27 gold records.
The bass player – who says the four-string guitar found him and not the other way round – will be accompanied by a four-piece band and two backing singers. He will also take part in a questions and answers session.
At the age of 68, father-of-six Merrill still loves performing, singing, playing and meeting fans.
The Osmonds first made their name by appearing on US TV with Andy Williams on February 14, 1963. So what was Williams like? “You were told to come up with something every week, all kinds of things,” Merrill recalls.
“He was a good guy, very professional and it was a really exciting time because he expected a lot from you – everything was live back then so had to be done in one take.
“That made us very professional and it’s why we became so altruistic.”
The Jackson 5 were founded in Indiana in 1965. Merrill knew Michael Jackson for years and received a call only the other day from brother Tito.
“We were all buddies for a very long time – it was a really good relationship.”
If you visit Merrill’s website and are prepared to cough up $50 you can even book a chat with him on the phone.
“It’s a very therapeutic thing,” he says.
But who for? Merrill or the fans?
“For both of us – it’s an opportunity to get to know your fans which is lovely.
“You hear about their relationships and feelings when they heard our songs and that way you get to know people really well.
“They will talk about the songs and the messages that left them feeling good about life: ‘Let me in your arms again!’... there are so many things on an emotional basis.
“Music is the only thing that bypasses the conscious and goes to the subconscious.
“What are kids listening to? What comes through music affects kids for the good or bad...
“I’m a Biblical guy,” adds Merrill. “I have great faith in God, in family... family is the foundation of everything.
“But the whole world is falling apart. “Darkness is just as powerful and will do what it can to thwart goodness and light.” So why PizzaExpress?
After the company was founded in 1965 by the late Peter Boizot, a restaurant in London’s Dean Street became a home for jazz, too.
Various restaurants in the group have hosted live music since 2017, but nothing quite like the way the Brindleyplace site is really going for it now.
“I’m playing 25 shows around the country,” says Merrill.
“I’m playing big ones, small ones... just where people want me to perform.”
Dates include Butlins in Minehead and Skegness as well as the Cavern Club, Liverpool.
“PizzaExpress in Birmingham sounds great,” he laughs. “I think I’ll have a pizza in the middle of the show!”
What do fans ask him in the Q&As?
“They always want to know how everybody is doing in the family,” says Merrill.
“We also show footage that’s never been seen before and sing 90 minutes of the most memorable songs from Crazy Horses to Love Me For A Reason, as well as some stuff they’ll have never heard before.”
After moving on from TV variety shows of the 60s, The Osmonds’ first big hit in 1971 was One Bad Apple.
The self-penned Crazy Horses would have been classic heavy metal under any other name – check out the cover versions on YouTube.
But while it turned them into big stars with lyrics like “What a show, there they go smoking up the sky!”, time waits for no band, even one that could switch from jazz to barbershop, rock and country at the drop of a hi-hat.
When The Osmonds took a break to produce The Donny & Marie Show, The Bay City Rollers stole their chart thunder.
Older brothers Alan and Wayne have retired and youngest brother Jimmy had a stroke at the age of 55 while appearing in the Peter Pan panto at Birmingham Hippodrome in late December, 2018. How is he?
“Oh, he’s doing fine, still getting better,” says Merrill. Jimmy’s let himself go grey like me, another silver fox!”
Talking of Jimmy, of course, one can’t help but think of two more careers that spun out of
PizzaExpress in Birmingham sounds great... I think I’ll have a pizza in the middle of the show!
the incredible Osmonds’ family – Donny and Marie.
And it’s their successes which were perhaps the undoing of The Osmonds, themselves, as potential rock stars almost too talented for their own good.
Looking back, it seems to be Merrill’s one source of regret.
“I wish I could have continued writing,” he admits. “Our Phase III album was very nonpop. But we all got behind Donny, Marie and Jimmy. I’ve been playing for 64 years now and I’m the one who continues to be ‘out there’.”
Merrill still lives in Utah, but his current UK tour is spread out from September 11 to December 5. Has he got his own house here, too?
“Oh no, perhaps I should have, but I just live out of hotels. Hotel. Suitcase. That’s my life.”
Merrill is tickled when I tell him that the PizzaExpress in Brindleyplace is barely 50 yards from the Black Sabbath bench, unveiled in June 2019 in honour of Aston’s heavy metal pioneers Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward and fellow bass player Geezer Butler.
“I know Ozzy very well,” says Merrill. “I can’t wait to sit on his bench!
“Elvis was our buddy, too and, in the 70s, we were all like one big family. We knew Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Paul McCartney. We all lived those years together and they became some of my best friends.”
Merrill Osmond plays PizzaExpress, Brindleyplace, on Thursday, October 7.