Donny Osmond: I’ve had to learn to walk again
DONNY Osmond says he fought a lengthy battle to walk again after an infection left him unable to move.
The pop legend was struck down in his final Las Vegas show with sister Marie.
Puppy Love singer Donny, 63, said: “I couldn’t feel my arms, then suddenly my legs.”
Yet thousands of fans at the Flamingo Hotel in November 2019 were none the wiser as he kept dancing to finish the duo’s 11-year residency.
Doctors found his spine had shifted, after previous stage injuries, starting a 12-month nightmare. Neck and back surgery worked but Donny caught an infection while recovering at his Utah home.
“I thought everything was going to be fine, but it couldn’t have been worse. I got a secondary infection which meant I wasn’t able to move.”
Donny revealed a team of “great professionals” initially had him using a walking frame to get around: “It was my [Mormon] faith, a lot of hard work and positive thinking.” Asked if he feared he would never walk again, he replied: “Oh sure, absolutely. But I just didn’t take No for an answer.”
He was helped by his wife of 43 years, ex-cheerleader Debbie with who he has five sons and 12 grandchildren.
The singer said: “She knows exactly the sort of determination that I have. She knew I would be fine.”
Donny even manages a laugh when he says the ordeal was a “blessing in disguise”.
Not being able to walk – or do much – he retired to his home studio: “It enabled me to focus on my lyrics and a new record.” Donny co-wrote and produced the album Start Again. It has been heralded as some of the best music of his six-decade career, initially with five of his brothers.
First single Who topped the iTunes chart and the Seventies heart-throb says filming the video meant so much: “I made it about a year and two months after it all happened.
“Oh my goodness, just to get back to walking, let alone dancing, was really something.” He has now begun a solo Vegas residency where he sings and dances: “I’m painfree now, maybe even stronger than I before.”