Donny Osmond may have been in showbiz for six decades, but says he still has so much to do before he can even consider hanging up his microphone for good, including beating a record set by Elvis Presley.
The US superstar, 65, is gearing up to bring his award-winning Las Vegas show to the UK in December for 12 dates, including two at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo on December 13 and 14.
Speaking to the Standard, he said: “I love what I do, I love getting on stage, it’s my drug of choice; I love taking people on a journey. I kind of see the end of the tunnel, it’s not very close because I have a lot of things I still want to do, but one of which I think I have to get to is 68 albums because then I’ll beat Elvis.”
He isn’t far off having released his 65th album, Start Again, in 2021, and he is already working on his 66th which he teases will be “really unique” with a “very cool concept,” but admits it’s “going to take a while to finish this one”.
Osmond also has a personal history with Presley as his mother Olive was a confidante to the late King of Rock’N’Roll.
“She was almost a surrogate mum [to him],” the Puppy Love hit-maker recalled. “He would call the house just to talk to my mum. One day, my brother Jay, he picks up the phone and he says ‘Hello’ and he hears this voice [does Elvis impression] ‘Is your mother there?’ He said ‘Yeah! Who’s calling?’ He said ‘This is Elvis’. Jay didn’t put two and two together, right? He yells out ‘Hey mom, some guy named Elvis is on the phone for ya!’ He told me that story and we laughed our heads off. He didn’t know it was Elvis Presley.”
In addition to his impressive solo career, his residency at Harrah’s Las Vegas – which he performs five nights a week – celebrates his rise as a child sensation with his four elder brothers in family group The Osmonds. It also takes in his teaming up with younger sister Marie as duo Donny & Marie, his time starring on Broadway and beyond. There’s even a 15-minute request segment where audience members can request any song they like from his back catalogue, which he says he plans to extend for his UK shows.
“2017 was the last tour I did over there and it’s gonna be an exciting one because I think this is the biggest show that I’ve ever put together since it includes everything I’ve done and that’s a lot of stuff!” he explained.
He’s particularly excited also as his wife of 45 years, Debbie, with whom he shares five grown sons, will be joining him when he flies over.
Family is extremely important to him and in-between curtain calls, he relishes being a grandfather to his 12 beautiful grandchildren.
Osmond says that they aren’t overly fussed by what he does as he’s “just Grandpa” to them, but they were particularly impressed in 2019 when he became the first ever contestant on the US version of TV show The Masked Singer as character The Peacock.
He said: “It’s funny because one of my grandsons, Truman is his name, he still refers to me as the Peacock, he won’t call me Grandpa or anything. He says “Hey Peacock!” I’ll be the Peacock for the rest of my life. It was such a fun experience.”
