When the Donny & Marie show debuted exactly 50 years ago, Donny Osmond was sure that his career was already over. He has just turned 18.
“I remember what I thought. I said, ‘There goes my recording career,'” the “Soldier of Love” singer tells PEOPLE exclusively.
At the time, the brother and sister act had recently finished guest-hosting a week’s worth of talk shows for Mike Douglas, who had a syndicated daytime program. Upon seeing the camaraderie and potential star power, the siblings’ management team proposed that they star in their own variety show in the vein of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. Marie Osmond, then 16, told her older brother about the opportunity.
“I thought, career is over, because if people can hear you for free on television every week, why go buy an album?” he recalled wondering just before the show premiered on Jan. 23, 1976. “What I didn’t understand at that point was the power of television. I knew there was power in television, but I didn’t know it was going to be this much power.”
The show was an instant hit, forcing the “Too Young” singer’s recording career to take a backseat for a moment to promote Donny & Marie.
“I remember doing world tours, going to places on this planet I never knew existed, and you walk off the plane, and there are thousands of people screaming your name,” Osmond, now 68, said. “I remember going to Malaysia, and they knew me there. There are places that aired it in South America that I’ve never been to that just went crazy over the Donny & Marie show.”
While the show undoubtedly added to the notoriety, both Osmond teens were already stars in their own right, as she had already hit No. 1 with “Paper Roses,” and he had already scored Top 5 hits with “Go Away Little Girl” and “Puppy Love.” Of course, he also performed with the Osmonds, his family troupe, in his younger days. The TV show, though, forced them out of their comfort zones.
“We never really knew anything about variety television,” he acknowledged, but added that he and his sister, now 66, were professionals and determined to make it work. “We were thrown into comedy, and that’s why I say some of the comedy stuff is kind of silly, because we weren’t comedians. We’re singers, but it’s forgivable when you think of the time element, and it’s kind of endearing, at least it is for me. It’s so fun to look back and say, ‘Oh, I should have done that differently, and that was so stupid,’ but it worked.”
The show lasted four years, but the duo later reunited on stage in 2008 for a Las Vegas residency, which ran through 2019. The Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat actor began a solo residency show at Harrah’s Las Vegas in 2021 — returning on Jan. 27 — and he harkens back nightly to his and his sister’s shared history via video clips and storytelling.
“The Donny & Marie team, there was something about it that was just organic. It was real. It wasn’t manufactured because if it were manufactured, a lot of people would take shots at it, and they did. Over the years, they’d take shots at Donny and Marie because of the goody-goody factor,” he said, adding that he “misses working with” his sister.
“I love my show to pieces. I mean, I work my butt off, and I love every moment of those 90 minutes each night, but there’s a lump in my throat when I turn around, and I’m singing ‘In My Life,’ and I’m seeing the Donny & Marie show from first perspective,” he said.
Despite the emotion he feels when seeing old clips from their teens or thinking about their 11-year Vegas residency, a reunion isn’t in the cards.
“Just to do one concert, it’s an enormous amount of rehearsals to get the show ready for one show. So if you’re going to do that, you might as well do a residency, and that’s not going to happen,” he said.
Regardless, Osmond’s solo Vegas show has been an unmitigated success, as it encompasses every decade of his career. He even duets with a 14-year-old hologram-esque version of himself, digitally composed from his face and voice attached to his 14-year-old grandson’s body.
“It’s so weird looking into his eyes because it’s like looking into a mirror 53 years ago,” he admits with a laugh.
A self-admitted “techhead,” Osmond is quick to embrace all that artificial intelligence has to offer if used properly and as a “tool.” He was also very involved in the creation of his new Donny App, which he calls his “next wave of promotion,” as it has merchandise, tickets and other incentives. He did the backend coding himself.