Donny Osmond Says Michael Jackson Gave Him Some ‘Very Offensive’ Career Advice

Gabrielle Moss August 15, 2025

Donny Osmond custom image — ABC/Lou Rocco

Donny Osmond has had many eras a performer, from breakout star of the Osmonds band, to musical theater actor, daytime talk show host, and his current reign as one of Vegas’s top live acts. But in the ’80s, Osmond went through an era where things were a little less sunny … and he got some very unexpected advice from fellow pop star Michael Jackson about how to get through it.

During an appearance on the Adam Carolla Show, which Osmond posted to Instagram on July 30, Osmond recalled that “the name Donny Osmond was a joke, years ago. If you said you liked Donny Osmond music, you were ousted. In fact, it was WPLJ in New York, they got a hold of ‘Soldier of Love’ as an import. They played the record to test it cause they liked the song, but they just didn’t want to say my name.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Donny Osmond (@donnyosmond)

“Soldier of Love,” Osmond’s 1988 comeback hit, was famously only initially released in the UK; an American radio promoter got a copy and played it without announcing that Osmond was the singer behind it. Instead, the station had fans guess for several weeks about the identity of the “mystery artist” behind the song, only revealing Osmond’s association with the song after it had become popular. The strategy worked; the song hit #2 on the Billboard charts, and launched the second phase of Osmond’s stardom.

But as Osmond revealed, the baggage attached to his name has already been pointed out years earlier, by the world’s biggest pop star. Osmond and Jackson had a relationship going back to the ’70s, when both were the superstars of their respective family singing groups. Osmond and Jackson stayed in touch through the ’80s, as Osmond’s career slowed and Jackson’s picked up supersonic speed.

So, naturally, Osmond went to his buddy-turned-pop legend for career advice. “In fact, back in ’83, which is just, I think, around the time Thriller came out,” Osmond recalled, “Michael Jackson told me, he said — cause I asked him, ‘Mike, how do I get back on the charts?’ He said, ‘Your name’s poison, Donny. You’ve gotta change your name.’

“And it was very offensive, I mean, it was tough to hear that. But he was right. Because in ’89, radio stations all across the country played my music, but didn’t say my name. And they did me a favor by not saying who I was. And it became a hit — then they found out it was me.”

Osmond’s family name has been an asset again in the decades since, but he’ll never forget, as he wrote on Instagram, that “there was a time when my name worked against me.”