Donny Osmond, 68: ‘I Love Being My Age. It’s Probably the Favorite Decade of My Entire Life’

And you also have a home in Las Vegas.

Yes, I used to stay at the hotel when Marie and I were working at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. It was supposed to be a six-week run that turned into 11 years. So when I started my own show here at Harrah’s, we were at the hotel, and the ticket sales started taking off and we realized we had a hit, so we bought a house. And now we have a home in Utah and a nice little place here where the kids can visit and the grandkids can go swimming.

Osmond performs on “The Masked Singer” in 2019.

Michael Becker/20th Century Fox Licensing/Courtesy Everett Collection

You turned 68 last year. What do you love about being the age you’re at now?

I can’t believe I’m 68, because I still act like a teenager — just ask my wife! She turns to me and says, “Will you please grow up?” So I act like one of the grandkids or one of our children. I love being this age. All my life, I’ve been looked at as this little kid who sang “Puppy Love.” We all do it, I do it: You put people into a box, a pigeonhole, and that’s who they are, and that’s who they always will be. But with this show here in Vegas, and also with my Dancing With the Stars win and The Masked Singer, people have realized, “Wait a minute, things are different,” especially when they come to see this show, and I perform my entire career. It’s six decades of show business in 90 minutes. So I love being my age. It’s probably the favorite decade of my entire life.

In part of your show, you perform with an interactive portrayal of young Donny. What do you now know that you wish you had known then?

I came up with an idea, and it took two years to put this into my Vegas show. I thought, There’s got to be technology that can do this. I want to sing with myself 54 years ago, because I was 14 when I recorded “Puppy Love.” I found a company and they took hundreds of pictures of me at 14 and animated my face. They took my voice for recordings and interviews and stuff at 14. So the actor sounds like me when I’m 14, but the actor is my 14-year-old grandson, Daxton. So he plays me, I call him “D 14,” and we interact. And it’s really freaky for me because every night I’m seeing myself interacting and singing with myself from 54 years ago!

Osmond records a session with the younger version of himself, played by his 14-year-old grandson, Daxton. The two “perform” together on stage.

AARP Studios

Does your grandson want to pursue a career in singing as well?

There are several of my grandchildren who like theater. And they might want to pursue it; I don’t know; it’s up to their parents. I’m certainly not going to push them. If they do decide to get into that industry, they certainly have me as someone they can come to for advice.

What advice would you give to them?

It’s a tough business, but if you have a passion for it, be prepared for a lot of work and a lot of disappointments, because sometimes you may not be right for the role, you may not be the right height, right look, the right sound, whatever. Don’t let anybody discourage you or say “You can’t do this.” I wrote a song on my latest album, called Start Again, and the title says it all. You’re going to get knocked down, that’s life and everybody goes through that, but believe in yourself and work hard. My mom would always tell me, “Prepare yourself and the opportunity will come.” So when that opportunity presents itself, be ready to go 100 percent and give it your all.

“Show business is really demanding, and I’ve learned over the years, in some ways, the hard way, that you’ve got to balance your life. I work hard and I play hard, and I relax hard,” says Osmond.

MEGA/Getty Images

Where do you find the energy to perform five shows a week?

Personally, I don’t know, but I love what I do! It’s a hard business, and my mom always said, ‘It’s a hard way to make an easy living,’ but it’s true: If you want to get into show business, be prepared to work.

How do you appeal to all generations with your Las Vegas residency?

When I look out in the audience every night, it’s quite interesting, the demographics that I see. Now primarily, I call them the Puppy Lovers, the generation I grew up with. But last night there was this girl about 12 [years old], and she knew my songs. I do this 10-minute rap where I highlight all the things I’ve done in my life, starting from the beginning, when I was 4 years old, to what I’m doing now here in Vegas. When little kids see The Masked Singer when I was the peacock, they see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; I mean, it just keeps bringing in a whole new generation of people.

Osmond as Joseph in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” which ran between 1992 and 1997.

Getty Images

Having grown up in the public eye, what’s something about you that might surprise your fans?

That’s a tough question to answer, because I’ve been in the public eye since I was 4. Back in the days when we had teen magazines, they would write about everything, so it’s very difficult to find something that is a surprise. I’ve got a green thumb I never knew I had. That’s my hobby, so that’s probably something people don’t know. I built this massive garden and waterfall in the backyard, and of course, the fruit trees for all my grandkids. I’m also very technically minded; in fact, I was very much involved in the creation of all the computer systems that run my show and in how everything runs on this show. As a matter of fact, I could control the show from my phone!

Is there anything else you do to relax on your days off?

Show business is really demanding, and I’ve learned over the years in some ways, the hard way, that you’ve got to balance your life. I work hard and I play hard, and I relax hard. When I go home, I leave the work at the office, so to speak, at the theater. And I really try hard when I’m home to be focused on my family.

What’s next for you?

I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to be doing this. There’s going to be an end, and the reason I say that is because I have a certain caliber, a certain level of energy, that I give on stage. As soon as I can’t give that energy, I don’t want to go on stage, because when I put on a show, people know they can expect a certain thing.

Is there anything that you haven’t done that you’d like to do?

I might be retiring pretty soon, but retiring doesn’t make sense to me, because you always want to be engaged in a good cause that keeps you going. So if I’m not on stage, my mind is constantly creating and doing things. I’ve got projects in the back of my mind that I want to begin when I’m not on stage anymore. I don’t want to mention them right now because I’m going to be making some announcements soon, but it might have to do with my green thumb. That’s all I’m saying. We call them Osmond Orchards.