Fed: Donny Osmond finally embraces his pin-up boy image

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2006
Fed: Donny Osmond finally embraces his pin-up boy image

By Jonathon Moran, National Entertainment Writer

SYDNEY, Feb 10 AAP - American singer Donny Osmond tried hard for years to break from
his 1970s pin-up boy image.

But it seems at 47, he wants it back.

"There was a time I hated it, thinking I gotta get away from this Puppy Love image,"

Osmond said from his Utah home today.

"I tried as hard as I could to be considered an adult but it was just a matter of time
for everybody else to grow up. We all look back in time and embrace the past so now I
enjoy it."

Osmond, who in April will begin his first visit to Australia for 25 years, has in recent
years also had to overcome a debilitating social phobia.

"You have got to fight through it and I had a lot of therapy," the singer said.

"Over the years, Donny Osmond has always had the squeaky clean image and in many circles
I still do. But it hasn't been a perfect life and I am pretty much human."

Osmond released an autobiography, titled Life Is Just What You Make It, in December,
opening up about his severe panic attacks and how he got through it.

"It was therapeutic to be able to release a lot of that stuff," he said of writing
the book. "It was cathartic."

Osmond's Australian tour begins in Melbourne on April 30 before he heads to Perth,
then Sydney, Canberra and the Gold Coast.

"It has been 25 years," said Osmond, who has five sons and recently became a grandfather
for the first time.

"I have had some invitations here and there to tour but it just never really made sense."

He is most famous for being one of the Osmond brothers, joining Wayne, Alan, Merrill
and Jay, and later sister Marie, to be international stars in the `70s.

They had hits with songs including Puppy Love, One Bad Apple, Crazy Horses and Go Away
Little Girl.

Osmond also had a successful career in theatre and television with shows such as Donny and Marie.

"The worst thing I could do is come down there (to Australia) and not do all the old
hits," said Osmond when asked about his show.

"Of course there is new stuff but it is really a celebration of 43 years in show business."

AAP jwm/jt/bwl

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