Donny Osmond has opened up about the advice Michael Jackson once gave him, saying the King of Pop told him his name was “poison” for his career.
In a resurfaced 2023 interview on The Adam Carolla Show, shared again on Instagram, Osmond discussed the struggles he faced in the 1980s trying to reinvent himself beyond his teen idol past.
“The name Donny Osmond was a joke,” he admitted. “If you liked my music, you were ousted.”
When his 1988 hit Soldier of Love was first tested on radio, DJs deliberately avoided saying his name. “They played the record to test it because they liked the song—but they just didn’t want to say my name,” Osmond said.
Looking back, he remembered asking Michael Jackson how to get back on the charts after Thriller’s success. Jackson replied bluntly: “Your name’s poison, Donny. You gotta change your name.”
Although the remark stung, Osmond credits that period with teaching him resilience. By 1989, Soldier of Love became a hit when radio stations aired it anonymously, later revealing it was Osmond behind the track.
Osmond has shared in the past that he and Jackson bonded over similar upbringings. Both grew up in large families of performers—each the seventh child in families of nine.
“Michael told me once, ‘You’re the only person on this planet that knows what my childhood was like,’” Osmond recalled.