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Morgan Jones Pearson
How crazy was Osmondmania? Well, at its peak in 1973, 50 years ago this year, over 15,000 Osmond fans shut down London's Heathrow Airport. That same year, the Osmonds devoted an entire album to sharing what they believed as "The Plan" was released. So why would one of the most famous music groups make an album to share the doctrines of their faith? Well, because they believed it. Although he has two older brothers, Alan Osmond is the oldest of the singing Osmond brothers and despite rarely singing anything more than backup vocals, Alan co-wrote and co-produced many of the Osmonds biggest hits in addition to playing piano and guitar. In 1987, Osmond was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and has since made great contributions to the MS community. He and his wife Suzanne are the parents of eight sons.
This is All In, an LDS Living podcasts where we ask the question, what does it really mean to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ? I'm Morgan Pearson. And I am so excited to have Alan Osmond on the line with me today, Alan, welcome.
Alan Osmond
Thank you, Morgan. Good to be here.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Well, I am a big Osmond fan. And I should tell you, actually that I was a fan of your sons as well, the Osmond Second Generation. And so this is very exciting for me. I've been excited about this interview, and I'm looking forward to learning more about your experiences. And I just admire you and your family so much.
Alan Osmond
Well, thank you.
Morgan Jones Pearson
You are the oldest of the Osmond brothers. And I was curious, as I began to prepare for this interview, I started to think about how your two older brothers were both born deaf. And we've had Justin Osmond on this podcast previously. And so as I was thinking about this, I thought, you know, I wonder how that affected Alan's growing up, and especially prior to your other siblings coming along and starting to grow up themselves? How did having two older brothers with hearing impairment affect you?
Alan Osmond
Well, you know, when I was born, my mother had an out of body experience. And she records her journal that she found herself up near the ceiling looking down at the body, and the doctor was slapping her face. And thank heavens, it made her mad. And she came back into her body. And I'm grateful for that. So I was born third, with two deaf brothers. And all I remember is "Alan, go get your brothers." Because they couldn't hear. So I had to go get Verl and Tom. And then when we started our musical group in 1957 it was "Alan, go get your brothers, it's time to rehearse." So it's always like Alan, go get Alan, Alan, go get this and that. So it was amazing. We learned sign language. And it helped us in our recording because while the microphones on we could sign language and wouldn't make any noise. But the reason we started singing was for Verl and Tom, because they wanted to go on missions for the Church. And so that's how we would start raising funds for them, and also to buy hearing aids for them. And then we also wanted to serve missions. So that was our plan. And when they started throwing coins at us on stage, we knew what we were on target.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Seriously? Well, I wonder you are actually old enough to remember kind of the entire journey of the Osmonds, as we know you all today, I wondered what do you remember about the very beginning the whole Andy Williams period of your career and as things kind of got going?
Alan Osmond
Well, that would take a long time to tell you but I remember the first thing we were on a trip as a family to Yellowstone Park. And I was sitting behind my father was driving and mother and father were singing the old Oaken Bucket song. And I realized mother was singing melody, but father was singing, something's different. That's when I thought, Oh, I get it and I found the relationship musically. And I started singing father's part, my mother's squealed she say oh, we got it. We got singers. So that's why we started the group and I was the oldest and and through the years we just, we followed the music. We loved the music and we always had a family night before the Church instigated it. And ours was a Friday night at that time and we learn a song every week for family night. When we had the opportunity to go down and work on Andy Williams Show. We had a chance to use all those songs that we learned and developed. We picked up musical instruments. We learned to tap dance because our brothers Verl and Tom could hear the rhythym. So when they took the lesson to tap dance, they'd come home and teach us. And then we got to have dance lessons. But we were too poor to have all of us take lessons. So one brother would go learn something, then come home teach the rest of us. That's how we learn so many different instruments. It was really fun, and it all paid off. But I love my brothers Verl and Tom, they were the first to death missionaries for the Church. And they went out without Purser script, and they had to kind of figure it out how to communicate with deaf people and share the gospel. I remember growing up in Huntsville, Utah, I met David O. McKay at the Prophet. And as we went into his home, and he greeted us and welcomed us in. He learned the Verl was getting ready to go on his mission. And he pulled $5 out of his pocket and gave it to him. That when we said, Wow, this is what we got to keep building.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Well, I love Alan, that you all have always made Tom and Verl a part of all of this, it's it's never been like something where they were left out of it. But they were the reason for it. And the the catalyst of it. And I think that that's awesome.
Alan Osmond
When we built our studios in Utah, we built a printing company to do our scripts, and Tom was the head of that. And Verl was charged to take a lot of photography, which he was good at. And we used them all the time. Right side by side. That's our theme. And hearing impairedness was just one of the challenges we had in our family. We've had other things I have MS. But MS does not have me. But we get by with what we what we can and what we can't we help each other.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Well I think that's wonderful. And I want to talk more about MS. But before we get to that, I wonder do you feel like the experience that you all had with attaining recognition and kind of this journey of fame that you went on? Was that gradual? Or was there a moment where for you as a young boy, it was like, Oh, wow, this is really happening?
Alan Osmond
We did it for the fun for music. We did not seek for fame or fortune. We were very humble family. We raised on a farm and milked a cow twice a day with brothers Verl and Tom. We had chickens. And you know, we were so busy. We worked at the post office and helped their parents through especially during Christmastime, stamp packages. And there was just a family thing. We had an orchard and we irrigated, we hauled pipe, we holed sugar beets, we were just normal kids. But when we went down, we got our patriarchal blessings when we went down and it told us that we would help basically to open doors for missionaries. That was our job. And we took that very seriously. So when we went down to California, it was to be successful because we wanted to share a lifestyle of family and love that we have with others.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Well, that's remarkable. I think one thing that I have been impressed with and in preparing the interview, Marie, I believe that was last year, I watched a lot of videos of you all and I was so impressed by the way that you and your brothers and Marie repeatedly have stood up for the Church have stood up for the things that you believe have taken every opportunity to share the gospel. And I think that that's remarkable. I wondered there have been many people I think, Alan that have been introduced to the Church as a result of first loving your family's music. And I know of several that have joined because of your family's example—that joined, obviously joined because they had testimonies but began investigating the church because of your family's example and later joined. Are there any experiences with that, that stand out in your mind or any missionary opportunities over the years that that you'd like to make sure to highlight?
Alan Osmond
Well Morgan, we approached everything we did on a spiritual basis. We're all first created spiritually before we are naturally upon the earth. Moses 3 Verse five tells us that so we took things spiritually first, and why we're here and prepare yourself and the opportunity will come. So we used our talents as a way to open doors for missionaries. We prepared to go on missions for ourselves. We also studied the scriptures and we believed what we said, it was not just a thing about reading the Book of Mormon, we read it daily. And we tried to live it. Before every show we had what we call a meeting. It's time for meeting. Well that meant we were going to have a little word of prayer. And in the prayer, we asked Heavenly Father if someone in the audience might be touched and have a reason for the hope that was in them, as Paul talked about in the scriptures. So as we're performing, that was our whole purpose and not just to get applause and standing ovation. Yeah, we learned a lot about how to write songs, sing songs, and then make people happy. We also learned that we couldn't get a hit record unless we wrote it ourselves because everybody keeps their own songs. And that's when we started writing. And I was the one to start that. In fact, I wrote most of the stuff, I guess about just kind of like poetry and music and and being the leader and keyboards, it just came. And I have a real dear friend, he's my my ghostwriter, the Holy Ghost, to put it directly. And that's how I like to do it. So everything we do, we approached it. It's not to get hit records. It's not to Yeah, I'd say hit records is a sign that you're having success. But we wanted to touch hearts. That's why we wrote "The Plan" album, which was our favorite album. But it was a an album called The Plan of Life. Well, people will say, Oh, here it goes those Mormons again. And they tried to stop us many times. In fact, when we wrote "The Plan" album, which was about the plan of happiness, we were traveling and on tour for a few months in the summer. And when we were Memphis, Tennessee, our hotel caught on fire. And our all our costumes and everything burned, we came back. And guess what? The book that I had with all of our music in it for The Plan that we'd been working on burned up also. So we said, "Oh, man," you know, there's opposition and all things. And we know that Satan is there. He's very real. And he was trying to stop us as well. So we had we rededicated ourselves and really focused on what we wanted to do and say with this album, and before we did that, I know, I'm kind of yakking here, but I'm trying to give you a picture. When we were recording, we needed to get something hit, we got to get the bigger hit. Because then you get more eyes and ears watching and following you, then you can be more successful in preaching the gospel. And so I told my brothers, I said, we need to say something with our words, not just, even though "Down to the Lazy River" was a hit, which we wrote, you know, it's nice and happy and family and this and that. But we need to say something. So that's when we wrote the Crazy Horses album. And that album was the first song about anti-pollution. And it went number one worldwide. And it was incredible. And that's when I said to my brothers, now's the time to talk about what we believe. And I started a project called "The Plan," the plan of life and happiness, because that's what it's all about. We all knew it before we came to this world who pre-mortally, then we're here on Earth to learn about it. And guess what? The plan takes effect and we go forward, as we become immortal. And the Lord Jesus Christ has a wonderful plan for all. And we all get the salvation because of him and the resurrection. And I try to with our music and online, let people know you don't die. And that's it. Well, I wrote a song called Are you up there? It says a lot. And if I could just say a few words that will help you get to the point. Why should I trust in a love that I can't have forever? Does it seem right to live a game of takeaway? Should I want for children if there isn't any more for them to live for? You know, and it goes on and and those lyrics helped to express what we believe in. So it ended with saying, Are you up there? Well, that's what a lot of people ask. They don't believe that Heavenly Father is omniscient. And that He can always see the future. That's what you read in the Book of Mormon that they couldn't believe. That's why they didn't believe Nephi and his brothers? Well, He does see ahead, and He does know, and He has a plan for us. That's the message we wanted to take out. And that's what we tried to do it with musically, so that it could happen. And doggone it, we're just about ready to celebrate our 50th anniversary of that album. Isn't that something?
Morgan Jones Pearson
That is something else? Well, and that's one of the main reasons that I wanted to make sure that we had the opportunity to talk, Alan, is because I think 50 years is a significant anniversary to take a look back at what you all were able to accomplish, especially with that album. So I wondered you kind of alluded to this but how did that idea initially come to be? You guys have called that album, your rock opera? And so how did you kind of have the idea to take these ideas that are doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and put them into music and not necessarily the kind of music that you'd hear on Christian radio, typically, some of the songs were rock songs and you taught principles through them. So tell me a little bit about how that came to be.
Alan Osmond
Well Morgan, that's a great question. You know they told us when we started, you'll never make it in show business you're too clean cut, you're too goody goody. We said, well, we're not going to change, because that's the way we are. So we tried in our music thought to relate to people. And we started writing music we wanted to reach we got into the teen world became, that's when Donny really soared. And then we wanted to reach our teenage, our own peers. And so we wanted to do rock and roll. We loved the Beatles. Well, the Beatles had a White album, which was their rock opera. And I said, Well, lets us do one like it. And then what should we sing about? And I said, let's talk about the plan on life. A funny thing, even when we went, we had Bill Cowsill, who was one of the Cowsills, a rock band, come to produce us. And he said Osmonds, no one's gonna give you their songs. You need to write your own. Go to the piano right now. And in five minutes, I want to have a song written, go. Whoa. And so we go to the piano. And all my brothers are looking at me, what do we do, Alan? So we started writing a song. And guess what we wrote about? Joseph Smith's first vision. "Joe, you're taking on a big, big thing. You said, there's people in the sky." Anyway, you use the gospel to do that. So as we started writing the rock opera approach. We did it from the very start, we started with the war in heaven. Well, it's hard to describe what that is. So we did that orchestrally. But then we did the thing that causes a lot of people to ask the most important questions about life is called "Traffic In My Mind." I've got traffic in my mind. Yeah, I don't know which road to follow. So anyway, it says, We ask the questions. So who am I? Why am I here? Where in heaven's name am I going? I remember when we met with Paul Dunn, he took us in to meet President Harold B. Lee and the 12 apostles. And he told them the Osmonds are coming out with a story about the plan of life. Nobody had heard it yet. We didn't seek permission because the gospel teaches us to step forward on our own with faith. So we had it all done and ready and it was going to come out, we let the brethren hear it first, so at least they'd make us know how to act or react. And when I went in there, we played them that song "Traffic In My Mind" and Paul Dunn said, "I've never seen so many eyebrows raised in my life." The brethren said, "Whoa." And he said, "Now, Brethren, listen to the lyrics. And the music is what the kids like. But listen to the lyrics." And that's when we told them about who am I? Why am I here? Where in heaven's name am I going? I'm a spaceman from a different land, I've got to get back home. So we don't teach sometimes on the nose on music, you got to make a sort of has this palatable to the ear. And kids like it. And then once they start singing it, they realize what they're singing. That's another way to get the gospel in their in their lives. And they start liking it, they start singing it and they realize Whoa, what does that mean? That's were we able to help a lot of young people answer questions to their heart. And then we talked about before the beginning, we were living oh so far away from here. And we call this home but didn't stay. We knew that we would leave one day and cry. And then we heard a little slap and you hear a baby cry. Whoa, I get it born. And then we go on and take them through that progression. And then it goes and talks about ever since we came to be, with the plan we learned to see, we alone would guide our destiny. You see the decisions we make in this life are because of what decisions we made before. And so now what we do in this life will determine where we go after this world. If we could only get people to understand that. In between songs, we'd write these little vignettes. And this was kind of pertinent to what the whole album was about. And it's saying, We are what we were and will be what we do. We're all on our own. Yes, it's all up to you, to learn what is false, and to do what is true. It's what you've always wanted to do. See that made them think. And so when they start thinking about what do you mean wanted to? Yes, we lived pre-mortally. So it gives us a great door to talk about it. And then I wrote a song called the Movie Man, which was about your conscience. Why did you do it? You should not make your mother cry. I'd say you blew it. Yes, he gave you one more try. Yet you laugh and use you smile, try to run away. Don't you know what you do you might regret someday? Because there's one who has eyes on your evil ways, the movie man. And they say what does that mean Alan? And well, that gives me a chance to talk about the conscience, about repentance, and all those things. And then one of the songs that we did for for repentance was a song that turned out to be a hit for us. But they didn't realize it. They thought it was a love song. It was written about a repentant person singing the lyric to Jesus. Now, so if you were sang the Lyric, listen to the words not as a love song. So he says loving, you could be so easy, loving you could make me warm. Ever since the day I left you I try, but I just can't get you out of my mind. And you can imagine Jesus's face when you're telling this. Thought that I could live without you, thought I had to look around. But now that I know I need you and promise that I'll never leave you, won't you please. Then the chorus goes, Let me in, let me in your arms again. And it was just as a hit record. And our audience was just singing along with this. And then when they started realizing, oh, it's about Jesus, it's a resurge of love for the song. So it's incredible. We taught another principle called "One Way Ticket to Anywhere." What is me? Well, in fact that Suzanne was a BYU cheerleader, and she had never seen me perform before we were married. And she used to dance to this. And it's really about you can go wherever you want. It's a plan of happiness. And after this world, there are more than one heaven. You know, there's a telestial, a glory like unto the stars and the terrestrial, the glory of the moon and the celestial like the sun. So also is the resurrection. Well, that's based on truth and light. And this, we tried to teach them that we were on a one way ticket to anywhere, there's no place you can go. So hold on, baby, don't let go. And it just, it was a great, it was a dancing fun song. But boy, when you sit down and analyze it in context with everything else, it helps them understand that. And then the song that called Are you up there? When I got this song, it was like three in the morning, I sat in my bed upright with my pencil and pen in hand. And the piano was a foot of my bed. I had the paper ready to go. And I could feel that the Lord was trying to tell me something through the Spirit. And I sat there and sat there. And now it must have been a couple of hours. I'm reading scripture I'm pondering what is it that supposed to say? And then it's almost as if it's light turned on in the room.
And I felt these words just come at me. And I was writing them down as fast as I could. I'd look at the piano, I could see what chords they were, in my mind. I'd write them down. And even the melody I got I wrote down the notes. And I as soon as I finished that, it never got changed. And we took it to the studio and recorded as it was. And I can testify there is a God and also the Holy Ghost was there and had his hand in the coming of the songs. We think we're so clever down here. We don't realize how much help from not only the Holy Ghost, but our ancestors that are on the other side. We just didn't happen to sing. We found out we have relatives back about four generations that also come from Wales. And they had 12 Kids that sang in four part harmony. So we are blessed by our ancestors. And we learned in the scriptures in Doctrine & Covenants 128:15, it says "For we without them and they without us cannot be made perfect." That's why we do family history. And we try to get our fans excited about this. I remember going in England we says hi cousin from the stage, it was probably 20,000 people there and they were Hey. I said is how are we related? And they said, "Huh?" And so we had a free DNA test for that we're trying to find our relatives. We had an Osmond over there in England somewhere that there were three brothers originally came. And we couldn't find that one. Well I'll have to tell you we finally did and what happened, that guy married a Maori girl went down to New Zealand, we found 622 Osmond relatives deceased that had lived there. Isn't that awesome? So anyway, we love the gospel all about it. We use our music to try to introduce him and tell him it's all about you. And how Heavenly Father loves you, and the Lord loves you. And what you do matters. And we tried to help them realize also through like the song "Darlin," how important marriage is between a man and a woman. But it's more than marriage. It's the sealing that takes place. And that makes you eternal, and all your children. And then at the very end, even the angels in heaven, everybody wants to know when Jesus coming back. So we thought we should address it. And not even the angels don't know when. But there are signs that we're talking to we're supposed to watch for. And so we wrote this song called, "It's Gotta Be the Last Days." So we said, this is what happens if this is what you see, then it's gotta be the last days. So we came up with all these words, and I remember my mother, my brothers, all of us were trying to find words that rhymed with "tion" like nation takes their battle stations, boy we're getting close to that again. Patrons have Zodiac revelations, we went through the drug and the hippie movement, less stations, breaking family relations, the breakdown of the family, litigation, allowing shoot up sensations with all the drugs is going on. And that's what they said someday it would be, now just look around, if that's what we see, it's gotta be the last days. So anyway, we go on to say about people living lives of confusion, billions caught up in revolution, cities lost in their pollution. Question, what is the constitution if that isn't pertinent today? All In fact, all those things we talked about have already come to pass.
Morgan Jones Pearson
I love hearing the songwriting process. I always think that that's fascinating, and especially when you're working in gospel principles, but I do wonder, Alan, if maybe we could give people an idea. I think one thing that people my age, you know, who were not around during Osmondmania, they may not fully appreciate just how big a deal you guys were at the peak of your fame. And the fact that you would then make this effort to share the gospel, I think is so significant. So I wondered two things. One, I remember seeing a movie that portrayed you and your brother's experience with fame. And people were especially teenage girls, were literally like throwing themselves at you all left and right. And I wonder, is that really what it was like? And how did you manage to stay true to yourselves and your values?
Alan Osmond
Well, thank you. Yes, it did happen. It was called Osmondmania, as they coined it in Europe. That's where it started was in London. But it also went to Germany, went to England. It went went to Japan, Australia, it happened started happening all over. It was a craze at the time with fan magazines and the music. And when we got to England...we did first of all, some test concerts in the Cleveland, Ohio to test to see if the market was there. Dick Clark with American Bandstand was our agent and he's the same guy that had gotten the Jackson Five. So we were on the same tours and and so we went out and we found out the girls were screaming. We had a problem. We didn't have enough big amplifiers, so we had to redo our tool, our amplifiers up. Well, pretty soon they're not just screaming, and now they're coming after us. So when we went to England, it was really intense. And we hired the bodyguards that The Beatles had. And so Dale Murphy was the hit guy and and we had all these guys and they would help us get in there that there was such a charge and the press built up. And the fans found that we're coming to England, and we were banned from landing in Heathrow Airport commercially. And so we had our own jet with even our name on it. And you can't stop us from getting in there, at least we could get into to where we want to perform for them. We had a date set there. And when we landed in Heathrow, the girls, over 15,000 of them had broken through customs at the airport at Heathrow Airport, and shut down the whole airport. Can you imagine the confusion of them running through and breaking through, they went up on the top where you watch the tarmac, they have a little viewing place on the top, and they were jumping up and down and screaming, waving the little things they wanted signed. We land our plane and come in and Scotland Yard tells us "Osmonds go home." In fact, they printed it in three, four inch tall letters on the headlines of the newspaper the next day. And the press took shots at us. They said you're only here for the money? No, we're not, we said. And so we did our shows. And then the girls got in our cars. And they said you're not allowed to get any closer, just get out of the way out. And we said, Well, let us just wave at them on the way out and as we were waving, they were jumping so hard, the balcony broke, and seven girls fell, and they got hurt badly. And that night, I went to the hospital and gave them a blessing. We really do care about those we love. But they just kept after us because that's where the press are. And so after that tour, it was a very successful tour. But we had to get fire hoses to keep the girls back. Just so we could get out the door. But towards the end, we were there in our apartment. We were banned from all the hotels after a while. So we had to have an apartment that we went to and private. And that one day we had our day off and I said, Look, brothers, what can we do? We're sitting around the hotel, we see this, how can we help spread the word? And I came up with the idea. I said, Hey, let's go visit the visitor center at the London temple. And we told our bodyguards "Now, don't stop the press from following us. We want them to follow us. We want the fans." So we go slowly. We had a line of cars and taxis especially following this with all the fans but the media were there too. And we just kind of let them get in there. And I said let them get out of their cars and get the cameras because they're all shooting movies of us. What do the Osmonds do on their day off. This was what the whole title was. So we were out in our suits and ties and we go into the visitor center. They're watching us walk in. And we sit down and watch the Joseph Smith story on film and they're filming and it's on the News Live at six o'clock. You have to use the media to your advantage. And so that was how you have to think creatively, how can we take it as lemons and turn it to lemonade. So then the next year, when they banned this and they said go home, we told them, we'll be back. And we came back. But we decided we're not going to charge anybody one penny. And we want to find a way to have as many people see us as possible for free. So we went to the BBC, and we had a half hour every day for five days, and on the sixth day, we were on the show called The Top of the Pops. And that was a very popular show to do our music. We go on there on the first day with our band, we sing music and we say hi to them. And the press would say bad about us. And so we take the newspaper and we'd read it what they said. And we say now let me tell you the truth. So we tell them the truth about what they're saying. And boy, the press kind of shut down. They couldn't take us on because we had an honest ear right to our fans. I think that's what endeared us to them and them to us because we'd have them in the audience, we sang and it was free, everybody saw us. We weren't there for the money. It cost us to go over but that was the best thing we could have done. And we got to accused, they just joined the church because they're fans. And then some people stood up say wait a minute. All those fans that joined are now our stake presidents and Relief Society presidents.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Right. Well, and I think, sure people can say what they want, but I think that it's kind of like one of those "by their fruits, ye shall know them" and and you all were consistent all along if you hadn't been consistent, I think you open yourself up to criticism, but I think there's so many impressive things from trying not to perform on Sunday and doing firesides instead. I wondered, Alan, you mentioned in an email to me that you all were made seventies because you were facing the press and needed extra help and inspiration to accomplish your patriarchal blessing, which you mentioned earlier. Tell me a little bit about that.
Alan Osmond
Well, we're very close with the brethren. And I mean, we'd return and talk to the prophets all the time. And then the apostles, I remember going in, and they would stand up the 12 out of their chairs, and we'd sit in there, and we got to be interviewed, if you will, how's it going family? And we had a one on one relationship with most of the prophets as we grew up. And that was just kind of common. And so in working with them, after President Kimball saw the effect that so many were converted during the 70s and 1973, especially when we released "The Plan" album, and doing firesides we wouldn't work on Sunday, so we'd be at fireside with Paul Dunn. And he was incredible. And we'd go and bear testimonies. And he'd stand up saying, Now, do you hear what the Osmonds are saying? Let me tell you what's going on. And what you should do if you feel anything, there's some young missionaries all around here, ask them if they can explain more of what's going on. And we had more people join the Church. And that was great. But we tried to do it in everything we do. When we were in Los Angeles and having success with the number one television show on Friday nights with Donnie and Marie and I was executive producer. And we tried to do what we could there. But we had a lot of restrictions because we were in California. And so we said what if our own control and lived our own lifestyle. Plus, you know, show business is nice. It's our living, but it's not our life. So we wanted to move to Utah, because we were starting to date and there weren't that many Latter-day Saints girls down there. There are some but not a lot. So my mother bought the Riviera Apartments in Provo, just so we could meet a lot of girls. Well, that was convenient. But it was fun to be in Utah with our music as well. But we didn't have the state of the art here. So we spent the fortune that we had in building our studios, moved it to Utah, I remember meeting with Fred Silverman, then the president of ABC. He said, Well, Alan, I want to congratulate your family, you guys will have the number one variety show again this year, we'd like to renew your contract. And I said, well, thank you very much. But we'd like to do it from Utah. He said, Utah? What's in Utah? So I'd say Well, not much. But we've got plans to build a state of the art studio. And he says, Well, let me think about it. He led us, he asked us to stay there the first half of the year and then move to Utah. We're glad because it gave us more time to get built what we had to do up here. Not only did we put the finest equipment in Utah, we used all Utah talent, we would only bring key people for like the camera and the direction and stuff to get things started. And then the talent up here was just as good, but they didn't have a break either. So many companies were started because of the Osmond studios, but we were able to be in Utah, live the way we did. And when we brought celebrities up here, they would fight for which dressing room they got because there were treated so fairly. We had put fireplaces in all the dressing rooms, we had given them an order of their own cook and they could stay at our star quarters, which was really high end, comfortable apartments or they can stay in Robert Redford's cabins, we gave them a jeep and a driver, and they would fight to come and be back with us again. We didn't know if celebrities would come up here. But what I'm trying to tell people is it is an act of faith. If you believe in something, you've got to put your foot forward and step up to it. And we did and that first year, the quality of production that came out on the videotape and broadcast awas better than NBC, ABC and CBS, all of them, because we have the newest equipment and the fine production. And we were just so thankful for that. And it was a blessing in our life for a period of time and when we were finished and the equipment was time to change out, we sold our studios and we moved on with our families. And now we're simple and just enjoying retirement. I've been working at the temple 15 years as an ordnance worker with my wife. My brother Merrill is going on a mission to Washington DC. He's going to be in the visitor center there for a year. And this is where our hearts are. We're into the gospel. We're into people.
Morgan Jones Pearson
I was thinking as you were talking too earlier that your parents and I told Marie this as well. Your parents must have done something right because I feel like so many times successful like this has the ability to tear people apart to tear families apart, to also kind of get make us a little bit confused about what's most important. And you all just have managed to stay close to keep your heads on straight, and to keep your priorities in order. And I applaud you and admire you so much for that
Alan Osmond
There's a lot of people like this that just don't have the fame. You know, you get out of life, what you put into it. But I know what I would be if I didn't have the gospel. Well, I'm so thankful for it. And we all don't take for granted what the gospel is about, to have loving parents, they gave up their lives, sold their businesses too just to make ours happen. And that's what it is with each other. You don't take anything from this world except your your marriage, your children and the intelligence you gained and friends. So let's look at life real. And don't worry about the Lamborghini and all the fun stuff you can't take with you. We put our money into what things would turn around and bless people's lives. And as a result, we've been blessed. It's the pendulum–what swings far to the right swings just as far to the left. So yes, we're gonna have hard times. That's why there's so much war I think in the Book of Mormon, it has to show opposition. Because unless you know how sad you are, you'll never know how happy you are when things are over. It's going to get really tough, but it's going to get really, really good. When the Lord comes back.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Alan, before we wrap up, I want to ask you one more thing. You mentioned earlier in this interview that you were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And that happened in 1987. Is that right?
Alan Osmond
That's right.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Okay. And I wondered if you could share with me, especially as we've talked so much about our Heavenly Father's plan. And you've talked about what's coming for us after this life. And I wondered if you could share with me how this has impacted and affected your life, but also how it's enhanced your gratitude for your knowledge of Heavenly Father's plan?
Alan Osmond
Well, thank you. First of all, I have a testimony of Jesus Christ, I know He lives and I know thy Heavenly Father's there, the Holy Spirit's there. And so when I got MS, it started by me not being able to play my trumpet so fast. And then I noticed my right side, it was like I was tripped on something like a nail on the floor or something. But there was not a nail on the floor. And I realized something was going on. And we couldn't figure it out for many years. My sweet wife, Suzanne, she just she was patient and said, we'll figure it out. This is something we can live with. And when we found out it was MS, I thought it meant many sons. I had eight of them but it's a deterioration of the myelin sheath. So my brain says go, but the signal doesn't go go down where it needs to be, or at least it's distorted. So it was something I could live with, and when we went to Branson, and it really hit me hard, and I fell and and I had to come home and quit. My brothers said we're not going on without you. Marie said whatever we takes, we're in this together. That was what was so important about MS. It showed the love my family had for me. I was embarrassed to tell them I had it. But once I did, they just loved me more. And that's what I try to do now with other people. And that's why I said, Well, I may have MS, but MS does not have me. I know the big picture. It's just a physical thing. And these bodies of ours get old and they die. But you know what? We get them just like Jesus in the resurrection, we get a body back. And then the body and the Spirit come together, never to be parted again. And we go on to our glory. We become like our Heavenly Parents, our Mother and Father in Heaven. That's when I give people: hope. And when I get online and talk to other people, I get swarms of people with MS. Come talk to me. I said please do I want to give you some hope. And I tell them those things and I say you can get by, you can get through this. And my son David came down with it. He was married and when he was married, he was in a wheelchair. But he came out of it too just like me, we're stubborn I guess. But he just hung in there. We both take on, he hurts all day. His is different than mine, mine's progressive, mine keeps getting worse, and his has exasperations and so he has great pain. But anyway, those are simple things you can get past once you understand the big picture of why. We get these things down here to test this, how you react is the important thing. If you become better, or you become bitter, we chose to become better. And so we try to help others who have the same challenge to understand they're just like us. And that's been the most fun part of having it is to see others with it to help them get out of the trough. Get up and get on your feet. And even if you can't do something, Anything's better than nothing. And it's a positive mental attitude. If you think you can't, you can't. If you think you can, then you will. So that's the attitude we try to take. It's helped us to get through things with life and music. And when hard times come, we just says well, this too shall pass. We'd always say...my mother loved saying that. And my father was just so supportive. And he said, You can do it. Come on boys, you can do it. So hang in there, everybody as we go through hard times, read your scriptures daily. We do that. We started a "gold plate award" for our grandkids and our sons. And now all of them read it basically, every day. It is a blessing. It is true. And I'll tell that to anybody, including the celebrities. Elvis Presley had had missionaries, two sets of them. We'd walk into foreign countries and they'd say, Oh, don't say anything about your religion. I remember when we met Begin in Israel, and he says "Oh it's the Mormon Osmonds." I remember my mother once met Queen Elizabeth, we did a royal command performance. And backstage we're already there to meet her and Mother reached into a purse to give her a gift and Scotland Yard shut everything down, blew whistles. What's going on? Well, Mrs. Osmonds reached into her bag. She said I just wanted to give her majesty the most precious gift I have. And she had taken the scriptures and all of them. The three and four in one. And she'd underlined it and presented it to Her Majesty, especially what pertained to England. And she wrote us a letter and said I'm going to put that on my mantle. And she did. We followed up later. So don't be embarrassed about being a Latter-day Saints, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And that's why I just can't be quiet about it.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Well, Alan, you are remarkable. And it has been so fun to talk with you and to hear some of these stories. You've confirmed some things like I've heard for a long time that Elvis had missionaries, but I never knew if that was true with
Alan Osmond
He did, he had some in California and in Hawaii. And we met him and he came backstage. They said Elvis is upstairs watching in the light booth. We were worried. And we said well, we the guy that made his jumpsuits made ours. His name was Bill Balou. And so we went on stage looking like five Elvis Presleys and Elvis came backstage to see us and said oh yeah, I love the jumpsuits you guys. But he also he did love the Lord. He got on the phone with me, he called me backstage and least called for any Osmonds, me being the spokesman that everybody said, Alan, you take it. So I did. And it was Elvis Presley. And we talked for several minutes. And he says, Oh, I love my mother. And I said, Well, my mother's here. "Oh, can I talk to her?" And so my mother got on the phone with him and was just kind and loving and, and he watched us. And he said something, he watched how we would my father would go out and even though we were changing the showroom, cleaning the tables and everything. The fans wanted our autographs. So he made arrangements for them to come down through the back of the kitchen, past our dressing room downstairs and we signed every autograph through the hole, as many as we could until the next show. And Elvis Presley saw that. And he said if I could do it all over again. I would sign, like the Osmonds, every autograph for every fan that wanted it. And so I think we left our mark with a lot of people like that. He invited us to his house in California for a private barbecue. He said I'd like to invite your family in my house and have some time with you and we had it on our calendar. He died the couple of weeks before that.
Morgan Jones Pearson
My last question for you is what does it mean to you to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ,?
Alan Osmond
to be all in is to have all of the things that are available. Heavenly Father has told us all that I have is thine. But we have to go where He is in order to get it. And I tell people don't fall short. There's so many people who say we have a Bible that says enough. They don't understand that the Bible had been...a lot of it's been taken away during the history of it, and the Book of Mormon still stands as a whole package. In Ezekiel 37, it tells you that this the stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph, they're one in thine hand. So we try to help explain others to understand and to open their eyes to the fullness of the light. Everything we learn is light, it's truth. And you can have a little light, or you can have a bright beaming light. It depends what you want, what makes you happy. And if you can't stand the heat and the light of the bright light, you won't be able to live there. And the same thing that patterns after the kingdoms of heaven, whether it's the star, the moon, or the sun, the glories. So get all the light and truth you can. And then you'll be able to be where Heavenly Father is and be able to have all that He has offered. That's the thing I like to share and tell people the big picture. Don't limit yourself. And they're handicapped or they're hurt, or they can't have children. Those are the ones we go to first. Because they need to understand they're gonna be just fine. And that's what people are lacking is hope. And that's why Jesus is coming back again, because this world is getting a mess again. And we're going to need lots of hope and He's going to be there for us. I love the gospel and just want to share it with everyone I can see and who are willing to listen to me.
Morgan Jones Pearson
Alan, thank you so much. I appreciate your example and the light that you've shared with us today and just wish you the absolute best.
Alan Osmond
Well Morgan, you're great person, and thank you for your dedication and for the opening prayer you gave us. That's something we do before we show and we do every day and night and throughout the day. It's a way to become. That's when you're all in.
Morgan Jones Pearson
We are so grateful to Alan Osmond for joining us on this week's episode. There will be a new feature documentary all about the Osmonds airing on KSL on Sunday, October 1. Be sure to check it out. Big thanks to Derek Campbell of Mix At Six Studios for his help with this episode and thank you for listening. We'll look forward to being with you again next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai