Mental health awareness is a heartfelt, personal cause for Donny Osmond
Since he was five years old, Donny Osmond has been performing in public. Today, after 33 gold records and 100 million albums sold worldwide, Donny is still going strong, releasing his 65th album, Start Again, in 2021 and currently headlining his first solo residency at Harrah’s Las Vegas, voted Best New Show and Best Performer. However, even with all that success, it hasn’t always been easy. My Hometown Health recently spoke to Donny to discuss the mental and physical challenges he has overcome during his six decades in show business, including an anxiety issue that almost ended his career.
Let’s talk about your social anxiety disorder first. When did that begin?
As early as age 11, I remember feeling anxious. As a young performer, I was always under a lot of pressure to be perfect. I felt like I was being judged all the time, and that’s hard for any child. Then, in the 1980s, when I was the lead in the Broadway musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, my anxiety steadily increased to the point where it was affecting my performance. It got so bad that I had a panic attack during a performance in Minneapolis.
What did you do?
I got help. Dr. Jerilyn Ross, who worked with Barbara Streisand and other celebrities, taught me how to play with my fear, not run from it. If I had butterflies in my stomach, for example, she would tell me to imagine the butterflies flying in formation. And Steven Pimlott, the show’s director, changed my whole way of thinking about performing. I had always thought that I had to deliver a great performance because the audience had paid good money to see me. Steven told me I had it all backwards. He said it wasn’t my job to make the audience happy. It was my job to have the best time of my life on stage and let the audience peek into my world. If I was having a blast, the audience would too. That changed everything.
What lessons did you learn from that experience?
I learned that it is not a black and white world. I learned to live in the gray and allow myself to make mistakes and let go of the idea of trying to be perfect. Here’s an example. During a recent performance, I missed a high note. In the past, that one mistake could have turned into a panic attack. But instead, I stopped the show, spoke directly to the audience, and told them I didn’t hit that note and that we were going to try it again. On the second try, I nailed it!
You faced another medical challenge recently when you injured your back. Tell us about that.
It happened in 2019 during the last performance for a show Marie and I had been performing for 11 years at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Suddenly, I couldn’t feel my arms and legs, yet somehow, I finished the performance. I learned that my spine had shifted and needed surgery. All the dancing I had done over the years finally caught up with me. The surgery was a success, but then I got a secondary infection, which became very serious. At my low point, I could only walk using a walking frame and I was in extreme pain. I thought my career might be over and that I might not walk again. It took almost a year of rehabilitation to recover, but today, I’m able to keep up with all the 20-year-old dancers I work with.
How did you make it through such a difficult time?
Keeping a positive attitude was the key as well as a lot of hard work. It would have been easy to fall into depression, but I just kept working hard at the rebab. I would do little exercises so I wouldn’t be sedentary, and I could still sing so I kept doing vocal exercises.
Any final thoughts?
For far too long, mental health has been a taboo issue in our culture, and there is still a stigma associated with it. I want people to know that help is available. I want people to know that they have a choice as to how they live. Don’t be embarrassed if you have a mental health issue. Get help. I did and it changed everything!