[Applause]
don't know how much that means to me
because i you have lived that life where
we have lived uh parallel lives in in
many ways so here you have something
magical here the feeling is amazing so
you're gonna you're gonna take over
television
have
no idea
how much
your approval means to me oh thank you
um
i mean
let's talk about you know 1979
you know what was that decade like for
you
because there was some really crazy
things that happened 79 to 89
from a per from a
professional point of view
were the dark years
because i had lost my career from a
personal point of view i couldn't have
been happier because i got married in 78
i finally found the love of my life i
could spend the rest of the the show
just talking about how she saved me i
dated her secretly for three and a half
years because i didn't want tiger beat
to find out
[Laughter]
and and then once the news got out that
i got married and maybe some of you
did this i won't hold it against you
but they fans literally had donnie
osmond record burning parties
and and sent the most scathing letters
to debbie
and she's a sweet little girl from
billings montana she is the most amazing
woman and saved my life really because i
was going through some really dark times
it took me about
10 years
before um
things started kicking back in again
because that's when soldier of love hit
in in 89 but i had tried broadway in a
show called little johnny jones and we
opened and closed the same night
that hurts
and uh i couldn't get a record deal
um
i couldn't even get arrested i i mean it
was
i couldn't do anything
everything was gone you get married the
fans abandon
when you got married how did you know to
lean into your wife instead of saying
you're the root cause of this how did
you know to lean in with family and see
the reality of what was happening rather
than turn it on them
okay
because of what
state i was in prior to
getting married to her
there was a concert that i did in hawaii
and the place was packed
thousands and thousands of people
screaming
and i went back to
our condo we had a condo there at the
time and i found a little corner in the
room in that condo and i rolled myself
up into a ball and started crying my
eyes out uncontrollably and my brother
jay walks in and he sees me he said
donnie what's wrong
and
i said jay
i'm lonely
i'm just lonely he said donnie 20 000
girls were just screaming your name how
could you be lonely i said i don't know
but i'm lonely i was in such a dis
desperate place
that debbie pulled me out of it
and
whenever i make a decision
in my life
the first thing i think about is her how
does it affect her
and then the second how does it affect
my children
and the third now is how does that
affect my grandchildren then i'm fourth
if all
four of those are a green light then
i'll do it
and i think that's what's really helped
this 43 year marriage is that she comes
first
but i love what i do
it's not i mean the applause and
everything when i walked out and
everybody was just applauding and
everything the love that ensued is just
it's euphoric
and here's the problem
if i depended on that all the time
then
my downs would be really down
so what i do
and
people make fun of me for it because i
go home i'll mow my grass i'll take my
garbage out i'll do the domestic things
that you know i could have somebody do
all that for me but i do that because
it's down to balancing i look at my my
friend i michael jackson and i had a
great relationship we would laugh we'd
call each other on the phone and we'd
laugh about the similarities of our
families and the difference the last
time i spoke with him he said
i just need some normalcy in my life i
said come to my home
let your kids swim with my kids no one
will know you're there he said i think i
need to do that and he never took me up
on it the last time i spoke with him so
looking at that and all the other
celebrities and peers and whatever
colleagues that have influenced my life
and i've been around i see so many
people have lost it because they don't
know how to balance yep i love the
adulation i love the standing ovations
at the end of a show i love that i eat
it up and it's a drug and i need it
but i also need to go home and be a
father and a husband and a grandpa you
know sometimes we can feel sorry for
ourselves i've been dealt such a bad
hand of cards why god why
we'll do something about it play those
cards play those cards
you know do something with your life
don't constantly feel sorry i mean and i
have i i've sat back and i'm guilty of
it too why why why
and and then you just say
give me the strength
to just play these cards
and make something of my life i so agree
with that
all right
you you
you had donny and marie i mean first of
all let's just talk about the first show
that's why johnny and murphy oh yeah
marie that's right i mean that show was
just so major for everybody we had so
much fun i mean what was that like we
had no idea how much work we were
getting into and uh because we were
doing like as far as music is concerned
an album a week
let alone the comedy and and the
performances and it was just
overwhelming but we were young and we
had this stamina yeah but
it was huge
it was great for the time i've embraced
it uh the memories of working with my
sister yes there were times that were
difficult but i
loved working with her it's the only
word i can call it is magic there's a
magic between the two of us that when
we're both on stage together
something clicks okay so not only do you
have a new album but you have a new
vegas show and i was wondering what you
could tell us about but well you know a
lot of people say well is it going to be
like the donnie marie show
no
i did not want to try to recreate
something that
she's not going to be a part of right so
this show was
so fun to put together because it's talk
about this is your life i've tried to
fit six decades of show business into a
90 minute show and i did it
i just released my 65th album and i
thought
so
so i thought
there it is so uh that's the title start
again
but i thought okay which album which
music do i put into this show so i said
i'm gonna put every song i've ever
recorded into the show
there is a segment and it's my favorite
segment of the show where the audience
takes over all 65 albums are on the huge
screens behind me they can pick any
album any song from any album and we go
three four and we do it
well i cannot wait to see this opus i am
going to be there oh please let me know
are you kidding oh please let me know oh
i'm there
i am there i cannot thank you enough for
this life-changing
meaningful conversation go to our
website obviously um for all the
information on everything you heard
today about the show and the album and
everything um oh also everybody in the
audience is going home with this album
great thank you thank you thank you
[Music]
you