NOBODY on the face of this planet has EVER harmonized as good as these gentlemen EVER... I grew up on these guys( I am male)..caught a LOT of flak because of it..BUT.. I also learned how to SING, thanks to these guys( a skill that would later help...I was a musician for almost 20 years until health problems occurred).. I would sing along and pick out all the harmony parts."He Ain't Heavy...He's My Brother" is my favorite song.. It brings chills and tears every time I hear it..
Ys, but they admitted they were too trusting and you can't be like that under any circumstance. Look at what happened with N'Sync. They worked their buts off for 3 Years and only made $10,000.00. They survived and many didn't. The "Original" New Edition did a Two Month Tour and made only $1.63. This resulted in them cutting their ties to Maurice Starr who would later create New Kids On The Block (The White New Edition). If you can watch The Boy Band Con with Lance Bass (N'Sync) Lou Pearlman was beyond horrible.
Its horrid to think how much they were taken for granted. I feel these were put her to help the Lords church, i really do. Snd i think they done it all how heavenly father wanted them to. Loosing all yhe money was a big lesson and i bet they dont make the same mistakes agsin. Love all you guys. You stand for everything that is right. Godbless xx
Jimmy felt like it wasn't "His" Money because he wasn't in The Original Group but he was very Smart. He made a Fortune in Real Estate and I'm sure he "Saved" his Family in many ways.
Okay. May-me-ma-moo made me cry. They are as talented today as they were when they started. What I would not give to see them in person. God Bless each and every one of them.
I wish the 4 - Alan, Wayne, Merrill, & Jay would've continued on by themselves, writing those Great Rock songs like Hold her Tight, Traffic on my mind, Crazy Horses. I think they would have been Very successful. 🎼🎹🥁🎸🎤
msfigy Oh yes without a doubt. They're path for awhile was controlled by their father. They were overshadowed as artists first by Donny's career, and then by Donny and Marie's career. Also the music industry (the big controlling music machine) determines who you are as an artist and controls pretty much whether your music gets played. I heard on one of their documentaries that Alan did try to get their rock music heard. Long story short..he played them their rock songs w/o telling them who the artists were and they loved it..and said it was on same caliber as Led Zeppelin and The Who. However when he told them it's the Osmonds they were shocked..but said oh no we can't play that bc it's the Osmonds. The music industry would not allow them to come out of that image that was set for them previously. It wasn't right/fair. The Osmond brothers had many obstacles in their way. It is really a shame!
msfigy they could of played more with zeppelin and been invited by other Heavy rock / Metal fans. When the Osmonds did hard rock songs, I saw some picks that they made it to heavy metal Magazines in the 70s
I remember being heart broken when I knew of this. They were definitely taken advantage of..makes me so sick!!! gotta wonder, during Donny & Marie shows when questions were being asked to the higher ups (whoever they were), like where are any pay checks for any of us... what the ..... did they say??? xo love you wayne, what a spiritual gift you have & massive talent!!!
With only television microphones and no rehearsal time, they are able to harmonize that well during the interview. Amazing! Alan's response to Jay's issues with him are interesting. Alan is kind of like "get over it."
Alan may have been tough on his little bros, BUT the work paid off--for ALL of them. There's nothing wrong with teaching discipline and work ethic to young people. That discipline and hard work ethic has well served the Osmond bros through the years of their lives, and it helped to make them the men they are today. It may have been unpleasant at times, but it was necessary to instill discipline given their young age.
If their father would have let them file chapter 13 bankruptcy... Each brother could have kept their homes and slowly paid back their debts from performing and future income! Their father cost them their houses by not understanding how Chapter 13 Bankruptcy works! If he wanted to cover all of his debts... He simply could have filed to pay back 100% on the dollar all debts owed!
And it sounds so stupid and simplistic but I think alot of times probably in adult life (and their relationships to each other probably didn't help this) but I always feel from clips of them as people that Alan, Wayne and Merrill seem like the "big kids" and Jay, Donny and Jimmy the "babies" of the family. Alan and Wayne and Merrill probably still feel like they are 13,11,9 and Jay and Donny are still 7 and 4 or 5 ya know. Like Alan and Wayne are teens and Jay and Donny are forever kids at heart
Watch Merrill's reaction to Donny's "sucking gutter water", 2:58, comment. Merrill does not seem very happy with that choice of words. Given the troubled relationship they admit to having had it does make sense.
Alot of it too is that people can pursue music careers and it isn't as necessary that they have their professional lives plotted out before 15 for them to be famous. That is rare now a days to be a kid star and to be professionally working at 15 years old like Donny was. Imagining his son Josh full time working and having been working at 5. I do give Alan credit that it sounds like his father said that he said them trying to pick apart their harmonies. Plus the 5:45 am think? I got up at six
I noticed Merrill's reaction, too. But I don't think that he was uncomfortable with Donny's choice of words so much as he knew that Donny had nailed it. I see more of an "a ha!" on Merrill's face than, say, "is that the most judicious way of saying it?".
I guess I wouldn't say their dad was a bully except for other than giving them an uncomfortable bed what does giving them a military rationed bed proove. I wasn't spoiled by any stretch and I remember having a bed in elementary school. I remember using a different bed in high school. I wasn't spoiled by any stretch. A military cot doesn't nada to make a kid feel loved and cared for. Have you ever heard of toddler beds they are made for kids' sized bodies
Oh No! This is 5/5... but it 'ended' in mid sentence... ?? =(( So.. there was more?!! Do you know if this documentary is on DVD like at Netflix or something? Does anyone know?
All of Alan's sons seem relatively normal relatively speaking. I think that Alan and his brothers just had so much more harder of a time getting going than their boys did (alan and suzannes) and so they worked so much harder as kids to focus. I think Alan took alot of worries to his adult hood than most people probably think he did.
Anne Liesveld but isn't it interesting that Alan, who with his brothers thought that is father's regimen was too strict and harsh, started doing the same regimen with his own sons getting them up at 5 a.m. to dance in a room with mirrors to see how good they looked?
it was totally unfair for the dad to put Alan "in charge" of the other kids and decisions, when in fact Alan was just carrying out what his father demanded. it was a case of absolute brain f-ing on the dad's part...to be controlling everything but forcing Alan to be the front man and take the rap for it. mr osmond was a master manipulator and slave driver.
Do you think they even wanted to do it in the first place because I highly doubt 8 year old alan would have said the difference but I doubt he would have said either "I really want to pursue a music career" think about a typical 6 year old. they want to be a rock star one week, and actor the next, and by the end of the month they want to be a elementary school teacher, 6 months later a paleontologist.
@redlion832 and @PatriziaVonDousen Merrill is not running a scam! The call with Merrill is not a suicide hotline. Its just for people who want to talk with him. He said 90% of the people who call are suicidal. He isnt charging them for their problems. They just chose to call and tell him their issues. They chose to pay the fee and get his help. He didnt ask for it.
XxarianarocksxX chargeing money to talk to Merrill ? What if you are poor and can't pay ? But need to talk ? Shouldn't this be free ? One human to another
Alan had alot of pressure. He was The Eldest Osmond Child in The Group so when anyone messed up, he probably got flack for it. Also, Donny admitted that when Alan got drafted into the Army and was doing Basic Training they realized how much they missed him and his direction.
WOW, THAT'S IS SO VERY SAD, IT WAS YOUR ,ALL WORK GUYS 👦 ,ALAN, WAYNE OSMOND MERRILL OSMOND 🐻 🐻❄ 🧸 XOXO, JAY OSMOND DONNY OSMOND MARIE OSMOND AND JIMMY OSMOND ,
Sometimes 8 minutes may be all it takes for some people. I knew someone who jumped infront of a moving bus but luckly was grabbed back by a girl she knew. Thoose 2 seconds saved her life
maybe that is just being extremely strict I just don't get what that would prove to a kid other than that they don't get 2 blankets at night to sleep with. Was Donny's blankie as a kid military rationed too? Their father may not have been abusive but I think he might have thought parenting a child out a little too much and maybe needed to remember to love the child as much as worry about them not having stuff.
I agree about Alan wasn't a bully. I think Jay probably just felt more honestly like the 5 year old around the 12 year old older brother. I bet Alan was brusque as a kid but I highly doubt he was ever mean and you recognize that Donny was a 3 year old around a 12 year old he probably never saw Alan as a "kid brother" ya know?
@DebbyNJ The popular notion is to cite "Daddy issues"and that Alan was mirroring his Father. Meh. They were ALL so young, and they were involved in a way of life requiring intense discipline. Keep in mind that you're talking about 8 boys and a single girl. What do you think a family that size requires to keep it ORDERLY and cohesive without even being in show business? You could argue that maybe they were all too young for that way of life, which Jay brings up, but Alan as a bully? Nah.
@dundonian35 lmao... okay - this is what happens when you pull an all night Osmond marathon and in about hour 7 you get stupid-tired! [blush] Thank you!!
I was a big fan of the Osmonds, but didn't like the Crazy Horses album, in fact I cried the night I listened to it the day I bought it because I disliked the album so much....
Ellen Thompson Uh, they keep "referring to it" because it was one if their biggest hits. AND they wrote it. It is personally the favorite of several brothers.
Here's another fun fact. Crazy Horses was mentioned on the UK Series Bad Girls about Women In Prison which wasn't surprising considering that they were very big in England at one time.
Ellen Thompson not everything can be about puppy love! Crazy horses was a great hit but you are entitled to your opinion! Do you really think you're going to like every song they recorded?
Bullshit. I talked someone out of suicide in less than 3 minutes. (The fact that she was listening, in the first place, was a big help.) People who call suicide hotlines, according to my experience, WANT to be saved. The hotliner has to reach and understand that person quickly.
