Donny Osmond had a “difficult transition” from child star to adult singer.
The 67-year-old star shot to fame as a teenager with hits such as ‘Puppy Love’ but admitted that when he was trying to go for an adult sound, it was tricky because his audience was reluctant to “accept” that he had grown up.
Speaking on UK TV show ‘Good Morning Britain’, he said: “I went through a very difficult time of transitioning from a teenybopper to an adult entertainer.
“For people to accept all of that is a very difficult transition. But I was accepted when ‘Solider of Love ‘ came out, when ‘Joseph’ came out, when I won ‘Dancing with the Stars’. Those kinds of shows re-established me as an adult.”
However, the former talk show host was able to “embrace” his younger years once he had managed to carve out a new career for himself, and has insisted that the “music” and the “image” of the teen pop star is necessary for the younger generation.
He said: “It was a lot easier to go back and embrace the teenybopper career because I was already accepted as an adult. But it was a difficult transition to make or to take away from the teenagers, the boy bands, the teenyboppers.
“I think it’s wrong because it’s something that fulfils a need for that teenager, that prepubescent teenager that falls in love and loves the music and loves the image. Don’t take that away but it’s a difficult transition to make.”
Meanwhile, Donny has utltised AI so he can sing with a version of himself in his teenage heyday as part of his Las Vegas residency.
He said: “This is something Ive been working on for two years now. Do you know how strange it is to be on stage with your 14-year-old self?
“When the curtains open up to reveal, I can hear the gasps. It doesn’t get old for me. It’s so strange to sing with myself from 53 years ago.”