Donny Osmond Shares Memories Of Hotel Stay With Michael Jackson When They Were Teens On Tour In England
Donny Osmond is sharing memories of a whirlwind week he had with Michael Jackson nearly 50 years ago. The Donny & Marie star took to Instagram to reminisce about what went down when his family ended up at the same hotel as the Jackson family during a 1972 tour to England.
Osmond posted a throwback photo of him and his brothers to the social media site. In the photo, the six Osmond Brothers are posing after landing at Heathrow International Airport in London. A wall of balcony gives a glimpse of the thousands of fans who showed up at the airport to see the singing brothers’ arrival.
In the caption to the photo, Osmond wrote that his brothers weren’t the only family of pop singers in England at the time.
The “Puppy Love” singer revealed that when his family checked in to the Churchill Hotel in London they found out that the Jackson family was also staying there. Osmond dished that things got a little rowdy as the Osmond Brothers and the Jackson 5 hung out together and played football in the hotel’s hallways, which resulted in some broken chandeliers.
Osmond also shared a story of some nighttime fun he had with Jackson as crowds of fans cheered the teen idols’ names from the streets outside of the hotel. Osmond revealed that he and Jackson flipped their hotel room lights on and off as frantic fans screamed “Michael!” and “Donny!”
Osmond asked fans to share memories they had of that particular tour, and many responded that they remembered his family’s arrival at the airport and their stay at the hotel very clearly.
“Oh such memories! Screaming your name like you could actually hear!” wrote one fan.
“Yes I was there,” chimed in another fan. “I watched you and Michael switching the lights on and off at The Churchill Hotel. I even have a photo of it.”
“I love that memory. You and Michael were my favorites at that time. I was 13,” another added.
“You and Michael are my biggest inspirations, thank you for being a true friend to him,” a fourth fan wrote to Osmond.
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Osmond and Jackson were close friends throughout their childhoods after bonding over their shared fandom. While Jackson continues to make headlines 10 years after his death amid the controversial Leaving Neverland documentary, Osmond prefers to reflect on the happier times he shared with his late friend.
In a previous interview with the Huffington Post, Osmond revealed that as teens, he and Jackson would talk about the silly subjects of their hit early-’70s songs, “Puppy Love” (Osmond) and “Ben” (Jackson).
“I will never forget, we stayed up to like two in the morning, laughing about the fact that I had a hit about a puppy and he had a hit about a rat,” Osmond said.