Donny Osmond Shares the Best Piece of Advice Elvis Presley Gave Him: 'Came from the King' (Exclusive)

Donny Osmond looks back on the advice he still keeps from the King of Rock and Roll.

The 67-year-old multi-hyphenate, who recently returned to the stage as part of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, talked to PEOPLE about a lesson he once learned from the late Elvis Presley.

As he talked about his own relationship with social media in 2024 — “Can you imagine what I could have done with social media and the ‘Puppy Love’ days?” — Osmond explained that he “really enjoys” interacting with his supporters.

“But more importantly, I remember talking to Elvis one day, even our family, he said, ‘If I could do it all over again, I’d be closer to my fans,'” Osmond says.

“I was 14 years old when he said that. And it really, really affected me that a guy that big, you know, the king of rock and roll, says he’d like to be closer to his fans because he was so That’s one of the reasons why it I do, because it came from the king.”

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Donny Osmond in 1970.

Michael Ochs/Getty Archive

Osmond has previously spoken about his history with Presley before the music icon’s death in 1977 at the age of 42. Back in 2017, he revealed on Lorraine that a fellow performer was “the nicest guy” and reminded him of the importance of being “the right person.”

As he tells PEOPLE, his fan base has only expanded since those days, and the “demographic” has “literally grown” thanks to his various projects over the years.

“I see a lot of young people discovering who I am because of YouTube and social media and all that stuff. But also the things that I’ve done, when they find out that I’m the voice of Captain Shang in Mulan. I mean, when we do the whole production in Las Vegas, I see some of the faces [are] like a surprise. Like, ‘I didn’t know that was you!’ ”

“I see the stage door every night as I walk out, I see little kids with their moms and people in their 30s and 20s saying, ‘I’ve been watching this my whole life.’ ”

Donny Osmond performs at the Fox & Friends All-American Summer Concert Series on July 12, 2024.

John Nacion/Getty

Donny Osmond talks ‘The Time of My Life’ back on stage Joseph — and spending Christmas peacefully abroad (exclusive)

The musician’s latest venture saw him return to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat more than 30 years after he initially won over audiences as the show’s titular character. This time he is back as a villain in the role of Pharaoh until December 29 at the Edinburgh Playhouse in Scotland.

“Opening night it was like, ‘How is this going to be?’ And as soon as they put me on the chair on stage and the lights came on and the applause and the standing ovation… it was absolutely amazing,” he told PEOPLE. “And then when Josip came out and [‘Poor Poor Joseph’] started, I looked at the audience and said, ‘Déjà vu!’ ”

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On February 11, he will also return to Las Vegas at Harrah’s Showroom for his first solo residency in the city. The “extremely high-tech” show will make audiences say, “I have to see this,” he says.

“I’ve always said that if I can’t give 100 percent on stage like I do every night in Las Vegas or what I do here, if I can’t reach that bar that I set for myself, it’s time to stop,” he added.

– I’m just having the best time of my life on stage.

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Source: HIS Education