JAY, one of the Osmond brothers who founded the first boy band to woo the planet, was in town recently to promote his new musical opening at the Grand Opera House next week.
Implausibly - given he began his career in the group originally as a "novelty" when he aged under-six - he is now 67. The production naturally bears the eponymous title and he is engaging as he details their history.
What you might not remember is that the Osmonds were pretty friendly with another critical American band of that era, the Jackson Five. The chatty Mormon, drummer and number three in the line-up, says in the Grand Opera House upper bar: "We had a friendly rivalry with them. They had a cartoon, we had a cartoon.
"Michael said they were the first boy band, we didn't have the term then. He then said, 'OK, you win, you were first'. We danced together and sang together in sync, so did they."
He comments that Michael Jackson's early death was "very sad" - "especially for Donny who was a real friend of his".
But, Jay Osmond reveals, it is the lack of an Elvis Presley photograph with the boys in their family album that bugs him to this day.
"That really got to me, I admit. Elvis came to our shows and one time, we were performing with Nancy Sinatra at the International Hilton and were told Elvis would like to meet us upstairs. He was amazing, I mean - whoa, Elvis Presley," he recalls.
"But his manager, the Colonel [Tom Parker], said he was kind of sensitive and he'd appreciate it if we didn't take any pictures. So we agreed."
You can't help wondering whether the Osmond family, people of faith from Utah, might be too squeaky clean to inspire a big slice of musical theatre. Jay laughs: "No, you're going to see all this in the musical. Our lowest point as a family was in 1980 when the challenges could have broken us.
"There were struggles people didn't know about, I call them obstacles. People weren't aware of this but our faith, which I call the binding glue, is what brought us through."
So what was the Osmonds' appeal, apart from their looks and musicality? Jay answers without pausing: "We played all kinds of music but back in '71, when we landed at Heathrow, we had no idea what the response would be or that we'd create such interest.
"The press tried to pigeonhole us but they couldn't as we played all kinds of music. That was it."
As he recounts, the Osmonds appealed across the board and on the Andy Williams show, the creative team made a conscious decision to go eclectic and tick as many boxes as possible.
They began very young via a happy accident. Meeting Walt Disney and getting the opportunity to appear weekly before a massive TV audience on the massively popular show with the man who became their mentor, Mr Williams, nearly didn't happen.
The Osmonds' mother, Olive, whom her son clearly adored, had taken them with her husband on a trip to Hollywood where they thought they had an appointment to meet a producer.
It fell through, however, but Mrs Osmond wanted to cheer up her brood. Her son explains: "She was the kind of person who would say, 'If you've got lemons, make lemonade', and suggested we go to Disneyland. We did, met the great man by chance and got our opportunity."
The rest is pop history. It was, though, pretty hard work for the four small boys aged three to six or seven. "Oh, we worked 10 hours a day ("14, you told me," his wife Karen interjects...) with schoolwork, meals and virtually no time off," says Jay.
"My father George, an ex-army sergeant, was a disciplinarian. He told us if we wanted to succeed in the music business, we'd have to work hard. But he also had a fun side and wasn't ever abusive."
There is a telling memory of the early days on TV when the boys (one with cute braces) appeared as a junior barber shop quartet. Osmond explains: "I asked the producer what the red light meant, and he said, 'It means you're being watched by 40 million people and you mustn't mess up.' Merrill stuttered his way through all his lines after that."
Anxiety crops up a couple of times in our conversation although Mr Osmond, with his second, charming wife working in the corner of the Grand Opera House's Upper Circle bar, seems pretty chilled. He segues out of our conversation to talk live to Lynette Fay on Radio Ulster, then is straight back in to discussion of the upcoming show.
I wonder whether he had influence over casting; did he, for example, ask for somebody better looking? The Osmond family is after all known for its looks, and its all-American teeth which apparently get a mention in the musical.
"No," he laughs. "There are three actors representing me at different stages and I might have asked for someone less good looking."
One of the great hits we'll hear is, of course, Love Me for a Reason. This was the band's last number 10 hit in the States, written by Johnny Bristol and released in 1974. It has famously been covered by a number of artists including Boyzone.
"I love the words and this is also in the musical," says Jay. For a Mormon family, though, weren't the lyrics a little fruity, containing lines such as, "Girl, when you hold me/How you control me...". He replies that it wasn't too much, maybe because of the emotional content and title - but that others did not. "Oh, we turned down about five songs because of the words, including Fooled Around and Fell in Love."
Jay discusses the band's evolution which is, he says complex, involving three stages, moving from other people's music to their own. On how their own songs began, he's interesting: "It started with a beat, then Wayne would produce this guitar riff, and everyone joined in. It's how we did Crazy Horses and Merrill called it hitchhiking."
The brothers also conducted their own musical journeys. Donny had a rocker phase and was, according to his brother, originally scheduled to sing Bad, Michael Jackson's hit. There was also a kind of musical schism in the band, between brothers such as guitarist Wayne who preferred gutsier rock music and those who went for the pop music that the Osmonds will be remembered for. Jay says now: "Bubblegum pop, they called it, but we didn't use the term."
His future looks creative, and also fun. He and his wife Karen, who between them have 14 grandchildren, live in Wyoming, the cowboy state where the buffalo roam. He says it's a homecoming as this was where his grandfather moved after being asked to set up a branch of the Church of the Latter Day Saints in the state.
His wife describes the back-to-nature appeal. "There are moose, bears, more horses than people. We have an acre or so, our neighbour has about 100. If you ride, you probably have 10 horses," she tells me, showing an image of an attractive, modern ranch-style property.
Karen tells me that they've been married eight years, after both of them came through divorce, and adds that she was pretty much unaware of her new beau's fame when they met: "I didn't know anything about the Osmonds, and I think that helped. He is the most genuine, lovely person."
She is clearly a partner in the creative Osmond enterprise and they have both been in the stalls for the launch of The Osmonds: A New Musical, in London and elsewhere. He takes notes and recommends adjustments.
It is, after all, Jay Osmond's personal story on stage - "a living memoir," as he says, something they want to get right. Future projects include a written autobiography and maybe more shows. They also intend to start work on a drumming therapy project.
Belfast gets a nice compliment towards the end: "We played twice in Belfast, and I returned here later by myself as although there's a complex history, I like the people." Having received a parting bear hug, I think we can return the compliment.
:: The Osmonds: A New Musical plays at the Grand Opera House from April 12-16. goh.co.uk.
