New York — Wayne Osmond, singer, guitarist and founding member of the million-selling family act The Osmonds, known for the 1970s teen hits “One Bad Apple,” “Yo-Yo” and “Down By the Lazy River,” We said it together. He was 73 years old.
Brother and sister Meryl Osmond posted on their Facebook page that Wayne died this week of a “massive stroke” at a Salt Lake City hospital.
“I have never met a more humble person. Not at all manipulative,” Merrill wrote. “He was a man with the ability to forgive quickly and show unconditional love to everyone he met.”
Wayne Osmond was the fourth oldest of nine children raised in a Mormon home in Ogden, Utah, and the second oldest musical performer. The siblings’ careers began in the 1950s when Wayne, Alan, Merrill and Jay sang as a barbershop quartet.
Their popularity grew in the 1960s after receiving support from singer Andy Williams, and peaked as a quintet in the early 1970s as younger brother Donny Osmond rose to stardom. “One Bad Apple” and other songs were often compared to the music of The Osmonds’ contemporaries the Jackson 5, positioning Donny as the white counterpart to the Jacksons’ lead singer, Michael Jackson.
Although the Osmonds’ popularity waned in the mid-1970s, Donny and Marie Osmond both enjoyed successful careers as solo performers and as a brother-sister duo.
In the 1980s, Wayne Osmond reunited as a country singer with Alan, Merrill, and Jay and released several hit songs, including ‘I Think About Your Lovin’.
But in the mid-1990s, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and lost much of his hearing due to surgery and treatment. A stroke in 2012 left him unable to play guitar.
“I’ve had a really great life. And, you know, it’s not all about being able to hear, but it really isn’t,” he told the Deseret News in 2018. “My favorite thing to do right now is taking care of the yard. Turn off your hearing aids, make your ears as deaf as doorknobs, and tune everything out. “I really enjoy it.”
Wayne Osmond married Kathleen White in 1974. They had five children.
___
This story has been updated to correct that Wayne Osmond is the fourth child, not the second child.
