Donny Osmond is not slowing down. At all.

The former teen idol turns 50 today, and is trying to show that he's anything but a has-been. He just finished a tour of the United Kingdom and has since been reporting for "Entertainment Tonight" on his sister Marie's performance on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." His latest CD, "Love Songs of the '70s," went gold in a week, and he says his phone is ringing off the hook. Maybe that's because by now, he said, he has turned from avoiding his past to using it to sustain his entertainment career.

"I have embraced the fact that I did wear purple socks, I did sing 'Puppy Love,' I did do all that, and I'm cool with it," Osmond said in a November phone interview with the Daily Herald. "As a matter of fact, I just did a stint in Vegas and one of the biggest numbers in the show was 'Puppy Love.' And it's actually fun to go back and embrace it."

Having been in the public eye since age 4, Osmond called his life "a wild ride, man." Showbusiness, he says, is about extremes -- extreme ups and extreme downs -- and it's like he's never been off the roller coaster. Lately, though, he's glad to be on one of the ups.

"It's certainly nice to be riding this wave again," he said. "But age 50 brings a whole different mentality. I don't know, take this the right way, but I really don't need to prove anything anymore, particularly not to myself."

He said his 20s were horrible because he was trying to break away from his teeny-bopper image, and he was constantly trying to transition to being a serious entertainer as an adult. But now that the transition has passed and he's comfortable with both his past and current roles, it's all gravy.

"Hey, look at Tony Bennett," Osmond said. "He's still going. He's 107 now, isn't he?"

Growing pains

The good-old days started with Donny's first appearance on "The Andy Williams Show" in 1961. He was preceded on the show by older brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay, who had made a name for themselves as a singing quartet. The boys' father, George Osmond, had taught them how to sing barbershop harmony.

Donny performed with them for years before starting to perform as a solo artist in the '70s. Two of his biggest hits were "Go Away Little Girl," which topped the Billboard charts, and "Puppy Love," which rose to No. 3. He and Marie started their own variety TV program in 1976, "The Donny and Marie Show," which aired on ABC until 1979.

Osmond has said he would never want to relive the '80s (that transition period), but started making a comeback at the end of the decade with "Soldier of Love," a single he recorded with Peter Gabriel. He was the star of Broadway's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" for most of the '90s.

He and Marie reunited for a new version of their show in 1998, but it only ran for two seasons. He was host of the game show "Pyramid" from 2002 to 2004 and still does live music tours.

But even in the good old days, some things weren't so good. Ron Clark, who handled public relations for the family during the heyday of the '70s, said Donny was always strong and worked hard to maintain his good character. But he wasn't without the frustrations of being famous.

"We encountered some very threatening situations when we were on the road," Clark said. "They could rarely go to a church wherever they were and participate in church services. The public, even the Latter-day Saints, just found it hard to allow them to do that. They were just besieged."

Clark and other members of the family's crew held a private service so the Osmonds, who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, could practice their faith. He said sometimes they had to be smuggled off of planes and discreetly transported to small hotels far from their tour stops just to avoid the hysterical crowds.

For a family devoted to its faith, the fame was an opportunity to preach the gospel. Donny didn't serve an LDS proselytizing mission, he said, because he and his parents and church leaders felt he could do more good by remaining in the public eye. He still answers fans' questions about his beliefs on his Web site, www.donny.com.

Though Donny grew up as a performer and never knew anything different, Clark suspects it must have been hard not to be able to run with the boys or go on a regular date without the paparazzi.

"I think it was very lonely for all of them," Clark said. "But the one thing that they did better than most people in the industry is they had a real good handle on it. They knew who they were, and they had each other to lean on."

Family ties

That family camaraderie was apparent even when the nine Osmond children gathered in Provo to eulogize their father, George Osmond, who died of natural causes on Nov. 6 at age 90.

At the funeral, Donny's older brother Merrill told of a time his father said he wanted to give him something. The gift turned out to be George's LDS temple clothing.

"He told me, 'I know how much you love temple work,' and he gave me his temple suit," Merrill said. "The other night the brothers were looking for his temple suit to dress him in it, and I didn't tell them where it was."

Merrill smiled so big his eyes disappeared, and it took a while for the laughter to die down. He looked back at his siblings, who were also laughing and shaking their fingers at him. When Donny began his remarks, he said Merrill owed him some money.

"I got off the plane and went directly to the distribution center in Salt Lake City to get the beautiful new temple clothes that he'll be buried in," Donny said.

It takes work to maintain good sibling relationships, Donny said, especially when most of them are busy performing. But he said it comes back to focusing on what's important.

"It's the gospel that keeps us together," Donny said. "It's that common thread that we all share that our parents taught us. We're not a perfect family, and yes, we certainly have our issues. But I find it very interesting that, and my hat's off to my parents, that all nine children were raised in showbusiness, and we still like each other."

Donny said it was hard to lose his father because he was the strength of the family while his mother, Olive, who died in 2004, was the shoulder to cry on. But he said he's happy they're reunited now, and he hopes to pass a few of his father's teachings on to his children. He has five sons, ages 9 to 28, a grandson, and a granddaughter due after the New Year.

"Work ethic," Donny said. "That's the first thing that comes to my mind. He used to say, 'Anything that's worth doing is worth doing well. Never commit to anything unless you know you're going to be able to follow through and do a great job at it.' "

All in the family

One thing Donny wants to do well is be a father. He said a video phone helps him stay in touch when he has to be on the road, but he limits his trips to three weeks or less and has promised to be home this Christmas, which meant turning down a network TV deal.

"I gotta tell you, you can only imagine the opportunities for compromise," Donny said of his line of work. "They're around us all the time. You just have to realize what's important in your life."

That's family first, he says, but also being nice to other people you meet. He remembers one time giving a box of chocolates to his garbage man.

"He thought it was really strange that a high-profile celebrity would take the time to talk to him," Donny said.

His wife, Debbie, has helped him stay grounded, Clark said. The couple met through a mutual friend and were married in 1978. Clark said they had to dodge cameras throughout their courtship, but Debbie didn't get caught up in it like other girls Donny took out. The family lives in the Riverbottoms, an affluent neighborhood in northern Provo.

Belle de Jong Van Wagenen, 88, has lived across the street from the Osmonds in Provo for about 10 years. She moved to their neighborhood after her husband died, and she was a little nervous her first night in her new home.

"It was dark, and I told myself if a man came to the door I wouldn't open it," Van Wagenen said. "I didn't know one soul in the area."

Sure enough, after dark, the doorbell rang. Belle said she looked through the window and saw Donny Osmond on her doorstep.

"There he was, smiling a big toothy smile, with flowers in one hand and cookies in the other," Van Wagenen said. "And what woman in her right mind wouldn't open the door for Donny Osmond?"

That was the first time she met Donny, and since then, she has come to know the family well. She said she's impressed at how active the Osmonds are in their LDS ward, or congregation, and said Donny is "a very gracious neighbor." She said his boys have offered to help her around the house and that although he's gone a lot performing, Donny manages to participate in many ward and neighborhood activities.

Clark said he thinks Donny lives in Utah Valley because the people here can leave him alone, for the most part. He's seen them in local restaurants, he said, and although people might stare a little, they can enjoy dinner in peace.

"Donny's a normal guy," Clark said. "He's warm, he's friendly, he's not arrogant. I don't think his parents ever allowed that. They were a normal family doing a very abnormal thing."

Donny said it's important to seek success in life, but that at the end of the day, his family is what matters most. He said he tries to keep things in perspective.

"You just have to realize we all put our pants on one leg at a time," he said. "We're all the same. Yes, we've been very fortunate as a family. Yes, we've worked very hard. Our name has been dragged through the dirt over the years. But if you just hang in there and believe in yourself and keep going, it works. Things work."

Different strokes

Donny said none of his children have decided to go into showbusiness, and that's fine with him. Many of them are talented musically, but his oldest, for example, works at an advertising company in Salt Lake City. There is, of course, the group "Osmond Second Generation," but those eight boys are all Alan's sons. Donny's boys have taken their own directions.

"I'm not going to persuade them to do one thing or another," Donny said. "It's their decision. My wife and I decided a long time ago that we were going to support them, no matter what they do."

He also supported Marie on her run to the finals on "Dancing with the Stars." They're both looking forward to their reunion show in Las Vegas in July. The two have always been close, whether as part of their show or just as brother and sister, but Donny said on Larry King Live last year that the two have grown even closer lately.

Marie said she totally agreed, and when the family appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in November, Marie said she wished her parents could raise every man in the world, because she has "amazing brothers."

Those six singing brothers will be getting back together next year to tour the United Kingdom. It's a continuation of the Osmond 50th anniversary celebration that started this year with the taping of a PBS special, scheduled to air next year.

And their age isn't a factor, Clark says. In fact, Donny and his musical siblings may even get better and their broad fan base might get even broader.

"George and Olive taught them how to survive and they've done that very well," Clark said of the Osmonds. "I think it's a name that is going to be around for a long, long time. They've proven that theirs is a name and a reputation that will endure the test of time. I think there's an awful lot more yet to come."