Wayne Osmond, singer, guitarist and founder of the million-selling family band Osmonds, known for such 1970s teen hits as One bad apple, Yo-yo AND Down by the lazy riverdied. He was 73 years old.
Brother Merrill Osmond posted on his Facebook page that Wayne died this week at a Salt Lake City hospital after a “massive stroke.”
“I have never known a person with more humility. A man without cunning,” Merrill wrote. “A person who was quick to forgive and able to show unconditional love to everyone she ever met.”
Success in the sibling group
Wayne Osmond was the fourth oldest of nine children raised in a Mormon home in Ogden, Utah, and the second oldest among musical performers.
The siblings' career began in the 1950s when Wayne, Alan, Merrill and Jay sang as a barbershop quartet.
Their popularity grew in the 1960s with the support of singer Andy Williams, and they reached their peak as a quintet in the early 1970s, with their younger brother Donny Osmond becoming a breakout star.
One bad apple and other songs were often compared to the music of Osmond contemporaries such as the Jackson 5, and Donny was considered the white equivalent of The Jacksons' lead singer Michael Jackson.
The Osmonds' popularity waned in the mid-1970s, although Donny and Marie Osmond enjoyed successful solo careers and as a brother-sister duo.
In the 1980s, Wayne teamed up with Alan, Merrill and Jay as a country band and recorded several hits, including I think about your love.
The singer had health problems in the 1990s
However, in the mid-1990s, Wayne was diagnosed with a brain tumor and, through surgery and treatment, lost most of his hearing. In 2012, he suffered a stroke, which left him unable to play the guitar.
“I had a wonderful life. And you know, the ability to hear is not all it seems, it really isn't,” he told the Deseret News in 2018.
“Now what I like most is taking care of the garden. I turn off my hearing aids, I'm as deaf as a doorknob, I mute everything, it really makes me happy.”
Wayne Osmond married Kathlyn White in 1974. They had five children.