Wayne Osmond, singer and guitarist for The Osmonds, has died aged 73

New York
AP
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Wayne Osmond, a singer, guitarist and founding member of the million-selling family act The Osmonds, known for 1970s teen hits like “One Bad Apple,” “Yo-Yo” and “Down By the Lazy River,” has died. He was 73.

Sibling Merrill Osmond wrote on his Facebook page that Wayne died this week in a Salt Lake City hospital after suffering a “massive stroke.” It was reported by the Associated Press at Osmond’s death.

“I have never known a man who had more humility. A man without guile,” Merrill wrote. “A person who was quick to forgive and had the ability to show unconditional love to everyone he ever met.”

Wayne Osmond was the fourth oldest of nine children raised in a Mormon household in Ogden, Utah. The siblings’ musical careers began in the 1950s when Wayne, Alan, Merrill and Jay sang as a barbershop quartet.

Their popularity grew in the 1960s after being backed by singer Andy Williams, and they peaked as a quintet in the early 1970s, with younger brother Donny Osmond as the breakout star. “One Bad Apple” and other songs were often compared to the music of The Osmonds’ contemporaries, the Jackson 5, and Donny was positioned as the white counterpart to the Jacksons’ lead singer, Michael Jackson.

The Osmond family’s popularity faded in the mid-1970s, although Donny and Marie Osmond both enjoyed successful careers as solo artists and as a brother-sister duo.

In the 1980s, Wayne Osmond regrouped with Alan, Merrill and Jay as a country act and had a handful of hits, including “I Think About Your Lovin.”

But in the mid-1990s he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and lost much of his hearing from the surgery and treatment. A stroke in 2012 left him unable to play the guitar.

“I’ve had a wonderful life. And you know, being able to hear isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, it really isn’t,” he told the Deseret News in 2018. “My favorite thing now is tending my garden. I turn off my hearing aids, deaf as a doorknob, tune everything, it’s really gratifying.”

Wayne Osmond married Kathlyn White in 1974. They had five children.