Meeting Elvis - and a lifetime of remarkable memories for The Osmonds as show tours to Brighton

“You look back and it was just surreal,” says Jay Osmond who has put together The Osmonds: A New Musical which plays the Theatre Royal Brighton from September 27 to October 1. “But really we had three things. We all had faith first and we had family second and we put career third and I think that's what allowed us to get through terrible losses when they happened and I think that's what has kept us solid over the years. We had great parents that kept us grounded and never allowed us to forget just how important family is and just how important the fans are and we really worked as a team just as we have really worked as a team on this musical.”

And it is great to be offering it in the UK, a place which has always been so special to The Osmonds: “We have just always loved it over here and we have had such wonderful acceptance for our family here. I suppose it goes back to our roots. We have English and Welsh roots in our family and I guess it just started way back for us. We loved The Beatles and we loved the whole process. We got over here and we saw the mania which was just amazing for us. Paul McCartney was great at talking to us about how to cope with all that. But it has always just been the kindest people over here ever since the first time we came here which must have been in about 1970. And we were so lucky to meet Paul McCartney. We met him at the Georges V (hotel in Paris). We were staying in the same place and we asked the manager if there was anyway we could see him. The manager said ‘I am not sure he is still here’ but he said it with a wink and he said ‘If I get the chance I will tell him.’ An hour later we got the call. He was there with his wife Linda and (his daughters) Heather and Mary. And he said he was wanting to meet us. I was about 18 at the time and it was just incredible. He was my idol and he comes up to talk to us and he just feels like a brother, very similar to when we met Elvis.

"We met Elvis at Las Vegas when we were performing with Nancy Sinatra and he had a show on at the time. Nancy came up to us after the show and said ‘Elvis has called me and he would like to meet you.’ I said ‘Are you kidding?’ She said he'd been coming down to the lighting booth and watching our show. So we went up to his suite and he had all these pinball machines. He was a fanatic and he just said ‘Come on in, brothers.’ I was wanting a picture with him but before we got there Colonel Tom said ‘Pease don't take any pictures.’ Colonel Tom said ‘I don't want it to be like you're meeting him as fans. He needs family right now.’ And he was just the coolest guy. And you can hear on one of his live albums he introduces us in the audience. On the cover of the album you can see us on the audience. It was a wonderful thing. He had a big influence on us as did Paul McCartney and as did Andy Williams.”