Overview

• Osmond reposted a clip from a 2023 Adam Carolla Show appearance, prompting fresh coverage of his exchange with Jackson.
• He says Jackson told him around 1983, after Thriller’s success, that he should change his name because it was “poison.”
• Osmond found the remark offensive at the time but later felt it proved accurate as programmers tested his music without identifying him.
• WPLJ in New York played an import of “Soldier of Love” on air without naming Osmond, allowing listeners to judge the song first.
• The track climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989, a turnaround Osmond links to radio gatekeepers setting aside his teen‑idol image.