Michael Jackson had some harsh criticism for fellow teen idol Donny Osmond.

Both Jackson and Osmond rose to fame as youngsters, starting off with family bands before becoming solo teen idols.

But their solo careers took different paths, something Osmond admitted he struggled with.

Osmond recently shared a clip from his 2023 interview on “The Adam Carolla Show,” recalling, “The name Donny Osmond was a joke, years ago. I mean, if you said you like Donny Osmond music, you were ousted.”

As an example, he said a station in New York played his 1988 single, “Soldier of Love,” on their station “to test it because they liked the song, but they just didn’t want to say my name.”

Osmond then said around 1983, he turned to Jackson after the success of the “Thriller” album and asked the King of Pop, “Mike, how do I get back on the charts?”

According to Osmond, Jackson said, “‘Your name’s poison, Donny. You gotta change your name.’”

While he laughed it off, Osmond said, “It was very offensive. It was tough to hear that. But he was right, because in ‘89, radio stations all across the country played my music, but didn’t say my name.”

He added, “And they did me a favor by not saying who I was, and it became a hit. Then they found out it was me.”

Osmond previously spoke about his friendship with Jackson in last year’s MTV Entertainment Studios documentary, “Larger than Life: Reign of the Boybands.”

“I spent a lot of time with Michael Jackson. I mean, you look at the Osmonds and the Jackson 5, the comparisons of the two families are just uncanny,” Osmond said in the film, per Entertainment Weekly. “There’s nine children in each family. Mike and I are both the seventh child of nine. Our mothers’ birthdays are on the same day. Michael and I are the same age.”

The 67-year-old also said he and Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, shared a connection few could understand.

“Michael said something to me one day, he said, ‘Donny, you’re the only person on this planet that knows what my childhood was like,’” Osmond shared.