December 2, 2021 • 45 mins
The pioneers of the original boy band are back. From the streets of Boston, New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) grew into an international phenomenon with the most dedicated fans in pop and R&B. Although they discovered their audience and won their fans over from the 80s to the 90s, fame eventually took its toll and personal struggles were exposed. Although the group disbanded in 1994, their reunion in 2008 showed that they are better together than ever. The “kids” are now adults celebrating key moments of their lives, insights of their journey, and reflecting on the men they are today. For more NKOTB, watch Behind the Music now streaming on Paramount+.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome back to Behind the Music like I'm walking into trouble,
talking into trouble. Okay, here we're going in. They were
the pioneers of the original boy band, five teens from
the tough streets of Boston. They shot to fame in
the early nineties with their R and B B fused
(00:27):
with a pop sound. The New Kids on the Block
became an international phenomenon with adoring fans who followed them everywhere.
But life in the spotlight came at a price, and
eventually all that fame took its toll. The band's personal
struggles were exposed, and then it all came crashing down.
(00:49):
But in two thousand and eight, the New Kids reunited,
this time as grown men who were better than ever together. Now,
thirteen years after the original episode Behind the Music air,
the New Kids are back, celebrating key moments in their lives,
giving new insights on their journey, and reflecting on the
(01:11):
men they've become today. This is the New Kids on
the Block. The story Behind the Music. I was sitting
around my house one afternoon and quarantine and I said,
(01:32):
I'll write a song and magic will occur. We're entertainers,
so let's put something together to do our part in
helping people feel a little better. In the spring of
the New Kids on the Block released House Party with
help from some of their famous friends. House Party is
a great example of the difference between being and the
(01:53):
New Kids then and being and the New Kids now.
We take what we do seriously, but we don't take
ourselves that serious. The New Kids are now mature men
with families and kids of their own, just like their
fans who have grown up right alongside them. You've got
the grandmother's, the moms, the kids now as the three
generational experience. It's one of the ways we evolved from
(02:18):
our younger days in that we just have fun this
time around. We know who we are then. I think
that makes us much more relatable. The New Kids on
the Block started their journey together on the working class
streets of Boston. Donnie, Danny, Jordan, and Jonathan all grew
up in the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Dorchester. We were
(02:38):
all friends since elementary school. We're kind of all in
the same classes. That's when I met the Night Brothers,
and me and Donnie had already known each other a
little bit, but we were little kids We all grew
up poor. We all couldn't keep our homes. We all
wondered where our next meal was coming from. My younger
younger in years were incredibly turbulent to grow up in
(03:01):
house with nine kids, drugs and alcohol all over the place.
Music was just my salvation, was a place where I
could go and not just escaped, but actually to bring
people together and create a happier environment. In the seventies
and eighties, Boston schools were actively desegregating their campuses, so
(03:24):
the boys were busted to a racially diverse school in
the town of Roxbury. Not a lot of white kids
were exposed to different ethnicities in Boston, and we were,
and we were with kids of all races learning to
love and respect and admire our differences. Because of their experiences,
(03:44):
the guys were exposed to cultural influences that would shape
their musical futures. If I would get to school and
here paulam and Funkadelic or new name it, and there's
always different types of music around. That's when I started
band and break dancing and stuff like that. Me and
shortened Before we were in the group together. We used
(04:05):
to battle each other in different breakdancing groups. On my
thirteenth birthday, I went in to buy my first album.
I ended up being torn between two albums, a New
Edition and Johnson Crew, And so I was trying to decide.
And as I started to read through, like the liner
notes and stuff for the credits, I noticed this Marie
Starr's name was on both albums. In nineteen three, local
(04:31):
music producer Maria Starr launched the boy band New Edition.
They had become a massive success and the pride of Boston.
Everyone in Boston knew who New Edition was. Banned that
big hit Candy Girl, and it was like the biggest
thing ever. But after an ugly split, New Edition left
Maurice and his small record label. It was very hurtful,
(04:53):
like with the business for about two weeks. And I
say to myself about the two weeks, h I'm not
a quitter. So let's get up and get this thing
going now. I'm gonna put five young white kids together.
With the help of manager Mary Alford, Maurice began looking
for the perfect group of white kids who could sing, dance,
and wrap. Mary alf to live next to one of
(05:15):
my friends. We went over to Maurice's house. He walked
in the room and he's limping around using a broomstick
for a crutch. He said, you Dannia Like yeah, He said,
I heard you a good I said okay. He said
I'm gonna make you a star. I looked at the
broomstick and I said, uh, and we'll see about that.
(05:36):
Fifteen year old done, He signed on as the first
member of Maurice's new band with his thirteen year old
brother Mark. We started taking singing lessons and I would
play the drums. I got fully immersed in the studio
life and Mark didn't. I was walking the straight narrow
(05:57):
path and he was trying everything under the sun, on drugs, alcohol,
you name it. Slowly, Mark started to drift away, and
you know, one day he said, I'm not going to
do it anymore. I'm gonna quit mour. He said, what
do you want to do? Do you want to stop
or do you want to keep going? And I said,
I want to do this. This is what I'm meant
(06:19):
to do and he said, okay, then it's me a
new kid. With Mark out of the group. More recent
Donn he struggled to find other local teams who could
pull it off, trying to find five white kids doing
when I was doing, it was not going to be
The talent pool was very shallow, but I had some
people in mind. Donnie gave me a call about joining
(06:43):
this group. So he was like, it's this guy, um
Maury Stark. He produced new addition, like he wants something
like us to be famous, you know, And I was
like wow. Donnie was always talking to me about it
and it just, you know, it sounded like a fantasy
and I was like, I don't know. He was just like,
come on, man, he got nothing to lose just coming audition.
(07:06):
Maurice agreed to audition a few of Donnie's friends from school,
and the group began to take shape. I sang from
a little bit and he was like, uh, yeah, I
think you could work, man, I think you could work.
I went back home and uh, I tell my brother John.
I was like, I just went to an audition with
Donnie and uh the guy said he can be like
famous like new audition And John was like huh. He
(07:28):
was like, boy, didn't you bring me. I was jealous
and kind of like, wait a minute, you're not gonna
leave me behind. I told him about my brother and
Maurice loved the idea of brothers, you know, because of
like the Osman Brothers and the Jackson Five. But they
were missing the final piece of the puzzle and threw
twelve year old Joey mc attire, who came from a
(07:50):
different part of town. We went on the hunt for
Michael Jackson sounding a young white kid, which is probably
the hardest thing in the world to do, because they
don't produce me of those. You know. I had done
a bunch of shows and love to perform, and I
guess I had a bit of a reputation around my
hometown and I happened to fit the build. Maurice named
(08:11):
the newly assembled group NA Nuke. That was completely Maurice's concept.
We all hated it from the star, Oh my goodness,
the dumbest name ever. Nau People were like Na Na,
Na Nu. No one could say the name right, and
I don't know where he got it from. NA Nuke
(08:32):
began performing R and B music in and around Boston.
Boys worked tirelessly to make a name for themselves. The
plan was black audiences will be surprised when they see
its white guys, and they will accept them, and we
will be a famous R and b a. Each show
was like a monumental event. It was a constant battle
(08:54):
for us to prove ourselves. We were very young, we
were very unpolished, but what you saw the grid, we
would determine the odds were stacked against us. We were
just trying to find our way to learn how to
win the crowd over. We just wanted to perform and
continue to get better, so we didn't really care where
(09:15):
it was or what it was. Anywhere we could get
a show. We did talent shows, we did backyard birthday parties,
roller skating rinks, churches who we performed in a jail.
We performed at a few jails. I mean, Tony's brother
was there, so we got to visit with him to
while performing, so that was cool. It sounds weird, but
(09:38):
like the show's actually were great. We really loved what
we were doing and just kept pushing forward. And you know,
with hard work comes success. In while still in high school,
the band began playing bigger venues and started pushing for
a record deal. Maurice started calling him Favors and no,
I got this new group that the White New and
(10:00):
they're gonna be the biggest thing. But they didn't want
to hear. They told me to get out of the building,
don't come back. So I said, hmm, let me go
instead of through the back door, through the black door.
So I got this guy Larkin Arnold to listen to me.
He said, I don't like that. That name not knew.
He said, would you mind changing it to New Kids
on the Block since y'all got a song called that?
(10:21):
It was just naturally it's perfect for us. Scientific Columbia
Records R and B Division, The New Kids on the
Block released their self titled debut album in the spring
of nine six, featuring the single be My Girl. We're
in high school? What else in the school got a
record out? This is kind of cool. But if we
(10:42):
make a little money, I can get a scooter and
right around the city. That would be awesome. But the
album made little impact on the charts, and the exact
Columbia quickly lost interest. Before in the record company was like,
what are we wasting our time on this group? That
makes no sense? The record up and he was like,
I think we're gonna cut him off the label and
(11:03):
we were like, we gotta keep going, we gotta keep going.
Given one more chance, the guys took matters into their
own hands, and in the spring of seven, the group
began working on a new album, appropriately titled Hanging Tough.
The second album had a little more grown up sound.
(11:25):
It was stuff we're listening to, you know, it's got
to be organic. We were more creatively involved, more ree.
He's seen us all stunt to come up with dance steps,
different styles, you know, the way we dress, how we
should present ourselves, what music we should be doing. And
he'd stepped back a little bit, and he goes, I
could learn something from these guys. In April of night,
(11:48):
the boys that hit their late teens when the first
single from the new album was released, but Please Don't
Go Girl didn't make the impact on the R and
B charts the band had hoped for. We were a
R and B act. We were being marketed to black radio.
We did a video and it went to B E
(12:09):
T I could see yeah trying to cross over after
you go pop, but they were trying to go black
first with these white kids. That strategy ultimately was not working.
Even though we've put all this time and hard work
into this, it looked like we just didn't know it
was gonna happen. Later that summer, the New Kids luck
(12:30):
began to change. One pop radio DJ in Florida played
Please Don't Go Girl on a pop radio station. The
phones lit up. They called the radio people at Sony
at CBS and they were like, you gotta hit, you
gotta hit. It's a pop rad kord. The song eventually
(12:51):
rose to number ten on the pop charts and became
the New Kids first commercial hit. If the guy in
Florida would have not played bad record, there's no telling
what would have happened. Looking back, it's kind of funny
that it's just happened by accident. As the New Kids
(13:12):
gained exposure, they got the chance of a lifetime audition
for sixteen year old pop queen Tiffany as the opening
act on our national tour. They popped into my dressing
room and if they started doing all the oh and
I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I don't
have an opening act. Literally that night I put them
(13:35):
on stage. Who doesn't like five hot guys doing their
thing with great music and being as charismatic as they are.
It was exciting and scary at the same time. I mean,
here we are getting on a bus, our parents don't
know where we are. There was not cell phones back then,
so it was you know, I'll call you at the
hotel or something like that. It was an amazing night
(13:59):
that night to get on the tour bus. That was
something we could never imagine. The tour with Tiffany got
the New Kids noticed by a fresh group of fans,
and the boys were loving every minute of it just
grew from that point on. I would peek out and
watch their set before I would go on on stage,
(14:20):
and you know, it was already crazy. The girls were
screaming and crying. So yes, I had a little bit
of feeling in my heart that this was going to
be big. We were playing every night in front of
an audience that was made for us that no one
really ever thought about. Maurice included, anchored by the hit
(14:40):
single you Got It the right Stuff, The new Kids
on the Block had arrived. By the summer of nine nine,
the New Kids toured with Tiffany again. All right, what's
it gonna be? New kids on the Block for Tiffany,
only this time because of their overwhelming popularity, they became
the headliners. By the following summer, I was opening up
(15:04):
for them. The girls had just fallen in love with
their music, fallen in love with them, and I'm kind
of in the way. It's like I remember getting on
stage in the first like three songs. You couldn't see
anything because all the flashes, you know, it was just
blinding and screams. It's like, I don't I don't even
(15:26):
know if the girls even heard the music, heard anything
we said for the first three songs because they were
so loud. This is your second album, and I just
want to know what what changes are there from the
Danger album. It's us, It's not the The animal wasn't
too much us, and we knew this is us. This
(15:48):
is more real for us. I mean, this is where
we come from. Hanging Tough was the commercial phenomenon of nine,
spawning five top ten hits and selling over eight million copies.
Almost overnight. The boys from Boston became superstars. We'd be bored,
you know, in some town at the hotel, and let's
(16:09):
go to the mall. If you went by yourself, you
never had a problem. If you have, you know, two
of us, it gets bigger, and then if a third
person comes along, you've done. They were scratching and ripping
my clothes off and yelling at my face. There was
a risk of serious bodily injury. Back then you think
little girls aren't strong. They're very strong. People would knew
(16:32):
where I lived. They'd be at my house and my
mom's in the kitchen with like ten fans just feeding
them cookies. Once the fuse was lit, the fuse was lit,
it was going and it was going big. There was
no stopping. It was like really over the top, the adulation,
the excitement, and it was like when are we getting into?
(16:54):
On June, the New Kids released their third album, step
by Step. The title track raced to the top of
the charts. It was the New Kid's best selling single
to date, launching them into international superstar step by Step
around the world slow by six million plus ricords just
that song in sa Their popularity was now at an
(17:17):
old time high. You know, as a teenager, there's no
preparation for that level of fame. Five guys boy band,
their massive success. But when you can't, you know, get
up and go to the pool, or you can't go
to the gym, and as soon as you walk out
the the hotel, there's Holly's girl. It's a lot, It
(17:39):
really is a lot. They would knock it on your
door to in the morning and they'd have like stuff
right on the face, like I love Joe. So they
knew where we were at. And we came up to
our floor and it was all five of us and
the door opened and some girl was standing there like
this in front of the elevator and she went, she
(18:01):
just she just fainted. She was okay. While most of
the guys were enjoying the fandom of screaming girls, Jonathan
Knight was struggling in secret. Nobody knew I was gay.
The eighties were crazy for all gay people. Everything was
just so behind closed doors. I remember, you know, one night,
(18:27):
going to our manager and just saying I'm gay, Like what,
like help um? And his reply was, you can't tell anybody.
You can't tell the guys you get like this, cannot
get out, or you're just gonna have all this come
crashing down. Jonathan pushed on playing the role of a
(18:51):
teenage heartthrob. You date the good Catholic girls and then
you don't have to sleep with them. He even dated
Tiffany John Knight and I were a boyfriend a girlfriend
for about over two and a half years. Tiffany, She's
gonna kill me. It was it was she knows now.
It started out really innocent, kind of innocent, just we
(19:12):
were just friends. It was a really good friendship. There
was nothing ever dirty about it. It was great. She's
She's an awesome person. He is my heart. I still
love him dearly, and he was a great first boyfriend
as a person. I really got him. Pressured by fame
to maintain his pop star image. Jonathan also chose to
(19:33):
hide his sexuality from the other new kids. I never
really felt that I would be rejected by them. I
never felt I'd been rejected by my family. It was
the business aspect of it that really was, like, you
need to keep shut, you need to not be seen
going out to clubs, and you know, at such a
young age, that's a lot of stress to put on
(19:57):
one person. I can imagine the pressure of like, holy shit,
i'man like a boy band. Girls are supposed to love us,
and here I am, I'm gay. It must have been
really difficult. I never knew anything. I mean, we were
(20:20):
boyfriend and girlfriend. We never really talked about anything like that.
We just didn't know what he was dealing with. How
much it was impacting him. It was hard to tune
into it because we were all feeling different pressures ourselves.
You know, there was always a hundred and fifty to
(20:41):
two hundred kids in front of my house just waiting
for us to show up. We each had our struggles
with it because we did want to still live normal
lives when we weren't working. I continued to want to
go home and hang out on the corner like any
sixteen year old kid, and that wasn't a possibility for years.
(21:03):
There was no escaping the spotlight for any of the
new kids. With over a hundred and fifty products in
the marketplace, their faces were literally everywhere. That's when it
started to become like a machine. Walk into a store
and there was you know, marbles and lunchboxes, be kids
on the block, cereal, playing cards, and cartoons. The whole
(21:28):
merchandise side of things got out of control. I never
thought it was too much product. I was sitting back
thanking God that these millions were flowing in. It happened
so fast, it was like a huge snowball going down
the hill. We just couldn't stop it. It wasn't exactly
the way we wanted things to go. And you walk
into a toy store and there's these stuffed animal dolls
(21:49):
of you sitting there. But we were so young, it
was so hard to like, you know, really what you
could take control of and really what you could say.
By the time we said, okay, we gotta start controlling
this thing, it was too late. We were just grinding
and grinding and grinding, just because our business man is
just like, you're gonna make money here, you're gonna make
(22:11):
money there, and it's just like and our spirits weren't
being refreshed. By the end of as The New Kids
(22:37):
released a hip hop infused remix album of their biggest hits,
they had earned an astonishing one and fifteen million dollars
in that year alone, eating out icons like Michael Jackson, Emmadonna.
When you told you're a millionaire and you're like one twenty,
you know, like, yeah, it was exciting. No, I'll never
forget our financial advisor. He advised us to take care
(23:00):
of our parents and then put the rest in the bank.
That was the kind of advice we were getting early on,
so that kind of has stuck with us. How many
people can say they retired their mom when they were
years old, all the hard work she did through all
those years, working nights, cleaning floors, you know, taking any
(23:23):
job she could to help keep our family afloat and
raise nine kids. Um, you know, Um, how can I
complain about missing out on what typical teenage life is
when I was able to take care of my mom.
(23:45):
That same year, they launched the most extravagant live show
to date, the Magic Summer Tour. The sold out stadiums
brought big time status to the New Kids, but even
though they were filling seats, their inspiration on stage was fading.
We were so disconnected from the audience. I mean there
was people like a mile away, way way up high,
(24:08):
and it just it was off. I think there is
such a thing as being too popular, and I really
think that that's what happens to us. By the New
Kids on the Block were one of the biggest acts
in the world. Their fans worshiped them. Music critics weren't impressed.
(24:29):
Back in the day, we took a lot of hits
for singing bubble gum songs, not really adding anything to
the music world except for a bunch of screaming girls.
Donnie really was the one that took it really personally
and made it his mission to lash back at these people.
But I don't know how much you guys really care
(24:50):
at this point about critical acceptance. I mean, I think
everyone in the world cares about how people feel about them.
Billy Idol makes a lot of jokes about us. To me,
I just don't understand why a forty year ol a
man would spend so much energy on a step by
step was a failure. It sold five million copies. What
what kind of failure is that? When I was twenty
one years old, I was mad at the criticism. When
(25:10):
I was thirty eight. In the original Behind the Music,
I was trying to explain why I was mad about
the criticism. The criticism was just overwhelming to me. I
really didn't have a makeup to ignore it. You know,
I don't think he was wired to handle it any differently.
He grew up in Dorchester. It was a tough neighborhood.
(25:34):
You know, I'm fifty one now and I love the
criticism anyway now, you know, It's like that's where I'm at.
I don't hear criticism. Donny's image is a bad boy
was fueled even more in March, when he was arrested
for allegedly setting a hotel room on fire to give
(25:54):
us a day off in Louisville, Kentucky. Is a mistake.
There's nothing to do there. So Lie Donnie just sprayed
the fire extinguished during his room and it was just
a prank because he was bored. He's covered in white
powder his whole room him. I didn't light a fire
and didn't do any such thing. In fact, I did
the opposite of light of fire, but the press reported
(26:16):
a different story. The chargers were eventually dropped for the
New Kids. The story became legend. I always felt trapped
in hotels. I always would do mischievous things. Just because
I was bored and frustrated in hotels and I couldn't
do everyday stuff. Doesn't mean I have the right to
like leave my old tel room like a trash heap.
(26:39):
In some ways, it had to happen for me to
grow up a little bit. Donnie's badass attitude ignited a
spark and the New Kid's spirit, but a relentless touring
schedule began to smother them. You know, there was a
time when they were just pushing us, pushing us, pushing us.
We were so hot so blaze using hut that we
(27:01):
had no time. We would end a tour, they think
of a new name for another tour and just throw
us back out there again. We were going just so fast.
We were working three d and stick to two days
of a year. When we would come off tour, I
wouldn't go home. I would go to Boston and check
into a hotel and not tell anybody, just so I
(27:22):
could sit in silence and just you know, be still.
After nearly four years of constant touring, conflicts began to
arise among friends. You start to get on each other's nerves.
I think we've all thrown blows at each other. And
it was such a humongous things for a long period
of time and had such intensity that you know something
(27:45):
had to give. There be times where we walked down
a hotel hallway and like ships in the night, not
even say anything. We didn't have the coping skills and
the patients to understand each other and and show support
by growing conflict between the guys was not the only
tension within the New Kids camp. After nearly a decade together,
(28:08):
the band began to feel like producer more re star
was taking credit for their success to pick up a
magazine and see him saying, Oh, they don't have to
have talent, they just need someone like me, you know.
And the things he was saying, you know, just was
not true and not cool. But we love them. We
wouldn't be here without him. We all made mistakes back then.
(28:30):
Maurice is our brother and that will never change. I
think he went through a phase, you know, we were
getting a lot of attention. You know, he wanted to
be known as, you know, the guy that that did
it all. No, I didn't do it all with those
guys did not have the energy. If those guys do
not have the talent, if those guys didn't have what
(28:50):
it took, none of this would have never happened. Now
in their twenties, he said no longer. Kids in the
named n KO TV released their fifth album, Faced the Music.
We wanted to reinvent ourselves. We had just left being
signed to Mari Star, so we were kind of free,
(29:12):
like we were grown up and we're changing our name
and we're gonna do things more how we want to
do it. And it took us like two years to
put that record together. It was too long. It was
a struggle to get the songs and just who are
we're working with. It didn't have the same feeling as
when we had released other stuff. The writing was kind
of already on the wall, like things were changing a
(29:34):
bit in the music business. The band's mix of a
new producer, new music, and a new name was not
a winning combination as their fans aged into the ground
era of Nirvana and Earl jaz faced. The music sold
less than one and fifty thou copies. People were becoming
so anti pop. You know, I felt that I felt
(29:57):
that coming. Um. I was like I I put in
my time, This is as far as it's gonna go. Um,
it's time to move on. With the pressure of launching
yet another tour, Jonathan questioned whether he wanted to be
a part of the group at all. He had been
hiding his sexuality and struggling with anxiety for years. I
(30:19):
had a secret to hide, and you know, by me
leaving the group maybe would set me free and I
could just go live my life. For John, he didn't
decide to leave. He wasn't in, and it was back
and forth. He's and he's out, he's in, he's out,
And they decided to have a vote and we said
all in favor of John being out of the band
(30:40):
Raiser hind three hands are up and Jordan's said majority rules.
The day that they got on the bus and left,
it was like just that was it killed me, you know,
because I just I felt like I let them down
so bad. You know, there's a million ways you could
tell the story of why we broke up. Oh, John left,
(31:01):
Like John didn't leave, the energy left. We all left. Danny, Donny, Jordan,
and Joe soldiered on, but not for long. They soon
canceled the rest of the tour, and in June, their
epic journey officially came to an end. You know, the
(31:21):
fans weren't there. That demand wasn't there, The desire to
go for another few years wasn't there. After breaking off,
the new Kids went through separate ways into new chapters
of their lives, but each of them struggled as they
transitioned from teenage superstars to aimless adults. That's really when
(31:46):
it smacked me in my face that here I am,
five years old, no career, I have no plans for
what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life.
So I wanted to a really deep depression. At that time.
It was like a big hangover. You know. I was
a little depressed because you know, working and being creative
(32:08):
is what builds self esteem, so when that goes away,
it's hard to handle. I wanted to go and become
Donnie Wahlberg, you know. I wanted to go do all
these different things and me my own. Man. I wanted
to just grow into myself. When you're in a group,
you kind of have to fit in and you can't
fully be yourself. Every decision it can be yours now.
(32:32):
I think the difficult thing was we weren't together as
a group, but there was still that love hate for
us out there. So you know, you still get the
jealous guys yelling something at you across the street or something.
And okay, man, we were we went away now, so
you can stop yelling at me. As they adapted to
their new lives out of the spotlight, the guys gradually
(32:55):
began to find themselves. Now. I said, Okay, this year,
I'm gonna figure out how to make fifty dollars, and
that was my goal. A friend of mine called me saying,
do you want to flip a house? We did maybe
two houses our first year and just kept building on it.
While Jonathan left entertainment behind, Danny, Jordan, and Joey all
(33:19):
went on to release solo albums. Donnie found himself in
an entirely new career as an actor. After breakthrough roles
in Ransom and The Sixth Sense, Donnie immersed himself in
his acting career for years. You know, I don't have
to pat myself on the back of I'm I'm a
pretty good actor. You know, I don't have any Oscar nominations,
but we know who the better actor in the Walburg
(33:41):
household is. That's okay, it's me, But I'm telling you
I'm a musician. First. In two thousand seven, Donnie heard
(34:06):
a demo for a song called Click Click Click. I
heard the song click Click Click, and played it for
Jordan's and Joey and Danny and got the reaction that
I had hoped for. I loved it, and that was
kind of the spark to get us back in the
studio and you know, get the ball rolling. I just
(34:29):
could picture us singing it. It was what we were
looking for. Grown men want to show that different side
of us, and it just the song suited that. Click
Click was the one that really stood out to me
as something that could be a launch of our sound,
our new sound. When you're listening and get the chills,
(34:50):
you get back in the studio and that kind of
stuff is you know what it's all about. Honestly, I
felt enough time and asked for that kind of stigma
to fade away angle where's the New Kids? You know.
I definitely never thought anywhere along the way that we
(35:10):
would get back together. It had been fifteen years since
The New Kids are recorded together. Not everyone was convinced
it would work. There was a conversation early on in
the reunion of you know, was John going to stay
in the band? Jonathan was unsure if he would still
be crippled by the same anxiety that plagued him while performing.
(35:33):
It was a big decision to go back, and just
lots of discussions of what it's going to be like
and how it's gonna work, and eventually I felt comfortable
enough like we were grown up and we're gonna do
things more how we want to do it, and I
was like, let's go. In early two thousand and eight,
(35:56):
the five guys, now in their mid to late thirties,
assemble for their first recording session together since like who
else is? What's up? That first time was really awkward.
You could tell I'm hugging Joe, but it's like, hey,
I don't know, you know more, man, I haven't seen
(36:18):
Donnie and probably ten years. I probably haven't seen Danny
maybe once or twice in the last fourteen years. Joe,
I've probably seen him once. I mean, I didn't know
what to expect. There's nothing like getting back in the
studio with the guys, you know that first time and
cutting vocals and hearing our you know, vocals together and
we have our own sounds and and that's that's pretty cool.
(36:42):
It took a little bit to like get back into
that comfort zone and to kind of realize, you know,
we've grown up, but kind to everyone's personalities are still
the same. Alright, guys, alright, my first step together in
damn years, right, look at this To be back after
(37:08):
all that time in a rehearsal studio, dancing again together.
It gave me chills. As the new kids prepared to
announce the reunion, they wondered if their fans would also return.
We came back hard, We worked some of those old
(37:29):
fights still had residue on our reunion. But I went
to a lot of therapy, and I remember really using
a lot of the lessons I had learned in the band,
listening better, talking less. We want right now to be fair.
(37:52):
I definitely was dipping my toe in the waters, checked
the temperature of the water, but I didn't care. I
didn't have any fear that it wasn't going to work. Three.
In September of two thousand eight, fifteen years since their
(38:13):
last album together, the New Kids released The Block and
launched a national tour. We had this lift at the
back of the stage. It just lifted us up. The
sound was it was deafening. It sounded like a seven
forty seven. It was out of control. I'd never felt
that in all our years. There was history in those screens.
(38:38):
It was the most amazing feeling I have ever felt
in my life. It was it just bowed back in
that moment. It was Yeah, it was just so. It
was so special. It was immediately apparent that their bands
had gone nowhere. Everybody has a child inside, everybody has
(39:02):
an inner teenager. We get a little older, but the
feelings never ever die, and that's what we represent to
our fans. The boys were blown away by the emotion
they felt being on stage together again. It was a
(39:22):
much much deeper connection, a much deeper understanding of how
important we were to each other. We all really needed
each other again. It's pretty amazing, it really is. I
was comfortable with myself, and here I am back with
these four guys that have been in my life since
(39:44):
I was a kid. Over the years, Jonathan had grown
more comfortable with his sexuality. His family and the band
knew he was gay, but he hadn't made a point
of revealing it to the public until two thousand nine,
when the tabloid pressed threat to out him. I was
dating my husband then and I got a call from
(40:05):
my publicist. She said that an ex of yours is
about to release pictures to the National Enquirer, and it
just got to be like, enough is enough. Jonathan decided
to release a public statement revealing he was gay. The
fans totally accepted it, and we just thought it makes
(40:28):
the group better, It makes the group richer. One of
the truly special things for me is watching him take
ownership of who he is and being at peace with that,
not just as a gay man, but as a performer.
I started to realize early on in the second incarnation
(40:51):
of the band that the fans saw themselves more in
John than in any of us. It's never changed how
I look at him. People were like, how do you feel?
I'm like, how do I feel about what that? My
friend is gay? I feel he's fabulous. That's how I feel.
End of story. Just made me so happy how far
(41:17):
society has come to realize, you know, everybody's the same,
which is a little different. Jonathan is now married and
all of the New Kids have grown into family man.
Jordan and Joey also married and had kids. Danny is
a grandfather, and Donnie found the love of his life
(41:38):
when he married actress Jenny McCarthy. My journey with Jenny
is in some ways similar to my journey through music.
Every day I woke up thinking about the band and
thinking about moving it forward. It was part of who
I was, and the same thing happened with Jenny. That
wisdom and mature outlook has allowed the New Kids to
(42:01):
defy the odds a second time around. To date, the
Reunion tours have grows more than two hundred and fifty
million dollars and given them the opportunity to fulfill a
lifelong dream. There are no words to describe playing the
way part. It's sacred ground. So to play a concert
there is beyond really the scope of what the mind
(42:23):
can imagine. For five guys that grew up in that
city rooting for the Red Sox, it doesn't get any
bigger or better than that. Also, as adults, the New
Kids redefine the relationship with their fans, and their annual
n KOTB cruise is one of their favorite ways to connect.
(42:44):
Every cruise, every song, every single opportunity to connect with
the fans is an opportunity to bring happiness, not just
to them but to me. It's the best time ever.
I mean a lot has changed, just our personal relationship
with fans, and you can talk to people and ask
(43:05):
them normal grown up questions instead of them just you know,
reaching out to rip your hair out. We've all just
grown immature and have learned, I think, to stay very
present and stay very grateful my connection with our fans
and being part of this band. That's why I'm on
this planet was to be part of this experience and
(43:27):
part of this love. Now well into their forties and fifties,
the New Kids are far from old men, but they
are wise enough to strike the right balance between their
careers and their personal lives. I would do anything for
any guy in the group and have so much respect
(43:47):
and love for them. I just I feel lucky just
to have them in my life. I think we can
keep doing what we're doing, you know, as long as
the fun is there, as long as the spirits there,
as long as the camaraderie is there. I think with maturity,
you learn to focus on what's import you doing this
again and continuing to do this with family, of course,
(44:11):
it changes everything. These are my four brothers. It's a
massive gift and I ring every drip out of it.
I hope we all continue doing things in life that
we love. It's just the best thing in the world,
you know, from the time we were little boys until now,
(44:32):
as meant we got each other's back, and we're never
walking out there alone. I fully expect John and Jordan
and Danny and Joey to be in my life forever.
(44:54):
Listen to Behind the Music on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you get your favorite podcast. Want
more episodes, you can watch remastered best of the Vault
and new episodes of Behind the Music only on Paramount
plus M M
Welcome back to Behind the Music like I'm walking into trouble,
talking into trouble. Okay, here we're going in. They were
the pioneers of the original boy band, five teens from
the tough streets of Boston. They shot to fame in
the early nineties with their R and B B fused
(00:27):
with a pop sound. The New Kids on the Block
became an international phenomenon with adoring fans who followed them everywhere.
But life in the spotlight came at a price, and
eventually all that fame took its toll. The band's personal
struggles were exposed, and then it all came crashing down.
(00:49):
But in two thousand and eight, the New Kids reunited,
this time as grown men who were better than ever together. Now,
thirteen years after the original episode Behind the Music air,
the New Kids are back, celebrating key moments in their lives,
giving new insights on their journey, and reflecting on the
(01:11):
men they've become today. This is the New Kids on
the Block. The story Behind the Music. I was sitting
around my house one afternoon and quarantine and I said,
(01:32):
I'll write a song and magic will occur. We're entertainers,
so let's put something together to do our part in
helping people feel a little better. In the spring of
the New Kids on the Block released House Party with
help from some of their famous friends. House Party is
a great example of the difference between being and the
(01:53):
New Kids then and being and the New Kids now.
We take what we do seriously, but we don't take
ourselves that serious. The New Kids are now mature men
with families and kids of their own, just like their
fans who have grown up right alongside them. You've got
the grandmother's, the moms, the kids now as the three
generational experience. It's one of the ways we evolved from
(02:18):
our younger days in that we just have fun this
time around. We know who we are then. I think
that makes us much more relatable. The New Kids on
the Block started their journey together on the working class
streets of Boston. Donnie, Danny, Jordan, and Jonathan all grew
up in the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Dorchester. We were
(02:38):
all friends since elementary school. We're kind of all in
the same classes. That's when I met the Night Brothers,
and me and Donnie had already known each other a
little bit, but we were little kids We all grew
up poor. We all couldn't keep our homes. We all
wondered where our next meal was coming from. My younger
younger in years were incredibly turbulent to grow up in
(03:01):
house with nine kids, drugs and alcohol all over the place.
Music was just my salvation, was a place where I
could go and not just escaped, but actually to bring
people together and create a happier environment. In the seventies
and eighties, Boston schools were actively desegregating their campuses, so
(03:24):
the boys were busted to a racially diverse school in
the town of Roxbury. Not a lot of white kids
were exposed to different ethnicities in Boston, and we were,
and we were with kids of all races learning to
love and respect and admire our differences. Because of their experiences,
(03:44):
the guys were exposed to cultural influences that would shape
their musical futures. If I would get to school and
here paulam and Funkadelic or new name it, and there's
always different types of music around. That's when I started
band and break dancing and stuff like that. Me and
shortened Before we were in the group together. We used
(04:05):
to battle each other in different breakdancing groups. On my
thirteenth birthday, I went in to buy my first album.
I ended up being torn between two albums, a New
Edition and Johnson Crew, And so I was trying to decide.
And as I started to read through, like the liner
notes and stuff for the credits, I noticed this Marie
Starr's name was on both albums. In nineteen three, local
(04:31):
music producer Maria Starr launched the boy band New Edition.
They had become a massive success and the pride of Boston.
Everyone in Boston knew who New Edition was. Banned that
big hit Candy Girl, and it was like the biggest
thing ever. But after an ugly split, New Edition left
Maurice and his small record label. It was very hurtful,
(04:53):
like with the business for about two weeks. And I
say to myself about the two weeks, h I'm not
a quitter. So let's get up and get this thing
going now. I'm gonna put five young white kids together.
With the help of manager Mary Alford, Maurice began looking
for the perfect group of white kids who could sing, dance,
and wrap. Mary alf to live next to one of
(05:15):
my friends. We went over to Maurice's house. He walked
in the room and he's limping around using a broomstick
for a crutch. He said, you Dannia Like yeah, He said,
I heard you a good I said okay. He said
I'm gonna make you a star. I looked at the
broomstick and I said, uh, and we'll see about that.
(05:36):
Fifteen year old done, He signed on as the first
member of Maurice's new band with his thirteen year old
brother Mark. We started taking singing lessons and I would
play the drums. I got fully immersed in the studio
life and Mark didn't. I was walking the straight narrow
(05:57):
path and he was trying everything under the sun, on drugs, alcohol,
you name it. Slowly, Mark started to drift away, and
you know, one day he said, I'm not going to
do it anymore. I'm gonna quit mour. He said, what
do you want to do? Do you want to stop
or do you want to keep going? And I said,
I want to do this. This is what I'm meant
(06:19):
to do and he said, okay, then it's me a
new kid. With Mark out of the group. More recent
Donn he struggled to find other local teams who could
pull it off, trying to find five white kids doing
when I was doing, it was not going to be
The talent pool was very shallow, but I had some
people in mind. Donnie gave me a call about joining
(06:43):
this group. So he was like, it's this guy, um
Maury Stark. He produced new addition, like he wants something
like us to be famous, you know, And I was
like wow. Donnie was always talking to me about it
and it just, you know, it sounded like a fantasy
and I was like, I don't know. He was just like,
come on, man, he got nothing to lose just coming audition.
(07:06):
Maurice agreed to audition a few of Donnie's friends from school,
and the group began to take shape. I sang from
a little bit and he was like, uh, yeah, I
think you could work, man, I think you could work.
I went back home and uh, I tell my brother John.
I was like, I just went to an audition with
Donnie and uh the guy said he can be like
famous like new audition And John was like huh. He
(07:28):
was like, boy, didn't you bring me. I was jealous
and kind of like, wait a minute, you're not gonna
leave me behind. I told him about my brother and
Maurice loved the idea of brothers, you know, because of
like the Osman Brothers and the Jackson Five. But they
were missing the final piece of the puzzle and threw
twelve year old Joey mc attire, who came from a
(07:50):
different part of town. We went on the hunt for
Michael Jackson sounding a young white kid, which is probably
the hardest thing in the world to do, because they
don't produce me of those. You know. I had done
a bunch of shows and love to perform, and I
guess I had a bit of a reputation around my
hometown and I happened to fit the build. Maurice named
(08:11):
the newly assembled group NA Nuke. That was completely Maurice's concept.
We all hated it from the star, Oh my goodness,
the dumbest name ever. Nau People were like Na Na,
Na Nu. No one could say the name right, and
I don't know where he got it from. NA Nuke
(08:32):
began performing R and B music in and around Boston.
Boys worked tirelessly to make a name for themselves. The
plan was black audiences will be surprised when they see
its white guys, and they will accept them, and we
will be a famous R and b a. Each show
was like a monumental event. It was a constant battle
(08:54):
for us to prove ourselves. We were very young, we
were very unpolished, but what you saw the grid, we
would determine the odds were stacked against us. We were
just trying to find our way to learn how to
win the crowd over. We just wanted to perform and
continue to get better, so we didn't really care where
(09:15):
it was or what it was. Anywhere we could get
a show. We did talent shows, we did backyard birthday parties,
roller skating rinks, churches who we performed in a jail.
We performed at a few jails. I mean, Tony's brother
was there, so we got to visit with him to
while performing, so that was cool. It sounds weird, but
(09:38):
like the show's actually were great. We really loved what
we were doing and just kept pushing forward. And you know,
with hard work comes success. In while still in high school,
the band began playing bigger venues and started pushing for
a record deal. Maurice started calling him Favors and no,
I got this new group that the White New and
(10:00):
they're gonna be the biggest thing. But they didn't want
to hear. They told me to get out of the building,
don't come back. So I said, hmm, let me go
instead of through the back door, through the black door.
So I got this guy Larkin Arnold to listen to me.
He said, I don't like that. That name not knew.
He said, would you mind changing it to New Kids
on the Block since y'all got a song called that?
(10:21):
It was just naturally it's perfect for us. Scientific Columbia
Records R and B Division, The New Kids on the
Block released their self titled debut album in the spring
of nine six, featuring the single be My Girl. We're
in high school? What else in the school got a
record out? This is kind of cool. But if we
(10:42):
make a little money, I can get a scooter and
right around the city. That would be awesome. But the
album made little impact on the charts, and the exact
Columbia quickly lost interest. Before in the record company was like,
what are we wasting our time on this group? That
makes no sense? The record up and he was like,
I think we're gonna cut him off the label and
(11:03):
we were like, we gotta keep going, we gotta keep going.
Given one more chance, the guys took matters into their
own hands, and in the spring of seven, the group
began working on a new album, appropriately titled Hanging Tough.
The second album had a little more grown up sound.
(11:25):
It was stuff we're listening to, you know, it's got
to be organic. We were more creatively involved, more ree.
He's seen us all stunt to come up with dance steps,
different styles, you know, the way we dress, how we
should present ourselves, what music we should be doing. And
he'd stepped back a little bit, and he goes, I
could learn something from these guys. In April of night,
(11:48):
the boys that hit their late teens when the first
single from the new album was released, but Please Don't
Go Girl didn't make the impact on the R and
B charts the band had hoped for. We were a
R and B act. We were being marketed to black radio.
We did a video and it went to B E
(12:09):
T I could see yeah trying to cross over after
you go pop, but they were trying to go black
first with these white kids. That strategy ultimately was not working.
Even though we've put all this time and hard work
into this, it looked like we just didn't know it
was gonna happen. Later that summer, the New Kids luck
(12:30):
began to change. One pop radio DJ in Florida played
Please Don't Go Girl on a pop radio station. The
phones lit up. They called the radio people at Sony
at CBS and they were like, you gotta hit, you
gotta hit. It's a pop rad kord. The song eventually
(12:51):
rose to number ten on the pop charts and became
the New Kids first commercial hit. If the guy in
Florida would have not played bad record, there's no telling
what would have happened. Looking back, it's kind of funny
that it's just happened by accident. As the New Kids
(13:12):
gained exposure, they got the chance of a lifetime audition
for sixteen year old pop queen Tiffany as the opening
act on our national tour. They popped into my dressing
room and if they started doing all the oh and
I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I don't
have an opening act. Literally that night I put them
(13:35):
on stage. Who doesn't like five hot guys doing their
thing with great music and being as charismatic as they are.
It was exciting and scary at the same time. I mean,
here we are getting on a bus, our parents don't
know where we are. There was not cell phones back then,
so it was you know, I'll call you at the
hotel or something like that. It was an amazing night
(13:59):
that night to get on the tour bus. That was
something we could never imagine. The tour with Tiffany got
the New Kids noticed by a fresh group of fans,
and the boys were loving every minute of it just
grew from that point on. I would peek out and
watch their set before I would go on on stage,
(14:20):
and you know, it was already crazy. The girls were
screaming and crying. So yes, I had a little bit
of feeling in my heart that this was going to
be big. We were playing every night in front of
an audience that was made for us that no one
really ever thought about. Maurice included, anchored by the hit
(14:40):
single you Got It the right Stuff, The new Kids
on the Block had arrived. By the summer of nine nine,
the New Kids toured with Tiffany again. All right, what's
it gonna be? New kids on the Block for Tiffany,
only this time because of their overwhelming popularity, they became
the headliners. By the following summer, I was opening up
(15:04):
for them. The girls had just fallen in love with
their music, fallen in love with them, and I'm kind
of in the way. It's like I remember getting on
stage in the first like three songs. You couldn't see
anything because all the flashes, you know, it was just
blinding and screams. It's like, I don't I don't even
(15:26):
know if the girls even heard the music, heard anything
we said for the first three songs because they were
so loud. This is your second album, and I just
want to know what what changes are there from the
Danger album. It's us, It's not the The animal wasn't
too much us, and we knew this is us. This
(15:48):
is more real for us. I mean, this is where
we come from. Hanging Tough was the commercial phenomenon of nine,
spawning five top ten hits and selling over eight million copies.
Almost overnight. The boys from Boston became superstars. We'd be bored,
you know, in some town at the hotel, and let's
(16:09):
go to the mall. If you went by yourself, you
never had a problem. If you have, you know, two
of us, it gets bigger, and then if a third
person comes along, you've done. They were scratching and ripping
my clothes off and yelling at my face. There was
a risk of serious bodily injury. Back then you think
little girls aren't strong. They're very strong. People would knew
(16:32):
where I lived. They'd be at my house and my
mom's in the kitchen with like ten fans just feeding
them cookies. Once the fuse was lit, the fuse was lit,
it was going and it was going big. There was
no stopping. It was like really over the top, the adulation,
the excitement, and it was like when are we getting into?
(16:54):
On June, the New Kids released their third album, step
by Step. The title track raced to the top of
the charts. It was the New Kid's best selling single
to date, launching them into international superstar step by Step
around the world slow by six million plus ricords just
that song in sa Their popularity was now at an
(17:17):
old time high. You know, as a teenager, there's no
preparation for that level of fame. Five guys boy band,
their massive success. But when you can't, you know, get
up and go to the pool, or you can't go
to the gym, and as soon as you walk out
the the hotel, there's Holly's girl. It's a lot, It
(17:39):
really is a lot. They would knock it on your
door to in the morning and they'd have like stuff
right on the face, like I love Joe. So they
knew where we were at. And we came up to
our floor and it was all five of us and
the door opened and some girl was standing there like
this in front of the elevator and she went, she
(18:01):
just she just fainted. She was okay. While most of
the guys were enjoying the fandom of screaming girls, Jonathan
Knight was struggling in secret. Nobody knew I was gay.
The eighties were crazy for all gay people. Everything was
just so behind closed doors. I remember, you know, one night,
(18:27):
going to our manager and just saying I'm gay, Like what,
like help um? And his reply was, you can't tell anybody.
You can't tell the guys you get like this, cannot
get out, or you're just gonna have all this come
crashing down. Jonathan pushed on playing the role of a
(18:51):
teenage heartthrob. You date the good Catholic girls and then
you don't have to sleep with them. He even dated
Tiffany John Knight and I were a boyfriend a girlfriend
for about over two and a half years. Tiffany, She's
gonna kill me. It was it was she knows now.
It started out really innocent, kind of innocent, just we
(19:12):
were just friends. It was a really good friendship. There
was nothing ever dirty about it. It was great. She's
She's an awesome person. He is my heart. I still
love him dearly, and he was a great first boyfriend
as a person. I really got him. Pressured by fame
to maintain his pop star image. Jonathan also chose to
(19:33):
hide his sexuality from the other new kids. I never
really felt that I would be rejected by them. I
never felt I'd been rejected by my family. It was
the business aspect of it that really was, like, you
need to keep shut, you need to not be seen
going out to clubs, and you know, at such a
young age, that's a lot of stress to put on
(19:57):
one person. I can imagine the pressure of like, holy shit,
i'man like a boy band. Girls are supposed to love us,
and here I am, I'm gay. It must have been
really difficult. I never knew anything. I mean, we were
(20:20):
boyfriend and girlfriend. We never really talked about anything like that.
We just didn't know what he was dealing with. How
much it was impacting him. It was hard to tune
into it because we were all feeling different pressures ourselves.
You know, there was always a hundred and fifty to
(20:41):
two hundred kids in front of my house just waiting
for us to show up. We each had our struggles
with it because we did want to still live normal
lives when we weren't working. I continued to want to
go home and hang out on the corner like any
sixteen year old kid, and that wasn't a possibility for years.
(21:03):
There was no escaping the spotlight for any of the
new kids. With over a hundred and fifty products in
the marketplace, their faces were literally everywhere. That's when it
started to become like a machine. Walk into a store
and there was you know, marbles and lunchboxes, be kids
on the block, cereal, playing cards, and cartoons. The whole
(21:28):
merchandise side of things got out of control. I never
thought it was too much product. I was sitting back
thanking God that these millions were flowing in. It happened
so fast, it was like a huge snowball going down
the hill. We just couldn't stop it. It wasn't exactly
the way we wanted things to go. And you walk
into a toy store and there's these stuffed animal dolls
(21:49):
of you sitting there. But we were so young, it
was so hard to like, you know, really what you
could take control of and really what you could say.
By the time we said, okay, we gotta start controlling
this thing, it was too late. We were just grinding
and grinding and grinding, just because our business man is
just like, you're gonna make money here, you're gonna make
(22:11):
money there, and it's just like and our spirits weren't
being refreshed. By the end of as The New Kids
(22:37):
released a hip hop infused remix album of their biggest hits,
they had earned an astonishing one and fifteen million dollars
in that year alone, eating out icons like Michael Jackson, Emmadonna.
When you told you're a millionaire and you're like one twenty,
you know, like, yeah, it was exciting. No, I'll never
forget our financial advisor. He advised us to take care
(23:00):
of our parents and then put the rest in the bank.
That was the kind of advice we were getting early on,
so that kind of has stuck with us. How many
people can say they retired their mom when they were
years old, all the hard work she did through all
those years, working nights, cleaning floors, you know, taking any
(23:23):
job she could to help keep our family afloat and
raise nine kids. Um, you know, Um, how can I
complain about missing out on what typical teenage life is
when I was able to take care of my mom.
(23:45):
That same year, they launched the most extravagant live show
to date, the Magic Summer Tour. The sold out stadiums
brought big time status to the New Kids, but even
though they were filling seats, their inspiration on stage was fading.
We were so disconnected from the audience. I mean there
was people like a mile away, way way up high,
(24:08):
and it just it was off. I think there is
such a thing as being too popular, and I really
think that that's what happens to us. By the New
Kids on the Block were one of the biggest acts
in the world. Their fans worshiped them. Music critics weren't impressed.
(24:29):
Back in the day, we took a lot of hits
for singing bubble gum songs, not really adding anything to
the music world except for a bunch of screaming girls.
Donnie really was the one that took it really personally
and made it his mission to lash back at these people.
But I don't know how much you guys really care
(24:50):
at this point about critical acceptance. I mean, I think
everyone in the world cares about how people feel about them.
Billy Idol makes a lot of jokes about us. To me,
I just don't understand why a forty year ol a
man would spend so much energy on a step by
step was a failure. It sold five million copies. What
what kind of failure is that? When I was twenty
one years old, I was mad at the criticism. When
(25:10):
I was thirty eight. In the original Behind the Music,
I was trying to explain why I was mad about
the criticism. The criticism was just overwhelming to me. I
really didn't have a makeup to ignore it. You know,
I don't think he was wired to handle it any differently.
He grew up in Dorchester. It was a tough neighborhood.
(25:34):
You know, I'm fifty one now and I love the
criticism anyway now, you know, It's like that's where I'm at.
I don't hear criticism. Donny's image is a bad boy
was fueled even more in March, when he was arrested
for allegedly setting a hotel room on fire to give
(25:54):
us a day off in Louisville, Kentucky. Is a mistake.
There's nothing to do there. So Lie Donnie just sprayed
the fire extinguished during his room and it was just
a prank because he was bored. He's covered in white
powder his whole room him. I didn't light a fire
and didn't do any such thing. In fact, I did
the opposite of light of fire, but the press reported
(26:16):
a different story. The chargers were eventually dropped for the
New Kids. The story became legend. I always felt trapped
in hotels. I always would do mischievous things. Just because
I was bored and frustrated in hotels and I couldn't
do everyday stuff. Doesn't mean I have the right to
like leave my old tel room like a trash heap.
(26:39):
In some ways, it had to happen for me to
grow up a little bit. Donnie's badass attitude ignited a
spark and the New Kid's spirit, but a relentless touring
schedule began to smother them. You know, there was a
time when they were just pushing us, pushing us, pushing us.
We were so hot so blaze using hut that we
(27:01):
had no time. We would end a tour, they think
of a new name for another tour and just throw
us back out there again. We were going just so fast.
We were working three d and stick to two days
of a year. When we would come off tour, I
wouldn't go home. I would go to Boston and check
into a hotel and not tell anybody, just so I
(27:22):
could sit in silence and just you know, be still.
After nearly four years of constant touring, conflicts began to
arise among friends. You start to get on each other's nerves.
I think we've all thrown blows at each other. And
it was such a humongous things for a long period
of time and had such intensity that you know something
(27:45):
had to give. There be times where we walked down
a hotel hallway and like ships in the night, not
even say anything. We didn't have the coping skills and
the patients to understand each other and and show support
by growing conflict between the guys was not the only
tension within the New Kids camp. After nearly a decade together,
(28:08):
the band began to feel like producer more re star
was taking credit for their success to pick up a
magazine and see him saying, Oh, they don't have to
have talent, they just need someone like me, you know.
And the things he was saying, you know, just was
not true and not cool. But we love them. We
wouldn't be here without him. We all made mistakes back then.
(28:30):
Maurice is our brother and that will never change. I
think he went through a phase, you know, we were
getting a lot of attention. You know, he wanted to
be known as, you know, the guy that that did
it all. No, I didn't do it all with those
guys did not have the energy. If those guys do
not have the talent, if those guys didn't have what
(28:50):
it took, none of this would have never happened. Now
in their twenties, he said no longer. Kids in the
named n KO TV released their fifth album, Faced the Music.
We wanted to reinvent ourselves. We had just left being
signed to Mari Star, so we were kind of free,
(29:12):
like we were grown up and we're changing our name
and we're gonna do things more how we want to
do it. And it took us like two years to
put that record together. It was too long. It was
a struggle to get the songs and just who are
we're working with. It didn't have the same feeling as
when we had released other stuff. The writing was kind
of already on the wall, like things were changing a
(29:34):
bit in the music business. The band's mix of a
new producer, new music, and a new name was not
a winning combination as their fans aged into the ground
era of Nirvana and Earl jaz faced. The music sold
less than one and fifty thou copies. People were becoming
so anti pop. You know, I felt that I felt
(29:57):
that coming. Um. I was like I I put in
my time, This is as far as it's gonna go. Um,
it's time to move on. With the pressure of launching
yet another tour, Jonathan questioned whether he wanted to be
a part of the group at all. He had been
hiding his sexuality and struggling with anxiety for years. I
(30:19):
had a secret to hide, and you know, by me
leaving the group maybe would set me free and I
could just go live my life. For John, he didn't
decide to leave. He wasn't in, and it was back
and forth. He's and he's out, he's in, he's out,
And they decided to have a vote and we said
all in favor of John being out of the band
(30:40):
Raiser hind three hands are up and Jordan's said majority rules.
The day that they got on the bus and left,
it was like just that was it killed me, you know,
because I just I felt like I let them down
so bad. You know, there's a million ways you could
tell the story of why we broke up. Oh, John left,
(31:01):
Like John didn't leave, the energy left. We all left. Danny, Donny, Jordan,
and Joe soldiered on, but not for long. They soon
canceled the rest of the tour, and in June, their
epic journey officially came to an end. You know, the
(31:21):
fans weren't there. That demand wasn't there, The desire to
go for another few years wasn't there. After breaking off,
the new Kids went through separate ways into new chapters
of their lives, but each of them struggled as they
transitioned from teenage superstars to aimless adults. That's really when
(31:46):
it smacked me in my face that here I am,
five years old, no career, I have no plans for
what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life.
So I wanted to a really deep depression. At that time.
It was like a big hangover. You know. I was
a little depressed because you know, working and being creative
(32:08):
is what builds self esteem, so when that goes away,
it's hard to handle. I wanted to go and become
Donnie Wahlberg, you know. I wanted to go do all
these different things and me my own. Man. I wanted
to just grow into myself. When you're in a group,
you kind of have to fit in and you can't
fully be yourself. Every decision it can be yours now.
(32:32):
I think the difficult thing was we weren't together as
a group, but there was still that love hate for
us out there. So you know, you still get the
jealous guys yelling something at you across the street or something.
And okay, man, we were we went away now, so
you can stop yelling at me. As they adapted to
their new lives out of the spotlight, the guys gradually
(32:55):
began to find themselves. Now. I said, Okay, this year,
I'm gonna figure out how to make fifty dollars, and
that was my goal. A friend of mine called me saying,
do you want to flip a house? We did maybe
two houses our first year and just kept building on it.
While Jonathan left entertainment behind, Danny, Jordan, and Joey all
(33:19):
went on to release solo albums. Donnie found himself in
an entirely new career as an actor. After breakthrough roles
in Ransom and The Sixth Sense, Donnie immersed himself in
his acting career for years. You know, I don't have
to pat myself on the back of I'm I'm a
pretty good actor. You know, I don't have any Oscar nominations,
but we know who the better actor in the Walburg
(33:41):
household is. That's okay, it's me, But I'm telling you
I'm a musician. First. In two thousand seven, Donnie heard
(34:06):
a demo for a song called Click Click Click. I
heard the song click Click Click, and played it for
Jordan's and Joey and Danny and got the reaction that
I had hoped for. I loved it, and that was
kind of the spark to get us back in the
studio and you know, get the ball rolling. I just
(34:29):
could picture us singing it. It was what we were
looking for. Grown men want to show that different side
of us, and it just the song suited that. Click
Click was the one that really stood out to me
as something that could be a launch of our sound,
our new sound. When you're listening and get the chills,
(34:50):
you get back in the studio and that kind of
stuff is you know what it's all about. Honestly, I
felt enough time and asked for that kind of stigma
to fade away angle where's the New Kids? You know.
I definitely never thought anywhere along the way that we
(35:10):
would get back together. It had been fifteen years since
The New Kids are recorded together. Not everyone was convinced
it would work. There was a conversation early on in
the reunion of you know, was John going to stay
in the band? Jonathan was unsure if he would still
be crippled by the same anxiety that plagued him while performing.
(35:33):
It was a big decision to go back, and just
lots of discussions of what it's going to be like
and how it's gonna work, and eventually I felt comfortable
enough like we were grown up and we're gonna do
things more how we want to do it, and I
was like, let's go. In early two thousand and eight,
(35:56):
the five guys, now in their mid to late thirties,
assemble for their first recording session together since like who
else is? What's up? That first time was really awkward.
You could tell I'm hugging Joe, but it's like, hey,
I don't know, you know more, man, I haven't seen
(36:18):
Donnie and probably ten years. I probably haven't seen Danny
maybe once or twice in the last fourteen years. Joe,
I've probably seen him once. I mean, I didn't know
what to expect. There's nothing like getting back in the
studio with the guys, you know that first time and
cutting vocals and hearing our you know, vocals together and
we have our own sounds and and that's that's pretty cool.
(36:42):
It took a little bit to like get back into
that comfort zone and to kind of realize, you know,
we've grown up, but kind to everyone's personalities are still
the same. Alright, guys, alright, my first step together in
damn years, right, look at this To be back after
(37:08):
all that time in a rehearsal studio, dancing again together.
It gave me chills. As the new kids prepared to
announce the reunion, they wondered if their fans would also return.
We came back hard, We worked some of those old
(37:29):
fights still had residue on our reunion. But I went
to a lot of therapy, and I remember really using
a lot of the lessons I had learned in the band,
listening better, talking less. We want right now to be fair.
(37:52):
I definitely was dipping my toe in the waters, checked
the temperature of the water, but I didn't care. I
didn't have any fear that it wasn't going to work. Three.
In September of two thousand eight, fifteen years since their
(38:13):
last album together, the New Kids released The Block and
launched a national tour. We had this lift at the
back of the stage. It just lifted us up. The
sound was it was deafening. It sounded like a seven
forty seven. It was out of control. I'd never felt
that in all our years. There was history in those screens.
(38:38):
It was the most amazing feeling I have ever felt
in my life. It was it just bowed back in
that moment. It was Yeah, it was just so. It
was so special. It was immediately apparent that their bands
had gone nowhere. Everybody has a child inside, everybody has
(39:02):
an inner teenager. We get a little older, but the
feelings never ever die, and that's what we represent to
our fans. The boys were blown away by the emotion
they felt being on stage together again. It was a
(39:22):
much much deeper connection, a much deeper understanding of how
important we were to each other. We all really needed
each other again. It's pretty amazing, it really is. I
was comfortable with myself, and here I am back with
these four guys that have been in my life since
(39:44):
I was a kid. Over the years, Jonathan had grown
more comfortable with his sexuality. His family and the band
knew he was gay, but he hadn't made a point
of revealing it to the public until two thousand nine,
when the tabloid pressed threat to out him. I was
dating my husband then and I got a call from
(40:05):
my publicist. She said that an ex of yours is
about to release pictures to the National Enquirer, and it
just got to be like, enough is enough. Jonathan decided
to release a public statement revealing he was gay. The
fans totally accepted it, and we just thought it makes
(40:28):
the group better, It makes the group richer. One of
the truly special things for me is watching him take
ownership of who he is and being at peace with that,
not just as a gay man, but as a performer.
I started to realize early on in the second incarnation
(40:51):
of the band that the fans saw themselves more in
John than in any of us. It's never changed how
I look at him. People were like, how do you feel?
I'm like, how do I feel about what that? My
friend is gay? I feel he's fabulous. That's how I feel.
End of story. Just made me so happy how far
(41:17):
society has come to realize, you know, everybody's the same,
which is a little different. Jonathan is now married and
all of the New Kids have grown into family man.
Jordan and Joey also married and had kids. Danny is
a grandfather, and Donnie found the love of his life
(41:38):
when he married actress Jenny McCarthy. My journey with Jenny
is in some ways similar to my journey through music.
Every day I woke up thinking about the band and
thinking about moving it forward. It was part of who
I was, and the same thing happened with Jenny. That
wisdom and mature outlook has allowed the New Kids to
(42:01):
defy the odds a second time around. To date, the
Reunion tours have grows more than two hundred and fifty
million dollars and given them the opportunity to fulfill a
lifelong dream. There are no words to describe playing the
way part. It's sacred ground. So to play a concert
there is beyond really the scope of what the mind
(42:23):
can imagine. For five guys that grew up in that
city rooting for the Red Sox, it doesn't get any
bigger or better than that. Also, as adults, the New
Kids redefine the relationship with their fans, and their annual
n KOTB cruise is one of their favorite ways to connect.
(42:44):
Every cruise, every song, every single opportunity to connect with
the fans is an opportunity to bring happiness, not just
to them but to me. It's the best time ever.
I mean a lot has changed, just our personal relationship
with fans, and you can talk to people and ask
(43:05):
them normal grown up questions instead of them just you know,
reaching out to rip your hair out. We've all just
grown immature and have learned, I think, to stay very
present and stay very grateful my connection with our fans
and being part of this band. That's why I'm on
this planet was to be part of this experience and
(43:27):
part of this love. Now well into their forties and fifties,
the New Kids are far from old men, but they
are wise enough to strike the right balance between their
careers and their personal lives. I would do anything for
any guy in the group and have so much respect
(43:47):
and love for them. I just I feel lucky just
to have them in my life. I think we can
keep doing what we're doing, you know, as long as
the fun is there, as long as the spirits there,
as long as the camaraderie is there. I think with maturity,
you learn to focus on what's import you doing this
again and continuing to do this with family, of course,
(44:11):
it changes everything. These are my four brothers. It's a
massive gift and I ring every drip out of it.
I hope we all continue doing things in life that
we love. It's just the best thing in the world,
you know, from the time we were little boys until now,
(44:32):
as meant we got each other's back, and we're never
walking out there alone. I fully expect John and Jordan
and Danny and Joey to be in my life forever.
(44:54):
Listen to Behind the Music on the I Heart Radio app,
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