May 1, 2023 • 43 mins
Step by Step with Donnie Wahlberg! The good news he is and that time is right now!
Wait until you hear Donnie’s craziest fan moment, why Blockheads are considered (don’t hate the messenger) the best fandom ever and why Marky Mark may be making a comeback!
Plus, find out who responded first when Donnie hit up the NKOTB group text LIVE! And, can you guess what Lance and Donnie each bought when they received their first ever boy-band paychecks?!
This One’s for the Children…and you!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass and I Heart
radio podcast. Hello, my little Peanuts, it's me your host,
Lance Bass. This is my baby in the background screaming,
this is frost Tests to me Lance and my co
host Terrekey Dirkchi.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello there.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm excited about this guest. I know right off the
bat this is going to be a twofer because I
know this man can talk and I can talk, and
I just love him. So let's get right to it,
because we have the man, the myth, the legend, Mister
Donnie freaking' Wahlberg, all right. Donald Edmund Wahlberg, Junior is
an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, film producer. He
(00:42):
is the founding member of the boy band New Kids
on the Block. Outside music, he has had roles in
the Saw film, Zookeeper, DreamCatcher, The Sixth Sense, Righteous Kill, Ransom,
and many more. He has started in the drama series
Blue Bloods as Danny Reagan since twenty ten and since
twenty fourteen an executive producer of the TNT reality TV
show Boston's Finest. He also has produced and Start and
(01:03):
Rock the Boat, Donnie Loves Jenny, Return to the Mac
on Pop TV, and he's part of owner of the
restaurant Wallburgers, which we all love and also produced and
start in the Wallburgers Show on A and E Television.
Donny Wahlberg, DONNYE Freakin Wallberg, Welcome to Frost the Tips.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
That's right. You got the middle name right.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
That's right now. I'm gonna say all of that was
true for once. I think that was the first intro
that I hit it on. Anything wrong with that one?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I didn't catch any anything wrong. Sounded pretty good. I was,
you know, I was a little surprised. It was kind
of long. I'm a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
You have done a lot my friends. Okay, before we
start this, though, you have a group text with the
new kids. I'm pretty sure, right all you guys on
one group text text them right now. I want to
see the first person that's going to respond.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Was I the first one that responded to Jordan's.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I think you were? I think you were you were?
No oh no oh it was.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It was asked him who would be first, and he
said me, uh, well, let's see, and then it was
a teaser. I saw it on Instagram, but I didn't
see who actually it was. I don't think it was
me that day.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I don't think you know, but it text him something
very obscure. It sounds like you're in jail or something.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Before I send this, I want to I want to clarify.
I think I did respond first when Jordan text the podcast,
but I wrote a long response because I wanted to
say something in response to what he said, so I
took longer.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So technically you started starting.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I think I was first. I'll give you credit for
that counts Okay, I'm gonna write something.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I don't even know what I would write to the
guys with him. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Something sounds it sounds weird. I wrote, you guys have
a second to talk this weekend. They may smell a rat.
That's not typically what I would write. But we'll see
who response first.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
All right, well, Donnie, you are the founding member of
New Kids. How did you know that you were musically
talented at such a young age.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I don't know that I knew it. I knew that
I love music at a young age. I knew that
I like to play the drums at a young age,
which has no really bearing on anything that happens with
the New Kids. But I loved music.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I'm gonna ask Jordan.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You got it right? He sent a little thumbs up.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Nice. It's like you win, you win absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
The tone of that text may scare them, though, Oh
my god, that was unusual. Keep ruminating on it. Yeah.
In terms of music, you know, I love music from
early on, from you know, from the crib. I loved music,
and I loved rock and roll. I grew up with
(04:10):
my old my older brothers listening to rock and roll,
my mom and my older sister listen to R and
B disco, and really my older sister, Tracy, introduced me
to rap and hip hop. Like she was up on everything.
She was like, you got to hear this new song.
I was like, who is it? She was like, it's
Stacey lattasong. This is R and B singer Stacy Latasa
(04:32):
And she got this song with Johnny Gill who turned
out to be Johnny Gill in New Edition and Johnny Gill.
But like, she just knew every song, and she brought
music home and like would sit me down and listen.
And I was like, if her and my mom would
play music, I would sit with them and listen. If
my brothers were playing music, I was like I'd have
to tag along and ask questions, but with my mom
(04:53):
and my sister, they would they would invite me to
like like let's sit down or let's dance around the
kitchen to this disco record, and it was like it
was so I had these influences in my life, and
when I started listening to rap records, like I just
was instantly writing my raps with like hip hop from
early on. And I don't know that I ever thought
(05:17):
about being in a band like New Kids, like a
boy band or anything, but I will say New Edition
in the early eighties were literally they grew up probably
four hundred yards from my junior high school, so I
would be in school and half my classmates knew them personally.
(05:38):
My first love dated Bobby Brown before me. Oh yeah,
I was in high school. Like yeah. She was like yeah,
I used to go out with Bobby. I was like, oh, okay.
And then we did a show when Bobby left New Edition.
We actually did a show it was New Kids and
Bobby Brown together and she was with me. It was
like this weird energy, but Bobby's amazing. We got along
(06:03):
grade and it was all but it was definitely like weird.
You know, because it was like I think we were
going on. I think at that show we were supposed
to go on after Bobby and Bobby Brown's Bobby Brown
he only had like one hit record at the time
and it was from his first album, so the song
was called girlfriend. But I was literally with my high
(06:25):
school sweetheart. He used to date him, and now he's
like his managers like arguing with the radio station and
our manager more he star and you know, they're all
arguing about who's gonna go on first, And I was like, please,
can we go on before Bobby Brown?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You don't want to deal with that.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
He's irrelevant. Bobby Brown were talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Well, it kind of sounds like the whole Tiffany New
Kids experience during the Mall tour, because wasn't it her
tour at first? But then y'all got so big that
y'all started kind of switching up throughout that.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, that was that was like, just to go back
one thing before I go on to Like, my love
of drumming and hip hop is really probably the reason
that New Kids ever happened. And what I mean is
I met Maurice Starr and my brother Mark came along
and I dragged a few mother friends along who weren't
(07:16):
very musically inclined or talented, and we did this audition
and Mark and I were chosen as the first two
members of this soon to be boy band or He's
had had a falling out with new auditions, so he
was like looking to do the next big thing right,
And we would go to his house every Saturday and Sunday,
(07:37):
which was also a couple hundred yards from my junior
high school. So new audition, we're here. Maurice's house was here.
My school was right in the middle, so I knew
the area really well. I was like fell totally at home.
It was all good. But I would go to Maurice's
every Saturday and Sunday and with Mark, and Maurice would
never show up, Like he would just never show up,
and I was like, I'm in this guy's house like
(08:00):
auditioning for him and strange. It was really weird and
he wouldn't be there. But there was an eight o
eight drum machine sitting on the counter in this living
room and I found a Fender amp like in a closet.
I took it out. I found a cable, I plugged
it in and I would sit there all day every
Saturday and Sunday making beats, like reprogramming all my favorite
(08:22):
songs like Planet Rock, my Soul so on a course,
I would reprogram.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
The beat again. And how old were you at this point?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I was fourteen?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
How did you know how to do that?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
At fourteen? I don't even know how to do I
taught myself. I taught myself. Yeah, I just sat there
and taught myself. And I was having so much fun.
And at that time in my life, Mark and I
my parents divorced, and Mark and I moved with my
mom to this new neighborhood and I hate it. I
did not like it. I didn't want to live there.
I was miserable.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Mark, What did you not like about the neighborhood?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It just wasn't my cup of tea. It was like
this different part of Dorchester where we grew up. I
didn't fit in, you know. I had like Michael Jackson
t shirt on, and people would like throw rocks at
me and like they hated me. Yeah, I just I
didn't get in, like I just get in. I was
like I'd like the only people that were really nice
to me was the girls who worked at the convenience store.
(09:17):
They would sell Michael Jackson buttons, and apparently they thought
I was cute, so they would I would go into
they would hand me Michael Jackson pins, So I had
a hundred Michael Jackson pins all over my jacket and
I listened to run DMC and I would walk to
school my boombox with Michael Jackson jacket on, Sir glaring
run DMC out of my boom box, like, oh my god, anyway,
(09:39):
not too opening for Tiffany. That was just one of
those moments Lance that I'm sure you experienced in your
own way with your group, which was we had been
performing wherever like high schools, nightclubs, under like clubs. We
weren't even old enough to be in the club. Joey
was like thirteen, like you.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I remember those days.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Everyone's drinking and Joey sitting there like you know, his
mom must have been like losing her shit that we
were doing, like at one in the morning, going on
stage on a school night. And we got this opportunity
to go down and audition for Tiffany in Long Island
at the Westbury Music Fair. So we went down and
(10:27):
we auditioned for her and her girlfriend in her dressing
room and they let us open that night. So we
were totally unknown. Nobody knew us, nobody cared about us.
We went on stage and we we did good. You know,
it's one of those times we rocked it. We were like, yeah,
we stole the shows. Cut to We got offered to
be her opening act that summer on her tour, and
(10:50):
it was like sheds like amphitheaters and stuff like that.
And by the end of the tour, like we had
a few nights where people knew us and our record
was getting played in that area, and then a few
nights where people like, what who are these guys, what
are we watching? This is kooky. But by the end
of the tour we started to really break and catch fire.
(11:12):
And so when it was time for us to go
back on tour again, when our promoters were like, hey,
you're going to go back out with Tiffany, and you know,
the thought was you'll open for her again, but now
you guys are hot, and the fans just got so
crazed and emotional. It was like everyone kind of knew
it was an impossibility that we could go on first
(11:35):
because all these fans became our fans and so many
more fans came, and it just it would have been tough,
you know, for her to follow.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Up, yeah, because all the fans would like leave trying
to find you guys after you open up.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, And so so it switched. So we be where
that tour started. Everyone the managers all got together and
had a meeting.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And we just had Tiffany on recently and she was
saying that night that you know, she met you guys
and y'all kind of auditioned for her in a dressing room.
(12:18):
She was so impressed that y'all were ready to go
that night, just like any group that could just be like, no,
we're ready right now. She's like that was I had
so much respect for those guys because they were prepared.
They were ready to go.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I don't even know if we were prepared. We just
faked it really well, yeah, we faked it. But Maurice
Starr really prepared us in that way, not in terms
of like being ready in the moment to perform, but
being ready to just go for it at any moment.
It wasn't like we would just like, all right, be ready,
(12:50):
you're gonna practice, you know, your dancer team for nine
hundred hours. It was like, no, I'm going to walk
you into a room. And sometimes we would just think
we were having a meeting with somebody. I remember we
went down to New York and he said, we're going
to New York and we're going to meet people. We
don't even know who we were meeting. He didn't know
who he was meeting. We stood in front of a
building and an executive from I think it was a
(13:11):
man named Hal Jackson was walking in the building and
he said, well, let my guys perform for you, and
he was like okay, and so we walked upstairs and
performed in his office. And somebody who ran Amateurnit at
the Apollo Theater happened to be there and said, hey,
let me call Ralph Cooper Senior and see if you
guys could come and play at the Apollo tomorrow night.
(13:31):
It was like things like that would happen, like it
was a different time in the music business. There was
no internet. There was you know, there was really nothing.
I mean, it was just you know, you just word
them out really and having the willingness to put yourself
out there in those type of ways, like literally dancing
(13:53):
on a carpet in Tiffany's dressing room, dancing behind a
desk in Hal Jackson's office, you know, and like try
bump into the sofa.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And there was there was also people. No one could
really compare you guys anything at that point, Like when
we came out we were trying to get a record
dealer're like, oh, like the BACKSWO boys, Oh like you
new kids on the block, and you know, there was
comparisons there. What did you get compared to trying to
get a record deal where there are a lot of
you know, people say Nope, this won't work because of this.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I think I'm not sure what we were just sort
of compared to. It was like, you know, this is
the guy who founded a new addition and this is
what he's going to work on next, right. It was
sort of that was like the presentation. There wasn't There
was really not much to compare it to. I guess
(14:41):
you could say new kids were to the Osmond's, as
new addition was to the Jackson's, Like you know, fifteen
years after the Jackson Osmond came, we might be the
new Osmond you know something like that. There was really no, no,
really nothing to compare it to it really was. So
(15:03):
that was bad and good. You know, that was bad
and good because there was no example really of what
the potential was for the band. So that's bad. But
at the same time, it was like, all right, there's
a clean slate where I'm going to say this on
your behalf lance, you know, you guys in Backstreet, to
your credit, you know, And again it's all how we
(15:24):
look at things in life, right you guys. I'm sure
there was the blueprint of new Kids right to say, yeah,
we're like new kids ten years old.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
But that was good and bad. That was good and bad.
You know, if you did it four years earlier, it
would have been too soon. And sure there were a
lot of people who were like, no new kids came
and went we don't want that, we don't want another
new Kids, and you had to overcome that. Right, there's
always a good and the bad that comes with that stuff.
But I always was when people would say, like, what
(15:58):
do you think about them bands kids? I mean in
singing Backstreet, I'd be like, I give them credit, because
I'm sure it wasn't easy because radio and so many
people in the industry like just turned against us, like
we just got so famous that it became bad, right,
It became a problem for everyone, which is weird because everybody,
we're sure happy to make so much money off of us, exactly, yeah,
(16:22):
as you know. But it's like, but I always gave
you guys credit because I thought it was pretty awesome
that you know. I know, it wasn't easy, and it
would be easy for us to be cynical and say, wow,
MTV when we were on the Total Request on MTV,
they would retire us, like they they would be mad.
The host I think Jordan and you might have talked
about this. The hope would be like, oh god, new
(16:44):
Kids win again. Problem where you know, a couple of
years later, the energy changed and MTV is suddenly like, oh,
this is a good thing to have all these screaming
teenagers outside of our plate. It's like they woke up
to the power of all.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Of these Yeah, because there was this window, you know,
because y'all brought pop back hugely in the early nineties.
Then it went really I mean, the nineties was weird.
We had, you know, Seattle grunge, we had the explosion
of hip hop in the nineties, all these different genres,
even you know, Latin music, and then pop just kind
of disappeared for a few years, like right at the
(17:21):
end when y'all took a break. That's when I feel
like y'all, since y'all took a break, I think pop died.
So congratulations, you killed pop in the nineties. And then
all of a sudden at the end of the nineties
when Hanson and Spice Girls and all that, it just
exploded again. And I don't think MTV was ready for
that because during that era, especially in mid nineties, MTV
was like ooh pop, ooh, you know, stay away pop.
(17:43):
Everyone made fun of it. It wasn't respected at all,
although it always reigns supreme. Really, man, that's what the
fans want. But I guess the more popular you get,
the more people kind of start to hate it too.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
So yeah, there's a thing too where where the there
is a level like I don't, I don't sorry, no
more new kids texting, make sure they know you're okay.
Danny's usually first, but Danny or but Danny was there,
ordn't either responds right away or doesn't respond for like
(18:13):
a week. And then I sent out the All Points
bulletin for George.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, he's our JC of the band for sure, that's
that's j C's yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
But for you know, it's interesting because it is telling
how the gatekeepers, the powers that be, the experts in
these industries so miscalculate, you know, and so underestimate even
the critical people. It's like they just underestimate the fans.
(18:42):
It's like if you have screaming teenage fans, well, they
don't know what's good, so you don't really whatever you
bring to the table.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Is all these barriers. It's it's so ridiculous. I remember
because I managed Ryan Tedder for a few and try
to get him a record deal with every single label
out there, and everyone kept saying, lance no solo white
guy will ever work in this country. I'm like, okay,
And then you know, about two years later, Justin Bieber
(19:13):
Justin Timberlake does this thing like everyone's coming out, and
then Ryan Tedder becomes one of the biggest things ever.
They don't know what they're talking about. The fans do.
And we see that through TikTok. TikTok has no politics, right,
It's like the songs come up there, the fans want it.
It blows up and that's where we're seeing a lot
of these new musicians coming. Like that musician Jake. I
don't know if you know Jake. He sings that song
(19:34):
Golden Hour or Golden Hour so good, just released six
months ago, TikTok blew Up. He refuses, oh my gosh,
million times. Oh, you would know it. You would definitely
know it. It's so good. It's the Jake and the
A is upsound, so it's a it's a v V. Yeah.
But anyway, every label, of course, is knocking on his
door right now, offering the world. He will not sign
(19:56):
a deal with a label. He's like, Nope, I'm gonna
be independent, which I think this day and age, if
you can do that, right, I mean, if you know
how to work it, and I think you know, he's
got the backing of TikTok, so it might work.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Credit to the fans then, and credit credit to the
fans now, credit to the fans then, I think, you know,
it's it's uh, it's something that uh that the fans
of our band, of your band, you know, of all
those times you know they're still with they're still with us.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Well especially look, I think blockheads are the best fandom
out there. I do because I mean I've I've watched it. Yeah,
I've watched my whole life. I was a blockhead, you know. Uh,
and your your fans have really stuck together through all
the ups and downs and even you know to this day.
I mean, you're doing crazy sold out tours and when
(20:44):
you go on that cruise, which I mean all the
fans go nuts once a year. It's so fun. And
I love how much you love the fans y'all. Really,
really the reason how how we treat our fans is
because of what we saw you guys doing with your fans.
I just I love how interactive you guys are and
how much you love them. It really it really shows,
(21:05):
so I know they love it.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, thank you, and they get all the credit. I mean,
they are to me, the best fans out there. Are
the best fandom. And you know that. Thank goodness for
social media in that way, because when we came back
about a year and two our reunion, Twitter started and
it literally changed the game. It created this ability for
(21:30):
us to stay connected in ways that we never would
have before, and it also allowed the fans to connect
in ways that they wouldn't before. So suddenly I might
do a post on Twitter. One fan may respond, and
then another fan reacts to that response and says, oh,
that's kind of like how I think, you know, that's
what I would report. And then they're write great comment
and now they're talking, and then their circles of friends
(21:52):
get together, and now like we announce a show in
you know, in the middle of the desert somewhere on
a Tuesday afternoon, and the fans are all like you going, yeah,
go all right, great babysitter, and like it's like this
network of fans has sort of built and bonded, and
we've bonded with them. It's this is really cool. It's
(22:14):
just it's it's thank goodness because it it keeps it
all alive every moment of the day. It's like I
don't get up and there's no day that I wake
up that I don't look at my phone and check
in on Twitter or Instagram and just see how everyone's doing.
At least even if I don't say anything, I'm gonna
go through their thing and I might, you know, go
(22:34):
through fifty tweets and notice somebody says, oh my god,
I'm having a bad day. My mom's really sick. Or whatever.
And if I catch that, it's like I can acknowledge
them and thinking of them and stuff. It's like it's
created this amazing operation.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
It's a family. It's an extinct family.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah. I mean when you were a teenager and going
through this craziness, there was no social media. So tell
us some good fans stories from back the day that
because I'm sure the fans were a little crazier back
then because they knew they couldn't get caught. There's no
camera phone that was like yo, tweet about what this
person just did. So I think they were probably a
little more I don't know outgoing back then. So I'm
(23:14):
sure you have some really great scary stories the fans.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I mean scary, you know, it just it just depends,
you know, Like you know, there was there were crazy
things that happened all the time, you know. I remember
we were doing a show at Magic Mountain out in
California and there was literally like a section for wheelchairs
(23:39):
right in front of the stage and we're performing and
a young lady jumped out of her wheelchair and ran
on stage tackled one of us, and it was like
we didn't know if we suddenly heal you you damn
like they snuck in. Apparently they snuck in or they
pretended to the music. Yeah, things like that happened all
(24:02):
the time in the old days, in the late eighties.
It looks like the way like the Beatles footage would
look like we'd be performing and like people would literally
be getting pulled out from the barricade and like fainted.
Somebody would always wake up and grab one of us.
You know, they were fainted until they were within two
(24:23):
feet and then they were recuperated in.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Did you ever feel scared being in a group like that,
because I know there was a few times, you know,
within sync that you would get a bomb threat, like
at an arena or something like, you know, and it's
just people just took things a little too far sometimes
and a lot of it was hidden from us. But
there's some things that we were privy to, which you know,
maybe start looking out a little more. But were you
ever scared?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah? I mean I tried to have fun as much
as I could, and I tried to enjoy the fans,
and you know, I always tried to encourage the fans
to be who they wanted to be, right, So it's like,
if you're going crazy and you're excited and you're screaming yelling,
go for it, you know. Like I never was shy
(25:06):
about encouraging the fans to get crazier and get louder
and have more fun. But I remember we were announcing
our dolls, the New Kids dolls, at the hard Rock Cafe.
It was at the hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan, and
we pull up and there's tons of fans outside and
they're screaming and going crazy, and there were barricades on
(25:30):
each side of the door. So we're getting out of
the van and going to go through the barricades to
go in the hard Rock Cafe and do this press
conference and talk about the dolls, and the barricades collapsed
and there were people that fell under the barricades and
the fans piled over, and I remember like I was
(25:51):
walking on top of a New York City police officer,
like another one was pushing me from behind, and I'm
like the ground didn't feel stable below me, and I'm
looking and there's a cop laying on the ground, you know,
tell me to go, Like I'm like standing on his chest,
like the sea of people. Like those times were really frightening,
(26:12):
you know, they were. There were times when the crowds
would get so big and so crazy that it was scary.
Not for me, yeah for them. Yeah yeah, I was
scared for them. And I remember it being in that
press conference with the dolls. I mean it took me
a while to snap out of it. Like we went
into this little green room or whatever and hung out
(26:33):
and I was literally just like just staring into nowhere.
I remember the feeling of just being like this is
this is really crazy, Like, you know, it's scary to
think that someone could get hurt, you know, and it happened.
People did get hurt at different times. There were times
where it was really really dangerous and really frightening, and uh,
(26:56):
you know, it's fun until those moments. This could really
be problematic. Yeah. So it's a delicate dance. But you know,
looking back, I wouldn't change any of it. It was all,
you know, fun, and I don't want to ever say
it was difficult, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Because every country, to me, have different types of fans
besides America, which are huge in what countries did you
go to that You're like, holy crap, like, because I
know you go to let's say Japan, and they're just organized, right,
they go crazy at the concert, but at the end
they single file line out the door. They're just nice.
They pick up all their trash. Spain, they just want
to rip you apart. If you're wearing earrings, you will
(27:40):
not have those earrings anymore. You will come out bloody. Germany,
they're the ones that always camped out of the hotels
like you were. You're going to go to the lobby
of just hundreds of girls at all times. So every
country had their own type of fans. Did you notice
that also traveling the world?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yes, I think Brazil, Yeah, England, I mean London, we
had fans. We remember we used to see videos of
Michael Jackson staying I think it was the Canterbury Hotel.
So this street it was like a it was like
(28:17):
a U right, So the the hotel was here, but
in front of it there was one way in right
and way out and another building across the street. And
we we used to see videos like Michael Jackson getting
into his limo and like the fans going crazy and
he couldn't get in and out of the car. And
when we stayed in London, we stayed at the same
hotel on the same street, and it was like that.
(28:39):
It was crazy and we had to sneak out at
night out the back door of the hotel to go
eat dinner at the restaurant across the street. And so
England was crazy, Japan, Korea, Germany, I mean, the US
was out of control. Yes, yeah, I think for us,
(29:04):
you know, there was an element. I don't know if
you experienced this, but for us there was an element
of still though always sort of being surprised by it all.
You know. I don't know where that comes from, but
I kind of never stopped being surprised.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, well, let's talk about that, because I do feel
the same way. I think when you're in a group,
because I mean, you're you're a kid doing this, and
I was going to ask you, how you how did
you say stay so grounded when when a kid is
experiencing this so much love right and basically you can
do anything you want, and everyone's kind of telling you yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
(29:38):
how did you and your group stay so granted? And
did y'all stay grounded during this time? Because I mean,
you're obviously a very down earth guy today, but were
you a different person when all this was kind of
thrown at you in your face.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
I think we all so yeah. So the way I
would explain this whole process is is, like, you know,
I try to explain to people, They're like, what was it?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Like?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I guess it's like being like the quarterback on the
best college football team in the country and playing in
front of one hundred thousand people every game, right, and
you're between the ages of eighteen and twenty two, right,
and so like whatever that must feel like for them
going to class every day, that's what it feels like
for us walking down the street at times A thousand yea,
(30:20):
yeah bout. But I think in terms of staying grounded,
we all had moments, right, because you're we're at that
age becoming successful, like eighteen, nineteen, twenty twenty one. That's
when we're finding our autonomy, right, That's when we're trying
to decide who we are. And typically in life, you
go off to college, you become independent, you push back
(30:42):
on your parents, and that you start to find your
own thoughts, your own way of looking at the world, right,
and you pick up different things in school, you know,
and you get into these different cliques and you learn
about different things and you start to realize I'm not
like my parents and everyone back home my mind right.
So we all had to do that in the public eye,
(31:06):
and I'm sure we all had moments of getting a
little crazy and and and stepping out in a way
that was like, you know, could seem like we were
like losing control, like egoicly or whatever. But I think
the truth was no one ever went really crazy. I
(31:26):
think we all kept each other down to earth, is
really it was, right. So it was like if if
any one of us ever pulled up to rehearsal in
a ferraris the worst thing in the world. No, but
the other guys would have been likely like what are
you doing? Yeah? You know what I mean. Like, we
(31:48):
all come from big families and they would have been
the same way. I remember my brother Bob said to
me we were talking one time. I was like, does
it get tough for you? And he was like, he says,
a lot of times people say things like your brothers
and buy you a Porsche? And I said, I said,
does it bother? He said not really And I said
good And he said, because the people that say that
(32:09):
would be the same ones if you did buy me
a poor say, say you brother exactly exactly. Well, you know,
we grew up in a tough town. We grew up
with big families, hard working families. I think we were
we all took care of our families a lot. I
think that's where you saw everyone in the band like
(32:30):
really like spending their money or or you know, nobody
was like I'm gonna, you know, have everything in the
world I always wanted. I'm going to buy an island.
It was like, I'm gonna get my mother a house.
She's not gonna have to work nights anymore. And my
dad needs assisted living now, and thank goodness, I can
(32:50):
afford to help him do that. Right, So, everybody really
splurged and spoiled their families, but nobody went crazy. And
I don't think that group would have allowed it.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
No, And that's what it's about. I you know, one
of the first things that I was able to do
was to, yeah, let my mom retire as a teacher.
And that was that just meant the world to me
to be able to do that. Do you remember what
(33:31):
you were able to do with your first paycheck? Were
you able to retire a family member or do something special?
For him.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
The first time, I remember getting like a check check
like we used to get money. We were so funny.
We would like go to Japan to do promotion and
we had no money like we were we were like
starting to become famous, and it's like we would just
try to save up all our per deal exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
We lived off per dim for years.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
We would we would take off we have like you know,
however many end we would go transfer it into American
dollars and we'd come home with like, hey man, I
got nine hundred bucks. All I'm going to do all
the things I couldn't do in high school, I could
really do it now. But I think the first time
that we were living in that neighborhood I mentioned earlier
(34:21):
that I didn't really fit in that neighborhood, and now
I was becoming successful and we got a check. I
don't remember how much it was for, but we were
able to start looking for a house for the first time.
So it was Mark, my brother, Mark, my mom, and
my mother's husband all lived together and the assumption was
(34:42):
we'd all go and live in a house together, and
my mom was pretty much looking for the houses. And
I think it was I think I had like one
hundred thousand dollars and we started looking for houses and
we found this house that was kind of like it
used to be one hundred thousand dollars house, but this
(35:03):
guy who owned it fixed it up and put a
pool and there was like a little room with a
little movie screen come out of the ceiling. And this
is like nineteen eighty nine, eighty nine. It was pretty fancy,
and I remember my mom loved it, like she walked
in and she just she gasped walked in the front door,
(35:25):
and it wasn't like nothing crazy, it was just nice.
It was beyond anything we could ever have dreamed of having.
Right in back. My manager when he saw it, when
I showed it to him the first time, our manager,
the late Great Dick Scott, he said, this is good
for a starter house. Got off. I was like, are
you crazy? This is it forever more fancy than anything
(35:48):
I could have been of. But my mom was so
blown away by this place. And I remember there was
a a primary bedroom moving up and there was a
little balcony on it, and my brother Mark and I
went out there and gosh, Mark must have been sixteen
or I don't know what it was, and I said,
what do you think? And he was like, this is cool.
And I said, you know, I don't know what's going
(36:10):
to happen, like with this music thing, like there's I
could wake up tomorrow and never make another penny, like
this could be it, Like you know, we had like
one or two hit records, and who knows what was
going to happen. And I said, the house was like
a couple hundred thousand, and we really couldn't afford it
at that moment. You know, six months later, I could
(36:30):
have bought it two times, right, but at this moment,
it was like a three hundred and ninety thousand dollars
house and I had one hundred thousand dollars. That's all
I had in the world. And I said to my brother,
I said, if if all this ends tomorrow, you know,
you have to get a job and you have to
work your ass off and I have to get a job,
and we have to be able to maintain this house
(36:51):
for Mom because she loves it. I'll do it. I'll
take the risk, and I'll take the loan and do
all that. But we have to by tooth and nail
to keep this place, you know, for her and if
you agree to that, then I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
That's a good motivation.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
It Yeah, he said, let's do it, and we got it,
and you know, it was yeah, it was. It was
a really profound moment. And we went back on tour,
like I don't know a week later after like agreeing
to buy the house, and my mom moved in while
I was away, and I came home right before Christmas.
I think it was eighty eight going into eighty nine
(37:27):
or vice versa. I'm not sure, but I remember coming
home to that place and look on my mom's face
was everything. And by this time we had already, you know,
become so much more successful in the two months that
i'd been gone. It moved in that it just it
really uh yeah, it meant a lot. It meant a
(37:48):
lot a little.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Because I know, but that's the special.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
The anniversary of her passing is tomorrow. Siblings are all
texting and stuff, and I hadn't really been even talking
about this, so it's just it's just a little it's good.
It's good. It's it's a good emotional wave that's rushing
over me.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
A very well. She raised a great boy, that is
for sure. That is for sure. Speaking of family, what
is it like working with family? I mean a lot
of people say do not go into business with family,
but you have in many era of your career. Was
it easy for you, guys or were there some hard
moments like why did I do this?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
For sure? Well, I worked with Mark also in music,
you know, so I was his producer and I is
Moy Star or Johnny Wright or Johnny Right.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Have a better deal than our deal.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, so I think we still have a contract Mark,
and I still actually he owes me an album until
the time as that album is done, I could be
collecting money on other his career. I don't bother Mark
Mark twenty five comings.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
But you know, we we did really great with that. Like,
we had a great time doing that. It was important
for me to to prove myself outside of New Kids, right,
So I had this. I wanted to make these records.
I wanted to do something. I also wanted to help
my brother have a life. You know, he was going
nowhere fact and so writing and producing music and then
(39:25):
plugging him into it really was good for me, right
to get that, to have that creative outlet. But so
we had already experienced working together with the restaurants. It's
it's been fun. You know. In a lot of ways,
people wonder, like if Mark and I have a relationship,
if we get along, you know, they were like rumors
(39:47):
like because.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
He didn't come to be in Jenny's wedding, so he
does hate you, oh man, breaking news, breaking news.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
I wish, I wish I could service that. But in
many ways we we did grow apart, right, and nothing
to do with anything other than I mean, people say like,
I'm the busiest guy in the world, and I go, okay, Well,
I know a few other busy guys who are more
busy than me, and Mark happens to be one of them.
(40:16):
And he has a family of his own, right. He
has four kids and a wife, and he's got a
lot of responsibilities. So we just naturally grew apart. I
lived and worked in New York. He lived in Beverly
Hills and worked all over the place. And so the
restaurant business actually has been good for us, like getting
(40:36):
back together and reconnected us. And yeah, and we have
to talk a lot and we you know it. I
don't think there was any strain per se, you know,
on the relationship but I think in hindsight, if it
wasn't for the restaurant, and it wasn't for that business
that we do together, it could have been problematic. You know,
(41:00):
it could have been we might have seen each other
like two or three times in the last decades since
we started the restaurant, just because that's how busy we
both are and how different our lives are, right and
and we you know, it's like a lot of families
right have been like funeral and see at the funeral,
(41:24):
we'll see each other. It's a wedding or funeral, it's
one of those, and then we all dripped apart.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
And yeah, and we're just experiencing that stuff now because
and it's the kids. When you start having kids, your
life completely changes. You don't see so many people, especially
that first couple of years, Like there's so many of
our friends. I'm like, oh my god, I can't believe
I've not seen you in person in two years. But yeah,
I mean it's just life takes you by the balls.
(41:49):
And you know, when you get.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Your own families and you start, yeah, you're kind of
in your own world.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I mean it's normal exactly.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Yeah, And if you don't if the friends that you're
currently like in a circle with don't have kids. Suddenly
kind of can't relate quite as much. A go on
that trip with you to that yacht over at that island.
I kind of take these kids to the zoo today.
Yeah yeah, those Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
All right, guys, let's pause right here, because, like I
said before, it's going to be a two for and
why not have a twofer with Donnie Wahlberg, I know, right,
So uh all right, let's take a little break and
we'll get back to Donnie with his second half of
the interview very soon. So thank you so much for listening.
Anything you want to tell them, nothing, No, just you're
all great and we love you. You're all just one
(42:41):
and continue listening.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yeah, and in return, we will listen to you if
you rate, review and.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Subscribe to go and dms on TikTok Instagram. We love
talking to you there. We love the community that we're building.
Everyone is so sweet and loving each other. And I
love bringing people together, all the fandoms together. It's supposed
to be, you know what. I'm just trying to change
the world.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
This man in a war.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yeah, all right, guys, be good to each other don't
drink and drive out there, take care of those animals,
and always remember to stay for Frosted. Hey, thanks for listening.
Follow us on Instagram at Frosted Tips with Lance and
Michael Turchinard and at Lance bast for all your pop
culture needs, and make sure to write his review and
(43:25):
leave us five stars six if you can see you
next time.
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass and I Heart
radio podcast. Hello, my little Peanuts, it's me your host,
Lance Bass. This is my baby in the background screaming,
this is frost Tests to me Lance and my co
host Terrekey Dirkchi.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello there.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm excited about this guest. I know right off the
bat this is going to be a twofer because I
know this man can talk and I can talk, and
I just love him. So let's get right to it,
because we have the man, the myth, the legend, Mister
Donnie freaking' Wahlberg, all right. Donald Edmund Wahlberg, Junior is
an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, film producer. He
(00:42):
is the founding member of the boy band New Kids
on the Block. Outside music, he has had roles in
the Saw film, Zookeeper, DreamCatcher, The Sixth Sense, Righteous Kill, Ransom,
and many more. He has started in the drama series
Blue Bloods as Danny Reagan since twenty ten and since
twenty fourteen an executive producer of the TNT reality TV
show Boston's Finest. He also has produced and Start and
(01:03):
Rock the Boat, Donnie Loves Jenny, Return to the Mac
on Pop TV, and he's part of owner of the
restaurant Wallburgers, which we all love and also produced and
start in the Wallburgers Show on A and E Television.
Donny Wahlberg, DONNYE Freakin Wallberg, Welcome to Frost the Tips.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
That's right. You got the middle name right.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
That's right now. I'm gonna say all of that was
true for once. I think that was the first intro
that I hit it on. Anything wrong with that one?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I didn't catch any anything wrong. Sounded pretty good. I was,
you know, I was a little surprised. It was kind
of long. I'm a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
You have done a lot my friends. Okay, before we
start this, though, you have a group text with the
new kids. I'm pretty sure, right all you guys on
one group text text them right now. I want to
see the first person that's going to respond.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Was I the first one that responded to Jordan's.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I think you were? I think you were you were?
No oh no oh it was.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It was asked him who would be first, and he
said me, uh, well, let's see, and then it was
a teaser. I saw it on Instagram, but I didn't
see who actually it was. I don't think it was
me that day.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I don't think you know, but it text him something
very obscure. It sounds like you're in jail or something.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Before I send this, I want to I want to clarify.
I think I did respond first when Jordan text the podcast,
but I wrote a long response because I wanted to
say something in response to what he said, so I
took longer.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So technically you started starting.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I think I was first. I'll give you credit for
that counts Okay, I'm gonna write something.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I don't even know what I would write to the
guys with him. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Something sounds it sounds weird. I wrote, you guys have
a second to talk this weekend. They may smell a rat.
That's not typically what I would write. But we'll see
who response first.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
All right, well, Donnie, you are the founding member of
New Kids. How did you know that you were musically
talented at such a young age.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I don't know that I knew it. I knew that
I love music at a young age. I knew that
I like to play the drums at a young age,
which has no really bearing on anything that happens with
the New Kids. But I loved music.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I'm gonna ask Jordan.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You got it right? He sent a little thumbs up.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Nice. It's like you win, you win absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
The tone of that text may scare them, though, Oh
my god, that was unusual. Keep ruminating on it. Yeah.
In terms of music, you know, I love music from
early on, from you know, from the crib. I loved music,
and I loved rock and roll. I grew up with
(04:10):
my old my older brothers listening to rock and roll,
my mom and my older sister listen to R and
B disco, and really my older sister, Tracy, introduced me
to rap and hip hop. Like she was up on everything.
She was like, you got to hear this new song.
I was like, who is it? She was like, it's
Stacey lattasong. This is R and B singer Stacy Latasa
(04:32):
And she got this song with Johnny Gill who turned
out to be Johnny Gill in New Edition and Johnny Gill.
But like, she just knew every song, and she brought
music home and like would sit me down and listen.
And I was like, if her and my mom would
play music, I would sit with them and listen. If
my brothers were playing music, I was like I'd have
to tag along and ask questions, but with my mom
(04:53):
and my sister, they would they would invite me to
like like let's sit down or let's dance around the
kitchen to this disco record, and it was like it
was so I had these influences in my life, and
when I started listening to rap records, like I just
was instantly writing my raps with like hip hop from
early on. And I don't know that I ever thought
(05:17):
about being in a band like New Kids, like a
boy band or anything, but I will say New Edition
in the early eighties were literally they grew up probably
four hundred yards from my junior high school, so I
would be in school and half my classmates knew them personally.
(05:38):
My first love dated Bobby Brown before me. Oh yeah,
I was in high school. Like yeah. She was like yeah,
I used to go out with Bobby. I was like, oh, okay.
And then we did a show when Bobby left New Edition.
We actually did a show it was New Kids and
Bobby Brown together and she was with me. It was
like this weird energy, but Bobby's amazing. We got along
(06:03):
grade and it was all but it was definitely like weird.
You know, because it was like I think we were
going on. I think at that show we were supposed
to go on after Bobby and Bobby Brown's Bobby Brown
he only had like one hit record at the time
and it was from his first album, so the song
was called girlfriend. But I was literally with my high
(06:25):
school sweetheart. He used to date him, and now he's
like his managers like arguing with the radio station and
our manager more he star and you know, they're all
arguing about who's gonna go on first, And I was like, please,
can we go on before Bobby Brown?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You don't want to deal with that.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
He's irrelevant. Bobby Brown were talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Well, it kind of sounds like the whole Tiffany New
Kids experience during the Mall tour, because wasn't it her
tour at first? But then y'all got so big that
y'all started kind of switching up throughout that.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, that was that was like, just to go back
one thing before I go on to Like, my love
of drumming and hip hop is really probably the reason
that New Kids ever happened. And what I mean is
I met Maurice Starr and my brother Mark came along
and I dragged a few mother friends along who weren't
(07:16):
very musically inclined or talented, and we did this audition
and Mark and I were chosen as the first two
members of this soon to be boy band or He's
had had a falling out with new auditions, so he
was like looking to do the next big thing right,
And we would go to his house every Saturday and Sunday,
(07:37):
which was also a couple hundred yards from my junior
high school. So new audition, we're here. Maurice's house was here.
My school was right in the middle, so I knew
the area really well. I was like fell totally at home.
It was all good. But I would go to Maurice's
every Saturday and Sunday and with Mark, and Maurice would
never show up, Like he would just never show up,
and I was like, I'm in this guy's house like
(08:00):
auditioning for him and strange. It was really weird and
he wouldn't be there. But there was an eight o
eight drum machine sitting on the counter in this living
room and I found a Fender amp like in a closet.
I took it out. I found a cable, I plugged
it in and I would sit there all day every
Saturday and Sunday making beats, like reprogramming all my favorite
(08:22):
songs like Planet Rock, my Soul so on a course,
I would reprogram.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
The beat again. And how old were you at this point?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I was fourteen?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
How did you know how to do that?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
At fourteen? I don't even know how to do I
taught myself. I taught myself. Yeah, I just sat there
and taught myself. And I was having so much fun.
And at that time in my life, Mark and I
my parents divorced, and Mark and I moved with my
mom to this new neighborhood and I hate it. I
did not like it. I didn't want to live there.
I was miserable.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Mark, What did you not like about the neighborhood?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It just wasn't my cup of tea. It was like
this different part of Dorchester where we grew up. I
didn't fit in, you know. I had like Michael Jackson
t shirt on, and people would like throw rocks at
me and like they hated me. Yeah, I just I
didn't get in, like I just get in. I was
like I'd like the only people that were really nice
to me was the girls who worked at the convenience store.
(09:17):
They would sell Michael Jackson buttons, and apparently they thought
I was cute, so they would I would go into
they would hand me Michael Jackson pins, So I had
a hundred Michael Jackson pins all over my jacket and
I listened to run DMC and I would walk to
school my boombox with Michael Jackson jacket on, Sir glaring
run DMC out of my boom box, like, oh my god, anyway,
(09:39):
not too opening for Tiffany. That was just one of
those moments Lance that I'm sure you experienced in your
own way with your group, which was we had been
performing wherever like high schools, nightclubs, under like clubs. We
weren't even old enough to be in the club. Joey
was like thirteen, like you.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I remember those days.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Everyone's drinking and Joey sitting there like you know, his
mom must have been like losing her shit that we
were doing, like at one in the morning, going on
stage on a school night. And we got this opportunity
to go down and audition for Tiffany in Long Island
at the Westbury Music Fair. So we went down and
(10:27):
we auditioned for her and her girlfriend in her dressing
room and they let us open that night. So we
were totally unknown. Nobody knew us, nobody cared about us.
We went on stage and we we did good. You know,
it's one of those times we rocked it. We were like, yeah,
we stole the shows. Cut to We got offered to
be her opening act that summer on her tour, and
(10:50):
it was like sheds like amphitheaters and stuff like that.
And by the end of the tour, like we had
a few nights where people knew us and our record
was getting played in that area, and then a few
nights where people like, what who are these guys, what
are we watching? This is kooky. But by the end
of the tour we started to really break and catch fire.
(11:12):
And so when it was time for us to go
back on tour again, when our promoters were like, hey,
you're going to go back out with Tiffany, and you know,
the thought was you'll open for her again, but now
you guys are hot, and the fans just got so
crazed and emotional. It was like everyone kind of knew
it was an impossibility that we could go on first
(11:35):
because all these fans became our fans and so many
more fans came, and it just it would have been tough,
you know, for her to follow.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Up, yeah, because all the fans would like leave trying
to find you guys after you open up.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, And so so it switched. So we be where
that tour started. Everyone the managers all got together and
had a meeting.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And we just had Tiffany on recently and she was
saying that night that you know, she met you guys
and y'all kind of auditioned for her in a dressing room.
(12:18):
She was so impressed that y'all were ready to go
that night, just like any group that could just be like, no,
we're ready right now. She's like that was I had
so much respect for those guys because they were prepared.
They were ready to go.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I don't even know if we were prepared. We just
faked it really well, yeah, we faked it. But Maurice
Starr really prepared us in that way, not in terms
of like being ready in the moment to perform, but
being ready to just go for it at any moment.
It wasn't like we would just like, all right, be ready,
(12:50):
you're gonna practice, you know, your dancer team for nine
hundred hours. It was like, no, I'm going to walk
you into a room. And sometimes we would just think
we were having a meeting with somebody. I remember we
went down to New York and he said, we're going
to New York and we're going to meet people. We
don't even know who we were meeting. He didn't know
who he was meeting. We stood in front of a
building and an executive from I think it was a
(13:11):
man named Hal Jackson was walking in the building and
he said, well, let my guys perform for you, and
he was like okay, and so we walked upstairs and
performed in his office. And somebody who ran Amateurnit at
the Apollo Theater happened to be there and said, hey,
let me call Ralph Cooper Senior and see if you
guys could come and play at the Apollo tomorrow night.
(13:31):
It was like things like that would happen, like it
was a different time in the music business. There was
no internet. There was you know, there was really nothing.
I mean, it was just you know, you just word
them out really and having the willingness to put yourself
out there in those type of ways, like literally dancing
(13:53):
on a carpet in Tiffany's dressing room, dancing behind a
desk in Hal Jackson's office, you know, and like try
bump into the sofa.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And there was there was also people. No one could
really compare you guys anything at that point, Like when
we came out we were trying to get a record
dealer're like, oh, like the BACKSWO boys, Oh like you
new kids on the block, and you know, there was
comparisons there. What did you get compared to trying to
get a record deal where there are a lot of
you know, people say Nope, this won't work because of this.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I think I'm not sure what we were just sort
of compared to. It was like, you know, this is
the guy who founded a new addition and this is
what he's going to work on next, right. It was
sort of that was like the presentation. There wasn't There
was really not much to compare it to. I guess
(14:41):
you could say new kids were to the Osmond's, as
new addition was to the Jackson's, Like you know, fifteen
years after the Jackson Osmond came, we might be the
new Osmond you know something like that. There was really no, no,
really nothing to compare it to it really was. So
(15:03):
that was bad and good. You know, that was bad
and good because there was no example really of what
the potential was for the band. So that's bad. But
at the same time, it was like, all right, there's
a clean slate where I'm going to say this on
your behalf lance, you know, you guys in Backstreet, to
your credit, you know, And again it's all how we
(15:24):
look at things in life, right you guys. I'm sure
there was the blueprint of new Kids right to say, yeah,
we're like new kids ten years old.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
But that was good and bad. That was good and bad.
You know, if you did it four years earlier, it
would have been too soon. And sure there were a
lot of people who were like, no new kids came
and went we don't want that, we don't want another
new Kids, and you had to overcome that. Right, there's
always a good and the bad that comes with that stuff.
But I always was when people would say, like, what
(15:58):
do you think about them bands kids? I mean in
singing Backstreet, I'd be like, I give them credit, because
I'm sure it wasn't easy because radio and so many
people in the industry like just turned against us, like
we just got so famous that it became bad, right,
It became a problem for everyone, which is weird because everybody,
we're sure happy to make so much money off of us, exactly, yeah,
(16:22):
as you know. But it's like, but I always gave
you guys credit because I thought it was pretty awesome
that you know. I know, it wasn't easy, and it
would be easy for us to be cynical and say, wow,
MTV when we were on the Total Request on MTV,
they would retire us, like they they would be mad.
The host I think Jordan and you might have talked
about this. The hope would be like, oh god, new
(16:44):
Kids win again. Problem where you know, a couple of
years later, the energy changed and MTV is suddenly like, oh,
this is a good thing to have all these screaming
teenagers outside of our plate. It's like they woke up
to the power of all.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Of these Yeah, because there was this window, you know,
because y'all brought pop back hugely in the early nineties.
Then it went really I mean, the nineties was weird.
We had, you know, Seattle grunge, we had the explosion
of hip hop in the nineties, all these different genres,
even you know, Latin music, and then pop just kind
of disappeared for a few years, like right at the
(17:21):
end when y'all took a break. That's when I feel
like y'all, since y'all took a break, I think pop died.
So congratulations, you killed pop in the nineties. And then
all of a sudden at the end of the nineties
when Hanson and Spice Girls and all that, it just
exploded again. And I don't think MTV was ready for
that because during that era, especially in mid nineties, MTV
was like ooh pop, ooh, you know, stay away pop.
(17:43):
Everyone made fun of it. It wasn't respected at all,
although it always reigns supreme. Really, man, that's what the
fans want. But I guess the more popular you get,
the more people kind of start to hate it too.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
So yeah, there's a thing too where where the there
is a level like I don't, I don't sorry, no
more new kids texting, make sure they know you're okay.
Danny's usually first, but Danny or but Danny was there,
ordn't either responds right away or doesn't respond for like
(18:13):
a week. And then I sent out the All Points
bulletin for George.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, he's our JC of the band for sure, that's
that's j C's yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
But for you know, it's interesting because it is telling
how the gatekeepers, the powers that be, the experts in
these industries so miscalculate, you know, and so underestimate even
the critical people. It's like they just underestimate the fans.
(18:42):
It's like if you have screaming teenage fans, well, they
don't know what's good, so you don't really whatever you
bring to the table.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Is all these barriers. It's it's so ridiculous. I remember
because I managed Ryan Tedder for a few and try
to get him a record deal with every single label
out there, and everyone kept saying, lance no solo white
guy will ever work in this country. I'm like, okay,
And then you know, about two years later, Justin Bieber
(19:13):
Justin Timberlake does this thing like everyone's coming out, and
then Ryan Tedder becomes one of the biggest things ever.
They don't know what they're talking about. The fans do.
And we see that through TikTok. TikTok has no politics, right,
It's like the songs come up there, the fans want it.
It blows up and that's where we're seeing a lot
of these new musicians coming. Like that musician Jake. I
don't know if you know Jake. He sings that song
(19:34):
Golden Hour or Golden Hour so good, just released six
months ago, TikTok blew Up. He refuses, oh my gosh,
million times. Oh, you would know it. You would definitely
know it. It's so good. It's the Jake and the
A is upsound, so it's a it's a v V. Yeah.
But anyway, every label, of course, is knocking on his
door right now, offering the world. He will not sign
(19:56):
a deal with a label. He's like, Nope, I'm gonna
be independent, which I think this day and age, if
you can do that, right, I mean, if you know
how to work it, and I think you know, he's
got the backing of TikTok, so it might work.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Credit to the fans then, and credit credit to the
fans now, credit to the fans then, I think, you know,
it's it's uh, it's something that uh that the fans
of our band, of your band, you know, of all
those times you know they're still with they're still with us.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Well especially look, I think blockheads are the best fandom
out there. I do because I mean I've I've watched it. Yeah,
I've watched my whole life. I was a blockhead, you know. Uh,
and your your fans have really stuck together through all
the ups and downs and even you know to this day.
I mean, you're doing crazy sold out tours and when
(20:44):
you go on that cruise, which I mean all the
fans go nuts once a year. It's so fun. And
I love how much you love the fans y'all. Really,
really the reason how how we treat our fans is
because of what we saw you guys doing with your fans.
I just I love how interactive you guys are and
how much you love them. It really it really shows,
(21:05):
so I know they love it.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, thank you, and they get all the credit. I mean,
they are to me, the best fans out there. Are
the best fandom. And you know that. Thank goodness for
social media in that way, because when we came back
about a year and two our reunion, Twitter started and
it literally changed the game. It created this ability for
(21:30):
us to stay connected in ways that we never would
have before, and it also allowed the fans to connect
in ways that they wouldn't before. So suddenly I might
do a post on Twitter. One fan may respond, and
then another fan reacts to that response and says, oh,
that's kind of like how I think, you know, that's
what I would report. And then they're write great comment
and now they're talking, and then their circles of friends
(21:52):
get together, and now like we announce a show in
you know, in the middle of the desert somewhere on
a Tuesday afternoon, and the fans are all like you going, yeah,
go all right, great babysitter, and like it's like this
network of fans has sort of built and bonded, and
we've bonded with them. It's this is really cool. It's
(22:14):
just it's it's thank goodness because it it keeps it
all alive every moment of the day. It's like I
don't get up and there's no day that I wake
up that I don't look at my phone and check
in on Twitter or Instagram and just see how everyone's doing.
At least even if I don't say anything, I'm gonna
go through their thing and I might, you know, go
(22:34):
through fifty tweets and notice somebody says, oh my god,
I'm having a bad day. My mom's really sick. Or whatever.
And if I catch that, it's like I can acknowledge
them and thinking of them and stuff. It's like it's
created this amazing operation.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
It's a family. It's an extinct family.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah. I mean when you were a teenager and going
through this craziness, there was no social media. So tell
us some good fans stories from back the day that
because I'm sure the fans were a little crazier back
then because they knew they couldn't get caught. There's no
camera phone that was like yo, tweet about what this
person just did. So I think they were probably a
little more I don't know outgoing back then. So I'm
(23:14):
sure you have some really great scary stories the fans.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I mean scary, you know, it just it just depends,
you know, Like you know, there was there were crazy
things that happened all the time, you know. I remember
we were doing a show at Magic Mountain out in
California and there was literally like a section for wheelchairs
(23:39):
right in front of the stage and we're performing and
a young lady jumped out of her wheelchair and ran
on stage tackled one of us, and it was like
we didn't know if we suddenly heal you you damn
like they snuck in. Apparently they snuck in or they
pretended to the music. Yeah, things like that happened all
(24:02):
the time in the old days, in the late eighties.
It looks like the way like the Beatles footage would
look like we'd be performing and like people would literally
be getting pulled out from the barricade and like fainted.
Somebody would always wake up and grab one of us.
You know, they were fainted until they were within two
(24:23):
feet and then they were recuperated in.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Did you ever feel scared being in a group like that,
because I know there was a few times, you know,
within sync that you would get a bomb threat, like
at an arena or something like, you know, and it's
just people just took things a little too far sometimes
and a lot of it was hidden from us. But
there's some things that we were privy to, which you know,
maybe start looking out a little more. But were you
ever scared?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah? I mean I tried to have fun as much
as I could, and I tried to enjoy the fans,
and you know, I always tried to encourage the fans
to be who they wanted to be, right, So it's like,
if you're going crazy and you're excited and you're screaming yelling,
go for it, you know. Like I never was shy
(25:06):
about encouraging the fans to get crazier and get louder
and have more fun. But I remember we were announcing
our dolls, the New Kids dolls, at the hard Rock Cafe.
It was at the hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan, and
we pull up and there's tons of fans outside and
they're screaming and going crazy, and there were barricades on
(25:30):
each side of the door. So we're getting out of
the van and going to go through the barricades to
go in the hard Rock Cafe and do this press
conference and talk about the dolls, and the barricades collapsed
and there were people that fell under the barricades and
the fans piled over, and I remember like I was
(25:51):
walking on top of a New York City police officer,
like another one was pushing me from behind, and I'm
like the ground didn't feel stable below me, and I'm
looking and there's a cop laying on the ground, you know,
tell me to go, Like I'm like standing on his chest,
like the sea of people. Like those times were really frightening,
(26:12):
you know, they were. There were times when the crowds
would get so big and so crazy that it was scary.
Not for me, yeah for them. Yeah yeah, I was
scared for them. And I remember it being in that
press conference with the dolls. I mean it took me
a while to snap out of it. Like we went
into this little green room or whatever and hung out
(26:33):
and I was literally just like just staring into nowhere.
I remember the feeling of just being like this is
this is really crazy, Like, you know, it's scary to
think that someone could get hurt, you know, and it happened.
People did get hurt at different times. There were times
where it was really really dangerous and really frightening, and uh,
(26:56):
you know, it's fun until those moments. This could really
be problematic. Yeah. So it's a delicate dance. But you know,
looking back, I wouldn't change any of it. It was all,
you know, fun, and I don't want to ever say
it was difficult, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Because every country, to me, have different types of fans
besides America, which are huge in what countries did you
go to that You're like, holy crap, like, because I
know you go to let's say Japan, and they're just organized, right,
they go crazy at the concert, but at the end
they single file line out the door. They're just nice.
They pick up all their trash. Spain, they just want
to rip you apart. If you're wearing earrings, you will
(27:40):
not have those earrings anymore. You will come out bloody. Germany,
they're the ones that always camped out of the hotels
like you were. You're going to go to the lobby
of just hundreds of girls at all times. So every
country had their own type of fans. Did you notice
that also traveling the world?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yes, I think Brazil, Yeah, England, I mean London, we
had fans. We remember we used to see videos of
Michael Jackson staying I think it was the Canterbury Hotel.
So this street it was like a it was like
(28:17):
a U right, So the the hotel was here, but
in front of it there was one way in right
and way out and another building across the street. And
we we used to see videos like Michael Jackson getting
into his limo and like the fans going crazy and
he couldn't get in and out of the car. And
when we stayed in London, we stayed at the same
hotel on the same street, and it was like that.
(28:39):
It was crazy and we had to sneak out at
night out the back door of the hotel to go
eat dinner at the restaurant across the street. And so
England was crazy, Japan, Korea, Germany, I mean, the US
was out of control. Yes, yeah, I think for us,
(29:04):
you know, there was an element. I don't know if
you experienced this, but for us there was an element
of still though always sort of being surprised by it all.
You know. I don't know where that comes from, but
I kind of never stopped being surprised.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, well, let's talk about that, because I do feel
the same way. I think when you're in a group,
because I mean, you're you're a kid doing this, and
I was going to ask you, how you how did
you say stay so grounded when when a kid is
experiencing this so much love right and basically you can
do anything you want, and everyone's kind of telling you yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
(29:38):
how did you and your group stay so granted? And
did y'all stay grounded during this time? Because I mean,
you're obviously a very down earth guy today, but were
you a different person when all this was kind of
thrown at you in your face.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
I think we all so yeah. So the way I
would explain this whole process is is, like, you know,
I try to explain to people, They're like, what was it?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Like?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I guess it's like being like the quarterback on the
best college football team in the country and playing in
front of one hundred thousand people every game, right, and
you're between the ages of eighteen and twenty two, right,
and so like whatever that must feel like for them
going to class every day, that's what it feels like
for us walking down the street at times A thousand yea,
(30:20):
yeah bout. But I think in terms of staying grounded,
we all had moments, right, because you're we're at that
age becoming successful, like eighteen, nineteen, twenty twenty one. That's
when we're finding our autonomy, right, That's when we're trying
to decide who we are. And typically in life, you
go off to college, you become independent, you push back
(30:42):
on your parents, and that you start to find your
own thoughts, your own way of looking at the world, right,
and you pick up different things in school, you know,
and you get into these different cliques and you learn
about different things and you start to realize I'm not
like my parents and everyone back home my mind right.
So we all had to do that in the public eye,
(31:06):
and I'm sure we all had moments of getting a
little crazy and and and stepping out in a way
that was like, you know, could seem like we were
like losing control, like egoicly or whatever. But I think
the truth was no one ever went really crazy. I
(31:26):
think we all kept each other down to earth, is
really it was, right. So it was like if if
any one of us ever pulled up to rehearsal in
a ferraris the worst thing in the world. No, but
the other guys would have been likely like what are
you doing? Yeah? You know what I mean. Like, we
(31:48):
all come from big families and they would have been
the same way. I remember my brother Bob said to
me we were talking one time. I was like, does
it get tough for you? And he was like, he says,
a lot of times people say things like your brothers
and buy you a Porsche? And I said, I said,
does it bother? He said not really And I said
good And he said, because the people that say that
(32:09):
would be the same ones if you did buy me
a poor say, say you brother exactly exactly. Well, you know,
we grew up in a tough town. We grew up
with big families, hard working families. I think we were
we all took care of our families a lot. I
think that's where you saw everyone in the band like
(32:30):
really like spending their money or or you know, nobody
was like I'm gonna, you know, have everything in the
world I always wanted. I'm going to buy an island.
It was like, I'm gonna get my mother a house.
She's not gonna have to work nights anymore. And my
dad needs assisted living now, and thank goodness, I can
(32:50):
afford to help him do that. Right, So, everybody really
splurged and spoiled their families, but nobody went crazy. And
I don't think that group would have allowed it.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
No, And that's what it's about. I you know, one
of the first things that I was able to do
was to, yeah, let my mom retire as a teacher.
And that was that just meant the world to me
to be able to do that. Do you remember what
(33:31):
you were able to do with your first paycheck? Were
you able to retire a family member or do something special?
For him.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
The first time, I remember getting like a check check
like we used to get money. We were so funny.
We would like go to Japan to do promotion and
we had no money like we were we were like
starting to become famous, and it's like we would just
try to save up all our per deal exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
We lived off per dim for years.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
We would we would take off we have like you know,
however many end we would go transfer it into American
dollars and we'd come home with like, hey man, I
got nine hundred bucks. All I'm going to do all
the things I couldn't do in high school, I could
really do it now. But I think the first time
that we were living in that neighborhood I mentioned earlier
(34:21):
that I didn't really fit in that neighborhood, and now
I was becoming successful and we got a check. I
don't remember how much it was for, but we were
able to start looking for a house for the first time.
So it was Mark, my brother, Mark, my mom, and
my mother's husband all lived together and the assumption was
(34:42):
we'd all go and live in a house together, and
my mom was pretty much looking for the houses. And
I think it was I think I had like one
hundred thousand dollars and we started looking for houses and
we found this house that was kind of like it
used to be one hundred thousand dollars house, but this
(35:03):
guy who owned it fixed it up and put a
pool and there was like a little room with a
little movie screen come out of the ceiling. And this
is like nineteen eighty nine, eighty nine. It was pretty fancy,
and I remember my mom loved it, like she walked
in and she just she gasped walked in the front door,
(35:25):
and it wasn't like nothing crazy, it was just nice.
It was beyond anything we could ever have dreamed of having.
Right in back. My manager when he saw it, when
I showed it to him the first time, our manager,
the late Great Dick Scott, he said, this is good
for a starter house. Got off. I was like, are
you crazy? This is it forever more fancy than anything
(35:48):
I could have been of. But my mom was so
blown away by this place. And I remember there was
a a primary bedroom moving up and there was a
little balcony on it, and my brother Mark and I
went out there and gosh, Mark must have been sixteen
or I don't know what it was, and I said,
what do you think? And he was like, this is cool.
And I said, you know, I don't know what's going
(36:10):
to happen, like with this music thing, like there's I
could wake up tomorrow and never make another penny, like
this could be it, Like you know, we had like
one or two hit records, and who knows what was
going to happen. And I said, the house was like
a couple hundred thousand, and we really couldn't afford it
at that moment. You know, six months later, I could
(36:30):
have bought it two times, right, but at this moment,
it was like a three hundred and ninety thousand dollars
house and I had one hundred thousand dollars. That's all
I had in the world. And I said to my brother,
I said, if if all this ends tomorrow, you know,
you have to get a job and you have to
work your ass off and I have to get a job,
and we have to be able to maintain this house
(36:51):
for Mom because she loves it. I'll do it. I'll
take the risk, and I'll take the loan and do
all that. But we have to by tooth and nail
to keep this place, you know, for her and if
you agree to that, then I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
That's a good motivation.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
It Yeah, he said, let's do it, and we got it,
and you know, it was yeah, it was. It was
a really profound moment. And we went back on tour,
like I don't know a week later after like agreeing
to buy the house, and my mom moved in while
I was away, and I came home right before Christmas.
I think it was eighty eight going into eighty nine
(37:27):
or vice versa. I'm not sure, but I remember coming
home to that place and look on my mom's face
was everything. And by this time we had already, you know,
become so much more successful in the two months that
i'd been gone. It moved in that it just it
really uh yeah, it meant a lot. It meant a
(37:48):
lot a little.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Because I know, but that's the special.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
The anniversary of her passing is tomorrow. Siblings are all
texting and stuff, and I hadn't really been even talking
about this, so it's just it's just a little it's good.
It's good. It's it's a good emotional wave that's rushing
over me.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
A very well. She raised a great boy, that is
for sure. That is for sure. Speaking of family, what
is it like working with family? I mean a lot
of people say do not go into business with family,
but you have in many era of your career. Was
it easy for you, guys or were there some hard
moments like why did I do this?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
For sure? Well, I worked with Mark also in music,
you know, so I was his producer and I is
Moy Star or Johnny Wright or Johnny Right.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Have a better deal than our deal.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, so I think we still have a contract Mark,
and I still actually he owes me an album until
the time as that album is done, I could be
collecting money on other his career. I don't bother Mark
Mark twenty five comings.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
But you know, we we did really great with that. Like,
we had a great time doing that. It was important
for me to to prove myself outside of New Kids, right,
So I had this. I wanted to make these records.
I wanted to do something. I also wanted to help
my brother have a life. You know, he was going
nowhere fact and so writing and producing music and then
(39:25):
plugging him into it really was good for me, right
to get that, to have that creative outlet. But so
we had already experienced working together with the restaurants. It's
it's been fun. You know. In a lot of ways,
people wonder, like if Mark and I have a relationship,
if we get along, you know, they were like rumors
(39:47):
like because.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
He didn't come to be in Jenny's wedding, so he
does hate you, oh man, breaking news, breaking news.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
I wish, I wish I could service that. But in
many ways we we did grow apart, right, and nothing
to do with anything other than I mean, people say like,
I'm the busiest guy in the world, and I go, okay, Well,
I know a few other busy guys who are more
busy than me, and Mark happens to be one of them.
(40:16):
And he has a family of his own, right. He
has four kids and a wife, and he's got a
lot of responsibilities. So we just naturally grew apart. I
lived and worked in New York. He lived in Beverly
Hills and worked all over the place. And so the
restaurant business actually has been good for us, like getting
(40:36):
back together and reconnected us. And yeah, and we have
to talk a lot and we you know it. I
don't think there was any strain per se, you know,
on the relationship but I think in hindsight, if it
wasn't for the restaurant, and it wasn't for that business
that we do together, it could have been problematic. You know,
(41:00):
it could have been we might have seen each other
like two or three times in the last decades since
we started the restaurant, just because that's how busy we
both are and how different our lives are, right and
and we you know, it's like a lot of families
right have been like funeral and see at the funeral,
(41:24):
we'll see each other. It's a wedding or funeral, it's
one of those, and then we all dripped apart.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
And yeah, and we're just experiencing that stuff now because
and it's the kids. When you start having kids, your
life completely changes. You don't see so many people, especially
that first couple of years, Like there's so many of
our friends. I'm like, oh my god, I can't believe
I've not seen you in person in two years. But yeah,
I mean it's just life takes you by the balls.
(41:49):
And you know, when you get.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Your own families and you start, yeah, you're kind of
in your own world.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I mean it's normal exactly.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Yeah, And if you don't if the friends that you're
currently like in a circle with don't have kids. Suddenly
kind of can't relate quite as much. A go on
that trip with you to that yacht over at that island.
I kind of take these kids to the zoo today.
Yeah yeah, those Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
All right, guys, let's pause right here, because, like I
said before, it's going to be a two for and
why not have a twofer with Donnie Wahlberg, I know, right,
So uh all right, let's take a little break and
we'll get back to Donnie with his second half of
the interview very soon. So thank you so much for listening.
Anything you want to tell them, nothing, No, just you're
all great and we love you. You're all just one
(42:41):
and continue listening.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yeah, and in return, we will listen to you if
you rate, review and.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Subscribe to go and dms on TikTok Instagram. We love
talking to you there. We love the community that we're building.
Everyone is so sweet and loving each other. And I
love bringing people together, all the fandoms together. It's supposed
to be, you know what. I'm just trying to change
the world.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
This man in a war.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yeah, all right, guys, be good to each other don't
drink and drive out there, take care of those animals,
and always remember to stay for Frosted. Hey, thanks for listening.
Follow us on Instagram at Frosted Tips with Lance and
Michael Turchinard and at Lance bast for all your pop
culture needs, and make sure to write his review and
(43:25):
leave us five stars six if you can see you
next time.
Hosts And Creators
Lance Bass
Langston Kerman
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