Two Knights the Knight

Bound by blood and talent, brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight have seen it all as founding members of 'New Kids on the Block.'The siblings reveal lots of boy band scoop.What led to Jordan's jail time? How did Jonathan face his sexuality? How did he overcome career-ending anxiety?And why are they ready to do it all over again as New Kids prepare to hit the road?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am Kate Hudson and my name is Oliver Hudson.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
We wanted to do something that highlighted our.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Relationship and what it's like to be siblings. We are
a sibling, Railvalry, No, no, sibling.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
You don't do that with your mouth.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
Vely, that's good, Ollie.

Speaker 5 (00:38):
We are on vacation with all of our kids right now. Yeah,
this is our intro. We're on vacation right now, and
all our kids are together. We're all in the same house.
This is so much fun.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
But we've both had very rough nights. I feel like
you're still kind of recovering.

Speaker 6 (00:57):
Well.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I recovered yesterday and then went after it again last night.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, I kind of haven't gone after it since I
had my review.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
You had your recovery. Then that night I went too big.
I threw up the toilet. Is not good.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
There was a backup in the toilet, the whole thing.
We don't even want to talk about it.

Speaker 7 (01:16):
No, but then Aaron, my wife, Oh yeah, the next
night she went after it and I had to carry
her in from outside.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
It was just it was everyone's on.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
And but we've never it's never been like this. I
feel like this is a sign. It was me first,
then you, then Aaron, and we're all like staring at
each other, like what's happened?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
We're celebrating. But it's fun.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
It's been so fun. And now this week we're recording
a podcast that I am so excited about this.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
This is a throwback for you for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
This is definitely a poster on my wall.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yes, and this is PTSD for me.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
I would just listen do it over and over and
over and over again. I mean, I feel like you
know I I one of the members of this band
was one of my major first crushes. Like I had
posters of him on the wall.

Speaker 6 (02:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I don't want to.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
I don't want to break it to these guys that
they weren't the one you have to, but but I'm
gonna have to at some point in this I'll try
to get you know, we'll see if it comes organically.
If not, I won't say anything.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yes, and Jonathan's gay, so we don't have to worry
about that. Mean you won't care.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Just because you're gay doesn't mean you don't want crushes
of all sexes.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
No, I know, but it wouldn't be a significant to
him someone else where. Kate Hudson now wants to see
the shlinging not what I was thinking about. That's what
I was thinking about. That came up with a new word, shlinging.
So the ween we said, who it is now new

(03:02):
kids on the block.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
We are got to interview Jonathan and Jordan Knight, who
were just I mean both of them, all of them
were such heart drops. And it was always that thing.
It was like, who's your type? You know, who's your guy?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Right, that's funny. It was like.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah, and it said a lot about you know who
you were as or as a young there's your taste
and everything.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yes, yes, yes, funny.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
But I love the boy band culture like I can't
we haven't really done this, Like I can't wait to
talk about what that was like for them. And also
just growing up. Don't they have more siblings? There's a few,
sure of them. They they grew up in Dorchester, which
is in Massachusetts. You know, it's all it's Aaron's area,

(03:49):
you know, she grew up around that area. Her parents
grow in Brockton, Well, and brothers in bands don't usually
go well together, as in my in my history of
being married once to a man that had a you know,
band with his brother, has a band with his brother.
It's it's a it's a notoriously is very very tumultuous.

(04:12):
So it'll be interesting to.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
See instead of about them. Yeah, hello, hello, what this
is for me?

Speaker 6 (04:25):
You guys?

Speaker 3 (04:25):
This is huge because you are all on my wall
my entire childhood. Of course, as I'm sure you've heard
a million times from girls that grew up in the
you know, ladies early nineties.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, I was saying to Kate before you guys came on.
For me, this ship is PTSD because I was like,
you've got to turn this off. I cannot listen to like,
hang tough one more time, I'm going to kill you.

Speaker 6 (04:51):
We've heard both sides of the story over the years, Yeah,
male and female.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
But seriously, so this is so fun. I can't wait
to get into it. Where are you? Where are you now?
I know you're you know John's and mass Are you
still Massachusetts as well?

Speaker 6 (05:04):
Yeah? Massachusetts? I'm like south of Boston. He's north. Oh wow,
five minutes away?

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Oh great, so you're not too far yeah, not too far.
Well for our family, forty five minutes away is like
is like not a disaster.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, I know, we all have.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
We all have to live within like seven minutes of
each other.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Problem with la is forty five minutes could be a
mile and a half.

Speaker 6 (05:31):
Crazy traffic here is getting crazy too, though it is Austin.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, what is going on?

Speaker 3 (05:37):
It all has to simplify.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Do you guys still see each other a ton? Even
though I mean not only forty five minutes, but like.

Speaker 6 (05:43):
Oh goodness, Yeah, we're a tight knit family. We get
together a lot.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
How many siblings are there?

Speaker 6 (05:49):
Six of us? Oh, there's six, so I'm the youngest,
John's second youngest, and then there's Chris, David, Sharon, and
Allison that's going.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Up the line and that's all blow full blood.

Speaker 6 (06:01):
One of our adopted Chris. Oh David, I forgot David.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Now what's the age range?

Speaker 1 (06:14):
I'll be fifty five this year. I think our oldest
is sixty.

Speaker 6 (06:18):
Yeah, we're pretty close. It's like a year and a
half a kind of difference.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Wow, But you guys grew up in an interesting situation though, right,
I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, But you guys
your parents had like a foster home. Is that kind
of how how it worked?

Speaker 8 (06:34):
Yeah, Well there was six of us and then my
parents took in foster kids. So at any time there
was there could have been like seventeen kids in our house.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Wow, how was that?

Speaker 6 (06:51):
It was?

Speaker 2 (06:52):
It was?

Speaker 6 (06:53):
It was kind of cool. It was a little wild crazy.
What's that show on showtime? Shameless? Right?

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Oh yeah, okay, yeah, because I can imagine, you know
what I mean. It's like you have your core group
of siblings and all of a sudden, you've just got
a thousand more sort of like you know, temporary siblings
for a little bit, some probably cool, some probably not.

Speaker 8 (07:22):
Some like mental issues and like, yeah, just the craziness
we were exposed to as kids. But you know, I
think it was I think it was a blessing because
you know, at a young age we were I mean,
we were always a diverse family, but just having all

(07:44):
the different foster.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Kids and you know, brought so much more to our life.

Speaker 8 (07:50):
Just you know, Vietnamese girl and like you know, she
taught us about Vietnamese culture and it was good.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
It was good.

Speaker 8 (08:00):
I mean, and then there was like the scary moments
when like you know, if somebody had schizophrenia, which one
of them did and took a light bulb and stabbed himself,
and you know, that was kind of like as.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
A young kid, you're like, what is going on here?

Speaker 8 (08:17):
But you know, overall, I think it it It just
enriched our lives.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Actually, Yeah, says a lot about to about your parents
to be able to just to have a desire to
bring kids in to help them and transition, you.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Know, especially after having six of their own, it's like,
all right, we need more.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah, it's a calling.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
How does I speak to your parents? Like what kind
of people were they? Obviously you know they wanted to
save the world.

Speaker 6 (08:44):
It seems in that day for sure. But you know,
our family has always been very open kind of like
even with the neighborhood kids, we had almost like it
was like open door policy. It was always it was
seemed like always kids were coming in and out, foster
kids were coming in and out. I mean during the

(09:07):
early days, our group, you know, we all practiced at
the house, you know, in our basement, and it was
like every day it was like the whole group came
and we're in the basement practicing, making noise, you know,
along with all the other people that lived in the house.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
It sounds like it was just always I mean, did
you ever have moments where You're like, I just want
some quiet.

Speaker 6 (09:32):
But we didn't know any different. We didn't know any different.
It was like it's almost like it's almost like later on,
like if it was too quiet, it seemed weird.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Yeah, well love Just for example, we have a very
similar household. I mean, there wasn't seventeen foster kids, but
we were like, you know, our house was always the
house everybody came to. It was always a million people
in the house. It was open door policy all the time.
My mom had Sunday dinners every Sunday, and like every
one would come over and we watched movies. It was
always something happening. But I would lock myself in my

(10:06):
room for like hours sometimes, you know. And now looking back,
I'm like, oh, you know, I had no It was
always so there was always so much happening, so much sound.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, then when it gets quiet, it doesn't feel good.
Where is everybody?

Speaker 6 (10:27):
Well maybe too much chaos can be a little unsettling.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
So so there's six of you. You were the youngest,
and then and and what did you grow up in?
Like a like, what was your neighborhood like was it
very kind of you were in Dorchester.

Speaker 6 (10:46):
Right, Dorchester. So Dorchester is an inner city neighborhood. Our
particular neighborhood was mixed.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
And was it like was it like a sidewalk neighborhood.
Is it a were you connected to your neighbors or
was it more sort of like you know.

Speaker 6 (11:04):
In our particular like street. It's funny and like the neighborhoods,
just like any big city, sometimes it can change, like
across the street and the whole neighborhood changes. But we
had like a little oasis kind of with big There
was like big Victorian houses and we lived in a
big Victorian house, and that's why we were able to

(11:25):
take on so many people. But the neighborhood was mixed.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
And then.

Speaker 6 (11:31):
You know, in the seventies and eighties and maybe even now,
if you crossed one street it would turn all one
race or you know, another.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Race, so it was more segregated.

Speaker 6 (11:45):
We were lucky to be in a little oasis of mixed,
but there were definitely segregated areas in Dorchester.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Interesting and so growing up, did you when you guys
went to school, did you go to school in the neighborhood.

Speaker 8 (11:59):
Or nou We went through the whole bussing thing in
the seventies where we were shipped from. Really it was
weird that we were shipped from our neighborhood that was
predominantly back uh to another neighborhood that was predominantly black.
So you know, it was it was it was so

(12:22):
weird going to school because we would go through neighborhoods
and they'd throw rocks at the bus and you know,
it was just so.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Much racial tension growing up.

Speaker 8 (12:32):
And we'd always be on the bus and the bus
driver would be like, everybody down, and we'd like jump
under our seats as rocks are hitting the bus, and
you know, it just you know, we have a black brother,
so it just seems so foreign to us that you know,
we're we're being uh you know, targeted for being white.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
It just it just made no sense.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Wowow. And then what about at school?

Speaker 8 (12:59):
At school, every at school, everybody was was great. It
was just you know, it was the playground and we
were just looked at each other as we were just
all kids, you know, out on the playground having a
good time.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
There was no no tension in school and.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
We're all you all pretty tight. The brothers were their siblings.

Speaker 6 (13:21):
Well, I would say.

Speaker 8 (13:22):
Me and my brother were probably the tightest, you know,
as kids. We started out with all four brothers in
the room, and then I think eventually me and Jordan
got a room, you know, And it's funny I look
back and just think, you know, we shared a room.

Speaker 6 (13:40):
We were dirt poor.

Speaker 8 (13:41):
So we'd swap clothes every day, like tomorrow you had
my jeans and today I wear.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Your jeans, and maybe nobody will notice.

Speaker 6 (13:49):
You know.

Speaker 8 (13:49):
So we went from that and then went on to
new kids, and then shared a bus together.

Speaker 6 (13:56):
And we were in the same school, the same schools.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, that's funny. You guys gravitated towards each other, you know.
Not to take away from your relationship with any of
their siblings, but I guess that happens when they're six y'alls,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (14:09):
Like, and we were closest in age as well, so that's.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Kind of And were are any of the siblings musical?

Speaker 6 (14:17):
I would say that, yeah, yeah, Davis definitely musical. Alison
and Sharon a musical. They sang in the choir. There's
definitely a love of music in our family because we
grew up in the church and singing in the choir
and listening to the choir.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Mm hm, that's where that's where its stemmed from.

Speaker 8 (14:38):
Yeah, our dad is actually a minister, and our mom
she was, she's still here, she's just retired, but she
was a social worker. So as kids, it was, you know,
the church and in my mom's social work. So it
was there was a time when all six siblings were
in my dad's church choir at church.

Speaker 6 (15:00):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Oh wow, wow that your parents really dedicated their life
to service. That's really amazing. So when did the spark
of you guys saying like we're going to start a
band and like, what was the creation of that spark?
I mean, I'm sure it was. It wasn't like New

(15:21):
Kids right off the bat. I'm assuming there was no.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
And your dad, being a minister, was probably like, what
the hell are you doing?

Speaker 8 (15:32):
Yeah, well he actually he actually left when we were
fourteen and fifteen, so it was right after that that
New Kids had started.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Jordan, you can go ahead.

Speaker 6 (15:42):
No, yeah, let's see around thirteen or fourteen, I think
I was fourteen, and Donnie called me on the phone,
Donnie Wahlberg. He was like, we all went to like
elementary school together, and then then we kind of split apart.

(16:03):
Donnie went to the Phillis Wheely Middle School with our
older brother Chris. And Chris and Donnie hung out in
the same click at school and one day Chris told me, Hey,
Donnie wants to call you about something. I said, oh, yeah, okay.
So one day Donnie calls me and he goes, hey,
there's this guy that wants to start a group. He

(16:25):
started a group new addition, I'm working with him. I
think you would be like a good fit, you know.
I told him about you, you know, So he goes,
do you want to try out? You know, do you
want to come by and you know, show him your
stuff or whatever, because he knew I was like, I
sang in the school chorus as well, and he knew

(16:48):
I like to break dance and stuff like that. So
so I went over there with Donnie and tried out
and met Maurice who was our produce turned to be
to be a producer and uh and then I guess
I came home and I told my mom and and people,

(17:12):
and then John was like, hey, man, what are you
doing you leave? What are you going to leave me behind?
Or something? Station was. He was like, dude, I want
to try out or whatever. I want to be in
the group, you know. Yeah, yeah, Monnie and John we're friends.
I think you guys are in the same classes.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
In elementary school. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (17:34):
I think that was the first time we were growing
up where we actually started separating.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
And it just it bothered me so much. I was like, wait,
you know.

Speaker 8 (17:44):
Wait a minute, You've been a part of my life
for so long, and now you're talking about going off
and doing something without me.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
Well, and also your dad I mean, I don't mean
to interrupt, but also your dad left. I mean, that
must have been all pretty traumatic. Was yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Christmas Day and he lets us all know that he's
leaving our mom.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Okay, yes, Christmas Day, Yeah, Merry Christmas.

Speaker 6 (18:14):
Oh no, I don't remember Christmas Day, but it was.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Either Christmas Day or Christmas Night.

Speaker 6 (18:21):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
It was weird.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
But when he was, he was he gone gone. It
was just divorced and you can still have a relationship
with him. And he's like, I'm out.

Speaker 6 (18:30):
No.

Speaker 8 (18:30):
Actually, after my dad left, I didn't talk to him
for six or seven years.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (18:36):
And then I was somewhere in Paris or something, drunk
out of my mind and just angry, and I just cold,
cold called him and I was like, hey, and you
know he expressed me, you know, his unhappiness in the marriage.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
And you know, because as a kid, I.

Speaker 8 (18:58):
Think your parents tell you things, dad are it's always
one sided.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
I just never wanted to hear the other side.

Speaker 8 (19:06):
But as soon as I did, then me and my
dad became closer than ever and it's just been wed
asked such a great relationship.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
Oh, that's so great.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
For instance, for instance, we'll be together at Johnson my
father and his wife will be there as well, and
it's been like that for years and years. So we're
we're all still very close.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
That's great.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
But just to unpack that time in your life, like
here you are, you're starting this, Dad's gone and John
You're just like, don't you dare leave me behind? You know,
I want in on this.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
So did you have to try out?

Speaker 6 (19:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (19:57):
You did.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
I tried out.

Speaker 8 (19:58):
I don't know how I made it because I was
just a nervous wreck. Yeah, but you know, it all
worked out. And you know, looking back at those days
and and you know, just being there in the studio
and trying out and then we started this group and
we were, you know, doing these weird shows and prisons
and like birthday parties and now shows, you know, and

(20:21):
it just you know, that.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Went on for years and then all of a sudden.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
We blew up and what was the name of the group.

Speaker 6 (20:29):
We started out as Nanuk n y n Uk Nanuk
and it was a name that Maurice came up with all.
I think he got it from Nanuka the North. I
don't know. It was a crazy name. But this way,
I'd be like on the subway and stuff, like on
the train going to school with my friends and I'd

(20:49):
be like, yeah, I'm in a group. They're oh serious,
what's the name of it? And I'd be like, well,
wet a name yet. I would just lie and say,
we don't have a name.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yet, so I can't tell what that It sounds like
Italian or I think he.

Speaker 6 (21:07):
Thought it sounded like menudo, like it was a weird word.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
I don't know.

Speaker 8 (21:14):
Yeah, that.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
It was just the three of you guys.

Speaker 6 (21:22):
Who is so Danny. Danny would also lived in Dorchester.
And it's funny because like our two groups, we used
to like battle each other and break dancing. So and
I also knew Danny, but we were in like different
like cruise you throw a cardboard, Yeah, exactly, pull out

(21:44):
the carboy, just some windmills.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
But just so you guys know, Oliver was in a
dance crew once. Yeah, but I mean we talked about
this a lot of the podcasts, but it was it
was this language.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
We were called the Rice Crispies, very snap crackling hoop
like that. Yeah, we used to go battle, you know,
underage clubs.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
I mean it was it was embarrassing.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
I was embarrassing, embarrassing from my family for sure. You know, the.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Moves were so funny, so funny. Anyway, Okay, so you
were battling each other in breakdancing.

Speaker 6 (22:25):
This was yeah, before like we actually got into the group.
So Danny was also in school with us, and then
he was in school with with Donnie later on. So
you know, Donnie, I think I think like I joined
the group and then Donnie told Danny about it. This
is what I think I think. Donnie said, you know,
Jordan uh was in the group now because he was

(22:49):
trying to get Danny, and Danny was like, Jordan's in
the group.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh hell no, Like I'm so funny.

Speaker 6 (22:55):
I want to be in So then and then after
he's going that Uh, we were always looking for a
little guy kind of like because we were modeling ourselves
out to Jackson Live and and the Osmond's, you know,
and there was little Michael and there was little Donny Osmon.
So we wanted a little guy. Well, Maurice wanted a

(23:17):
little guy with a really high voice. So that's what
we were lacking. And then our manager at the time
found Joe McIntyre, Joey McIntyre.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Who was Kate's That was Kate's boy right there.

Speaker 6 (23:31):
Yeah, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Not that you guys were also super cute, and but
Joey just here, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (23:38):
It was that hair, those blue eyes.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah, it was the blue eyes, not hair. Yeah, that's
how Joe came so Joey and was Joey like a
random like different school.

Speaker 6 (23:51):
Different neighborhood. He was kind of the outsider for a while.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, did you treat him that way?

Speaker 6 (23:58):
We did kind of treat him them and he still
lets us know.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Exactly like what were you doing, like it just like
this guy is not a part of the crew basically,
you know what.

Speaker 8 (24:10):
It's funny that Joe's five years younger than me. So
when I was, you know, sixteen, or seventeen. He was
what twelve, So just that age difference right right there.
And then you throw in the fact that he lived
across town and wasn't you know, part of the neighborhood.

Speaker 6 (24:29):
He was.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
He was an outcast, right.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Joey, and then eventually he worked his way into like
a you're a part of us.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
So how old were you at this point when you
were fully formed?

Speaker 6 (24:45):
Sixteen?

Speaker 2 (24:45):
I think Jordan I will amazing wise, like, were you
guys doing sort of what we're what you're doing now?
What you were doing then? I mean, how did it evolve?
Because you said new addition, like this is my era,
like that old school R and B, like, you know,
is that sort of what we were modeling it after?

Speaker 6 (25:03):
Yeah, we did. We had a lot like our first
album it was like it sounded it sounded like new
Edition Jackson five songs, and then that album like kind
of it flopped. That was in eighty six, and then
we just started doing songs that sound a little more contemporary,

(25:26):
and that's kind of we started like telling Maurice, you know,
try this out, try that out, let's let's do this,
let's do that. We became more of a team with
Maurice musically and he kind of kind of feeding off
our vibes and that's when we did. That's when we
started record and Hang It tough.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Right, And choreography wise, like was more were you guys
doing your own choreography or did you have someone there
doing that?

Speaker 6 (25:55):
Yeah, we did it at first, and I did. I
actually I did a lot of the choreography, like the
choreography for the right stuff like that video. Yeah, and
then because because we were we didn't have money, and
we didn't we couldn't really afford having a full time choreographer,
so we just made do with just trying to figure
it out.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
And okay, question question in during this time, you know,
as any like social experiment, did you guys was there
sort of fighting for band leader kind of vibe? Like
like when you guys were all practicing and young, was
there one.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Person that sort of standing out led the Yeah, like
timber Leg, like Michael, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (26:37):
Like no, No, I mean more like I mean more
like like when you're in that environment, who's the one
like organizing things and making decisions or like who's the
most in front?

Speaker 2 (26:48):
See I go, I just go to alpha. I mean
like who's the Who's who's the alpha.

Speaker 6 (26:52):
I would say, like the spearhead. The spearhead of the
group has always been Donnie, Yeah, leading the charge as
far as like uh, frontman, you know who's doing like
a lot of the leads and stuff. I think that
kind of just happened because like like say, Joe, Donnie,

(27:13):
and I, like we all have different and we were
the ones that sang most of the leads, and like
we all had different styles, different voices, So the songs
would just say, the songs would tell us who's going
to be singing, you know, like I sing a lot
of falsetto Joe sang a lot of high natural, like

(27:35):
almost kid voice type of stuff, and Dannie saying like
high natural as well, but he had more of a
more of a grown up sound than build. So I
think our personalities and our voices led the way on that.
It wasn't like I'm the best singer.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, it kind of was like pretty even. I also
felt like just from my experience, like from knowing you guys,
it always felt pretty even. It didn't feel ever too disproportioned,
you know what I mean, dispurport but inside of inside
of that was there especially between you guys, because look,
I was married to a rock star who is in

(28:20):
a band with his brother. I know how hard that
could be. A Notoriously, I was saying in our intro,
how tumultuous the sibling dynamic is in a band. Yeah,
how was that for you guys? I mean, honestly, you know.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
John and I. Yeah, it was like people are amazed,
I think by how uncompetitive or like there really is
no sibling rivalry with us in the band.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, amazing.

Speaker 6 (28:53):
There, Yeah, we don't but heads. I think we've gotten
along edibly.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Did anybody. I mean, was there any that the head budding?

Speaker 6 (29:03):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (29:04):
I mean, you take teenagers and you throw them into
being one of the biggest pop bands in the world. Yeah,
and you know, things can get pretty harry between us.
I mean I think we were worked probably three hundred
and sixty days out of the year, and we really

(29:25):
had no time to really figure out who who the
hell we were, And you know, I think that's when
we started really clashing.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
It actually got so bad that.

Speaker 8 (29:38):
Our manager brought in a psychologist on the road and
he we always have like sessions with this guy before shows,
and it was just it was really weird.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
I mean though that's the way ahead of the time.
I mean to have a psychologist on that.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
I guess when you're sixteen, like what the fuck is
this guy coming in here to talk to me about
like exactly, you.

Speaker 8 (30:01):
Know, And that's I think that's pretty much what happened,
you know, just being youthful and not really understanding you know.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
I think it could have helped us a lot.

Speaker 8 (30:15):
And you know, fortunately we're all adults now and our
working relationship now is just so perfect.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, wow, this is so cool, amazing. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (30:28):
Then like after we got so famous, we started like
we were being worked to death and willingly, I think
we like we went on the road and we just
like wouldn't get off the road. It was crazy, we
lived on the road. And I think later on when
it started kind of getting old for us as a group,

(30:51):
each individual kind of like we just wanted to like
express ourselves individually and just yeah, to do it our way.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Going back for a second, like what was the moment
where it was like, holy shit, we grew up in Dorchester,
you know, switching clothes and now I can't even understand
what's happening right now, Like this is insane. What was
that moment? Where when was that moment?

Speaker 6 (31:21):
I always go back to the story, and uh, I
think We're in Fresno or one of a city in California,
and we were like our bus was parked in the
alleyway and we were all on the bus and like
we had the curtains closed and stuff because we're outside
of a theater that we were performing at. And we
were like on the bus in the alleyway and the

(31:43):
bus started shaking. We were whoa, whoa, whoa, what is that?
What is that like? And like our manager was like,
we are in California, and you know, so, oh it's
an earthquake. Holy you know, oh man like and then
and then we like opened the shades and it was
all the girls in the alleyway. Like we heard them
out there, but we didn't know. They were pushing our

(32:03):
bus back and forth and it was just a ce
a sea of people. And I guess like we started
realizing the fervor.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
Well that's interesting too. Where at the time, I mean,
were you when did you start realizing that you were gay?

Speaker 8 (32:24):
I mean, I think I knew earlier on when I
was I don't know, maybe going through puberty, sixteen. But
I mean I would look at women and be like, oh,
my gosh, she's beautiful, and then I look at guys
and be like, oh, he's beautiful. So I just thought
it was something that was in everybody's head, like everybody
thought that.

Speaker 3 (32:45):
I think it is, but we can that's another podcast.

Speaker 8 (32:50):
Yeah, you know, And I think it wasn't until like
I'm a little older, that it got to be in
my head like this is something that I'm you know,
when I finally realized, oh shit, this is this is no,
you are gay. And I think just admitting it to
myself was the first.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
The first step in the process to accept myself and
move on.

Speaker 8 (33:17):
But you know, being in the world's biggest pop band
and you know, having people tell you how you have
to act and you you can't let the world know
you're gay or else your career is done. You know,
the record company, You're going to ruin everybody's career. So
it put a lot of pressure on me. Yeah, So

(33:38):
I think I think that was eventually, you know, my
deciding factor to leave.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
The group, that that was that was gonna be my
next question. I mean, that must have been really hard.
And then you've kind of been open about anxiety, and
do you think that was a part of everything that
was happening.

Speaker 8 (33:56):
With you know, I I think I think anxiety is
in me. It's a part of me. But I think
in my early twenties, I think holding all that in
just escalated it.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
You know.

Speaker 8 (34:11):
It's because like when we were together in the in
the eighties and on stage and stuff, it never bothered me.
Interviews didn't bother me. I just think it was bottled
and that too, holding that inside at at an older age,
I mean, doing the whole Oprah Winfrey show, Like I
can't even watch that anymore because it was it was

(34:33):
just so traumatic and I didn't have the skills to
learn really what it is and how to deal with it. Yeah,
it's been I just say thank God for for years
and for learning, you know, because I'm at a great

(34:53):
place in my life.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
I would never want to go back.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean I can relate. Man, I'm on
X PRO like I've I've had generalized anxiety my mid twenties.
My mid twenties, I was walking into a strip club
of all places, when I felt like my heart exploded
and I didn't realize what the fuck it was I
thought I was going to die, and I was like John,
my friend John, like I'm gonna die in front of

(35:17):
like the crazy girls in Hollywood. And after I get up,
I'm going there and like I have a care Vodkas.
You know, I'm like, what the fuck was that? And
that started about a year of like intense, intense anxiety
and it sort of has ebbed and flowed, you know,
like two years ago it was really bad, and you know,
so I have it. And the generalized anxiety this part

(35:40):
is part is interesting because you try to sort of
pinpoint it. Yes, you can go back and you can
figure out some of the reasons why, but it's generalized.
I'm like, what the fuck is going on? My life
is good, I got this, a great wife, I got kids,
I got work, I got this. What is going on
with me? Why am I feeling this way? And it
was just just so debilitating and.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
Uncommon unfortunately, oh so many for so many people.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Well, in this last bout, which is like two years ago,
not that I would ever kill myself, but I understood
why people would kill themselves. If you feel like you
can't get out of this cycle, if you feel like
you can't wake up and be normal, and it's going
on for months and months at a time. It's like, well,
what is it worth? Well, I can't. If I can't,

(36:24):
I can't live, Like yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah, oh that's yeah. I'm getting goosebumps.

Speaker 6 (36:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (36:31):
I remember, you know, when I first started going to
a psychologist and figure it out, it was just she
I don't even think she knew how to figure it out.
But I remember, like days I would drive home and
we lived like out in the country, so I would
see telephone polls and I would just it would come

(36:51):
in my head like if I just swerve my car,
I'm done.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
And I don't.

Speaker 8 (36:57):
I don't have to have these thoughts in my head
and you know, oh god, you know, thank god I
did it. No, no, and it is it could just
be like a just just a quick thought and just
a quick bit and then you.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Know, yeah, yeah, I know. But it's it's it's like
what Kate said, it's incredible. It's incredible how common it
is nowadays. You know, more people are just more okay
to come out with it and talk about it, you know, anxiety,
especially in our children right now.

Speaker 6 (37:27):
I mean, so it's crazy, dude, do you think it's
more of these days and past.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
I mean, statistically it is, but then again, I'm not
so sure that.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
I think people are more aware of it.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
That that's statistic that we were doing this kind of
research then that we are now. I think I think
that we have we were able to define, right, it
differently and we.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Can label it a little bit. But it is.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
It is on the rise. It's not it's not on
the decline. I mean, this is what our mom's whole
you know, last thirty years of work has been around
kids emotional and social wellness and so so we're very
like well researched in this area, and it is is
just continues to rise, which is unfortunate.

Speaker 8 (38:10):
I mean, I couldn't even imagine being a kid today,
and you know social media and you know the Kardashians
and you know all these these these these supposed role
models that kids are looking up to, and I think
just even adults, we're just we're go, go, go, and

(38:33):
everybody wants to put on their best face. So I
think you know, that's probably causing tons of anxiety and people.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Now, well oh yeah, yeah, I mean not to mention sexuality,
how that's shifting you know, because their kids are growing
up in a porno culture. That's how they sex. They
watch these pornos and they're like, they're like, oh, that's
how you do it. I'm like, nah, it's not. I mean,
I said to my kids, my older but I'm like, look,
that's like watching an action movie. Okay, the explosion, Yeah,

(39:05):
it's all It's not real. It's not actually killing people,
you know what I mean, Like, this is it. It's entertainment.
This is not going to be what it's like. I mean,
maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to have that experience,
but don't think, but don't think that this is the
right way.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
But to go back to what we were talking about,
I feel like what you're you know, look, I think
the thing is is it's so important that people are
more open now talking about these things. You were in
the biggest pop band in the world, and you were
suffering from anxiety that you couldn't share, you know.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
And were you open about it with your bandmates, with
your family, with your brother.

Speaker 8 (39:57):
I think later on, and you know, it was ninety four,
we broke up and I remember, you know, me and
Jordan bought this ridiculously huge house and we moved a
lot of our family in there. But so I remember
after coming home from tour, waking up in this crazy house,

(40:21):
opening my bedroom door and looking up and down the
hallway and thinking, you know, what the hell do I
do next? And I think that was probably my lowest
because I had achieved so much as a kid, and
you know, and that's like keeping up with the Joneses mentality.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
I was like, how do I keep this going?

Speaker 8 (40:43):
So I remember after that that was a very depressing,
like I would sleep all day, all night and then
just keep doing the same thing for months and months.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Did you get into boozing or drugs or anything like that?

Speaker 1 (40:57):
No, thank god?

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Yeah no.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Yeah, So what happened after you broke up?

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Well?

Speaker 3 (41:03):
First, first, I mean, you know what when you realized
that you had the fervor? When it was like, wow,
we're huge, You're working three hundred and sixty days a
year pretty much. How many years did this go on
before everyone was like we are so burnt out?

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah? And then two parter like as far as the
money did that start rolling in? Or are you so
young there? You know what I mean? You hear those
stories of managers of business managers who were saying, Ah,
you know, you're not making the money you should be making.

Speaker 6 (41:30):
Early on, we we hooked up with the Celtics agent,
Bob Wolf and and we you know, we had we
had good lawyers and we had him. And I remember
the first time he came. It was in La. It
was what was that place in La? And we had
a show in La. We just done this our senior

(41:52):
Hall show. We had a we had a gig that night,
and he came into the dressing room and told us
all we were millionaires. So that was a big, big
milestone for us. So, yeah, the money did roll in.
You could say, you know, maybe we could have should
have gotten more, you know, the merchandise. I think we

(42:13):
had a little uneven deal there, but whatever, the money
rolled in pretty well.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
And then how many years were you at that height?

Speaker 6 (42:25):
So I would say eighty eight to like ninety two,
maybe ninety three. And then what was the second part
of the question it was about for us breaking up?

Speaker 2 (42:41):
I think I.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
Asked how hard it was on you? Like if you're
working three hundred and sixty days a year like here
you are, Like when did the burnout start to happen?
When did you all start looking at each other going,
we can't keep doing we can't this is too much.

Speaker 6 (42:56):
I think it was like around ninety two or ninety three.
I remember being on the road and we were like
somewhere in Pennsylvania and I was and we were doing
the same show. There's the same old songs, and I
was just like, oh my god, it's getting so boring.
This is so boring. Yeah, and then I think we

(43:17):
had a we had like a break of the tour,
and then the radio stations we started getting a lot
of backlash. A lot of the radio stations were like
because we were so huge, and people got sick of us,
like the radio station you know, DJs and program directors,
you know. And then grunge started coming in hardcore rap,

(43:39):
and it was like we weren't the thing anymore. So
we noticed like diminishing sales, like not finding it very
hard to get radio play, and we kind of I
think we saw the writing on the wall and we decided,
you know, I think we're we got off the road first, right,

(44:00):
and then we regrouped and that's when John let Yeah,
we did a new album was called Face and Music.
It was in like nine ninety four, and we went
back on tour, and it was like we were not
doing arenas, We're not doing stadiums. We were doing like theaters.

(44:21):
One time we did a supper club.

Speaker 9 (44:22):
It was it was ridiculous, that's crazy because people eating
dinner is like what you know, and people are having dinner.

Speaker 6 (44:41):
We were like, okay, we did have a good time
on that tour though, really really connected. That's all we
could connect to was ourselves. We were like, you know,
we were like kind of abandoned brothers out there.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Like how old were you guys going down We're going
down to playing together? How old were you guys during
that four year period, like sixteen to nineteen?

Speaker 6 (45:09):
But we like I was eighteen and Jonas nineteen when
we first got a big hit girl, and so eighteen
to about twenty two, twenty three, twenty four around probably
those ages.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
I mean, were you guys partaking in sort of the
the after party festivities. I mean, were you out of
your minds? I mean as far as the girls go,
John for you, I read something that like you had
to get your manager was like hooking you up on
the side.

Speaker 6 (45:38):
Yeah, I never heard that.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
No, not like that, No, not like that. No, I'm
saying like, you know, because we were we were still
in the closet, not able to sort of you know.

Speaker 6 (45:49):
Yeah, no, he was consoling you consoling.

Speaker 8 (45:54):
He I think he knew you know who I think,
you know, I think a gay.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
I can spot another gay guy a mile away.

Speaker 8 (46:05):
No, so he would he would ask me to dinner,
and all of a sudden, you know, there's this twenty
two year old, beautiful guy, and he kind of played
he kind of played matchmaker, but very Yeah. Yeah, I
was sweet until I got blackmailed.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Oh my god. But the rest of the crew, it
was it just was it wild. Were you guys crazy?
I mean, were you guys reveling crazy?

Speaker 6 (46:40):
In a good way?

Speaker 2 (46:41):
I think you were. It wasn't destructive.

Speaker 6 (46:44):
It was somewhat destructive, but not like Motley Crue destructive.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Right, right, right, So it's your age, but there's probably
like fifty year olds as well, right, what are you
talking old women who were like you know what I mean,
Like we would go out, we would drink, we would
have fun.

Speaker 6 (47:04):
You know, we typical like college kids.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Yeah, well, I mean.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
You guys aren't actually mild compared to like something like
I would think, like, you know, some twenty year old.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
I'd be dead. I'd be dead.

Speaker 6 (47:23):
Honestly, we had each other, so we like, yeah, you know,
I think solo artists they can go off the deep
end easier than people that are in groups have each
other and like it'd be like, dude, you're your control.
You know you don't have that if you're in a

(47:45):
solo your solo situation. Yeah, you're the king. And you
got all the followers.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
You know, who is the most who is the most wild?
Who's thest wild one? Joey I would say they were
all wild.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
I would say the Wallburg.

Speaker 6 (48:04):
Wild.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
I would say, for sure.

Speaker 6 (48:08):
I to throw things out out of We had a
we we definitely throw things out of hotel windows. And
one of the times we were like throwing throwing stuff
out of the windows, and like one of us threw
some like our breakfast like French toast out of the
window and some guy down on the street got hit

(48:29):
with a piece of French toast. And our producer had
a meeting with us that day and he went he
went through the alphabet. He said, fellas a attitude, better attitude.
You know some guy, you know, uh be behavior. You

(48:50):
gotta you know, stop acting so crazy. You know, some
guy down on the street just got hit with a
piece of French toast. I wonder where that came from,
you know. And then he said and then he said Donnie.

(49:17):
Donnie would get get excited and get us all you know,
whooped up, and he.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Feels like he'd be the start of the troublemaking.

Speaker 6 (49:25):
It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Actually, Now, what was the big like what came about
this decision to reunite, because right it was.

Speaker 8 (49:36):
A great thing, you know, I think there was always
talk of getting us back together, but it was never
us really talking about it.

Speaker 6 (49:48):
It would be award.

Speaker 8 (49:49):
Shows, there was some other TV show and they would
call and ask if what what was that show.

Speaker 6 (50:00):
Making the band? No, No, it wasn't making it. No,
it wasn't that h one. Yeah they were. They would like,
can you guys come back together and we'll you know,
video you guys, you know, doing one song and performing it.
And it was kind of exploitative type of situations where
they just wanted to use us that kind of thing,

(50:21):
and then we would like turn it down, like so
we had like residual things like that would come up
that would pertain to the group. And then we'd all
have to chime in on it. But even though we
weren't together as a group at the time, like, uh,
you know, this shirt company wants to do a new
Kids on the Block shirter. You guys okay with that?
Blah blah blah, and we would weigh in on it.

(50:44):
And then we started like we started like flirting with
the idea, like, you know, let's screw all these people,
like let's do it. Let's do some of ourselves. Like
we would say little things like that in emails and stuff.
And I think it it was at a time where
our fans had grown up, they were ready to, like

(51:04):
I think the world was kind of ready to like
have the new Kids on the Block step on the
stage again. Like all the backlash had had like fizzled out.
It was kind of like it was kind of like
we could feel that people would accept us again. People
wanted to go back to you know, people our fans
were older, you know, our demographic was older, and they

(51:27):
they they and they kind of wanted to go back
to the good old days. I think we all kind
of felt that we felt that this could be something
that we could do get back together and people.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Would that's great, man, you're going to do it.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
You're you're going to do a chore this coming summer. Correct.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Yes, it's so funny because look, we get older, you
guys were young, spry, hot, your fucking your your agile.
Are you going to sort of take the risk and
dance and make to do some of these moves to
where you know you might tear an achilles?

Speaker 3 (52:04):
Are you going to bring it?

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Where are you going to ground it?

Speaker 3 (52:08):
Right?

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Exactly? Because I have thoughts well, because are you sort
of gonna like understand your limitations? Like yeah, fuck it,
let's just go for it. What's your Well.

Speaker 6 (52:16):
It's funny when we reunited, like we were like gung hold,
like let's go all out, like let's you know, and
we were younger than it was fifteen years ago. Uh,
and we've been torn ever since. We tore. Like every
other year we do a big tour and it's funny
like every year we simplify it just a little, the
moves get a little more simple. But honestly, like it's

(52:40):
like we we kind of overdid it. Like when we
were younger, like we had so much energy and we
were like we look back at videos, were like we
were spass. We were like and that was like we're
more refined. It's a little like everything is thought out waiting.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Yeah, and a.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
Physical theraperston on the road does not help, I mean
does help.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
You should do an acoustic You guys all have such
great instruments. You should do an acoustic kind of tour.
That's like you know, like you know, it's like one
thing to obviously do your songs, but it'll also be fun.
I mean maybe you've already done this. I don't know,
but it'd be fun to like really like.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Are you trying to produce them? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (53:29):
I producing and like and like almost like make it
feel like old school moody.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
I'm gonna co produce.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
I'm gonna cope.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
I have an idea too. A co production be so cool, Right,
we're going to co produce your next tour. So what
if what's the big song? What's the big dance song
that everyone sort of knew? You know what I mean? Like, well, right.

Speaker 6 (53:55):
Where it's like by step step by step by step, okay,
so but everybody like everybody goes show me the new
Kids dance and it's like it's.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
That yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's our legs.

Speaker 6 (54:07):
So what so what.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
If I did that move in a movie called something Borrowed?
I don't know if you saw it, but dance.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Don't watch that, but here it will be fun. Here
will be fun. You play on your age just a
little bit, like, yeah, you guys can still dance. But
then you find dancers who are gonna dress like you
guys when you were young. Oh, come out and be
like bam and and then and they fucking hit it
like you guys hit it back.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
And you guys just look sharp and like yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
You're standing behind each of the dancers just being like, yeah.

Speaker 8 (54:38):
We'd even take that a step further and use the hologram.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Yes we could.

Speaker 6 (54:46):
Yeah, I can stay home?

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Yes exactly? All right?

Speaker 3 (54:53):
How fun? So so so we charge charge. So the
next tour, where are you focused?

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Thing?

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Summer tour is going to be where.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
All of North America? Fine, in North America, all of
America and a couple of dates in Canada.

Speaker 6 (55:11):
Yeah, And do you.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
Love being on tour?

Speaker 6 (55:23):
To me, the best time on tour is when we're
on stage and right when we get off, because we
all like hang out in the locker room and we
have like a big dinner, yeah, right off stage, because
we don't like to eat too much before the show
because we're like we don't want to be like yeah

(55:45):
and stuff. So like right after the show, we're like
really hungry, so we hang out and eat. But like,
but touring is kind of it's very boring. Yeah, boring.
There's a lot of dead time, there's a lot of
traveling just on the bus, and there's a lot of
just kind of boring repetition. So it's not as glamorous

(56:10):
as people think. But when we get on stage that's
the best because you know, we get the feedback from
the crowd. Yeah. No, it's funny.

Speaker 8 (56:19):
Everybody thinks they's so glamorous, Like you know, we're shipping, shipping,
sipping champagne backstage before the show, and you know reality is,
you know, we're just on our buses in these little
cramped up bunk beds and bad food and and just
you know, not being home. It's it's sometimes when you're

(56:40):
on tours, it's easier just to not come home because
once you come home you just get so homesick. No,
so it's just months and months and months of living
on a bus.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
Which is not I used to say that. It was
my three months when I was on the road a lot.
It is like once you get to three months, it's
like you you go struggling crazy, and then when once
you get past the three months, then you're in this
like you're in this bubble world that's like a groundhog's
day that gets like really kind of wild and crazy.

(57:15):
At least that was in my twenties, so you kind
of would have to like get past that three months
like living out of the suitcase, and then when you're
like in it, it just for me like became this
wild world that we were living in. So you're right, like,
don't go home.

Speaker 6 (57:32):
The problem for us is that most of our tours
are about three months. So god, crazy, you never reached
the home. We're at that three month crazy mark.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Right, Yeah, do you guys have kids?

Speaker 6 (57:45):
Then we go home?

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Do you have kids?

Speaker 6 (57:48):
I have two kids, twenty four and seventeen.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
Okay, oh cool boys, Yeah, Dante and Eric John. You
guys got kids or no?

Speaker 8 (57:59):
No?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Oh we just got a dog name.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
All of our oh good name.

Speaker 6 (58:05):
Name.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
Well, this is so fun. I want to do our
speed round because we're kind of coming up on the hour.
One word to describe each other when you were at
the height of your fame in your teen years.

Speaker 6 (58:30):
One word to describe the height of our fame.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Yeah, Like what was Jonathan one word? What was his vibe?

Speaker 6 (58:39):
Oh? Wow, guy, John's always been open hearted. Mm hmmm,
So I'll give him that one.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
That's that's good, that's the best.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
What about Jordan's supportive?

Speaker 10 (59:02):
Oh this is not that's so great. Yeah, you guys
are like you you you should write a book about that,
working together, getting along so well. Okay, who was better
behaved growing up?

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Me?

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (59:19):
For sure. I was kind of like John kind of
stayed home more and I was kind of like more
of a street kid.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
If you could name a song that represents your brother,
which one would it be? Like from when you were kids?

Speaker 6 (59:40):
Talented motherfucker, sexy.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
Motherfucker, No, sexy motherfucker, that's a prince? Like what reminds
you of your brother? Like for me, it's like it's
like it's like the what's the song starship we built
this we built this city? Like that reminds me of
all of ours so much?

Speaker 6 (01:00:05):
Oh mm hm, oh okay, So something that reminds me
of John would be like it would have to be.
He's a bad Manmagamma, He's a bad Manmagama. John used
to John used to play the coolest songs when we

(01:00:26):
were like and we had a little he had a
little record player and he played all the disco songs,
did all the funk songs?

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, what was the other one?

Speaker 6 (01:00:36):
Putting on the rits?

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Yeah, putting on the rits?

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Oh god? Yeah, you guys, is that was your influence?
Sort of like did you listen to a lot of
R and B?

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
We did, you know? I think I think our age
difference to in the family, Like my sisters always had
like Pink, Floyd, Queen, the who.

Speaker 8 (01:01:01):
You know, and then we were hanging out with the
younger crowd listening to more you know, R and B.
So m hmm, you know, I think we've had a
very good diversity of music go through our ears over
the years.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Who was your first celebrity crush When I was really
really little.

Speaker 8 (01:01:22):
I was like, I mean I've had many, but I
think Tom Selleck as Magnum p I was one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
I was like, oh that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
He's a teacher loves I mean, by the way you
look at those old magnify eyes. He was a sexy ye.

Speaker 6 (01:01:48):
Those shorts, those really short shorts.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Wearing them now my shorts my daughter this morning because
I'm wearing you know, I'm wearing these corduroy shorts. And
then for some or getting shorter and shorter. I don't
know why, I'm like liking shorter and shorter short. Oh
my god.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
If you were arrested together, who would be the first
person you'd call the bail you out of jail?

Speaker 6 (01:02:13):
Well, we were arrested together. Well, no, you got arrested.
I was arrested with Donnie. But John, you got arrested
protecting me or something?

Speaker 8 (01:02:27):
Right, Yeah, I was with a friend whose thought was
on the police force, so he was the first person
we call.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Oh yeah, okay, would you get arrested for like fighting
or something?

Speaker 6 (01:02:42):
Yeah, well, me and Donnie got arrested for fighting. The
charge was assault and battery with a shod foot, meaning
you had a shoe on and you were kicking somebody
and that was a weapon.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
That is amazing. Yeah, what happened.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
It was just it was just.

Speaker 6 (01:03:02):
He got some like he was he was at work
and he had like a bag like on the counter,
and somebody came in and asked for like a particular
pair of sneakers. He went in the back to get him.
He came back, the kid was gone, and so was
his bag. So he ran over to like the corner

(01:03:23):
and said that dude over there, like, oh my ship,
So who him? We all just chased him and roughed
them up. We were roughing them up. The cops came
and grabbed Donnie and I just Donnie and I. Oh,
and the kid that got roughed up, he was in

(01:03:45):
there too, because Donnie said he stole some So we
were all in the cell to get well. I was
in my own cell, Donnie was in his own cell,
and the kid that we beat up was in the
cell across from us. And we were even in the
even in the prison, we were like yelling at him.
He was yelling at.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
But the back.

Speaker 6 (01:04:11):
What's that?

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
Did you get the bag back?

Speaker 6 (01:04:15):
Oh? Yeah, we got the bag back.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
Oh that's good then then okay, so who did you call?
The same guy friend's dad?

Speaker 6 (01:04:23):
Who do we call? Why? I call my mom? Yeah
that point and he called his mom. It was fifteen
dollar bail.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
No, yeah, I got arrested for paintballing, you know, a
bunch of people on Halloween. It was bad shot. Yeah.
I mean, it's old story I won't get into. But
we got pulled over. We got pulled over, guns drawn
because it was like they thought it was real guns.
So they get the fuck out of the car. I
was like, oh my god. They take us into the
station and now they're going to call our parents. And

(01:04:54):
they get to me and they're like, all right, what's
your dad's name?

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
No, no, no, you're you're telling the story wrong. You're
friends all told me the story. No no, no, they said,
who's the most forgiving parents? I'm skipping a bunch of stuff.
It's too long, But they said, who you know, time
to call my parents? Boom, what's your dad's name? I say,
my god, it's gonna be bad, Like it's Kurt Russell.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
And they're like what what? Yeah, they're like no, but
like they're like they're like they're like, I'm serious, serious kid, Like,
who's your fucking dad? Like Kurt Russell's my step They
the whole station started fighting. The two cops, one who
was the arresting officer and then the one who car
I was in. We're fighting over who's going to make

(01:05:36):
the phone call to my dad.

Speaker 8 (01:05:39):
See, I would hate to be you guys, growing up
with with very famous parents. That's that's a whole another crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
We were were.

Speaker 3 (01:05:52):
I think if you look at all of the kids
who grew up all of these so called nepo babies
kind of thing are ours is particularly different than most
because we kind of grew up in Colorado. They like
moved out and we went to Colorado and we had
like a much more seemingly simple upbringing, even though we

(01:06:17):
traveled a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
And yeah, but but I know, you mean, like, you know,
I hated when people came up to my parents. It
drove me crazy, like I felt violated. It was there.
I was just like the fuck away. I mean, I
remember as a kid having this rage when people would
be hi, like we're a dinner, Like, oh my god,
oh my, oh god. I mean it drove me, really
drove me crazy. Yeah. Yeah, Kate gave her autograph too, Kate.

(01:06:46):
It's like, do you want mine? She's like four, so funny.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
Yeah, it's weird, you are. You do feel like you're
in a little bit of a fish bowl. But then
it's also like we also had the constant of our
parents being like, this is just all this means nothing right,
you know this, this has no substance to it. They
like our movies, you know. The way that they explained

(01:07:15):
it to us kind of set set it apart from reality. Well, listen,
let's go. Let's yeah, let's do the last one. So
we always end our podcast with a with a two
part question, which is if you could The first part
is if you could emulate anything of your sibling that
you love that you wish you had more of. What

(01:07:37):
would that be a characteristic that you that you admire?
And then the second part of the question is what
is something that you wish you could alleviate from your
sibling to bring more ease into their life and maybe
more liberation.

Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
M Yeah, start John. John's like, I'm not ready for this.

Speaker 6 (01:08:07):
You can marinate on it while I try to come
up with something. Like I said earlier, John is very
open hearted and loving. He sees he sees the beauty
in everything, and it could be to a fault. I don't,

(01:08:30):
I don't know, I don't, I don't think so. Yeah,
John is just open hearted and like he uh, he's
he reveals himself. That's probably what I would like more
to be able to reveal myself more and be more

(01:08:50):
open like John is. And what would I like to.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Like a stressor or something that would make his life easier.

Speaker 6 (01:09:04):
I don't know, maybe the burden to be kind of
like a caretaker or to make sure everyone's okay. Maybe
the burden of that. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
Yeah, no, I that makes sense, you know.

Speaker 8 (01:09:20):
And I think the quality I like about you is
you think things through. I always judge straight from the heart,
and it's like, you know, sometimes I don't think about it,
and I know that's why I always love that I
have you to talk things through, and you know I can,

(01:09:42):
I can kind of bitch to you, like, oh my god,
this happened this week and this and that, and you
always seem to have the centered the truth, and like
you'll say, you know, you'll weigh the pros and cons
and well this this is going to cause this, and
this is going to cause that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
And yeah, I think I think.

Speaker 8 (01:10:06):
I think you'res a lot like Dad, you know, where
I can call him and just be like Dad, this
is on my mind. And work helped me work through
the feelings and the steps too.

Speaker 6 (01:10:19):
To change that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
So I I love that quality about you. I'm not
sure there's anything I need to relieve.

Speaker 6 (01:10:33):
You of though, teenage kids? What's that? Teenage kids?

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
I said, may teenage kids, Jordan. In that case, what
would you like to alleviate from yourself?

Speaker 6 (01:10:48):
Well, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say a lot of that,
you know, like thinking it through. It's a lot of thinking,
you know. So I would say, you're gonna alleviate me
of a lot of thinking. I think I'm an overthinker,

(01:11:08):
you know, and that Yeah, in my way of just
being just open like you you know what I mean,
just like blurting, blurting it out, Like I was like, well,
I need to say something reasonable. It has to it
has to be balanced, you know. It's like, no, just
let it the funk out. Yeah, I would say, yeah,

(01:11:34):
that would be something that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
Yeah, that's like our dynamic a little bit. Oliver just
says what's on his mind and I'm like, don't say that, right,
but I'll cut it, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
But that's the worst part about Ka. She cuts these
things and I'm like, leave that in. That's the good ship,
you know what I mean. So, yeah, what's.

Speaker 8 (01:12:00):
The age difference between you two and a half two
and a half years oh see, so that's that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
Yeah yeah, the closer siblings like in age.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. So actually my
wife was like Miss mass like teen miss teen mass
or whatever. And she said that one of your brothers
like married or linked up with a Miss teen mass
that she worked with. Does this ring any bells at all?

Speaker 6 (01:12:31):
Uh, Chris or David?

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
I don't know if it doesn't ring a bell because
she was like, your wife was Miss Mass. My wife
was Miss teen Massachusetts and then then she went to
like Miss teen USA and then like there was like
a runner up whoever she was like a runner up
whoever won was like it was a big bard.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
It was the big You have been with Aaron for
twenty years at.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
Twenty three, I have never heard you didn't know? No,
oh yeah, she's like one Miss team Massachusetts and was
third runner up like Miss teen USA. Talent blow jobs.

Speaker 6 (01:13:11):
Oh ship, now you're gonna cut that and keep it
keep it?

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
Oh my god, oh gosh. Well on that note, you guys,
this has been so great.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
Well maybe when you're in l A, you know, we'll
come check you. Guys. Honestly, thank you for talking.

Speaker 3 (01:13:39):
To us and being so open, and I just feel
like I have a whole new insight on.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
Really fun everything. Great talking to you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
You've been through and it's really cool.

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (01:13:50):
Yeah, for sure. Thank you guys for thinking of us
and having us on your show.

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
We'll see you somewhere down the line for sure.

Speaker 8 (01:14:00):
H