Classic Moment: Donnie Wahlberg

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Donnie, you there.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
I am here, Billy.

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Now I got to ask you, where are you?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh gosh, Well, today I'm in Toronto. Tomorrow i'll be
in Chicago. And I guess last night I was in Boston.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, You've been doing a lot of shooting in Boston,
so I didn't know if you were still in town shooting.
And I want to start Donnie with an apology. Okay, Well,
because it may have come across it, I was bugging
you to come on the show. And you have to understand, Donnie,
every time your name comes up, and it comes up

(00:37):
almost every day because you're doing so much and traveling
so much, they immediately say, hey, why don't you just
call your buddy, Donnie Walburn. Right, So I'm pressure, buddy.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
I still think it's an honor. I still take it
as an honor. It's still an amazing treat. And I
will never look at you as being a bother Billy.
You've always been good to me and the Guy and
the new kids, and you were one of the first
people in any position of radio or anything that treated
us with respect and love in that city. And it
will always mean the world to me that you call

(01:10):
me and text me and check in to come on
the show.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Well, I really appreciate that, Donnie, and your family has
really been good to us. I don't know if you
even realize this, but Jenny Johnson and I have a cookbook,
and your brother Mark did the forward to the book.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well to see now I have a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, ope, see you know you have early morning sound
to your voice. Are you in bed right now, Donnie?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I actually just got out of the bed because I
think our phone's breaking up a little, so I'm moving
to a different part of the apartment. Yeah. Yeah, it
was a big It was a big week filming in Boston,
and I mean we filmed on the Green Monster. We
filmed in Boston, Common, on the waterfront, and Charleston. We
were everywhere, and I was yelling doing a lot of stop,

(02:00):
please stop, please loud volume. So my voice is a
little beat up this morning.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now I got to ask you. Did you and Jenny
FaceTime each other overnight?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
We did? In fact, she's not only did we FaceTime.
I had to hang up on her to take this
call with you, But I was okay doing it because
she's actually gonna come meet me for the weekend. We
have the weekend together. And yeah, I think.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
You have a Wallburger in Toronto, do you?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
We do? We have one? Well, it's actually in the airport,
so I can only really pop in there if I'm
taking a trip. Yeah, but other words that that's the
one up here. So I try to go to Wallburger's
once in a while. You know, I don't want to
go too much because it could be problematic for me.
I try to stay in really good shape. I don't

(02:53):
work out at like three am, like my brother Mark,
but I work out and eat really well and stay fit.
Wahlberger is like my weekly treat. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
I gotta tell you, Donnie, you look really good. In fact,
I don't think I've ever said this to another man,
but the other day me and Lisa were talking here
in the studio, and I think you should take this
as a compliment. You're a dilf. Yeah, And for the record, Donnie,

(03:23):
I do too.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
You know. It's you know, you know, Billy, we've always
shared that with each other. Uh, only only professionally, but
I think you've always been a look for yourself.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Wait a minute, Donnie, are you saying that I'm a dilf?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
A dad? I'd like to know.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
You went to the Red Sox game the other night
and they wasted no time finding you with the cameras.
Can you play that justin?

Speaker 3 (03:50):
All right, that's Donnie Wahlberg, who is a Boston native
and is wearing a Mets long sleeve tea. I would
imagine that that pains him. However, he is here at
Fenway Park. They are shooting an episode of the TV
drama Blue Bloods. He's an NYPD detective Danny Reagan Boston
Blue Rather So, welcome to Fenway, Donnie.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Did it pain you to put the Mets jersey on?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yes? But whenever I see these posts or people talking
about it, they all say, I bet you he put
in this contract that he wouldn't have to wear the Yankees,
And that is true. I didn't put it in my contract.
I just proclaimed it. The first day. I said, listen,
Danny is a New Yorker, He's going to Boston. I
will not be a Yankee fan. And that's it. It

(04:35):
did pain me. I was literally running around up there
on the Green Monster like covering my chest so like
all the real fans, because we were surrounded by extras.
But once I got past them, all the real fans
were like, what are you doing? You know, But the
best part about the clip is that the family and
friends in the clip put a Red Sox jersey on
Danny at the end of the scenes end of an episode,

(04:57):
and it was really sweet and really fun. It did
pain me, but I loved every second of filming the
scene because I knew the end was going to be
worth the torture that I had to go through. We're
in the Mets jerseys.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
How would you compare it doing this show that's spin
off of Boston Blue to Blue Blood?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Oh well, you know, it's it's wow. It's a heavy
question because Blue Blood's was you know, in many ways,
I was sort of responsibility free in some ways. And
I don't mean that in an arrogant way or anything
like that. I was playing a New Yorker. I'm playing
in New Yorker and I'm a Bostonian, so I got
to have fun with that and got to really dive

(05:33):
into that character and just be you know, crazy and
really over the top with it. But now I'm in Boston,
I feel a great responsibility to, you know, respect the
city of Boston. While portraying a New Yorker and it's
a delicate tight rope to walk. And of course, you know,
the family and Tom Selleck and the entire cast were

(05:54):
you know, my friends, and we're very close and so
this is a new world. Of course, going to stay
connected with the old characters, and they'll be popping up
from time to tell good Yeah, guest appearances, Oh absolutely,
oh yeah, we have. The first episode is going to
blow people's minds. I think people are going to be like,
oh my god, Like there's some twists and turns in

(06:15):
the first episode, and then we're going to continue that.
You know, we want to pay respect and honor Blue Bloods,
but also you know there are then there thousands and
thousands of police families in America and we want to
tell some of those stories too, And we want to
let Danny explore, you know, be a fish out of water.
And what better place to throw in New Yorker than

(06:36):
the middle of Boston. And you know, I got to
experience that fourteen years on Blue Bloods as of Boston
only and in the middle of New York. So this
will be a fun turn.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
And we have a question from a listener I think
about the show.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
I was just wondering how long are they filming this
show in Boston? And like did it start filming like
yesterday or because I know they're filming like yesterday or
two days ago at Fenway and like in the Commons,
I'm pretty sure I saw like tiktoks, like how long
are they going to be filming there for? Because I'd
love to see them.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Film I think we'll be filming in Boston a lot.
So here's the thing with you know, people think it's
a personal choice or something that like I didn't want
to film in Boston. I had the best time in
my life filming in Boston. I have the best time
in my life every time I go to Boston. I'm
talking to you, Billy, because you're my friend and you're
from Boston. The TV and the industry has really been

(07:25):
beat up from COVID and the strike, and I think
a lot. You know, CBS, for example, used to make
like twenty shows a year. They're making two this year,
new shows, and I'm on one of them. And it's
really dire straits financially, you know, in the industry. So
I'm really fortunate to be making a show. I'm really
fortunate to be able to go to Boston and work

(07:46):
at all. But you know, when I initially was offered
a job, I said, we got to go to Boston.
They said, we can't afford it. It's basically thirty cents
on a dollar to film in Canada right now, compared
to you know, eighty cents on a dollar, ninety cents
on a dollar even with tax player. But I said,
we have to go to Boston. I can't not go
to Boston. So the plan right now is to do

(08:06):
the interiors up here and go to Boston every couple
of weeks and do what we did and put a
crew together, a Boston crew, and go down and film
all over the city. And you know, you can't fake
what Boston looks like. And you know, we're bringing Boston
actors up here to guests in the shows, and we're
doing everything we can, and hopefully, in success, we can

(08:28):
be in Boston more. That's the goal is, let's compromise
to get the show made. We'll work outside and do
exteriors in Boston, and then you know, in success, perhaps
we can come down there and be there full time.
That would be a dream of all dreams.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
I know you're busy up there in Toronto. I wish
you nothing but love. Just know that Boston loves you, Donnie,
and you're doing a great job. We're proud of you.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Billy, thank you, thank you Boston, thank you everyone there
at Kiss and honestly that we grew up there down
there in Boston filming. It would be really hard to
be there full time because I probably took forty six
thousand selfies in just a few days. The duck boats
kept driving by, going dott it. They pictures with all

(09:11):
the duck boats. It was the most fun. But I
could see, you know, and the crew was like, oh
my god, the city loves you. And I was like overwhelmed.
Every now and the anain a director would look at
me and go, okay, Donnie, you gotta say no to
Sully and Timmy and Obi. Let's go