WEBVTT - 4: Top of the World 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:08.920 I've always been curious about what massive fame does to 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:14.280 the frontal lobe that is still being formed. And I 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.279 don't I mean, I don't even know if that is 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:18.400 a thing that you can pull yourself outside of yourself 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:19.520 to know. 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.079 You know, you're in a candy store, so you want 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:24.599 more candy, you know what I mean. 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.200 This is a very special episode of Waiting for Impact, 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.000 because that is Joey McIntyre from New Kids on the Block. 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:34.600 If we're talking about boy band pop stars of the 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.040 early nineties, there is no bigger get. He was at 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.440 the pinnacle, the absolute best case scenario for the kind 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.720 of fame Sudden Impact we're preparing themselves for for a 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.320 few years, peeking it. Right around the time Sudden Impact 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.640 was pointing, Atcha and Hayden and Vette Nicole Brown were 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.760 singing for Michael Bivens and his Sheraton Hotel lobby. New 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.160 Kids on the Block were something more than just popular. 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.240 They were like multi platinum album stad h tour, deafening 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:05.400 screams of girls in the throes of puberty, huge massive 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:09.000 until they weren't. So then what happens. 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:16.679 You're spiritually, physically, mentally handed cupcakes all day long, so 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.360 you think that's what's feeding you. So how else am 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:21.880 I what's the biggest cupcake? 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.440 In nineteen ninety one, Joey was on top of the world. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:27.880 But when you're on top of the world, there's really 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:29.280 only one direction you can go. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:33.759 When you're so high and you're at the top, any 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.440 little slip feels like it's it's over, you know what 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.399 I mean? And yeah, so and that's how it's almost 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:42.560 like it was like a party, you know. So for 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.600 for me as like a kid, you know, a young kid, 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:46.520 I was like. 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.840 Oh man, the party's over. But wait, why what what? 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.360 And my my buddies are like, yeah, man, I'm not 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.600 feeling it. Man, I'm going home, and I'm like. 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.040 But but it was still what do you mean? Like 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.760 people are here and music, you know, and they're. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.040 Like, Joey got the fame and fortune that sudden impact 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:05.960 were after. So while I wait to find out if 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.280 Aaron King is going to get back to me, if 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.600 I can stop myself from screaming at Joey McIntyre, I'm 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.600 going to talk to Joey McIntyre about it, find out 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:16.400 if life as a teen idol was all that it 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.880 was made out to be and find out what it 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.360 did to him and what you do when the party's 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:23.120 over and you're twenty one. 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:25.880 When you're fed a certain thing that's what you think 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:27.799 is going to sustain you, you know what I mean, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.320 until you figure something else out. 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:45.880 This is waiting for impact. A Dave Holmes Passion project. 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:54.280 I join New Kids on the Block at twelve. And 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.520 by the way, is that you're a dog because that 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:58.920 was on the list. That is my that was on 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.799 the list that was Yeah, make sure we love you guys. 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.120 Joey McIntyre is busting my chops because when we book 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:07.560 a guest, we send an email telling them to record 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:09.720 from a quiet place in their house, maybe put their 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:11.960 dogs in a crate. And I didn't put my dog 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.560 in a crate, and now my dog is barking. Joey 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.120 is also busting my chops because he's from Boston and 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:19.440 as we have established, that is what they do there. 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.079 But in my place in Los Angeles it is very noisy. 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.760 There's also there are people I think building a home 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:31.960 from scratch, like ten feet from my backyard. This is 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:38.120 an absolute sonic nightmare of a day. We'll fix it. 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:38.880 We'll fix it. 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:39.480 I'm sorry. 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.200 I'll fix it in post. Joey's in a parked car 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:45.040 outside his New York City apartment because he's got kids 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.080 and that's as quiet a place as he can find. 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.800 The idea of Joey McIntyre just being out there in public, 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.920 unguarded is crazy to me because I'm old enough to 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.720 remember when he was a teen idol back in nineteen 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.680 ninety one. The site of Joey McIntyre would make girls 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.760 look use their minds. It all started with a ballad 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:06.120 called Please Don't Go Girl in nineteen eighty eight, and 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:08.839 as Joey notices a framed photograph of a New York 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.960 City landmark behind me in my office, I learned something 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.320 I did not know about the video for that song. 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:18.360 Oh my God. Now I'm saying is that CBGB's. 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.400 CBGB in the Bowery in New York City was ground 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:24.040 zero for New York City punk music in the nineteen seventies. 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.720 It was full of noise and heroin and vomit. If 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.560 you think about the CBGB bathroom too hard, you get hepatitis. 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:36.680 Fun fact, that's where we did our first video, CBGB's 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:41.279 Yes a Pop boy Band at CBGB's Please don't go, girl. 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.440 Stop this. Swear to God, you stop that. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:44.760 I know, isn't that wild? 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.840 In CBG Nobb's. 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.919 Absolutely so the next time you see that, you'll know 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:53.120 and you might recognize it. 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.640 I don't know what's funnier the fact that Joey McIntyre 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.600 thinks I watch New Kids on the Block videos regularly 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.640 or the fact that he's right. But there you go. 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.720 The tender ballad that launched the great American boy band 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.200 of the eighties and nineties was filmed on the stage 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.720 that gave us the Ramones and television Now it's a 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:13.520 John Varvados and now so weird. What's actually weird is 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.279 that I have a framed photograph of CVGB hanging in 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.240 my office because I used to live very close to 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.159 it in New York City and I never went even 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.920 once because I was scared. But Please don't Go, Girl 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.240 blew up and the hits kept coming for about three years. 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.560 New Kids were the pop group. Joey's a good example 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.920 of someone whose plans for pop music success did pan out. 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:34.960 So I wanted to talk to him about the whole 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.440 ride and whether he's glad he took it and my 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:39.520 friends Joey gets real. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:45.200 I joined New Kids on the Block when I was twelve. Okay, 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.520 it wasn't a cattle call. It wasn't a big American 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:52.920 idol search. I think a total of eight people auditioned, 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.080 so it wasn't a huge deal at the time. And 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.200 you know, for the first three years, we really although 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.200 we got to go into a studio and record, we 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:04.320 were really just you know, as an after school thing. 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.400 In nineteen eighty four, after New Edition came back home 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.920 from their first world tour and were mailed to check 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.800 in the amount of one dollar and eighty seven cents 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.000 for their work, the group fired their manager, Maurice Starr. 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.479 Starr responded by holding auditions for a new vocal group 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.200 five members, just like New Audition, but white. He found 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.280 five guys. Joey was the last to join. They called 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.919 themselves Nanook at first, and they got signed to Columbia Records, 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.880 and Columbia Records said change that name. Track one on 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.440 side two of their debut album became their new name, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.360 New Kids on the Block. That first album came out 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.000 in nineteen eighty six. It was marketed to R and 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.320 B radio stations and it tanked. 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.719 I mean that being said, when I was fifteen, we 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:49.400 got a break and we were gone. 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.919 In nineteen eighty eight, they released a second album, Hanging Tough. 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.320 It too was pushed to black audiences and it two tanked. 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.520 At least at first Columbia Records was getting ready to them, 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:05.239 and then Q one o five, a top forty station 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.640 in Tampa, Florida, began playing Please Don't Go Girl, and 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.119 their listeners began requesting it, so Q one o five 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:18.040 now started playing it a lot. Columbia changed their marketing 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.040 strategy and began to push the record at top forty stations. 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.640 It worked. The album Hanging Tough went on to sell 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:41.080 fourteen million copies. That, of course, is the title track 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.520 from Hanging Tough. And if you were alive and under 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.120 twenty years old in nineteen eighty nine, your arms are 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:47.960 up over your head right now. You're waving them back 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.280 and forth. You can't help it. It's a reflex action. 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.040 The album Hanging Tough put five singles into the top ten. 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.160 In a flash. New Kids on the Block became huge. 0:07:57.600 --> 0:07:59.800 How huge Christmas album? 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:02.120 We know what? 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.600 Millions of girls all over the world want Santa to bring. 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:12.400 Them for Christmas. 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:16.480 My next guest performing the hit single Funky Funky. 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:20.840 Christmas from their platinum Albune Marry Merry Christmas, Please Welcome 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:26.840 the New Kids of the Life. Yep, that was Arsenio Hall. 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.880 I just really wanted you to know about Funky Funky Christmas. 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.280 But New Kids' popularity was a very specific kind of popularity, 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:39.240 and so then for those next several years, it was 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:45.599 just adoration for you. I mean, I don't know what 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:46.000 I mean. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.640 Yes, you know what comes into my mind is like, yes, 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:52.560 of course, of course you know it was adoration, but 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.000 you're also it's also us against the world, you know 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:56.440 what I mean. 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:00.400 It's like when you're coming up and I want to say, 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.120 it seems more so back then because it feels more romantic. 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.680 It's almost like a movie, like we're going to show 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:07.880 the world. You know. I don't mean this in. 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.079 A heartless way, because we were defending ourselves back then 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.320 a lot, some of us more than others, you know, 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.640 But like it's called life, you know, it's called life 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:21.280 where humans on the earth, we're not perfect. We give 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.000 each other a hard time, like you know, back then, 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:25.520 we didn't have any. 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:27.320 Critics on our side, you know what I mean? But 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.120 we had the greatest fans in the world. 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.520 Those fans, mostly very young girls, would go on to 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.600 buy over seventy million New Kids records in nineteen ninety one. 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.760 New Kids were on top. So where personally was Joey? 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.360 Who was Joey McIntyre in nineteen ninety one? 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:52.560 Oh boy, You know, I hesitate because of course you 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:57.679 want the truth and you just want whatever it feels genuine. 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.079 You know, I want to say something perfect. 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.480 I want to say that I was X in nineteen 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.240 ninety one, and it fits in perfect with the fact 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.320 that I was in one of the biggest pop bands 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.200 in the world at the time, and you know, really 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:17.120 at the height and playing stadiums, and you know, certainly 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:22.320 before we kind of like imploded in our beautiful way. 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.280 But ninety one, you know, I was eighteen. I was 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:30.319 a little bird man, you know. I there is definitely 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:35.000 some arrested development as far as I am concerned, and 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:37.800 I think that has a lot to do with being 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:40.679 very busy and famous as a teenager. 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.320 Yeah, you said there was some arrested development. 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:45.319 What do you mean, Well, I don't know. 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.000 I mean, I mean, I say that in comparison to 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:53.480 what I see kids now and how full they are 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.760 as people at such a young age. 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.640 I don't see myself that way. 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:02.240 I think again, maybe that was just because I didn't 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.560 go to high school and I didn't have the normal 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:11.319 teenage angsty journey of figuring things out at the same time. 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.000 Every time we hear about high school, everyone refers to 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:17.480 it as the worst time in their lives. 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:19.920 So I mean, I don't Maybe I. 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.120 Dodged a bullet there, but I. 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:26.920 Don't know it. Just a lot happened to me at 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:27.480 that age. 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:32.760 Yeah, but I know you now, and you are well 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.840 adjusted and put together as far as I can tell. 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:38.120 You're laughing. 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:39.479 Yeah. 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.120 New Kids' third album, step by Step, came out in 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.080 nineteen ninety, and it sold three million copies. Still a 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.559 big hit, just a lot fewer millions than Hanging Tough. 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.240 It was a precarious time for the band, and they 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.160 got offered a huge and risky gig. Tell me about 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:55.400 the super Bowl halftime show. 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:56.440 Oh geez. 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.839 From today's perspective, the super Bowl halftime show seems like 0:11:59.880 --> 0:12:02.280 a real coup, a spot for a Springsteen or a 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.880 U two or a Katie Perran Left Shark. Now it's 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.160 a gig that puts an official stamp on you, says 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.920 you are iconic. But up until nineteen ninety one, no 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.520 current pop stars had ever played the halftime show. Pre 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.440 nineteen ninety one, it was still up with People or 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.280 the Grambling State Marching Band or I'm serious here Carol Channing. 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.480 The nineteen ninety halftime show featured Master of Presta digitation 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.240 Elvis Presto, doing a three D card trick. Sponsored by 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.920 diet Coke. The super Bowl is the biggest television event 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.360 of the year, more than one hundred million pairs of 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.440 eyes on you. I mean, that's the peak. 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:41.880 No, that was the cliff. 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.400 In nineteen ninety one, New Kids had just come off 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.400 their Magic Summer Tour sponsored by Coke, one of the 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.000 biggest selling tours of the decade. There were New Kids 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:51.679 on the Block t shirts, there were New Kids on 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.800 the Block lunchboxes, there were New Kids on the Block dolls. 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:57.320 There was a New Kids on the Block Saturday Morning 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:01.199 cartoon for God's Sake, and then my favorite, there was 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.160 a New Kids on the Block hotline nine hundred nine 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.959 oh nine five Kids are New Kids on the Block. 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.800 Fans could call and listen to a recording two dollars 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.640 for the first minute, forty five cents each additional minute 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.480 under eighteen, ask your parents for permission call, And just 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:19.240 to give you a sense of how this thing was 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.480 being marketed, I need you to hear this line from 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:23.960 Joey McIntyre. You know, we're not too young to fall 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:24.320 in love. 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.400 And if you don't wanted the special callers, you get 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:27.560 to talk to us live. 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.600 Hang on the line at forty five cents each additional minute, 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:32.719 and eventually I might come on and fall in love 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.560 with you. New kids were raking it in, but all 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:36.840 that money wasn't free. 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.839 Everything happened so fast, you know, so when we talk 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.640 about you know, we started talking about us at CBGB's 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:46.280 and you think, what are new kids on the block 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.720 filming a video and one of the most hallowed rock 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.120 and roll clubs of all time. 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.920 But like we were city kids, you know what I mean. 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:56.920 We were a black and white movie, you know. 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.400 And you look at those first four videos and they're 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.479 completely genuine, and they they that's. 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.040 What drew people to us. 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.880 And then you know, the business said, wait a minute, 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.920 your fans are five years old. Your colors should be fluorescent, 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.040 pink and green, and yellow, not black and white. And 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.880 then by the six months later, we said, why are 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:21.720 their slippers with our face on them? 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:22.600 You know what I mean? Like? 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.920 And we was still at any era in nineteen ninety one. 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.400 In nineteen ninety that like, it just got away from us. 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.240 And it didn't mean that the managers were bad people. 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:35.600 They weren't trying to steal from us. It just got 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:37.280 away from us and happened too fast. 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:39.840 New kids on the Block wanted to grow up. The 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:43.200 nineteen ninety one Super Bowl halftime show was marketed as 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:47.320 the first all Kids Halftime show, A small world salute 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:49.880 to twenty five years of the Super Bowl, brought to 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.160 you by Walt Disney World, and it is something else. 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.880 A cast of actual children, small children playing cheerleaders, referees, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:01.760 and players in a choreographed SLA appstick football game coached 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:05.920 by Roger Rabbit and Goofy people in Chippendale Rescue Rangers 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.000 costumes do the Running Man to MC hammers, you can't 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.520 touch this. A five year old boy with a bowl 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:13.960 cut sings win Beneath My Wings to the men and 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:16.680 women of the Armed Forces. And then new Kids on 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.680 the Block come out and literally two thousand children in 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.320 the costumes of our small world run at them. As 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:26.400 I watch this, I realize this halftime show is why 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.400 we now have halftime shows with Springsteen and YouTube and 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:33.600 Katy Perry and Left Shark. This one is corny. This 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:35.640 is the one that makes the NFL say, how about 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.920 we change course? Here? New Kids on the Block had 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:39.760 the same discussion. 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.480 We didn't want to be performing with Mickey Mouse, you 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:49.520 know what I'm saying. I had just turned eighteen. The 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.200 rest of the guys were twenty one, twenty two. 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:54.360 That's a big difference. 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:59.080 Yeah, they were ready to move on in a lot 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:04.840 of ways and you know, not be seen in that way, 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:09.080 and so, you know, in many ways, it was that 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:10.400 classic thing of. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.360 You know, the stress of the outer world was coming 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:20.560 in and it was really nothing personal. We stuck together 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.400 and we've certainly obviously over the years, have respected and 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:25.120 loved one another. 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.760 I mean, we just kind of lucked out. But you know, 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:30.880 we didn't want to be there, you know what I mean. 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.440 We didn't want to be in you know, white and 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.600 Gold and have Mickey Mouse and thousand and five year 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:41.600 olds running behind us, like we wanted to maybe not 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.080 rock out, but like do it a little differently so, 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.760 but the wave had already showed up. 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.400 And do you say no to the Super Bowl halftime show? 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.360 This was the Super Bowl when Whitney Houston sang the 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.120 national anthem and it went to number one. It was 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.440 at the height of Operation Desert Storm, the original Iraq War. 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.760 Before they rebooted the franchise in two thousand and three, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.560 America had war fever. In nineteen ninety one, newscasters like 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.600 Arthur Kent and I Swear to God Wolf Blitzer became 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:13.639 heart throbs and in wartime, if you're lucky, sometimes you 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.400 dodge a bullet. ABC, who aired the Super Bowl that year, 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.159 knew how good war is for ratings, so at the 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.280 end of the first half they cut away to a 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.840 news package about Operation Desert Storm. They didn't air the 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:30.000 halftime show. Some ABC affiliates did air the halftime show 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.040 after the game, but most didn't. Most just went to 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.400 the premiere of the big new comedy that the network 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.119 was so proud of they gave it the plumb post 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.840 super Bowl spot, Davis Rules, starring Randy Quaid and Jonathan Winters. 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:45.840 New Kids on the Block got the biggest stage in 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.920 the world, on the highest rated television event of the year, 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.840 in a show that was extremely corny and almost nobody 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.439 saw it. But the tension in the group was growing 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.760 and the culture was changing. As Chris Malanfei told us 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.359 in the last episode, the pop charts were beginning to 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:05.320 more accurately reflect America's tastes in music. We were starting 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:09.359 to want something darker, more experimental. The alternative radio format 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.440 artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jams, Soundgarden was blowing up. Hip 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.119 hop was going mainstream, and the music New Kids on 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:18.280 the Block was releasing wasn't cutting it. 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.879 MTV just almost changed, like you know, overnight. 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.840 It really did. It really did, And I'm wondering what 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:32.840 that feels like to a massive pop act. Did you 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.119 feel like, oh, oh boy, we might not be a 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:37.000 part of what's next. 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:42.959 No, I think, you know, I think it's more specific. 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.359 I think I think our journey is just more personal. 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.000 When you talk about the music and you think of 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:54.120 the Hanging Tough album and the way we recorded that record, 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.000 with the soul and the integrity and the time and 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:02.040 the fun and the work it, you know, we never 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:06.040 felt like, wow, how did that happen? Like we knew 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.560 that we put the work in and then, you know, 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.600 because it was like everything else, because we were so popular, 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.960 you got to rush out the next album. You know, 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:17.960 ours do that all the time, and they still do. 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.000 They still do, you know, and they swear it's a 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.520 good album, but everyone's everybody and everyone plays along with it, 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:26.760 but it's not. 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:30.639 Really as good as the one that really took off. 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:32.119 Do you know what I'm saying. 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:36.639 It's like you get a freeze in, like Billy listen, listen, 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.200 let me, let me get whatever, because no one cares anyways. 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:43.080 But Billie Eilish, you know that that single, I can't 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.679 even name it. You know, I'm not a friend that 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.439 than anyone. You know, that's an album cut from the 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.719 album before. That's not the next hit record. But everybody's 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.560 gonna play it, yeah, you know, because they love her. 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.840 The record's not as good, you know. So it's that 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.159 that's just the way it works, you know. 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.359 Shots fired against Billy Iowa, shots fired. 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:14.040 Yeah, I know she's yeah, nobody cares, thank god, so 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:15.080 so you know. 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.159 But my point is is, obviously, you know, our second 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.439 album on the third album, but our album have to 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:21.080 hang it tough. 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:23.560 Step By step was a massive record, that was a 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.679 great hit record. Jordan's saying an amazing lead. 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:30.320 It was awesome, But the album didn't have the thing 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:31.399 because we were rushing it. 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:34.400 We were recording it in the hotels. We weren't on the. 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:39.000 Same page creatively, you know. So it wasn't Nirvana that 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:41.159 did it, it was us that did it. So I 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:46.480 felt I never connected our fall if you will, with 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:48.520 Nirvana and grunge. 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:51.159 New Kids on the Block had stuck together through the 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:55.520 struggle for success, through NonStop touring, through being adored by 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.639 young girls and vilified by critics, through that hotline. But 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:02.080 the dress of trying to decide what to do next 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.960 while they were on the mountaintop and any tiny misstep 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:08.920 could send them tumbling down was tearing them apart. At 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.679 the nineteen ninety American Music Awards, New Kids on the 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.960 Block won Best Duo or Group and Best Album for 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.160 Hanging Tough. They performed a big medley of their hits 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.600 the nineteen ninety one American Music Awards, first of All, 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.320 were hosted by Keenan, Ivory Wallians and Bart Simpson. 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:29.920 I'm really confused, man, where's the host of this sting? 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.399 Honey? Where's that Keen and Ivory Wayans, where is he? 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.240