Boy band becomes men band. Danny responde

The New Kids on the Block are older, but so are their fans.

By Ed Condran

Eagle correspondent

The New Kids on the Block aren't new. They aren't kids, either. But their new album is called "The Block."

Yes, the former pinups from Boston are back after a 15-year hiatus. Fans are flocking to arenas throughout the country to see if the New Kids, who are creeping toward middle age, have the right stuff.

Danny Wood recently took time to talk about one of the early boy bands, which will perform Friday at Hartman Arena.

Why are you still called New Kids on the Block?

It's just the name we're associated with. It would be really foolish to call ourselves something else. The Beach Boys didn't change their name and they are hardly boys.

Are the girls still as crazy and desperate as they were for you guys 20 years ago?

I would say it's not the same. The girls are older just like we're older. They're responding to the performance as opposed to just screaming at anything like they used to.

What's the craziest thing a girl did to get close to you guys during your heyday?

I remember in South America, there were girls who were climbing on top of our van, trying to get in. We were in some crazy situations. But when we started this thing again, I said, "Do you think any of these girls will be chasing our bus?" And yes, we're in Montreal and girls are chasing our bus.

You guys are the toughest boy band, right?

Is that saying much? Are we the toughest boy band? That's ridiculous. We are from Dorchester (a gritty Boston suburb). We got bused to schools in which we were the only white kids.

When you say we ...

I mean (NKOTB) Donnie (Wahlberg), who has been my friend since the first grade. We didn't grow up rich.

But now you are, so why are you back? That goes double for Donnie, who has been doing well in films.

Donnie played us a copy of "Click Click Click." He had just finished the movie ("Righteous Kill") with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro and he was excited about what could happen with our band.

Me and Donnie have been friends for so long that I usually follow his lead, and we all got excited about the project.

Do you sound contemporary on this tour or are you going to take us back to 1989 sonically?

I would say contemporary. We have a live band behind us this time, which is so cool. We do some of the songs a bit differently. We do "The Right Stuff" with more energy. We have more production in it. We play the hits. We'd be foolish not to play the hits and, of course, we do new material as well.

There were boy bands before you guys but it felt like you guys were the prototype.

Before us there was the New Edition, who we idolized. Then there were the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds. But the thing is that so many boy bands came out after us. They all seem to follow a formula. They had to have the heartthrob, the young, cute one, the tough guy. You had all these auditions to fill slots for boy bands after us. There were only about eight guys that auditioned for New Kids. It wasn't like there was a plethora of white boys who wanted to sing and dance in a boy band. Back then, that wasn't too cool in 1986.

Why weren't you too cool to audition?

I was already pretty much there. I was break-dancing all over the city. I sang in the choir in elementary school. I just picked up where I left off. It wasn't a huge step for me to audition. I did what I had to do and the same applies today.

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