New Kids On The Block (Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Jordan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood) joined Audacy host Mike Adam backstage in the Hard Rock Artist Lounge at New Jersey’s Prudential Center to help us celebrate our 11th year of We Can Survive.
LISTEN NOW: NKOTB backstage at Audacy's 11th annual We Can Survive
At this year’s We Can Survive concert on September 28, NKOTB shared the stage with Justin Timberlake, Tate McRae, Benson Boone, Khalid, and Isabel LaRosa, and kicking off their backstage chat, each of the guys also shared the last artists they had seen as simple spectators.
Showing off their well-versed musical knowledge, first Joey McIntyre said with a snap, “Oh, I saw John Mayer and Ed Sheeran at the Wiltern in L.A. beat that!” In Jonathan Knight’s case he adds, “When we were on tour, I went and saw blink-182.”
“I'm trying to remember my last one,” says Donny Wahlberg, before recalling, “I think it was Depeche Mode in Chicago,” eliciting a number of cheers from the gathered crowd. Lastly, Jordan Knight remembers seeing The Weeknd just last weekend, while Danny Wood adds, “Mine was Hall and Oates, I took my daughter.”
All of this concert talk naturally led into the group’s upcoming epic residency dates kicking off in the summer of 2025, starting June 20 through July 5 at the Park MGM.
When it comes to choosing songs for their setlists, Donny Wahlberg acknowledges, “We have a large catalog to choose from… it's gonna be a long process of putting the show together and coming up with the best ideas. We want to try new things, and fun things, and of course, play the hits and feel the nostalgia and all the feels that people expect at a New Kids show.”
“But New Kids’ show is always fun, it's always a party, we always have a lot of surprises,” he adds. “Everything on the setlist will fit into that spirit, and the spirit of Vegas, I would say, would be one of the different things. You can take that however you want, but there's years of Vegas history and years of New Kids history to play around with -- and we probably explore all of it.”
Everything is up for grabs when it comes to their setlists, they admit. “It might be fun to maybe do one of those spin-the-wheel on the deep cuts,” Joey adds. “I think we like to surprise ourselves.”
Touching on the recent news that singer Chappell Roan had canceled her tour in order to focus on her mental health, Jordan Knight says “It's kind of tough, even for me. You wanna be a celebrity, but you want your privacy. You want both things and it's really hard to do that. I guess maybe it's more like an inner thing to not let things get to you more-so than try to find total privacy while also trying to be a celebrity. It's very difficult.”
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Joey adds, “Clearly she's incredibly articulate with her feelings and where she is in her career and how it happened so fast, and it's lovely that someone could just say that. We came from an era where, if you said you weren't 100% grateful for everything you had, people would look at you like you're crazy. So, it is nice that I think it's part of the evolution of humans and artists to say, ‘This is wonderful, but this is what I need’ -- and that's what she's saying. I think we do that in our own way, maybe more quietly and because we've been in the game for so long, but it's not easy.”
“As far as advice, you can't really give advice,” he continues. “I mean, you can't even give advice to your own kids. I had a great dad, right? It goes in one ear and goes out the other. You gotta learn on your own. Hopefully, you have enough people around you that can cushion some of the blows that you go through. But it's an interesting world to grow up in.”
The biggest misconception specifically when it comes to mental health, Donny says, “is that asking questions or asking for help is a weakness.” On the contrary, “It's a strength,” he believes. “It takes vulnerability which takes strength. Imagine telling even your closest friend your deepest darkest secret, it's hard, and a lot of us will pass up that opportunity time and time again.”
“We have to learn in time. Hopefully that asking for help, asking questions, is a strength. It takes vulnerability, and in that regard, we can just try to encourage everyone. One of the reasons we're here is to encourage everyone to ‘don't be afraid,’ you know. Even us… we grew up in the music business, we became really successful as teenagers, and suddenly everyone in our life thought we had all the answers -- and we were children. It made it hard for us to say, ‘Damn, I'm struggling right now.’ Everyone's like, ‘Hey man, what do I do?’”
“It's a journey for everyone,” he says, “but asking for help, however vulnerable anyone feels doing it, hopefully you can find the strength to do it because it's a beautiful thing and there are people out there willing to help -- but they can't read our minds.”
Don't miss Mike Adam's full chat with NKOTB above and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.
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Audacy's I’m Listening initiative aims to encourage those who are dealing with mental health issues to understand they are not alone. If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression or anxiety, know that someone is always there. Additionally, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 988. Find a full list of additional resources here.