New Kids On The Block: Their Sage Boy Band Advice To One Direction

Before One Direction became kings of the pop music world, New Kids On The Block reigned supreme! Now, in an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife.com, Donnie Wahlberg, Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre offer some wisdom One Direction should take to heart!

After all these years, New Kids On The Block are still hangin’ tough. Though these boy band superstars aren’t really “boys” anymore, they still have the moves and sweet songs to make their fans love them forever! After touring around the world and back, NKOTB has seen (and done) it all. HollywoodLife.com caught up with members of the group and learned what friendly advice they had for current boy band stars, One Direction.

New Kids On The Block will hit Madison Square Garden on June 22 as part of their “The Main Event” tour, along with special guests, TLC and Nelly. Before performing to the thousands of screaming fans, members Donnie Wahlberg, Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre spoke with HollywoodLife.com over what wisdom they would pass along to fellow boy band, One Direction.

“I mean its one of those things where they are getting advice from all over the place,” said Donnie. “The best advice I would say is to have as much fun as you can!”

“You know they are doing their thing,” chimed in Jonathan. “They are doing their thing!”

“Do they really have any problems?” Jordan asked, a bit sarcastically, as he knew that One Direction would overcome any problem — even with Zayn Malik leaving the band. “They are just the biggest boy band in the world right now,” he said before laughing, indicating that he thought they would be fine.

“You know, it’s a hectic schedule and you are getting it from all ends and there is no way around it,” said Joey, recalling his own experiences when he was their age. “I mean the calmest day they can have is very intense and at that age you have the energy for it but you don’t really have the skills to deal with that.”

“Its the best of times, its the worst of times so hopefully they will get through it,” Joey added, before telling One Direction to “[E]njoy it. There are so many wonderful things that come from it, it just takes time to figure it all out!”

New Kids On The Block Bare Insanely Sexy Abs In Shirtless Photo

Though they might not be “kids,” the men of NKOTB still know how to hang with the young guns. On May 16, Danny Wood joined Donnie and Joey for an Instagram shot that flaunted the trio’s sexy abs. “Not bad for a few old men! Hard work pays!” added Donnie. It sure does!

What do you think about NKOTB’s advice for 1D, HollywoodLifers?

HollywoodLife.com would like to thank Cottonelle for providing us with the interview with NKOTB! You can learn more about the campaign here: Cottonelle and New Kids on the Block Encourage Americans to Go Commando.

Here is the rest of the interview we had with the boys!

Your getting myself and other fans scared by calling this tour The Main Event, does that mean this is it, your last tour ever?

Donnie – Will there be a finality to it?

JK – You are actually the first one to bring that up…

Donnie – No, its not our last tour…

Jordan – Its not it..

JM – “I always say that the first farewell tour will be ‘This Is It’, and the second farewell tour will be ‘This Time We Mean It! Then we would have three more farewell tours after that, I just haven’t thought of the names yet. (Laughter)”

Should we anticipate new music soon whether it be singles or a full album?

JM – “Since we got back in 2008 with a new album and then did another album two years ago its still fresh for us and the fans and we haven’t toured a ton since then so that keeps it fresh and new for us, we always embrace the past and all the nostalgia and our hits. We will be working on that for a little bit. We have been playing music for four decades now…”

JK – “Four decades!”

Donnie – “Four decades… That’s wild!”

Was there a song that became a hit that you never thought would be a hit?

Donnie – All of them!

(Everyone Laughs)

Donnie – All of them!

Why is that?

Donnie – “Well Hangin’ Tough for example we did sort of as a gag, we were trying to make some money on the side because we were broke and our producers were broke so we came up with the idea to make it a theme song for the Celtics, the Boston Celtics and maybe we could sell it to them for like a thousand bucks! (Laughs) We thought we would do it as a goof and then it became a number one record and a part of our biggest album, you know there were times in that era that certain people thought it was a corny song, so people marveled at it for being such a hit, we marveled at that in our own way, that song is such a big hit and it was an after thought song! It became one of our signature records!”

Who do you like now that is out there?

JM – I am all about the voices, like John Legend, his voice is so beautiful.

Having TLC and Nelly join the tour, that is a little different from previous tours, what made you decide to add these icons to the tour?

Donnie – We were looking at girl groups and TLC was the obvious choice other than Destiny’s Child which we would probably pick TLC anyways but obviously Destiny’s Child it is kind of hard to get Beyonce! So TLC was our pick and we also thought something about Nelly just felt right. It worked for the whole energy boost of it all. Its all about the hits and the music, its one of those things that you get to the show and it will be one of those nights were people will be like ‘Oh my God I forgot about that one!’ That is what happens when you go see The Stones, you forget all the hits and that is what the night will be like at The Main Event. I mean Nelly has more hits than I can even recall.

— Jason Brow, Interview by Russ Weakland