Interview with Danny on Trent FM

Here is an interview with Danny on Trent FM in Nottingham from last September. (You have to be a member of their website to view, so I copy and pasted it below.)

J presents the evening show, weekdays from 7pm-10pm on Trent FM and he caught up with New Kids on the Block.

J: It was all a big whirl wind for you, it was just like all condensed into two or three years, I mean what was it like for you at the time?

A: Oh, it was madness, craziness!

J: I mean you had screaming girls everywhere you went; your hearing must be completely knackered?

A: “What did you say!?” No, No, our hearing’s good, everything’s in tact ‘bro’, you know we’re all healthy, we’re all fit. You know part of the reason this is all working is because we all keep in shape. No one got fat or heavy.

*J: Would the reunion have been off had someone eaten too many Oreo’s? *

A: You know the way we work as a group, getting back together, we would have told that person, hey you gotta get back in shape, get a trainer. I mean we all consciously did it on our own, you know I’ve always kept myself in shape, but you know everyone really made an effort to get in good shape.

J: Just going back, looking back, you didn’t have the kinda paparazzi that they do now in the late 80’s early 90’s, you had the screaming girls, but you were able to have a life as well weren’t you?

A: Not so much man, cos we grew up in Boston and we were to go back home on our time off everyone knew where we lived. So we would go home and there would be 200 people outside you know on a daily basis. The whole paparazzi thing we’re not really worried about, you know what impact that’s going to have this time around because we’re resilient guys, we grew up in the inner cities.

J: And I suppose your mature enough now to deal with it, I think the people though who err kinda pestered with it now kinda get freaked out about it and worry about it too much and your just like ‘whatever’ if they take a picture of me in an uncompromising pose, ‘so be it’.

A: Yep, err, err that’s part of the job. I mean what’s the worst thing they are gonna get, one of us coming out of a club with some girl, or whatever? I mean we’re decent guys.

J: I was looking on eBay earlier on, and I thought, cos all the different merchandise that you guys put out at the time, t-shirts, lunch boxes, slippers, was there anything that kind of you were asked about.. “Ohh I’ve got this idea to put your names on”, and you thought that’s too much?

A: No. Well back in the day, that whole thing was crazy, the whole merchandising thing really wasn’t our choice and it kinda got out of hand. There was a lot of stuff that was crazy. Looking back now its like “What the hell we’re we thinking?”

J: Just on the internet on eBay, there’s annuals, mugs, novels, dolls, a FLEXIDISK! I don’t know what a flexi disk is anymore, and also I nearly bought the whole story by their friends, I don’t know who those friends were, but you can get it for 4.99 on eBay.

But yeah, the reunion, IT’S ON! Whose idea was it? Who made the first phone call?

A: It wasn’t anyone’s specific idea, we’d been approached over the past 14 years by different people to do things, but we were only gonna do it if it was our idea and we wanted to do it and it was based on music. Donny found a song called ‘Click Click Click’, and let everyone here it and we all agreed, let’s get back in the studio and see what happens. We defiantly took it one step at a time and we didn’t get ahead of our selves. We didn’t talk about a tour, we didn’t talk about money, we didn’t talk about any of that stuff, we just wanted to make a good record first.

J: And what did your families say, you know the thought of you being on the road and being in the spot light again?

A: Erm, I think they didn’t really have a grasp on what it was gonna be like, cos I mean I have 4 kids, and I’m a single dad. I sat them down and they were like “Yeah dad, go for it” and now they’re like “We miss you, we miss you” because this is a long stretch of me not seeing them, but right around the corner is the tour and the second week of the tour my kids are gonna come and see three shows and I know, they’re getting how big it is.

J: Did you show them old video footage of you guys back in the day, weather they liked it or not, you were like “SIT DOWN WATCH ME!”

A: No, No, they were curious when all this was happening. My daughters are nine and ten, they’re very curious, my sons are fifteen and sixteen so they weren’t you know as curious, but they were laughing at some stuff, and then like my daughters sing ‘Step by Step’ they love the song and they love the video. They think my hair is a little funny.

J: Eh, I suppose they help you with the routines for the tour as well?

A: Err my kids? No I help them, what are you talking about?

J: Maybe if they see the video and the dance routine, they can go ‘Dad you’re doing it wrong, your supposed to do this, your supposed to do that’.

A: They’re pretty impressed, they didn’t know what to expect, so the performances we have done, they’ve been pretty impressed with like what we’re doing on stage and the tour’s gonna be completely different we’re taking it to a whole new level.

J: Well that’s it; the reaction has just been crazy. I know you did a little gig in London on Monday, fans everywhere, screaming once again and the tour on sale on Friday, the tickets are gonna sell out so quick, I mean I know they have done in the states. What can people expect from this tour?

A: Well the tour we’re doing now, it’s a really good mix of our old hits and a lot of the new stuff. It’s a lot of dancing; it’s a great stage show. We’ve been working for the last many many months and we’re just really looking forward to getting on tour and being able to show the world what we’ve been doing this last four months, putting this together.

J: The tour goes on sale on Friday, we’re looking forward to it, great nostalgic feel, we’re looking forward to the new stuff and the old stuff as well, just everyone’s gonna be really excited.

A: Just so you know, we’re not going to skip over any of the old songs we’re doing all the old hits, ‘cos we know everyone’s been waiting so long and we don’t wanna be that kind of group, where you come to the show and they didn’t play ‘Step by Step’ or ‘Hang Tough’

J: As so long as you can do a few ‘Ohh Ohh Ohh’s’ for us then that will be fine. Donny, Jon thank you so much for dropping by the see us it’s been incredible, all the best for the new album that’s out this week and that’s all already selling thousands of copies and it’s gonna be top five this weekend. All the best!!