News4U/Hot957 Interview with Donnie

Note: I'm not sure why this posted as a "new" post... I've been updating old posts and removing/fixing dead links. So this was a post from 2009 I had edited today and for some reason it changed the date to today. 

Here is an interview with Donnie from News4U (I think it was originally for radio station Hot957)... 

Video courtesy of couthie

Also read about the interviewer's experience interviewing Donnie: 

NKOTB IS BACK!

Sarah Pepper

Donnie Wahlberg Gave Me This Coke!

(And other True Fairytales)

It was an event that was fifteen years in the making. Over 70 million albums sold and hundreds of millions of fans waited in line for hours for just a glimpse of the five boys from Boston – New Kids on the Block.

            In the early Nineties, to say that I was a fan would be the understatement of the century. I had the comforter, the shirt, the button and anything and everything else I could get my hands on that had the acronym “NKOTB” on it. Now, as much as I would like to travel down memory lane and relive the days of big, crimped hair and tight, acid-wash jeans, I am going to save myself the embarrassment and get back to the present.

            I had been waiting fifteen years to see New Kids on the Block and now with ticket in hand, my backstage pass secured to my jeans and a very “cool” sound-check bracelet buckled snugly onto my wrist, I could hardly believe that any of it was real. As I made my way into the venue I couldn’t help but shake. I wasn’t a radio personality going to do a pre-show interview. I was a thirteen-year-old love-stricken girl all over again!

            I was taken into a small room backstage and told to wait; Donnie would be with me in a moment. DONNIE! I screamed in my head DONNIE WAHLBERG! I tried to remain calm but I’m pretty sure the bodyguard, who must have weighed at least 350 pounds, saw my legs weaken and let out a little laugh.

            I sat with my recorder in my left hand, my list of questions clinched in my right hand and in those five or six minutes I was reminiscent of my adolescence. I began humming “The Right Stuff” and would have broken into full song if my thoughts weren’t interrupted. “Can I get you something to drink?”

            “No, I’m fine.” I replied without even looking up but as my eyes turned to the door I realized it was Donnie Walhberg who was standing in the doorway. I fumbled to get up and as I did my recorder, questions, and pride fell to the floor. I was face-to-face with my childhood idol.

 “Let me help you with that.” Donnie bent down to grab my recorder off the ground as I scrambled to get my questions together.         “Thank you, Donnie.” Thank you Donnie! Did I really just say that? I mean I’m calling him by his first name and we’ve only known each other for about two seconds.

            “Have a seat, let me get you something to drink. Coke okay?”

            “Is Coke okay?” I thought to myself, “Anything you bring me will be wonderful…” I was talking in my head again and realized he had noticed. “Coke is great.” I was finally able to answer.

            This time when he re-entered the room I was much cooler than before. I had everything set up. I properly introduced myself and we sat and chatted for the next thirty minutes.

            I confessed that I, like so many others, had adored him as a pre-teen and he couldn’t help but laugh.  We joked about all the New Kids products every girl had to own “back in the day.” I kept glancing at the clock wondering when my time would be up but Donnie just kept talking. We talked about everything from my big move from Evansville to Houston; to his love of Boston; to the time he spent acting; to his return to music. I even found out his nieces and nephews call him “Uncle Donkey” because he always clowns around with them.

 I sat in awe of the entire moment. Halfway through he stopped talking and I just looked at him, losing myself. I confessed to him again: I was just taking in the moment. Not too often in your life you are face-to-face with someone you looked up to as a child. The man sitting next to me had hung on my wall for years. I raced to the radio everyday after school for the mere chance that I may hear an NKOTB song and when I didn’t hear it I called the station over and over again until my wish was granted – my first “true love.”

            My second assertion made Donnie Wahlberg blush. He thanked me for my time and then did something that will stay with me for forever – he invited me to his dressing room: I got to see where the guys get ready. Then, he took me back behind the stage for a quick tour and for those next ten minutes, he made me feel like a rockstar.

            It was an hour that was fifteen years in the making and as I walked outside and saw the sea of women who idolized these five boys from Boston for years and by the looks of them still did. I screamed, “Donnie Wahlberg gave me this coke!”