5 Minutes With New Kids On The Block Member Danny Wood

One of the world’s best-selling pop groups of all time, New Kids On The Block, returns to St. Louis this Friday on “The Main Event” tour sharing a ticket with classic R&B-pop duo TLC and hip-hop star Nelly. After the group’s recent performance on the “American Idol” finale, and after they nearly broke the internet with an Instagram shot of their chiseled physiques, we caught up with NKOTB member Danny Wood. We chatted about what’s changed in music in the last 20 years, how he likes touring with our hometown rapper and yes, we asked him about his abs.

Photo courtesy of New Kids on The Block. Credit Austin Hargave.

​ALIVE: Congratulations on the tour and your new single, “Look At Me.” How has touring and music changed in the last 20 years?
Danny Wood: Oh, god, wow. Well, me personally? I haven’t bought a CD in years. I can’t even remember the last time I bought a CD. It was probably one for my daughter. The music is all digital now. But it was all good for us when we came back; we just rolled right into it. It opened up a whole new way for us to put music out. With the way things are now and with social media, it gives us a whole new way to connect to fans.

ALIVE: Do you find that you have a new generation of fans now? Is it hard to please the older fans and also make sure the show is fresh and new?
DW: No, it’s not hard. We’ll always do the hits. We don’t skip a song. We might switch it up, and make a song sound different, but we’ll always play the hits. And we have two albums we’ve done [more recently] and we’re able to take songs that are fan-favorites from those and put them in the show too. We do a song a lot called “Remix” and that was our first single a couple of years ago and the fans connect to it.

ALIVE: Nelly is a hometown boy for us; any fun stories about touring with him and TLC?
DW: After meeting him and talking with him, he’s a great guy. We put a good package together. Add TLC and it’s all about girls getting together and having a good night.

ALIVE: I saw that you just ran the Boston Marathon and there was recently a shot of your, Donny Wahlberg’s and Joey McIntyre’s abs on Instagram. Are you guys just working out all the time? What’s your secret?
DW: (Laughs) No secrets! Well, the first secret would be to just eat healthy. I don’t even go into the catering room at venues. I’ll just have salads, chicken and fish. And a lot of time the venues will allow us to use the gyms. So we’ll work out. We’re doing pretty good for guys in our 40s!

ALIVE: We’d say so! Thanks so much, hope you have a great show this Friday in St. Louis!
DW: Thank you!