Joey McIntyre Says New Kids on the Block’s New Album Gives Fans Permission ‘To Just Have Fun’
Kids will be kids, and in the case of New Kids on the Block, they’re "still kids" 40 years after they burst on the boy band scene.
On Tuesday, March 5, the group — Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood and Joey McIntyre — announced Still Kids, their eighth studio album and first since 2013’s 10. The 14-track LP will arrive on Friday, May 17, and is heralded by the new song and music video “Kids.” The band will also perform the song live for the first time during The Kelly Clarkson Show on Friday, March 8.
“Donnie and I pretty much cowrote the whole album,” McIntyre, 51, exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing the new album and his involvement in Drag: The Musical at L.A.’s Bourbon Room. “But this one song, [“Kids”], is from a writer and producer, Dave Stewart, and it's a great song.”
McIntyre explained that the new track is a good encapsulation of the band’s career. “It kind of says it all,” he told Us. “We've been lucky, the five of us, to never grow up in some ways. And a lot of people look to us to go back to that happy place, and we give permission to them to just have fun. We're that getaway and we're going to beat that drum forever and ever. And I think this song [“Kids”] is a new anthem for us.”
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Wahlberg, 54, worked as the album’s executive producer and said in a press release that Still Kids is “the most mature album we’ve ever made. Yet, it’s the most fun and most album. [Still Kids] is bringing the New Kids and the fans full circle. It’s about hope and possibilities and being ourselves.”
The album features collaborations with DJ Jazzy Jeff (“Get Down”) and Taylor Dayne (“Old School Love”), the former of which will join NKOTB on their Magic Summer 2024 tour. Paula Abdul will also join the tour as a special guest.
“She's just the music total package, complete entertainer, so that's amazing,” McIntyre told Us of Abdul, 61. “And then we got DJ Jazzy Jeff kicking it off and getting the party started. [Most] of these shows this summer are outdoors, and that just has a different vibe to it. It's sort of that ‘summer fest’ thing and has a different energy. It's going to be a lot of fun.”
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Before McIntyre joins his fellow boy band OGs, he will perform at Hollywood’s Bourbon Room in a limited run of Drag: The Musical. Written by drag superstar Alaska Thunderf–k, certified platinum songwriter/producer Tomas Costanza and Ashley Gordon, the show depicts two rival drag bars going head-to-head. Previews begin March 15 and 16, with the show opening on March 22. The final performances are on March 29-31, just in time for McIntyre to untuck and get ready to go on the road with the Kids.
With reporting by Leanne Aciz Stanton
