What Every Member Of New Kids On The Block Is Doing Today

Before BTS, before Backstreet Boys, before NSYNC, there was New Kids on the Block (NKOTB). With the release of their second album, 1988's Hangin' Tough, Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood became instant teen idols with their hit singles "You Got It (The Right Stuff)," "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)," and, of course, the title track itself. They scored another hit at the turn of the century with "Step by Step," but despite selling 80 million records worldwide, musical tastes changed, and the band broke up in 1994 after a ten-year run. 

After a 14-year break, the band reunited and released their comeback album, The Block. Since then, the band has been touring non-stop to their legions of fans and show no signs of slowing down. In 2014, New Kids on the Block received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the success they have enjoyed was something they never imagined. "When we started, our concept of being really famous was, like, being known in Boston," Wahlberg explained (via Variety). "That was our goal, to walk down the street and have the local pizza guy say, 'Hey Donnie good work. Hey, have a slice!'"

The New Kids on the Block are all middle-aged now, so they're not hangin' as tough as they used to, but they're still hangin' nonetheless. Here's what every member of one of the most popular boy bands of all time is doing today.

At the time of this writing, Blue Bloods is on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so Donnie Wahlberg has shifted to serial killers. Well, talking about them, that is. The host of HLN's Very Scary People, Wahlberg is a true crime fan who delved into why he's torn on whether or not he wanted the series (now in its second season) to run for a long time.

"It is a conundrum. It's a fascinating show. I like crime shows, so it's a genre that I enjoy. I hope, however, that there aren't a lot more scary people coming up; I think there's enough out there that we haven't learned about that we can explore on the show," he told TV Insider. "In terms of its information and quality, I love being a part of it. Hopefully, we can keep it on a historical level."

The subject of serial killers will seemingly always be a topic people will flock to, but Wahlberg doesn't think viewers of Very Scary People identify with the subjects of the show. "I don't think they like the bad guys. It's fascinating to see how investigations can go on so long and then something little [is uncovered] that changes [things]," he said.

During an interview with the Boston Herald in 2019, Jonathan Knight revealed that he and Harley Rodriguez have been renovating and maintaining a farm in Essex, Massachusetts. His dream to own his own farm comes from his life on a farm during his childhood. "When (my family and I) lived in Dorchester, we had three-quarters of an acre," he said. "We had sheep, a couple of goats, a pony, two pigs, some pigeons, and roosters. We always had some type of animal coming through there."

The farm boasts a fully restored barn that was built in the 1700s, "a bountiful garden" (Knight wants to be able to donate the produce to a food bank eventually), and "six chickens, three horses, and 11 ducks." The farm even has four operational beehives that Knight doesn't go near. "I'm actually so afraid of the damn things, so I stay away from them," he said. "My mother went and took the beekeeping course with my nephew, so they're the ones that are in charge of all that. They start swarming at me and I start running for my life."

Knight reveals that work on the farm is "never-ending," but luckily, it's a family affair. "It's a lot of work, just even cutting the grass," Knight said. "The good thing is my family seems to migrate up here every weekend. When I'm not looking I'll suddenly see my sister jump on the lawnmower and just start mowing."

Former boy band stars, they're just like us – living through COVID-19. During an interview with Boston Magazine, Jordan Knight discussed how his life has changed while the novel coronavirus rages through the United States. "These are just bizarre times that we're living in right now," he mused. "I went to Target the other day, and everyone was walking around with gloves and a mask on, myself included, and I was like, 'I feel like we're in a movie.' It's crazy."

Knight, who married Evelyn Melendez in 2004, currently lives in Milton, Massachusetts, with their two children. Knight also went through his daily routine during the quarantine. "After I wake up, I watch the stock market for two hours in the morning, and then I exercise. After, I take a long drive to whichever Starbucks is open. There aren't many that are [operating], so I sometimes drive for half an hour, which is fine by me because there's nothing else to do. On the way, I usually jump on the phone and talk to friends or whoever it may be. I come home, and hang out a little bit, have dinner [with my wife and kids]. Then we'll watch some TV and maybe I'll get on the phone again and talk to somebody, and then we go to sleep."

Knight revealed his wife got him binge-watching Grace and Frankie and that his quarantine comfort food is "cookies and milk."

Five years after NKOTB disbanded, Danny Wood's beloved mother, Betty Wood, passed away from breast cancer at the age of 55. "So, she had a rough two years of treatment," Wood told ET in 2018. "My mom really suffered and it was a hard decision for her to make, but she couldn't do any more chemo in the end." Wood was present at her bedside when she died in 1999, and the overwhelming grief that followed was a factor in his 2006 divorce from Patty Alfaro, Wood admits.

"She was so influential in my life that I just didn't accept it. Between me and my ex-wife, it was that for me and other issues for her, ending our marriage," Wood explained. "But there was always this underlying pain there that I hadn't really addressed because I was just trying to get through life," He then found a way to channel his grief and to honor his mother's memory by creating Remember Betty, a foundation to help cover the financial burdens of NKOTB fans fighting breast cancer.

"Throughout the past seven or eight years, we've had a lot of girls pass away," Wood told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2015. "They take a photo with us and then they're gone. It's a priority for me, and it's also connected my kids to my mother." As of 2015, the foundation had raised $1.5 million.

Joey McIntyre was 12 when he joined NKOTB, but the "baby" of the group has done pretty well for himself since the band's glory days. He's had a Billboard Hot 100 solo hit with "Stay The Same" in 1999, a modest acting career with appearances on Fuller House, Psych, CSI: NY, and a seventeen-episode run on the legal drama, Boston Public.

But in 2017, McIntyre found himself the star of his own show, the comedy series Return Of The Mac, where he played a fictionalized version of himself. The show only lasted eight episodes, but the experience brought him closer to Barrett Williams, his wife since 2003. "It was fun to share the experience with her, and I think couples can relate — they both have jobs, they come home after a long day, and it's all about the kids, then you barely have time to talk about your lives," he told ET in 2017. "To not have to go through that and know that we were sharing the same experience and on the same journey was very cool for us."

Barrett "loved" the experience and found putting a fictionalized version of their lives onscreen took a bit getting used to. "It was definitely a learning curve — in the beginning it was like, 'Oh, I have to know where the camera is!' But it was fun and I just tried to keep it simple and enjoy it," she said.