Donnie Wahlberg

03/06/2009

New Kids on the Block singer

At 16 I was a contradiction - outspoken and outgoing but also very shy and insecure. But I was willing to take chances and I was very passionate about things. My passion would push me to do things.

I was already in New Kids on the Block at 16 – we were in an infant stage. I loved doing it –I did imagine that we would become popstars and have hit records. I believed it was possible.

I would tell the 16 year old Donnie to pay attention in school, especially in languages. I skipped a lot. There were times I enjoyed it but I wish that I hadn’t got disenchanted with it now. I’ve learned a lot in my business life that I could never have learned at school but I regret not studying and learning languages. It would help a lot when I travel to different countries.

Girls were a major preoccupation at 16. I was fairly successful with them, though I wouldn’t say a superstar, but I was having fun. I was with my first love and I was very heavily into her and very distracted by her. I was a really faithful boyfriend and a very horny boyfriend too. She was very sexually active and older than me so that kept me very attentive.

I had a natural role as a leader in the group. I was Mark’s older brother and producer and songwriter. I like taking the lead and being aggressive. I felt comfortable in that position but I didn’t abuse it, I didn’t boss him around too much.

I’d tell my young self to trust his instincts more. There were a lot of things I wanted to try musically and I know they would’ve worked - lots of people do them today, like incorporating rap and guest vocalists - and I didn’t fight the system enough on that. We got told we couldn’t do that and we accepted it too easily. I trusted other people’s opinions too much then.

I regret a lot about the way the band were marketed first time around and I wish we’d taken more of a stand. But we’re trying to fix that with the new tour, it’s made us very motivated to get it right now and take great care with it. It’s not about our bodies or the way we look this time, it’s about the music and the result is the fans scream even more now.

I’ve heard people say that the acting toughened up my image, that Donnie Wahlberg made it okay for guys to be New Kids fans. I’m very happy with that. But I couldn’t let the fact that I wanted people to think I was more talented than they might suspect be my motivation for being a good actor, I wanted to do the best job I could do – Ron Howard, Mel Gibson, they don’t care if I want to prove myself to people, they just care if I carry my weight, Though in hindsight I do think I achieved that, I did prove myself, but I couldn’t let it be a driving force at the time.

I’d tell the 16 year old Donnie, don’t take on the media. I’d say to him, you think you know everything, I can assure you that you don’t. I look at that kid and laugh and cringe at lots of things but I wouldn’t change things, I learned a lot by making mistakes. I had a personal feud with Piers Morgan going on for years - I called him out at a press conference in Rio and thought I’d got the upper hand. He wrote endless not very nice articles about me. He got the last laugh.