Given the fact that New Kids On The Block has been making music for a few decades, fans could guess that they are best friends. But it’s also possible that over time, things changed and they stopped being buddies. Here’s how the members of this beloved boy band feel about each other today.

Did New Kids On The Block Have A Comeback?

Thanks to the boy band nostalgia that many people feel, New Kids On The Block broke up back in 1994 but got back together several years later in 2007. Fans were thrilled to be able to see the band perform live again and it was an incredible comeback. Given their amazing fame, it made total sense that they would feel like they had unfinished business. After all, this is a band that performed during the 1991 Superbowl Halftime show, which was a huge honor.

In 2008, the band went on tour in North America. A few years later, in 2011 and 2011, New Kids On The Block and The Backstreet Boys toured together. This was almost too much fun for ’80s and ’90s kids who still remember listening to this music 24/7. It was called The NKOTBSB Tour. It was amazing to see that the band was still in fine form so many years after releasing their first album in 1986.

The band didn’t stop there, however. In 2022, they went on tour with other legendary acts Rick Astley and Salt-N-Pepa, and they also performed on cruises.

While every member of New Kids On The Block is famous, it’s fair to say that Donnie Wahlberg has become the biggest star, partly thanks to his famous brother Mark Wahlberg. In April 2009, Donnie explained to Exclaim! that the comeback felt natural.

He said, “music was a big part of the inspiration. I think everyone in the group, deep down inside, knew there was a chance one day we may do it. But I don’t think anybody was giving it much consideration.”

Donnie continued that they wanted to make sure that the comeback felt genuine and not manufactured. He mentioned that he would never star on True Hollywood Story or on a TV series about getting back together and said, “Much like when we younger, it was other people trying to force their agenda on us and telling the story, really, to service themselves and not to consider us and who we are first.”

Are New Kids On The Block Friends Now?

New Kids On The Block always appeared to be friends, and there is no evidence that anything ever changed. The fact that they had a comeback in 2008 and continued to perform together in 2022 suggests that they still love making music together.

When the band recorded album number six, “The Block,” in 2008, they seemed to solidify their bond even more.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, New Kids On The Block talked about the album. Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, and Donnie Wahlberg lived together while they worked on the album. It seems that they would have a tough time doing this if they weren’t good friends.

Jordan explained to Entertainment Tonight that the band collaborated with Adam Messinger and Nasri Atweh. He said, “Sometimes we’d go to the studio, but sometimes we’d just go downstairs and meet Nasri and Adam in some room off the kitchen, so it was pretty cool doing it like that. It was a makeshift studio in his house and I would fly out on the weekends, record for a couple of days, then fly home. I did that for two and a half months and we had an album. I don’t think we’d ever done an album that quickly, which shows that when you have chemistry with the producers, you don’t have to take a year or two.”

Like many great friendships, the relationship between the members of New Kids On The Block has matured and deepened over time. In 2019, Jonathan Knight spoke to Columbus Underground about what the group talks about now that they are older.

He said, “Yeah, conversations in our dressing room are a lot different. I would say the biggest thing we talk about now is politics and world things. You know, when you’re 20 — there are so many things you just don’t think about or care about. Now, it’s really cool to have conversations about stuff like that — grown-up stuff like parenting, sports talk, political stuff…”

It’s clear that New Kids On The Block became friends when they formed the band back in the ’80s, and they haven’t let time or distance change anything.

In 2021, Joey McIntyre was interviewed by Boston Magazine and asked about “the biggest players” when the band was starting out. He called Danny, Donnie, and Jordan “the Three Amigos.”

In 2023, Jonathan Knight appeared on Lance Bass’s podcast called Frosted Tips and explained that when he walked away from New Kids On The Block in 1994, it was because their manager said it would be a bad idea to come out. This was, of course, unfair, painful, and devastating. According to Heavy.com, Jonathan explained that when he talked to his band mates about this in 2008, they were supportive.

It’s great to hear that even after all this time, the members of New Kids On The Block have the same friendship that they always did. They became famous when they were so young and have seen each other through big changes like marriage and having kids.