It’s been a few decades since Jonathan Knight was a true new kid on the block, but he remains a loyal member of the group New Kids of the Block, which remains alive and well in 2024.
“I’m still a kid at heart,” said 55-year-old Knight in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I always feel like a kid. Sometimes after work, I pop four Advils and my back is killing me. But I think I’ll always be young at heart.”
The group forever identified as a “boy band,” along with other middle-aged touring acts like the Backstreet Boys and New Edition, is coming to Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta for the first time ever on Friday, July 26, teamed with DJ Jazzy Jeff and Paula Abdul. Plenty of tickets remain on sale via Ticketmaster starting at around $55. The group was last in Atlanta two years ago at State Farm Arena with Salt-N-Pepa, Rick Astley and En Vogue.
For a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the quintet with songs like “Step by Step” and “You Got It” was on every teen magazine cover and ogled by hordes of screaming girls.
“That part of my life was kind of a blur,” Knight said. “I wish I could go back to that time for a day and see how I was feeling. At age 21, traveling around the world, I never thought I’d still be doing it at age 55. It’s been a great run.”
And the fans themselves have grown up as well. “When I was in my 20s, our fans were teenagers,” he said. “It was chaos. It was madness. Now today, it’s a pure joy to perform and meet these people and have meaningful adult conversations. And social media has allowed us to get to know our fans in a way that wasn’t possible in the ’90s.”
Credit: HGTV
Credit: HGTV
But music isn’t the only part of his life now. Knight has found himself a second career as an HGTV star, co-hosting “Farmhouse Fixer,” which recently concluded its third season.
He and designer Kristina Crestin take aging New England farmhouses, often centuries old, and modernize them.
“Now there are people who stop me in the airport that don’t even know I’m in with New Kids,” Knight said. “Now I’m ‘That guy on HGTV.’ It’s weird!”
Hosting a TV show like “Farmhouse Fixer” is different from choreographed dance moves but he said the end result is the same: “We bring smiles to people’s faces at concerts. And when we renovate a home, we create happy homeowners. There’s a lot of joy to be spread.”
Knight said his interest in classic homes stems from childhood: “Some people are car buffs. Some are sneakerheads. I am just drawn to old houses and their beauty. My dad was a contractor and he would drag me to work. I would watch him transform these old houses. In 1994, when New Kids broke up, I started a company flipping houses.”
While New Kids on the Block has reached the point where it’s technically a nostalgia act, the band members also choose to record new music, including the latest album “Still Kids,” released in May. The video for the single “Kids” features Knight running around with a symbol of cul-de-sac suburbia: the leaf blower.
“The process of making records is still fun,” Knight said. “It can get a little crazy when there are five people trying to decide what sound we want, but it always seems to work out.”
IF YOU GO
New Kids on the Block with Paula Abdul and DJ Jazzy Jeff
7 p.m., Friday, July 26. $54.80 and up. Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, 2200 Encore Parkway, Alpharetta, livenation.com
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