Fans of the beloved ’80s boy band New Kids On The Block will want to hear about the many lawsuits they have been involved in.
Everyone remembers the best 1990s music videos, and while New Kids On The Block might not be famous for any particular videos, they have always had an important presence in the music industry. Just like the beloved boy band One Direction, the members have achieved success as a collective and on their own. It’s a testament to their talent that New Kids On The Block has been able to dip in and out of the spotlight and still do as well as they did in the ’80s when they broke onto the scene.
But with success comes some problems, and sometimes, that unfortunately means that celebrities are sued or they are the ones to file a lawsuit themselves. New Kids On The Block have actually been the subject of several lawsuits dating back to 1991. Here’s what their fanbase should know about them.
Why Were New Kids On The Block Involved In Several 1990s Lawsuits?
New Kids On The Block were most active on the boy band scene from 1986 onward as that’s when they released their first and self-titled album.
In 1992, a University of Massachusetts-Boston music professor, Greg McPherson sued the New Kids On The Block manager and co-producer Maurice Starr. According to UPI.com, McPherson wanted $21 million because he said that the band was lip-synching.
According to McPherson, Michael Jonzun, who was related to Starr, and Starr were the people who were actually singing. McPherson explained that he was aware of what was happening because he performed with the band on the keyboards. He alleged that the lip-synching happened during the very first tour that the band went on and in the music video for the song “Hangin’ Tough.”
Starr said that this wasn’t true and said, “Something like this only shows me that the devil is working 24 hours — and overtime.”
McPherson said, “I had a keyboard which is a digital sampler where I had just prerecorded all the vocal tracks from the tapes of their album. So that all I had to do when their vocals rolled around was to just hit a certain key and the keyboard would literally play whatever their vocals were.”
McPherson mentioned that the band engaged in “masking” and explained that meant that if someone could sing better than another musician, then their voice was used in a more prominent manner. He said the “bad singer’s performance is always so low that it’s very inaudible.”
The New York Times reported that in April 1992, McPherson withdrew his lawsuit and said that New Kids On The Block didn’t lip-synch after all.
It’s unclear whether the band really did lip-synch. In February 1992, The Los Angeles Times reported that the band appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show and made sure to really sing so people would know that they could. Donnie Wahlberg said, “As far as we’re concerned, it’s over. We’re not saying we sing great, but we sing.”
One year earlier, in 1991, the Tampa Bay Times reported that three female fans and one of their parents sued New Kids On The Block. They said that Donnie Walhberg was crowd-surfing during a concert and that led to “pain and suffering” because 17 fans were hospitalized.
There was no further update, which suggests that perhaps the lawsuit didn’t go very far.
New Kids On The Block Sued A Production Company In 2009
Several years later, in 2009, New Kids On The Block sued SM Productions. This is definitely a surprising and confusing lawsuit to hear about.
According to Fox News, the band said that the production company approached the Patents and Trademark Office in the United States about registering the images from the “Hangin’ Tough” album along with the name New Kids On The Block.
The band said that SM Productions tried “to form a new group also entitled ‘New Kids on the Block'” back in 2005.
It’s unclear what happened afterward. While New Kids On The Block don’t seem to have discussed this lawsuit, it’s safe to say that it was frustrating for the band to have to deal with this.
At the time of the lawsuit, New Kids On The Block was enjoying their comeback. They had just released their album “The Block” in 2008 and were in the middle of touring. From 2008 to 2010, they traveled all over with the New Kids On The Block Live tour.
Why New Kids On The Block Member Jonathan Knight Sued In 2022?
New Kids On The Block has been part of some lawsuits more recently as well. According to Boston 25 News, Jonathan Knight was sued because of land in the Boston area. While the Massachusetts land trust, the Trustees of Reservations, said that he wasn’t allowed to build in the area that he had chosen, Knight claimed that wasn’t true.
Knight explained to Boston 25 News that he has been working on a barn on land that is within a “conservation restriction.” He said that he was interested in having the barn a little far away from the street so it wouldn’t be so loud. But since it wouldn’t be “substantially in the same location,” it was seen as a problem.
Knight told Boston 25 News, “I sat in my kitchen with The Trustees and my lawyer, and we discussed building a barn that would be converted into a house because in the restriction it just talks about structures. It doesn’t talk about their use. They said it would be a simple process. It would just be a vote in on the board, and they don’t think it would be that much of a big deal. That meeting never happened. Then they come back to me and say, ‘We don’t trust you. You’re going to rent it out to Airbnb and all this crazy nonsense.”
In September 2022, the New Kids On The Block band member told Boston Magazine that he was going to continue “fighting” because he has the financial means to do so. There haven’t been any recent updates to this lawsuit, so it seems that they are still working it out.
