When I was about 13, my parents got divorced. Since I was the kid who always wanted things to go smoothly, I would have preferred if they didn't get divorced. But they did - and you know what? A lot of really good things came out of it. I was lucky because my dad didn't move too far away. He was right in the neighborhood and I could see him everyday if I wanted to, but just on weekends and things like that. We'd have, like, two Christmases; one at mom's and one at dad's. In some ways, me and my dad had an even better relationship after the divorce.
And when my mom re-married, she married a really great guy. My step-dad, Mark Conroy, never tried to take over my father's role, he never overruled what my dad said or anything like that. Instead, he's always been a friend to me and my brothers and sisters. Like I said, we've been real lucky with the whole thing.
In the seventh grade, I met The Kool Aid Bunch, just a posse of kids and that was a real turning point for me. There was Danny Wood, Elliot, Joe (not McIntyre), David, and Chris Knight, Jordan's brother. I wasn't in school with Jordan and Jon at this time, and I didn't hang with Chris because he was their brother, I just hung with him because he was Chris Knight and I liked him.
I always hated people who tried to do things just to look cool. And I did it too. I smoked just to be a cool guy and I understand why I did that. I never got into the habit of smoking, it was just something I did to try and be cool. And when I was real young, being cool was important, but when I met The Kool Aid Bunch, I wasn't worried about bein' cool anymore. Just being with those guys made me real loose. When I started to hang with them, I found out that being tough wasn't all that important. Just being me was important. And the things I didn't want people to know about, suddenly it didn't matter if they did know about them.
Like now I'll say, "Yeah Sesame Street's my favorite TV show." Most people my age, guys, wouldn't say that, but I don't care. It's not really my favorite TV show, but I just say it. It kind of is, when I think about it, it's one of them.
Danny Wood and me were cool. I would hang with him after school and stuff like that, drive on the bus with him and go on dates with him and two girls. We would double-date.
All I thought about when I was a teenager was girls. I always had a girl, I could always get a girl. I did pretty good when I was younger. I did good with girls. They've always been important to me. I liked taking the subway to new neighborhoods to meet new girls. I was shy but I'd make a lot of eye contact first, then slowly start telling jokes and getting all the attention. I was a big flirt, and pretty soon the girl would be interested in me. I've had my heart broken, but in those days, I was a heartbreaker too.
A lot of people have described me as a street kid, but I'm not trying to be known as a street kid - I'm just trying to be known as me. I just grew up hanging out in the streets. That's what I know. I know people say, "Oh Maurice Starr wanted some street smart kids for the group." It doesn't matter whether he wanted street smart kids or not, 'cause that's just what I am. If I wasn't in the group, I'd still be that. So it's not like Maurice Starr trained us to be street smart kids, that's what I am.
Next: Jordan Knight.....
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