As a with-it and hip product of the 1980s, I embraced an arsenal of tacky, or as I prefer to think, like, totally awesome trends. Weighing in at 42 pounds and decked out in approximately the same weight in snap bracelets with sweet neon leggings and scrunched socks to match, I ruled the kindergarten domain. When all the other uncultured punks were busy listening to Raffi or lame songs by Lamb Chop and friends, my sophisticated musical palette led me to much cooler tunes. I passed the days listening to amazing cassettes by a little quintet comprised of Danny, Donnie, Jonathan, Jordan and Joey — better known to the common consumer as New Kids on the Block. I slept under a pink quilt that was the vision of an Andy Warhol painting, with multicolored likenesses of the band members' faces stamped from corner to corner. I ate my lunch from my plastic New Kids lunchbox and sipped apple juice from the coordinating thermos. I held concerts for the other Barbie dolls with my Jordan Knight doll (complete with rattail and sequin-lined pants, FYI) until the tragic day plastic Jordan did the splits during the encore to a raucous performance and his leg snapped off. Sigh, I've never fully recovered. But you can imagine my irrepressible excitement when I learned that Joey McIntyre, youngest member of New Kids on the Block and second love of my young life (Jordan Knight, always No. 1 in my heart, rattail and all), was performing at the Orpheum Theatre April 22 at 7:30 p.m. How was I to proceed? Well, duh, I set out to get an interview — and rest assured that "Hangin' Tough" fans out there, I succeeded. Naturally, once the prospect of actually talking to one of my childhood idols existed, the standard nervous questions arose. What would be the perfect leadoff question? Should I ask if he knew how Jordan was doing since his abrupt departure from the "Surreal Life Fame Games"? Would it be ill-advised to wear my Joey McIntyre sepia-tone photo T-shirt? The answer, of course, was "heck no" — it was a phone interview. I wore the damn thing for luck, but paid special attention not to let the exclamation "Oh my God, Joey, do you know your face is on my chest right now!? I love you. Uh, next question," emerge from my lips. With my nostalgic wardrobe in place and my questions laid out, I was all set an hour prior to the interview and nervously watched the phone as the minutes ticked by. Finally the moment arrived: 5 p.m. The phone should be ringing at any moment. Nope. 5:30 p.m. Still nothing. My heart was crushed. It appeared I'd been stood up by Joey McIntyre, former Tiger Beat cover model, current solo artist touring with an album ("Talk to Me") of revamped hits from Sinatra and other timeless musicians. 5:42 p.m. A noise from the phone. Game on. Instead of leading with the obvious "Does it frustrate you that you'll always be known as the youngest guy from New Kids?" I decided upon a more generic line of questioning before shifting into the "Right Stuff.' We talked about the album, the tour. Would there be any on-stage throwbacks to the earlier days this time around? While he said there would be the occasional nod to his past in Sunday's performance, McIntyre discussed the "new chapter" in his career as a solo artist. He acknowledged the importance of the New Kids and his earlier solo material in getting him to where he is today, but said the real emphasis will be on his modern renditions of the classics, music he gained a great respect for while growing up. "I really want people to get the 'song and dance man' vibe," he said. Adding to the music man persona, the Sinatra aspirant performed selections from his latest album while on the road during the winter with "Dancing with the Stars — The Tour." (McIntyre and his partner Ashly DelGrosso took third place on the TV show's first season.) But will there be more reality TV in the singer's future? He says there have been offers, but unlike fellow New Kids bandmate Jordan Knight, VH1 addicts won't be catching him on the "Surreal Life" anytime soon. McIntyre says he doesn't "want to be famous for being famous" and chose to partake in "Dancing with the Stars" because it gave him an outlet to showcase his talent. At the end of the day, McIntyre said his top priority is being able to do what he loves, whether he has 50, 500 or 50,000 fans in attendance. I admired the positive outlook, and wondered whether that meant a chance for a return to his 35 million record-selling glory years as a member of NKOTB, but near the end of our interview, the song and dance man uttered 11 words that sent me back to reality: "New Kids on the Block is a thing of the past." This completely eliminated the last two questions I had planned: 1) "Tell me Joey, which boy band did think was better — did 'NSYNC tear up your heart or did you rock your body to BSB?" and 2) "So, The Police reunited for a tour. Any hopes for NKOTB to give it another go?" But that's not to say the interview did not end on a high note. The Boston native closed saying he's looking forward to returning to Madison this weekend and offered some words of encouragement: "Go Badgers!" Oh Joey, always so thoughtful. Ashley Voss is a senior majoring in journalism. She still wears New Kids on the Block paraphernalia on a regular basis. Send any questions or comments to [email protected].