FROM WHEN HE WAS A NEW KID ...
Donnie celebrates music producer Maurice Starr
Donnie Wahlberg doesn’t want his fans to forget where New Kids on the Block got its start. The Dorchester-raised singer and actor apparently paid his respects to the man responsible for the boy band’s music career, Maurice Starr, during a bedside visit this weekend.
“Me and a few of my band mates spent the morning with this man today,” Wahlberg wrote of Starr on social media. “Who, despite his health challenges, still has the charisma, the charm, the timing, the jokes and the wisdom, that inspired me so many years ago.”
It looks like Wahlberg saw the seemingly sick Starr, who was a Boston fixture for much of his life, back in the celebrated music producer’s hometown of Deland, Fla. He and the rest of the pop group were in the area to perform at the Amway Center in Orlando, as part of their soon-ending Mixtape Tour. And although Starr may be back in his birth state, he clearly still has a soft spot for the Hub, sporting a Red Sox cap in the photo Wahlberg shared from their recent social call.
But Wahlberg’s post was more than just a casual account of their visit together. Instead, it morphed into a tribute, as the “Blue Bloods” star proceeded to credit Starr for his success in show biz and life.
“It would be very hard to fully explain the impact this man has had on my life — on so many of our lives — beyond the success that he helped me to find professionally,” he wrote. “I can only say that if every kid on earth had someone to believe in them, the way that this man genuinely believed in (and fought for) me, the world would have nothing but love.”
Starr, of course, created New Kids on the Block. He wrote a whole host of its hits and produced its self-titled debut studio album (released in 1986), as well as Hangin’ Tough (1988) and Step by Step (1990). But Wahlberg wanted to emphasize that Starr’s career was so much more than NKOTB, applauding him for all of the artistic contributions he’s made to the world.
“Consider the family tree that this man is the very root and foundation of,” Wahlberg wrote. “Start with New Edition and New Kids on The Block and go on from there.
“Consider the artists, the actors, the producers, the television shows, the music, the movies and the talent that were born of those two bands. Then imagine the vacuum that would be left behind, were it not for us having Maurice Starr and his amazing gift. Thank you Maurice.”