BOYZ ARE BACK
New album & buzzy ad, prove it’s far from the end of the road for these Men
IF you ask anyone to sing his or her favorite Boyz II Men song in 2017, don’t automatically expect a verse from the 1992 megahit “End of the Road.” Thanks to the current Geico commercial, in which the trio recite the side effects of a prescription medication, you’re just as likely to hear a sweetly crooned line about chronic flatulence.
“We actually wrote some better lines than the one about being gassy,” band member Nathan Morris, 46, tells The Post. The group’s lyrics originally included some “South Park”-style descriptions of diarrhea. “One line was about runniness, and another one was supposed to be, ‘It’s gonna be a tsunami, girl,’ sung in a deep voice. But they had to edit it to make sure it would get aired on TV. Now we can’t go into a pharmacy without someone quoting a line from it!”
That commercial, along with the current burst of ’90s pop-culture nostalgia, has helped the Philadelphians enjoy a mini-revival. On Friday, the multi-million-record-selling group (completed by Shawn Stockman, 45, and Wanya Morris, 44) releases its latest album, “Under the Streetlight.” Here, Morris discusses some of Boyz II Men’s adventures since forming in 1985 and the group’s current resurgence.
Boyz II Men definitely supplied the ’90s with some sexy slow jams. Do you have people telling you they lost their virginity to your music?
Oh yeah, we get a lot of people saying that to us. Sometimes I have to cut them off before they go into too much detail! We’re realizing now, after more than 25 years or so, how much of an emotional connection people have to our songs.
What are your favorite memories of the period when the group first became successful, after 1991’s debut “Cooleyhighharmony”?
We definitely got excited when we met Michael Jackson at his house for the first time. He showed us his closet — it was all just red shirts and black jeans. He said he got the idea from Einstein, because he also used to wear the same thing every day so he could concentrate on other things. We also tried to get him to use profanity for hours just to see if he could, but he wouldn’t do it! He would say things like “fudge” instead.
Did you know Will Smith back in the day? Is that how you ended up guest-starring in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” Christmas episode in 1993?
Yeah, we knew Will from back in Philly a little bit. We used to go to house parties on weekends, where him and Jazzy Jeff would be playing. Will was actually going to sign us [for management] before we went with Michael Bivins [of New Edition and Bell Biv DeVoe]. By the time we were getting success, Will was already doing “Fresh Prince,” so he was on another level. Will pretty much called us personally to ask if we would do the show.
Boyz II Men’s sound has certainly come back around. Don’t you think the latest Bruno Mars album, “24K Magic,” owes something to you?
He’s definitely a fan. We went to see him at a show, and he was telling us how much he loved our songs and melodies, and how influenced he was by us. We told him how much we loved to see someone doing “real music.”