During The New Kids On The Block's reign as teen-pop idols in the late eighties and early nineties, the Boston-spawned group had an incredible five albums chart simultaneously on Billboard and a merchandising empire that included comic strips, books and lunch boxes. Conservative estimates of NKOTB's 1990 income topped $850 million, but by 1995, it was time to disband.

This summer, ex NKOTB Jordan Knight is opening for pop-phenoms 'N Sync in amphitheatres across North America, a position he finds slightly amusing, yet an "awesome" opportunity. "It's a flip-flop. It's their tour and they let me on the tour, so naturally I'm going to be opening for them," he acknowledges.

While's Knight still appeals to the pre-pubescent girl, his self-titled album is a sophisticated collection of beautiful ballads and urban-inflected pop, showcasing his strong, sensuous voice and tasteful arrangements. It is already a hit on the strength of the upbeat single "Give It To You" and will undoubtedly begin to appeal to an older demographic, which may or may not care about his NKOTB legacy.

How did you spend the first day after New Kids On The Block broke up?
"Actually, it was a good feeling because we all could tell we wanted to go our separate ways, follow our own paths, and during one of our tours, we had a meeting and said, 'Let's finish this tour out and after that let's do our own thing.' And our last show, we all knew it was our last show, and it was a good feeling. Everyone was really cool with it and we accomplished a lot. We did a lot of good stuff, a lot of great things. We did it together."

Was there a huge party?
"No, not really, no."

So after the final tour, what did you do?
"We were still doing certain things, like appearing at benefits and stuff like that, so it wasn't exactly a cut and dried thing."

Was 1995 a clear year?
"'94 we disbanded. '95 was a year that I totally took off. I was just taking my time. I felt good because I had a time ahead of me and a lot of good opportunities for myself. I was kind of excited but I still wanted to take some time off."

There's a danger sometimes, if you're a teen idol, that your career could be over after.
"I don't know if that's exclusive to just teen idols because there's a lot of one hit wonders, there's a lot of great bands who have two great albums and then you don't hear from them no more, so I don't think it's exclusive to teen idols, but as far as being n the public eye, it could be detrimental to your career to take time away."

Were you preparing yourself for your solo career while in New Kids by writing your own stuff and learning keyboards?
"I just wanted to go to the next level and go and do really good stuff and be a very integral part of my music and every aspect of my career. It takes time to do that and I was just willing to take time to do it because that's how I wanted to do it. So I guess, subconsciously, I did naturally give myself time to make sure I was doing it right."

People say you can't 'learn' to write songs. Did you have an innate ability?
"You gotta take into account, and I'm just being honest, the songs I wrote on my album, I wrote with other great songwriters."

What part of the co-writing experience was uniquely yours?
"I'd say, maybe the overall tone of the song. I'm very good, I feel, at the concept of the song, the feel of the song. I think I'm good at giving good feedback, like, 'This melody here doesn't work well, maybe we should try and bring it up so the song has a climax, then, boom, a break down should happen.'"

Almost like a producer.
"Yeah, kind of like a songwriter/producer both combined."

How far do you have to go before you could write by yourself?
"I wouldn't want to write all myself."

Why?
"I don't know. I like doing it with other people. And I think my best work will come from me trying to do it with other people instead of me trying to do it all by myself."

Does that allow you to have free time, in that you can go home from a writing
session and that time is yours?
"Yeah, 'cause I always want to be collaborating with the other person. A lot of times, I'm with them every step of the way through the whole process, so it doesn't give me too much free time to sit back and go, 'Yeah, go write me a hit song, will ya?' I was really involved with that. I wouldn't want to do that, unless someone came to me and said, 'I got this great song for you.' 'Well, let me hear it. Boom, that's a hit. I'll do it, yeah.'"

I read that (NKOTB sven gali) Maurice Starr wasn't too encouraging to some ideas or material you had written while you were in New Kids.
"I think he liked to do it by myself. And he didn't need other people to do it with him. I'm the kind of guy, if somebody's happy working with me, fine; if they're not happy working with me, then I don't want to work with them."

There's money in songwriting.
"There's money in songwriting. There's money in touring and merchandising and producing. There's money in everything. If you write music, that's all the more money for you. But I wasn't thinking, 'I need to make a little bit more money doing this.'"

Do you remember your first big purchase as a New Kid?
"I just started buying a lot of clothes (laughs) and I looked for a house for my family. That was probably my first big purchase. Me and my brother (New Kid Jonathan) bought a big house for the family. I bought my mother a car. I never went overboard. I still don't go overboard."

What are you other interests, besides music?
"I like playing sports, but I'm not one to watch ESPN every night like a lot of people I know. I like playing basketball, hockey, ping pong."

Ping pong. You could bring ping pong back in style?
"Yeah, I love ping pong. Ping pong's the game."

When you were back home in Boston, you were itching to perform. I heard you played a local piano bar.
"I was just feeling a little weird that I haven't played in a while and I got this record deal here. I just felt uneasy and felt, 'I gotta perform somewhere.' So I. went around the corner to the piano bar and just got up there and sang a few song. It's funny because we performed in stadiums."

Do you remember the places you visited or was it one big scream-fest?
"Certain places I remember because certain things stands out. If we performed one time in one stadium, I would remember pretty much every moment of it, but since we were on tour and doing it every day it became routine."

Did you have a perspective on what was happening while you were in the middle of it -- you were on the cover of every teen magazine, girls were chasing you, screaming, crying?
"When it happens, it's good to look at it with an objective viewpoint and you don't take it too personally. It's happened many times to many different artist before and it happened to me and it will happen to many other people."

Is it continuing or has it mellowed out now?
"It continues (laughs)"

Your web site has over a million visitors. Are you heavily involved with the site?
"I'm not big on the Internet but every once in a while, I jump into the chat room and say hi to people. It's a cool thing for the fans because every week fans are able to go on the web site and see something new. When we were with the New Kids, there was the Big Bopper and all the teen magazines. It's almost like my own personal magazine."

But everything written is true.
"Yeah, I get to control everything."

How do you feel about the wave of boy bands that New Kids might have spawned?
"The comparison is obvious and the influence, to me, is obvious. Definitely not to take away from any of the guys in the bands because they're all really talented guys, but I think we had an influence on those guys. I don't really think about it. A lot of people ask me about it, but I don't think a lot of about it. I just think about how we were influenced by a lot of other groups like New Edition and The Jacksons. It's a natural thing.  You grow up and you see these people performing on TV and you say, 'I want to be like them.'"

Have you gone to a Backstreet Boys show?
"No."

You're opening for 'N Sync. That's bizarre.
"I think it's awesome.  It's a flip-flop.  It's their tour and they let me on the tour, so naturally I'm going to be opening for them."