BUFFALO NEWS

5.29.99

AUTHOR: MATT PEIKEN

A KNIGHT TO REMEMBER...

Jordan Knight isn't quite ready to check into the old folk’s home. But at 28, he's no longer the New Kid on the Block. You won't find him on the cover of Teen Beat or Teen People, and chances are you're not going to rip down your 'N Sync poster to slap up his aging mug. That's all fine with Knight, who hopes his new music overshadows his former boy-toy status as he takes another crack at superstardom.

"I won't attract the youngest of the young and have a teeny-bopper image, but the people who liked New Kids should be into what I'm doing now," he says. "It's kinda like Janet (Jackson). She had an older image, but she attracts young people. That's what I want to do."

He's off to a good start. Knight's self-titled solo debut disc (now in stores, from Interscope Records) already has earned a 3 1/2- star review from Rolling Stone. Knight is assembling dancers and forging a band for his nationwide summer tour of arenas and amphitheaters, as the opening act for 'N Sync. He's opening for them at the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center on July 20.

"I used to breakdance when I was younger, and I always liked entertainers who danced, rather than sat there and sang," he says. "That's the kind of show I want to put on. It's about excitement."

Knight certainly knows what it takes to please crowds. He was the youngest of the five New Kids on the Block, which ruled the teen roost during the late '80s with its synthetic blend of pop, R&B and rap lite. The

New Kids planted themselves at the top of the pop charts, sparked a merchandising revolution and attracted the type of screaming-kid fan base that hadn't been seen since the Beatles.

Knight began plotting his solo career during the height of New Kids hysteria. After the group nose-dived from the pop culture precipice during the early '90s, Knight spent the next few years wondering how to shape his next artistic venture.

"Some of the guys wanted to do hard-edged stuff, like hip-hop-oriented stuff, and other guys wanted to do ballady and pretty stuff, and I wanted to mesh both together," Knight says of his New Kids companions. "I like alternative-sounding records and raunchy hip-hop beats and really pretty stuff, and I think I did it all on this record."

Knight wrote and recorded his new disc with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the team that helped craft Janet Jackson into a solo icon. For Knight, the famed songwriters/producers mixed in old pop samples, African-inspired breakbeats and power-ballad atmosphere.

"During grunge and rap, I was like, 'Where in the hell do I fit in?'" he says. "I thought, 'Do I have to do some crazy music just to have a career?' But I didn't want people to just think of me as one of the New Kids

trying for a comeback. What I try to do on my record is really be me."

Knight tried to ease his nerves about performing solo by playing under an assumed name at Boston-area piano bars.

"I was scared to go out on stage by myself and carry the whole show," he says. "(In the piano bars), I'd sing Elton John songs and Stylistics songs. I did it anonymously because I didn't want people making a deal about it. I just wanted to relax with it. I only did it for about a month, but it helped me feel more confident, that I could get up there on my own."

Don't expect to find Jordan Knight slippers, bubble gum and other kooky garb that Knight says made him cringe as a New Kid.

"Not that it was a bad thing, but it wasn't quite my personality. I woulda been more low-key," he says. "I want to blend my past with an adult, sophisticated image. But a lot of things you can't control. You can try your hardest to be mature and adult -- whatever the critics might want -- but you just have to be yourself.

"Even though I felt really negative sometimes about the situation, I never gave up," adds Knight, who says he's rarely in touch with the other ex-New Kidders. "I'm not saying I'm a prophet or gonna win a Grammy or anything like that, but I always picture myself winning a Grammy. That picture always kept me going, and now I'm picturing myself performing at the Grammys."