New Kids not grubbing for cash, say New Kids

If you'd hoped that George Bush's economic stimulus cheque (where he tried to reignite the US economy by giving everyone money to invest in Chinese and Vietnamese-made products) would have put off the NKOTB reunion by providing Jordan Knight with more money than he's seen in the last seven years, bad news: It's still going ahead.

The band see their reunion as something noble, as it's on their own terms, says Joey McIntyre. Not like other attempts to make them recoagulate:

"You know it was 'Backstreet's huge, 'NSYNC's huge ... why don't you guys reunite on the MTV Awards?' And that's what our old record company [Columbia Records] wanted. Well, why don't you just put us in the studio and finance an album and let's see if that'll work? As opposed to throwing us onstage and seeing if we get cheered or booed. You know what I mean? It was to serve their agenda. It didn't matter. If Chris Rock ripped us up and it turned into a disaster that we reunited on the MTV Awards, what was our record company gonna do the next morning? What would they do? They'd be like 'Bye, guys! Enjoy your flight home.' And I personally was not gonna put myself in that position, or us in that position."

This time, though, it's all about them. And, we guess, the outstanding payments on the cars they call home.