Boston News Stations Interview the McIntyre's

Joey and Barrett did some interviews for Boston media. 

McIntyre Family Copes With Son's Hearing Loss - Video & article from WBZ: Update: Video has been deleted, but here is the article:

As a teenager, New Kids on the Block singer Joey McIntyre had to deal with the deafening screams of young girls in the audience. As an adult, he's dealing with the fact his son may never hear him speak.

"You just feel like there's a huge rock that was dropped on you and you can't breathe very deeply," said McIntyre.

McIntyre remembers the moment he and his wife, Barrett, were told their newborn son Rhys had severe hearing loss. It took some time for the news to sink in.

"For me it was very much a process going through the emotions," said Barrett McIntyre.

Things were going well for the singer. He had just wrapped up a successful reunion tour with the NKOTB and had recently released new music. But then his world changed. Things they took for granted with their first son Griffin, they couldn't with Rhys.

"We're just so in tuned to what a baby says and does," said McIntyre.  "Stuff that you normally would take for granted and wouldn't think about."

And that's why on Tuesday, McIntyre was at Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, to meet patients and other parents like him.

Seven-year-old Jack Fish of Leominster was there for eye surgery after being bitten by a dog.

His mother, Kara, was thrilled to meet McIntyre.

"That was awesome," she said.  "I've seen them a bunch of times growing up."

Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck is also chairman of the MEEI board of directors. 

He's used to dealing with a child with a disability. His 18-year-old son is blind.

He gave the McIntyre's advice on how to deal with it.

"It's much better probably than you fear it might be," said Grousbeck.  "It can be really fantastic but it's always a little bit of hard work." He added, "Hang in there."

Joey and Barrett had their son's hearing tested the day after he was born which is mandatory in most states. Doctors say early detection is the key.

"This is important because those are critical times for developmental speech and language," said Dr Donald Keamy, pediatric otolaryngologist at MEEI.  "Without your hearing you can't develop speech and language."

Rhys is ten-months-old and doing well with hearing aids.

His father doesn't worry he'll never hear him sing, in fact he jokes about it.

"Yeah, it's a shame with my voice for him not to hear me. I mean Frank Sinatra (not a problem)...but me…" (He laughs).

In the end he knows one thing for sure.

"He's going to be ok, no matter what."

The New Kids on the Block will reunite Wednesday in Boston. They'll perform at a benefit for the MEEI Cures for Kids Fund.

Joey McIntyre Teams Up With Local Hospital To Help Children - Video & article from TheBostonChannel.com: Update: Video has been deleted, but here is the article:

BOSTON -- New Kids on the Block singer Joey McIntyre and his wife, Barrett, got an early Christmas present last December when their youngest son Rhys Edward McIntyre was born.

The baby seemed happy and healthy, but then 10 days later a newborn hearing screening revealed a problem. Rhys was born with profound hearing loss.

"I think we both were obviously incredibly shocked," said Barrett McIntyre.

"You’re in shock," said the pop singer. "We just don't know how to react."

With no known cause, the couple ran through the gamut of emotions.

"How do we even wrap our heads around this?" said Barrett McIntyre. "And I think, you know, as days went by, your emotions and your feelings about the situation change drastically."

"These kinds of experiences -- they open your heart up, your mind up, your life up," Joey McIntyre said.

The experience has also given the family new purpose: To help other families like them.

They decided to team up with Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary to get the word out about newborn hearing screening and to help launch the new Cures for Kids Fund.

"It's just helping out and making sure that people in the field have what they need to keep going and keep doing their work," said Joey McIntyre.

"It's important to screen children when they are first born for hearing because something can actually be done about it," said Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Dr. Donald Keamy. "Hearing plays a large role in development in children."

The McIntyres are thankful for the technology that diagnosed Rhys' condition early. That technology originated at the Eye and Ear Infirmary, too, and has helped improved Rhys' condition.

"He's a normal 10-month-old kid," said Joey McIntyre. "He's climbing around and getting into everything, and he's happy."

The McIntyres hope telling their story will produce similar outcomes for other children born with disabilities.

"To be here in my hometown and to be able to help an institution like this is really special," Joey McIntyre added.

McIntyre, along with the other New Kids on the Block, will be performing Wednesday at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary's Sense-sation Gala. It benefits the Cures for Kids Fund.

Donnie's interview with CTV

Donnie did an interview recently promoting Blue Bloods at CTV.ca: 

Known around the world for both his music and his acting career, Donnie Wahlberg stays grounded by thinking of his fans.

During a Q&A with CTV.ca, Wahlberg talks about this new series “Blue Bloods,” a cop drama that follows a tight-knit family of police officers in New York City. Wahlberg stars alongside Tom Selleck and Bridget Moynahan.

The series airs Friday nights on CTV, with full episodes available online in the CTV Video Player at Watch.CTV.ca.

CTV.ca: Thanks for taking time to chat today! I’m calling you from up here in Toronto.

Yeah, it’s my home away from home. I’ve worked up there, but it’s been a while though. We almost shot this show in Toronto. We shot parts of the pilot there, and we almost shot the series there.

CTV.ca: But you ended up going to New York instead.

I think New York is too much of a character in this show to try to duplicate it somewhere else. For authenticity purposes it’s important. I tend to be the one who’s out in the streets the most, shooting around New York. Most of the other cast is in the studio somewhere. It helps. You get a different type of personality. I was shooting a scene last week, I was playing the reality of it, and an old woman walked by, and I said “Ma’am, Ma’am, you can’t be there.” And she said “You shut up I’ll walk wherever I want to walk, it’s a free country!” Those New York moments are not going to happen everywhere. I say this with no insult to Toronto, but if I said “Ma’am you can’t walk there” she would have probably said “Oh, sorry.” And the gig would be up and they’d know it wasn’t New York.

CTV.ca: Is there a certain pressure from New Yorkers then to get it right? Especially the police?

There’s pressure to get it right, but that’s also timbered by an appreciation that we’re here. We’re shooting and we’re presenting the city. By this time, most people understand that if you do a TV show or a movie, not everything can be fully authentic. You’re always going to have to fudge some things. We’re putting a lot New Yorkers to work.

CTV.ca: Especially now that the original “Law & Order” has packed it in.

There’s a big gap. A whole cluster of New York shows went away very quickly. It’s bad for New York, but it’s good for us, because now we’re the guys.

CTV.ca: So tell me a little about “Blue Bloods” and how this police procedural is different from all the other cop shows out there.

The family part of it makes it different. The procedural cop shows that are on the air now, you know… they are what they are. Nobody is going to compete with “CSI.” It is what it is. They have their formula down to a science, so much so that they have three of them on the air. People respond to the “Whodunit,” but our goal is to not compete with that. Our goal is to tell a different side of a police drama. There are real people involved. Most policemen come from a family of police officers. In the states or in Canada. A lot of traditions surround police officers, where my dad is a cop, and his dad is a cop. I think the show really explores that, and makes it somewhat relatable. When I read the pilot, and the dinner scene, I thought it could have really been a scene with me and my sister. It felt so much like my childhood or my life now, when I argue with my sister. It’s really fun.

CTV.ca: People have also been responding to this classic, “old-school” style of the series.

Hopefully we stay that way. It’s a new show, so we’ll have to find our way. There’s different demands and the audience will want to see more of some things and less of other things. It’s an ongoing process in TV. You go 10 episodes and hope you find your way to some consistency and finding a formula the audience likes.

CTV.ca: With your character Danny, how are you able to keep up the burning intensity over the course of an episode?

I think each episode is different. I don’t think I can carry that energy through the course of every episode, it would be a lot. I think with different cases, there are going to be cases that require more energy than others. In the pilot, it was a race against the clock. In reality, that’s how I work. I have fun, I goof around a lot, I work really hard, and I kind of stay intense most of the time when I work. I think this character, he’s driven, so I draw on my experience. It’s tough when you’re playing on a TV series, because you’re doing episode after episode. I’ve worked 8 days per episode for the last three episodes, so it will become a grind eventually. It’s important to find that energy and drive and not let it become mundane. With me, I always look for excitement in my job, and I try to bring a little bit of that to Danny.

CTV.ca: If the show continues on, do you see it being a conflict with any upcoming “New Kids on the Block” tours?

I see everything fitting together. When I got back with New Kids in the first place, it was with the understanding that I wasn’t going to stop being an actor. I would fit in movie and TV around the touring, and eventually I would start fitting New Kids in around my TV and movies. And that’s where it’s at right now. I don’t plan on having too many days off for the next year or two, let’s put it that way. I do want to tour again, so I have to fit it in where I can.

CTV.ca: My co-workers would like me to ask if there’s any progress on the rumoured New Kids/Backstreet Boys tour?

No updates. No secret wraps, New Kids are looking to tour soon, and we’ll see how it all shakes out, if we’re going to have any company or not.

CTV.ca: As an actor, do you feel like your music fans follow you to your on-screen performances, or do you feel like you carry around two separate kinds of fans?

I think there are separate people. It makes it easier for a 35-year-old guy to like me as an actor than a musician! But I know the New Kids fans have definitely followed along, and they’re definitely dialed in and paying attention to the show. They’re supporting “Blue Bloods” all the way. At the same time, I think I’ve done enough acting roles that there are people out there who know me as an actor, and they may not say “I’m going to watch this show strictly for Donnie Wahlberg,” but I hope they say “That guy’s solid, which means this show should be pretty decent.” And they might take a peek at it.

CTV.ca: Does that mean you kind of need to have two different personas then?

There’s a responsibility. I’m sure my personas change a little bit. When I walking around set, banding tables and singing songs, making the crew dance and stuff because it’s Friday night and we’re shooting until two in the morning, I think that the music persona is alive and well! It hasn’t gotten too far away from me. And there’s usually about 25 fans on set every day since we’ve started shooting, for about eight or nine weeks so far. They’re not going anywhere.

CTV.ca: Are those fans on set a distraction or an inspiration?

I think it all feeds itself. As an actor I’m going to act and do those roles that I want to do and appeal to me. But I keep my fans in mind, and hope that they’ll be supported, and I keep them updated through Twitter. There’s a little sense of responsibility. But at the end of the day I have to do roles that are exciting for me, because if I don’t then I’m going to be bored and disinterested and do it for the wrong reasons, and it will be less than great. I’ll always choose the roles based on the roles, not based on the fans. But I do always keep my fans in mind. I want to make them proud.

Boston.com: Joey McIntyre now an advocate for deaf

Here's an article from Boston.com. Thanks to Mary for the link.




A song of hope, dedicated to his son
Joey McIntyre now an advocate for deaf
By Mark Shanahan, Globe Staff | October 9, 2010

Joey McIntyre and his wife, Barrett, were in an office at UCLA Medical Center when a grim-faced technician walked in with the results of their son’s hearing test and told them that 10-day-old Rhys Edward McIntyre had severe hearing loss.

“She started talking about sign language and schools for the deaf,’’ said McIntyre, a member of the Boston-bred boy band New Kids on the Block who has been singing on stage since the third grade. “We were like, ‘Huh?’ We just wanted to get out of there and go home.’’

The irony of having a baby who might never hear him sing didn’t register right away with McIntyre. Instead, he and his wife were in shock, overwhelmed by what they didn’t know and their son’s prospects for a normal life.

Nine months later, that is changing. The couple understands that a diagnosis of deafness is not a disaster, and they’re learning about treatment options, which have improved greatly over the past 25 years. McIntyre and his wife have also made a commitment to help others facing the same uncertain future. The singer will be at a gala in New York for The Center for Hearing and Communication, and New Kids on the Block are performing Wednesday at a fund-raiser for Massachusetts Eye and Ear, which developed the test used to screen infants — including Rhys — for hearing loss. McIntyre says it is just the beginning of his efforts for the cause.

“It’s nice to be asked,’’ McIntyre, 38, said on the phone from Los Angeles. “I’m happy to be of service whatever way I can.’’

The invitation was extended by Wyc Grousbeck, the Celtics CEO who is chairman of the Mass. Eye and Ear board of directors. The father of a student at Perkins School for the Blind, Grousbeck has devoted years — and millions of dollars — to research related to blindness. He knows what McIntyre and his wife are grappling with, but he also knows there is reason for hope.

“My son is 17, plays in a rock band, studies physics, and has a girlfriend. He’s amazing,’’ said Grousbeck. “I’m sure Joey and I will be talking father to father.’’

Advocate is a new role for McIntyre but one he’s well suited to: He knows how to get people’s attention.

With eight older siblings, he was rarely without an audience as a child growing up in Jamaica Plain. Encouraged by his mother, Katherine, he made his musical theater debut at the age of 8, singing “Gary, Indiana’’ from “The Music Man’’ at the Footlight Club in JP.

“When Joseph finished his little song, the audience wouldn’t stop clapping,’’ said his sister Carol Gallagher, who has performed at the venerable Footlight for years.

Less than a decade later, McIntyre was in New Kids on the Block, the youngest of five pinups who performed to stadiums of screaming girls. Between 1988 and 1994, the teen sensations — forbearers of Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, and 98 Degrees — sold more than 35 million records and even more tchotchkes, from beach towels to marbles.

Life after NKOTB included stints on and off-Broadway, TV appearances on “Boston Public’’ and “Dancing with the Stars,’’ a couple of movies, six solo CDs, and, in 2003, a wedding. McIntyre met his wife — a Princeton graduate who moved to Los Angeles with a vague plan of becoming a producer — while she was working as a real estate agent.

“Joe was my first client. They told me he was in New Kids on the Block, so I thought he was going to be, like, ‘Yo, let’s find a crib,’ ’’ said Barrett, laughing. “He wasn’t. Joe is really smart and funny and sweet, but he wasn’t my type. I kept telling my mom he’s the nicest guy. I knew if I didn’t go for it, I’d regret it.’’

The couple’s first child, Griffin, was born healthy three years ago. Then came Rhys. The results of a hearing test done the day after he was born raised red flags, so more tests were ordered. Last December, two days before Christmas, the couple was summoned to UCLA Medical Center.

“It was awful. I’ll go right out and say it,’’ Barrett said. “I was caught up in ‘What happened?’ I’d made him. He was in my belly. I was looking for reasons.’’

The couple didn’t tell their families immediately, taking a few days to digest the news. They quickly discovered that Rhys’s condition isn’t that uncommon — about 1 in 1,000 babies are born with hearing loss — and advances in technology have made it possible for even severely impaired children to hear. Cochlear implants, for example, a surgically implanted electronic device, can help profoundly deaf people to perceive sound.

“I think Joseph and Barrett realized, in the scheme of things, it could be much worse,’’ said Gallagher, McIntyre’s sister. “We also joked that our family is so loud it might not be an issue at all.’’

Because his hearing loss was detected early, Rhys began working with an audio verbal therapist when he was 2 months old. Today he has hearing aids and is making progress. Cochlear implants are an option but may not be necessary.

“What I do is guide and teach parents so they’re doing what they need to do with their child 24/7,’’ said Rhys’s therapist, Sylvia Rotfleisch. “His parents are proactive and delightful. They’re down on the floor playing with their son and they adore him. He’s making lovely, age-appropriate progress, and that’s very exciting.’’

McIntyre said it’s not easy raising a child with hearing loss, but it isn’t a tragedy either. He and his wife have a dance party at home every night, and Rhys is right there, moving to the music with his older brother.

“He’s the cutest, chubbiest 9-month-old baby you’ll ever see, the greatest kid in the world,’’ McIntyre said. “It’s, like, the more you know, the easier this becomes.’’

That’s why he’s happy to be speaking and performing at Wednesday’s event for Mass. Eye and Ear, the 186-year-old hospital and world-renowned research center. The sold-out event at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel is a fund-raiser for Mass. Eye and Ear’s new Cures for Kids Fund.

“Frankly, we have our hands full at the moment,’’ McIntyre said. “But look at Wyc [Grousbeck]. When your children are born with this kind of challenge, everything else is out the window.’’