In just three years in the music business, Boyz II Men has won a wide range of awards, sold more than 15 million albums, and never made the cover of a supermarket tabloid.

Instead, they've appeared on the cover of Vibe magazine in all white suits with clouds in the backdrop. They're often photographed in V-neck sweaters and khakis, courtesy of the squeaky-clean Gap label. And when Michael Jackson made the are decision to share the stage with another act-on last week's "VH1 Honors"-the embattled King of Pop had the public-relations savvy to choose Boyz II Men.

After performing at Atlanta's Budweiser Superfest over the weekend-and before heading to New Orleans for Essence magazine's 25th anniversary show this weekend-the foursome sat down to discuss Michael Jackson, the HIStory squabble and whether band member Wanya Morris dated TLC's Lisa "Keft Eye" Lopes, among other topics:

Q: What do you think of MTV's Kurt Loder calling you "excruciatingly wholesome"?

A: (Shawn Stockman, 22) Excruciatingly wholesome? That guy Kurt's a real funny man.

(Nate Morris, 24) He likes making us seem like apple pie. I mean that's cool, but we don't want people to think that we're just these perfect guys. We're human like everyone else, and we make mistakes and the whole nine.

(Stockman) We have a lot of scuffles. A lot of disagreements, you know, like everybody else.

Q: What was the reason behind your biggest fight?

A: (Wanya Morris, 21, no relation to Nate) The biggest fight we ever had was over the dressing room. Me and (Nate) got into it about candles and draperies. In the group, we're the usually the ones that get into it. We were both frustrated, but we worked it out.

Q: There's no way you could leave Atlanta without dealing with this rumor: Did Wanya date Lisa Lopes?

A: (Wanya, sounding ruffled) Whaa! Noooooo!

(Michael McCary, 24) Some things are better left unsaid. Really, there's basially not much to us, gossipwise, other than the music-and we know that may bother some people. We get, 'You guys are so nice, you make me sick,' all the time. And really the way we get positioned-though we feel blessed that it's all positive-bothers us sometimes. We can never live up to the image people have us because it's just that. An image.

(Nate) We learned a lot about that kind of thing from working and talking with Michael (the group collaborated with Jackson on the title track of HIStory). I mean, look what's happening to him now, all of the attacks, because of what people expect from him. What people have built up in their heads about him, and what he should and should not express cratively. He has to answer to the world and its opinions of him.

Q: What else did you learn from Michael Jackson?

A: (Nate) Well, we asked him all kinds of questions-business-orientated, music-orientated. He's like an encyclopedia of life.

(Wanya) And one of the biggest lessons we learned, from him and just period, was to be real. We know who we are. And what we are. And there's really nothing to know about Boyz II Men other than, I guess, we're really, really boring.

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