Let's go back a few months to April of 1998 when the Evolution World Tour begun. They toured almost every state in America. Many things made this tour a good and bad tour for the fellas. It started off not too good. Mike had suffered a back injury sometime and was not going to be able to dance at all during any of the tour. For almost the entire tour, he sat in the back near the band, while Shawn, Wanya, and Nate danced and got close to the crowd. During each show, Shawn would inform the crowd of why Mike was sitting in the back, and Mike sometimes got his own solo thing in the middle of the show where he did his "rap" in "Uhh Ahh." This tour almost marked the first time Boyz II Men had dancers. They had eight dancers, four women, and four men. The men didn't seem to last too long since they were only seen on the beginning of the tour. The women only came out for "Baby C'Mon," "Girl in the Life Magazine," and "Can't Let Her Go" though. Another change was the fact that this tour didn't have as much pyro effects or magician-type effects. The microphones and speakers were see-through though, fire work-type rain sometimes fell behind Boyz II Men during "Water Runs Dry" and there was a see-through piano with roses in it. Most of the dance moves were the same, some of the old Cooleyhighharmony songs were taken off of the set to have more Evolution songs. They did still give out roses during "I'll Make Love to You," always a highlight for the lucky women who actually manage to receive a rose. The opening acts for the tour were Uncle Sam, Destiny's Child, Next, and K-Ci & JoJo. Dru Hill were supposed to be on the tour, but something happened, so they never joined the tour. Boyz II Men did sing "We're Not Making Love No More" by Dru Hill, at some shows, and most people say that they did the song better than Dru Hill, (I have to agree with that!). The Evolution World Tour was a much more simple tour then the All Around the World Tour was. Boyz II Men went more back to an "unplugged" type show with a piano segment of some of their best slow songs like "Can You Stand the Rain," "Lonely Heart," "Please Don't Go," and more with their pianist, Jamie. Instead of "End of the Road," being the finale, "Can't Let Her Go" was the finale. But, the tour only lasted less than a month until an almost career-ending incident occurred.
On a Tuesday in early May, I was one of the first people (outside of Boyz II Men and management, of course) to hear of Wanya's almost career-ending incident. What happened was that Wanya has such a powerful voice that his voice is always the one that dies out on him. When it died out on him this time, it was much more serious. Wanya's doctors found that he had polyp on his vocal cords. Polyp could have been cancerous and Wanya could have never been able to sing ever again. Fortunately, for Wanya, Boyz II Men and the fans, Wanya was OK, and recovered rather nicely. If Wanya was not able to sing ever again, Boyz II Men would have ended very fast. So, the tour was postponed for a few weeks, and numerous shows were canceled, but most were re-scheduled. The tour started again on May 26, 1998 in Mountain View, California at the Shoreline Amphitheater. I was at that concert, and the show was much shorter than most of the concerts they put on in 1998. Wanya had a water bottle with him a lot, and a towel around his neck a lot. He also did not sing some of the parts in the songs, letting the crowd do it for him. After the show, I met Boyz II Men and Wanya told us he felt 75% better, so that was good news. Once the tour ended in December, in New York City, it wasn't one of the major tours of the year, but it was still a very good tour. The tour did bring fans closer to Boyz II Men by having a meet and greet at every show. Now that Boyz II Men's tour had ended, what comes next?