What does it feel like to travel on a cross-country concert
tour with Boyz II Men? Well, one of the Boyz, Wanya Morris,
phoned in from the road to tell Teen Machine all about
it!
Teen Machine: Wanya, hi! Where are you calling from?
Wanya: Let's see...today we're in Lafayette, Louisiana.
TM: How long have you been on tour now?
Wanya: Since December.
TM: On the current tour, you have Brandy and Subway opening
for you. Do you ever get a chance to check out their
performances?
Wanya: Yeah, we have. Subway are young guys, they're
energetic and good entertainers. They're like my brother
and sister's ages, and it's like 'Dang , they're doing it.'
They're making it because they're good. They're off to a
good start. Brandy is a real good draw. She's a very
talented singer. It's unbeliveable the things she does
with her voice. Her show is 80 minutes of entertainment.
It's just beautiful. The tour's just coming along real
good.
TM: Do you hang out much with Brandy and Subway
backstage?
Wanya: We occasionally drop into their dressing rooms and
say what's up or mess around with them a little bit. We
don't want it to seem like we're just work, work, work, we
want to have a little fun too.
TM: You sing most of your songs night after night. Which
songs still thrill you to sing them?
Wanya: "50 Candles," "I'll Make Love to You," "End of the
Road," "On Bended Knee," "Please Don't Go," "Uhh Ahh." The
thing is that we can do so many things vocally. We don't
have to sing it the same way every time. We all have
individual solos so the person that's doing his solo can do
anything he wants to do. That's how we keep it fresh.
It's fun that way.
TM: Have their been any big goof-ups on stage this tour?
Wanya: Oh yes! There have been a couple of bloopers. We
have these elevators we came up in - and the elevator didn't
work once and we sang half of "I'll Make Love to You" under
the stage. Then, a couple of weeks ago...We have a prop
that after you're done with it, the stage can get kinda
wet. So the production people decided to put down a rug so
we could be dancing and not worry about slipping on the wet
stage. The rug sorta bugged - there was a big lump in it.
Nate went to sing a lead, tripped over the rug, and jumped
from the edge of the stage into the second row!! Mind
you - the stage is like six or seven feet high and the second
row is six feet from there - it was like a dropping jump fall. Luckily, Nate's athletic and he wasn't hurt. I sat there
and watched and when I saw he was okay, I could not stop
laughing!
TM: I bet the people in the second row were pretty surprised
too!
Wanya: Yeah, but a lot of people thought it was a part of
the show!
TM: Are you doing most of your traveling by bus or
plane?
Wanya: Mostly bus. We use the bus for drives that are six
hours, eight hours, maybe ten hours. Any longer then that
and we fly. We'll take a plane, get there early and just
relax.
TM: Wow! It must be hard being away from home for so long.
Is there anything that you bring with you on tour to make
you feel more at home?
Wanya: I bring my studio equipment, I bring my Super
Nintendo, my drawing pad, and my fellas! (Laughs)
TM: Have any of you guys tried driving the bus?
Wanya: No, but I thought about it one time. I'm kinda like
the deviuos one of the crew. I was sitting up front one
day and I don't think there was anyone up front with me.
The bus driver had gone inside a rest stop-and I thought
about moving the bus. I was going to, but I didn't want to
scare anybody.
TM: Is it hard to sleep on the bus?
Wanya: I have a little bit of a problem. We still haven't
found a comfort zone as far as air conditioning. Whether
it's hot or cold, it messes up our throats-you know, dry
air, dry heat. What we do, we keep the air off and open
the window to keep the air circulating.
TM: How do you keep occupied on the bus for that many
hours?
Wanya: If everybody wants to watch the same movie, we put it on the big entertainment system in the back. If that
doesn't work, we have VCRs and TVs in our bunks. Shawn
usually goes into his bunk to watch his Metallica tapes.
(Laughs) Mike doesn't usually go into his bunk for
anything but sleep. Same with me. I don't like watching a
lot of movies in my bunk. We also hang out and talk about
each other sometimes! (laughs) We have our little
sessions where we talk about each other.
TM: Do you have any messages for your fans until you roll
into their town?
Wanya: Yes, one message is that love is something that the
world these days needs a lot more of and that's what Boyz II Men's
music potrays. We feel like what better way to express
love then by music-it's not ony the people language but
it's the universal language. I'd also thank them for their
support of Boyz II Men.
TM: How much longer will Boyz II Men be on tour?
Wanya: The tour will last until December. The reason is
that we want to go overseas, we want to do a Christmas Tour
and all kinds of things like that!
TM: Sounds great! Thanks Wanya!
Wanya: You're welcome.