Jonathan Rashleigh Knight-Rodriguez was born in the United States on November 29, 1968. He is a singer. “New Kids on the Block” is the name of the boy band he is in. Also in it are Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood, and his younger brother, Jordan Wood. He was the first to leave the band before they officially broke up in 1994. He is the oldest member of the group.
Jonathan Knight’s Net Worth
Jonathon Knight Jonathan Knight, an American singer, is worth $14 million and has a net worth of that amount. Most people know Jonathan Knight as a member of the boy band New Kids on the Block. The pop group sold more than 70 million albums all over the world. In the United States, their self-titled first album went triple platinum.
The band broke up for the first time in 1994 when Knight left the group during the “Face the Music” tour. The band won two American Music Awards and was nominated for a Grammy. Knight didn’t go into show business after New Kids on the Block. Instead, he worked as a real estate developer in his home state. In 2021, he started hosting “Farmhouse Fixer,” a show on HGTV.
Jonathan Knight’s Early years:
Knight was born on November 29, 1968, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the fifth of six children. Marlene and Allan Knight, his parents, were born and raised in Ontario, Canada. Knight went to the Episcopal church in his neighborhood when he was young and sang in the church choir. His talent for singing and that of his younger brother Jordan were discovered there.
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How New Kids on the Block came to be:
Knight joined New Kids on the Block when he was 16 years old. Donnie Wahlberg, a member of the group, asked Jordan, Knight’s younger brother, to join the group. After having success with groups like New Edition, talent agent, Mary Alford was asked by producer Maurice Starr to help form the next big boyband. That’s how she found Wahlberg.
The first five people in the group were Wahlberg, the two Knight brothers, Wahlberg’s younger brother Mark, and Wahlberg’s friends Jamie Kelly and Danny Wood. But after a few months, Mark and Jaime decided to leave, and 12-year-old Joey McIntyre was brought in.
The band practiced after school and on weekends under the direction of Starr. They were called Nynuk before Columbia Records signed them and made them change their name to New Kids on the Block (NKOTB). Even though Starr worked hard on it, their first album, called “The Beatles,” didn’t do very well.
Success for NKOTB:
On their second album, the band members took more control over the direction and sound, hoping to move away from Starr’s bubblegum-pop sound. In 1988, they came out with the single “Please Don’t Go, Girl,” which made it to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. The song’s popularity helped the group’s second album, “Hangin’ Tough,” become more popular as the group went on tour and MTV played more of the singles from the album.
NKOTB did very well at the start of the 1990s. Their third album, called Step by Step, came out “in 1990, which had more songs than the band members had written. The group went on tour all over the U.S., as well as in Europe and Asia. Knight’s anxiety started to get worse during this time, and he ended up leaving the band while they were on tour with their fourth album, “Face the Music.”
Other Business Activities:
Since he left NKOTB, Knight has done well in his career outside of the entertainment business. Knight chose to go into business, while some of the other band members went on to become actors or make solo music. Since then, he has done well as a real estate agent in his home state of Massachusetts.
After he left NKOTB, Knight started doing more than just real estate. He also started fixing up houses and other properties. He especially likes fixing up old farmhouses, like the one he lives in now. HGTV saw his skills and gave him a new renovation show called Farmhouse Fixer “which first aired on the network in March of 2021. The show is mostly about fixing up old farms in New England.
Reunion of NKOTB:
After a few failed attempts to get back together over the years, Knight and the other four members of NKOTB said in 2008 that they would be getting back together. Later that same year, they released “The Block,” their first album in 14 years. It went straight to No. 1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums Chart, and then the band went on an extended tour of the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe.
During the tour, Lady Gaga and Natasha Bedingfield opened for them. The band kept touring worldwide with big names like the Backstreet Boys, Jordin Sparks, 98 Degrees, Boyz II Men, TLC, and Nelly, who helped them out. They got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014.
In 2019, NKOTB released a new music video for the song “Boys in the Band (Boy Band Anthem),” which is a tribute to some popular boy bands from the past. The video had a lot of cameos from members of other boy bands, like New Edition, N-Sync, and Naughty by Nature.
Personal Life: Knight talked about his anxiety and panic attacks while in NKOTB a few years after he left the band. In 2000, he told the public that he had a generalized anxiety disorder, which was made worse by the band’s busy touring schedule and the constant attention from the crowd.
A 2009 article in the National Enquirer also said that Knight was gay, which Knight had not confirmed then. In 2011, former pop star Tiffany, rumored to be dating Knight for years, also came out as gay. Knight confirmed that he was gay that same year. Knight denies that he ever tried to hide the fact that he was gay. He only says that he chose not to come out in public.
Since 2008, Knight has been dating a personal trainer named Harley Rodriguez. In 2015, the couple was on the reality show The Amazing Race. They came in ninth place. A year later, in 2016, Knight proposed to Rodriguez while on vacation in Africa, and they have been engaged ever since. The two of them live together in Massachusetts in Knight’s farmhouse.
