If anyone believed that Donnie Wahlberg had the right stuff to make his dreams come true, it was his mother, Alma.
“Somehow I think she instilled in me, because of our connection, that there was something great out there if I just believe and stay the course, and I did," the actor tells TODAY.com in an interview.
It proved to be the secret sauce for Wahlberg, who, with his New Kids on the Block bandmates, is marking 35 years since the release of their 1988 chart-topping album, "Hangin' Tough." Wahlberg says he's still surprised by the success of New Kids and his decades-long career in music and acting.
"It's beyond anything I could have ever imagined," he tells TODAY.com. "And I'm incredibly grateful every day that I'm alive and every day I get to do these things that I love."
The second youngest of nine children (the youngest being actor Mark Wahlberg), the NKOTB singer grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.
Money and food were sometimes scarce, Wahlberg says, and his family lived under the threat of "having the lights or water turned off at any moment."
Though times were "turbulent," Wahlberg says his mother, who died in 2021, believed that if he was determined enough, something better awaited him. Now, having gained wisdom since his youth, Wahlberg says that if he could go back and give his younger self some advice, he'd still listen to his mom.
"Her advice would be the advice that I would give to young Donnie," Wahlberg explains. "But I think Donnie took that advice and stayed the course, no matter what challenges came his way. I think her advice is the advice that I would give right back to me again — because it worked."
In 1984, a 15-year-old Wahlberg joined a yet-to-be-named boy band, which eventually became New Kids on the Block, and says that in the early days of the group, he and the other band members paid their dues.
“We used to do concerts where three people were there in the seats in the audience. And it was my mom, my sister and one of the other guys’ moms,” Wahlberg recalls.
The empty seats were short-lived, however, because by 1989, NKOTB had the No. 1 album in the country with "Hangin’ Tough."
After scoring a string of top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, NKOTB disbanded in 1994, then reunited in 2008, and have been making music and touring ever since.
In the 1990s, Wahlberg pivoted to acting, appearing in films like "The Sixth Sense" and "Saw II," and TV, where he currently stars as Detective Danny Reagan on the cop drama "Blue Bloods."
Wahlberg says the role helped him prepare for his other current gig, hosting "Very Scary People," a true-crime documentary series on Investigation Discovery, entering its fifth season this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.
The show details the lives of some of history's most crazed killers, including John Wayne Gacy, Jim Jones and "Son of Sam," aka Sam Berkowitz.
"The average person doesn’t think the way these serial killers think. We don’t have the capacity to even consider what they do. And it’s jarring, it’s unsettling," according to Wahlberg.
Having insight into the people behind the monstrous acts, however, can help make sense of the crimes, he says.
"While watching it can be very scary, I think in some ways it can help us sleep at night a little bit better, at least if we can get some understanding and some closure."
While it’s dark stuff, Wahlberg says his role in "Blue Bloods" has helped him prepare.
"Playing a detective who investigates similar situations to what we see in 'Very Scary People' sort of prepared me to be able to be the proper presenter for this show," says the actor.
"I don’t walk on real crime scenes in real life, but I work with detectives who have and who have seen really awful things, and I get to ask them questions and learn how they deal with stuff, how they cope, how they disconnect and detach."
Between acting, music and Wahlburgers (the chain of burger restaurants he owns with brothers Mark and Paul), the actor says he's grateful every day for where he's at and what he's accomplished.
"I never didn’t think of it in terms of fame as much as I thought in terms of my band actually playing a concert where someone showed up," he says.
And at the height of NKOTB's success, Wahlberg says he’s grateful that he had the support of other members in the band. “I had four bandmates with me that I could lean on in those times,” he explains.
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“I look at someone like Justin (Bieber) or Selena Gomez ... They’re the only person out there having to learn about life while totally on this meteor just shooting through the sky."
What matters most to him is that he's happy and says he begins every day by being thankful for his wife, his life and yet “another opportunity to be here.”
"I think when I was younger, it wasn’t so much, the success I dreamed was possible. I wouldn’t have worked so hard at it if I didn’t think it was possible. So, I did it, and I committed to it, and got there."
