Boyz II Men singer Wanya Morris has definitely lived up to the band's namesake, writes VAUGHAN MAYBERRY.

When Wanya Morris and his best buddies Nathan Morris and Shawn Stockman released one of the biggest selling singles of all time, End of the Road, Wanya was just 18 years old.

More than 16 years later Wanya has rapidly matured, but not because of the solid worldwide touring, nine studio releases or sales of more than 85 million albums.

The 34-year-old affectionately known as the "emotional boy" of the famous trio is now a father of five kids, three boys and two girls.

Gone are the parties and heavy touring schedule for Wanya – he now juggles his music interests while raising his children in New Jersey. As do Nathan and Shawn with their respective families.

You can tell Wanya’s kids are a huge part of his life. Even as he was squeezing in his 15-minute interview with timeOUT he was tucking his rather talkative four- and two-year-olds into bed.

"It’s lucky you didn’t call me when I was bathing my one-year-old," he laughs.

Times have certainly changed since Wanya and Boyz II Men were releasing hit after hit during the 1990s.

It all started in 1992 when they recorded what became their most recognised song, End of the Road for the Eddie Murphy movie Boomerang.

End of the Road remained at number one for 13 weeks, breaking the previous record of 11 weeks set by Elvis Presley in 1956 with Don't Be Cruel and Hound Dog. 

Then in 1994 they released their second studio album II containing the hits I’ll Make Love To You and On Bended Knee, with the former breaking their own 13- week record by remaining at the number one position for 14 weeks (a feat since equalled only by Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You).

And if that wasn’t enough, they then released One Sweet Day – a collaboration with Mariah Carey – which still holds the record for the longest period of time a single has remained at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (16 weeks in total).

Combined, all three hits amazingly remain in the Guiness Book Of Records for the longest running singles in American singles chart history.

"They’ve [the hit songs] allowed us to tour for the rest of our lives," Wanya admits. "We’ve been blessed to have the success we’ve had with those albums."

The trio could have easily retired on the millions of dollars they received during the ’90s.

But they pushed on to have nine records in total, including their current touring album, Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA.

Produced by American Idol judges Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell, the record is a tribute to some of Motown’s classic songs, including Just My Imagination by The Temptations and Reach Out I’ll Be There by The Four Tops.

It’s made their third full tour of Australia possible and even fuelled their desire to record a tenth album.

"Hopefully we’ll be able to do some more work that is typical Boyz II Men," Wanya says.

"But we’ll have to come up with new songs, new ideas. We have nothing right now. Everything is just in conversation and we’re just kicking it around at the moment."

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