The day after Boyz II Men performed on the second anniversary of their residency at The Mirage on March 15, tenor Shawn Stockman is on the phone while heading home from LAX to recharge and refresh. The two-year mark is a milestone for Stockman (who moonlights as a judge on NBC’s The Sing-Off), Nathan Morris and Wanya Morris, who not only demonstrated that the Strip was ready for a headlining R&B vocal group but that Boyz II Men have staying power and their own brand of Vegas showmanship. He talked to Las Vegas Magazine’s Matt Kelemen about keeping it classy.

Your second anniversary show was a blast. How did all of those women know to rush the stage during “I’ll Make Love to You?”

It’s become somewhat of a tradition. Whenever the roses come out they tend to rush the stage. That tends to be standard. … People know, soon as the drums hit from “I’ll Make Love to You,” the flowers come out and they run downstage. It’s become the thing.

It was funny because you look up and a couple of women start to get up, not too sure, then a couple of more get up, and if you don’t know what’s going on, you’re like, “What is this?” When you brought out the roses it made sense.

Some of the women know the set list better than we do. (Laughs)

I can safely say I’ve never seen anything like that in Vegas.

It’s definitely become a standard, but it’s something I will never get tired of. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a great sentiment to compliment them, and in turn they compliment us at the same time. It’s a beautiful thing. It kind of allows us to draw closer to them, whereas normally in a Vegas performance or a Vegas show, it’s very tapered. You have to sit there and watch the performer; exactly 90 minutes later the show is done and you get up and leave. Ours is a little different.

Do you think a lot of your fans were there because they knew it was your second anniversary?

They’re very savvy and they know a lot more about us than I do. The cool thing is a lot of them come just to show love and be able to celebrate that anniversary with us, so that’s what makes it very nice. … It was a fun night and a fun weekend, actually. Sometimes you get a subdued crowd on certain weekends, but every day this weekend—Friday, Saturday and Sunday—were great people.

Did you feel it onstage or did it feel like a normal show for the most part?

It’s never the same. It’s always a different energy when it comes to Vegas because there are a lot of out-of-towners. A lot of people will come to Vegas for the first time, check out our show, things of that nature. There’s a lot of people coming from all parts of the world, so it’s always different. Obviously you have some of your people that come all the time, but ultimately every crowd has a unique flair to them, a unique dynamic.

I’ve gotta hand it to your fans. They know how to dress for a Vegas show.

Absolutely. I feel our show is like a prerequisite for the rest of the evening. They go out, they’re normally with their girlfriends, or the guys are hanging out because they know there’s going to be girls at our show or you’ve got couples. They watch the show and they go back down memory lane, and they hear some stuff and they laugh a little bit. After that they go out, get something to eat and hit the clubs. Man, it’s a great evening.

Have you had a chance, apart from performing to celebrate or anything amongst yourselves to observe the anniversary?

Unfortunately not. Our folks that brought us here, SPI Entertainment, and Joe Mulvihill, who’s our manager, got us a really, really cool cake and we popped open a bottle of champagne. We toasted, well wishes to the next coming years in Vegas, and we went on and went to work. The thing about what we do, which I don’t mind sometimes, is we don’t have much time to celebrate anything. I think I kind of like that. I feel like there so much more we have to do as artists, as performers, as people. This is a great victory. This is a great moment in our lives, but hopefully it’s one of many to come.

I remember when the Las Vegas residency was first announced, it kind of brought into focus how little R&B had been represented on the Strip, and how the time seemed right for a B2M residency.

I always say Vegas is going through its second childhood. Vegas has always been known as the hot spot for the generation that is now coming, that comes to Vegas to hang out, to have fun and party. Boyz II Men represents that generation. Being there hopefully breaks down a lot of barriers. It wasn’t easy for us. A lot of people didn’t think that we’d work, didn’t think an R&B group could have a residency in Vegas, let alone stay there for two years so far. We had a lot of obstacles, a lot of people. A lot of naysayers, nonbelievers that didn’t think we could last this long. Not only is it an outward victory, but it’s a personal victory for us, too. To know that so many people kind of have to eat crow because we’re still here and we’re putting up successful numbers. People are very happy, which is what we always knew we could do, but sometimes it takes convincing others to get to where you need to go.

How did the show originate? Was it your management’s idea to approach somebody in Vegas, or did somebody approach you?

It was a little bit of both. Our manager, who constantly works hella hard to get us different opportunities, came across a couple of people from the Harris Company. The Flamingo offered us a six-week residency about six, seven years ago, during the dark moments in Vegas when most shows go dark, just to kind of experiment and see what we could do. I guess that’s where the naysaying started, because people were like, “They’re not going to sell any tickets. Everyone doesn’t come to Vegas.” And surprisingly enough we did. It impressed the people at the Flamingo, but MGM kind of hopped on it quicker and offered a situation at the Mirage about a year and a half after that. So not understanding the market of how doing shows in Vegas goes, it’s really hard to get into the city to have a residency. It’s not an easy thing, so it took that long for all the red tape to get cleared off for us to actually acquire the residency. It took some dues being paid before the situation with The Mirage came about. It wasn’t just handed to us. We had to work really, really hard to prove to Las Vegas and the powers that be that we could do it.

Did you ever picture yourself playing in Vegas before the idea or suggestion of a residency came up?

During the time that it did (first come up) it felt like, “Uhhh, I don’t want to do this.” It felt kind of hokey, like where artists go to die, which is not true. Especially now, you have a lot of artists trying to build residencies in Vegas, because it provides a type of stability that our music industry just does not provide. Not to mention, that personally, I got over that stigma. It’s not true. It’s not where artists die. If anything, it’s where artists can thrive. Everyone comes to Las Vegas, and if you’re able to not only acquire a residency there but (also) acquire attention with the people to be there, to be in the midst of what’s going on in the city, as well as hanging out and partying a little bit, that’s all part of the culture. Everyone who goes to Vegas goes to do that very thing. If you’re known for having somewhat of an energy in the city, you won’t die. You’ll relive. That’s the cool think about what Las Vegas does. It can rejuvenate. There aren’t too many cities cooler than Las Vegas.

The idea of the Vegas residency really started to change about five to eight years ago. Staying in one place and letting people come to you, you’re still playing to different people. It’s a different experience from the performer’s perspective, I imagine.

Yeah, a few years ago when you though about Vegas you thought about the Rat Pack, all this other stuff. Those guys, you think “old.” But at the same time when they were out there, it was during the time of their prime too, when they were younger and all of the people that went to Vegas were their age, too. So it made sense. Vegas is doing it again. It’s a recycling of generations and what they’re into, the music, the shows that they’d like to go to. It actually makes a lot of sense.

You guys embraced the idea of adapting to changes in the music industry by having more control over your career. How has having Las Vegas as a base to work from benefitted the group’s career in that context?

It can be a great place to do all types of things, from little things to small things, to have meetings with potential business partners about whatever. Tell them, “Hey, come to Vegas!” Who’s not gonna come? So it’s a great place for that, but these past couple of years I don’t believe we’ve taken advantage of that as much as we should have, only because we were just trying to cultivate an audience and basically place our stamp on the city. Hopefully we’ll be able to relax a little bit. These past couple of years have been about just really grinding and making sure that people know we are in the city. Once that’s established hopefully we can really mark this and say, “Yeah, this is our home, and we’re going to be here for at least 10 years. This is where we’re going to stake our claim.” Hopefully that’ll happen soon. Once it does, you’ll see a lot more of Boyz II Men in the city doing certain things, not just for the community but being a part of the nightlife. Being a part of what Vegas is all about, where we can confidently say “This is our place of origin … for now.” (Laughs)

It really felt like you owned it last night as a Vegas performer, that you feel very comfortable in these shoes. Was there a gradual learning curve of did it feel natural from the get-go?

It’s a little bit of both. I went into it with a positive vibe: “This is a great thing.” I understand how hard it is to be here, so I want to enjoy it as much as I can. And I’m going to make it my own as much as I can. Hopefully that energy that you put out in the universe will come back in other ways. I always try to take every project, every album, every show, every event, whatever, in a positive light, or as a seed being planted in hopes that something else grows out of it that I don’t even know about.

Did the Vegas residency give you all the chance to discover things about yourselves as performers in a way you hadn’t previously? Is there a different showmanship or are you basically doing the same thing you’ve been doing?

We don’t even look at our show as a Vegas show. We look at it as a concert in Vegas. You don’t see women in high heels and feathers doing the showgirl kicks and all that stuff. That’s just not our thing. We just kind of do our thing onstage. It’s not so stuffy. We go out in the crowd. We touch hands. We make it personal. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what it’s been about since the beginning of our careers. We were taught how to perform, how to entertain people, and as the years go on I guess it’s become more innate on how to do it—take this particular environment and make it our own. That’s what we did, and some of the stuff in the show, it didn’t start out that way, but as we kept doing it … it’s a feel that you tend to acquire. We just kind of go with the feel.

Has it changed much conceptually from when it was first in development?

The fortunate thing about being a performer as long as we’ve been at it, it doesn’t take as long to adjust to anything. This is not me being pretentious at all. It’s really when you’ve been faced with so many obstacles, not just in life but as a performer too, you tend to learn how to become a chameleon. You adjust, you adjust, you adjust. And the music industry … I appreciate the industry because it made me more of a self-sufficient person, whereas if you’re faced with something you don’t panic, you don’t freak out. You tend to go with things and make it work out for yourself. And no matter what the result, you’re pleased.

Every performer that’s had longevity went through a down period. It’s hard for any entertainer to sustain being at the top for a long time. You kind of have to fade out if you want to come back.

Absolutely. It’s one of those things were you don’t take stuff like this for granted. That’s when you know how to maximize the moment. These last few years have been all about maximizing the moment. Who knows what’s going to happen in the future? Hopefully positive things, but all I can do while I’m here is leave the type of impression that people will always remember: “These guys just have what it takes to perform and hopefully lead by example for other people to follow.” That’s all I can do.

It’s a really well-rounded show, from the presentation to the pacing. You don’t phone it in at all. Seeing Nathan come out as a comic performer is pretty cool. I don’t know if he’s always like that but it wasn’t something I expected.

He keeps it concealed. (Laughs)

Just the way you introduced stuff, from the Motown tribute to seeing you bring [founding member] Marc Nelson out, it flowed really well.

Well, we had help from Brooke Payne, who’s most known for doing a lot of choreography for New Edition and New Kids on the Block. We’ve known him for 20 years, and he helped us put the show together. … He’s an awesome producer as far as putting shows together, making it all feel organic but still have a polish to it. That’s why we like him, that’s why we love him, that’s why we’ve always used him since we’ve been doing this. We look up to him and he really helped us out.

I told the friend that I brought that you’d be bringing a Stratocaster onstage. I didn’t see that; you had a different guitar. Don’t you call your Strat “Ms. Moca”?

Yeah, yeah. I have a few now. Getting into guitars, once I started to learn how to play, you tend to find out that every guitar is different. It has a personality. I’ve officially become addicted. It’s a real problem. I see a guitar and I want to buy it. What you saw onstage was an LTD, special edition, red. I named her “Ruby,” so you saw Ruby onstage. A couple of days ago I just bought … it’s a Fender Telecaster, but it’s not made by Fender. It has the Telecaster shape. I named her Black Girl, because she’s black with a white pick guard. I name all of them. I’m slowly starting to find my guitar swagger. If you see all of the great guitarists, which I hope to be one day, they all have a certain type of swagger about them, from Mayer to Hendrix to Stevie Ray to Albert King to Buddy Guy. All these guys that I watch and study, that I look at and try to emulate as best I can, all of these guys have a certain type of personality, whether they’re playing guitar or not playing guitar. It’s a lifestyle, and this is what I’m learning to understand. The exciting and fulfilling … I don’t know if you can hear it in my voice when I talk about it.

Yeah, you’re passion’s coming through.

I love it. I love playing the guitar. It’s done so much for me, like to know that I can pick up a guitar and play a few notes. And it’s peaceful, it’s therapeutic, and it’s cool. And to be able to acquire those things—and again, without me sounding pretentious—it makes me feel like I met the person I was supposed to be. I feel like I encompass all of those things. You know, I believe I’m a cool dude, but I also have a means of meeting a moment of Zen, which guitars allow. I can go on stage and hit a couple of licks, and not necessarily have to pay attention to the crowd. Just kind of be in my own little thing, and people witnessing that. That’s what I enjoy about playing the guitar. It is the best thing that’s happened to me.

The Mirage, 7:30 p.m. March 29, April 10-12 & 17-19, $39.99-$59.99 plus tax and fee. 702.792.7777