I was one of those people that came out of hiding and got a creative surge when they all decided to live together. It would probably take something like that to get me to write again. Besides Brian's heart surgery, I think another thing that sparked some stories was the hiatus and AJ's drama but more so how Nick dealt with it, naturally lol
I wish they would do that again; maybe then they'd actually get somewhere with this new album they keep saying they're working on! I believe them, but it seems like it's taking forever, and I worry about the impact that them signing a new record deal will have on it. I think it'll be good for publicity and maybe getting them back on the radio, but I hope they don't sacrifice the quality of their music to try too hard to sound like what's on the radio. I feel like that's where they went wrong with This Is Us (and also, it didn't work).
Yes, I do remember stories about AJ going to rehab and that time period. It's interesting what you said about Nick. I was just thinking the other day about when they went on TRL to announce that AJ had gone to rehab. I still vividly remember watching that live, and the image that sticks out most is of Nick sitting there with his hand in a cast, rubbing his hair and trying not to cry. I wasn't even a Nick fan back then, but that has always stuck with me. He definitely seemed to be taking it the hardest, and maybe that's why people focused on him. Also, the hiatus is when he turned into a hot mess, so there's that, too.