Recently, R.ef’s Lee Juno and Park Chul-woo appeared as guests on the YouTube channel “RCool Holic Show”, hosted by Cool’s Kim Sung-soo and R.ef’s Sung Dae-hyun.
When Sung Dae-hyun asked “How did you come to join Seo Taiji and Boys?“, explained Lee Juno, “Chul-woo and I were working as dancers when Park Nam-jung asked us to do backup for his new song. Chul-woo and I discussed it and recruited two younger dancers, forming a four-member support team for Park Nam-jung’s song “Can See Far.” One of those two younger boys was Yang Hyun-suk.”
Lee Juno continued: “Later, Park Nam-jung’s performance in ‘Top 10 Songs’ was good, and he also won first place. Then we told him: “Now you have succeeded, so we will move away.” Bring the younger guys with you.’ Around that time, Nam-jung began performing in nightclubs, including at the Itaewon Capital Hotel. The group that performed before him was a band called Mugunghwa, and their bass player was Taiji. Taiji saw Nam-jung’s performance, and as he prepared for the MIDI music, he thought, “It would be great to form a team like that.” That’s when he suggested forming a team with Hyun-suk.”
He added: “Although I didn’t hear it directly, Hyun-suk must have proposed the idea to several people before coming to me.”
When Sung Dae-hyun raised rumors about a strained relationship between Lee Juno and Yang Hyun-suk, Lee Juno responded: “It’s not that we didn’t get along; it was more about our differences. From Hyun-suk’s point of view, it would have been embarrassing to include me in the team. But I think in the end he chose me to make the team more beautiful.”
Lee Juno also shared her thoughts after listening to Seo Taiji’s demo for the first time, “I thought the music was great and felt it was worth checking out. At that time, Seo Taiji was a musician in an underground band, practically a rookie. From my point of view, considered the best dancer in the underground scene, it made no sense to support a debut singer. But the music was so good that I decided to give it a try, and it went well. I am grateful to both Seo Taiji and Yang Hyun-suk because, without their offering, I wonder if the name “Lee Juno” would have ever become known to the public.”
Kim Sung-soo jokingly asked, “Can you call Seo Taiji now?” Lee replied: “Taiji doesn’t answer calls.” He added: “When Taiji returned to Korea after 10 years and began his solo career, he lived in Pyeongchang-dong with his wife, actress Lee Eun-sung. At that time, our families visited each other often. We would go to eat at our place and my wife would meet his wife. But even then I couldn’t reach him by phone. Taiji doesn’t carry his phone with him.”
