ARMY may have thought they knew every piece of BTS trivia, but SUGA just dropped a tidbit that’s so obscure, even his bandmates had no idea.
On the latest installment of Wired‘s search-engine autocomplete series, the members of the septet answered questions both about the band as a whole and themselves as individuals. When it was SUGA’s turn, the singer born Min Yoon-gi found himself in the middle of an opportunity to finally tell the real story of how he got his stage name.
“‘SUGA name meaning,’” he said, reading one of the prompts on his cue card. “I can finally explain this now.”
The performer then went on to explain that his pseudonym is borrowed from UFC fighter Sean O’Malley, whose nickname was Suga, sans the letter “R.” O’Malley’s nickname calls back to another professional fighter, with SUGA telling his bandmates, “There’s a legendary boxer named Sugar Ray Leonard. So people who have technical striking skills, the specialists, are called Suga.”
He also recalled how Bang Si-Hyuk — the founder of BTS’ label, HYBE, and apparently a huge boxing fan — suggested to him years ago, “Since you’re technical with your rap, you should be Suga.”
But because that long story had always been “too annoying to explain,” SUGA said that he decided to tell people his name was simply a condensed version of “shooting guard,” a position in basketball. “This is my first time hearing this,” j-hope said after SUGA was finished as the other members nodded with collective surprise.
The Q&A comes as BTS is in the midst of a major comeback launched by the release of ARIRANG — the group’s first full-length in six years — in March. The project is currently spending its second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated April 11, and in just a few days, the band will embark on an enormous stadium world tour.
Elsewhere in the Wired video, the Bangtan Boys discussed reuniting after being discharged from the South Korean military, shared their favorite ARMY memes and reflected on the meaning of ARIRANG‘s title. In one particularly hilarious moment, RM answered a prompt about whether he feels “regret” for teaching his bandmates English.
“No. But they just don’t understand [English],” he said with defeat as the others, all of whom pretty much strictly spoke Korean throughout the video, burst out laughing. “I showed a lot of willpower. There’s nothing to regret. I feel like I just never taught them.”
“Even if you teach us, what do we know?” j-hope said, while Jin added, “The teacher is good, but the students aren’t that great.”
Watch the members of BTS answer the most searched questions about them above.
