Boyz II Men's Shawn Stockman, 'Sing-Off' judge, knows harmony

* THE SING-OFF, 8 tonight, NBC10.

ON WEDNESDAY, a singing competition gets under way on Fox that boasts a $5 million prize and a brusque Brit named Simon Cowell - maybe you've heard of him? - who wants to make sure the winner truly stands out from the crowd.

"The Sing-Off" is not that competition.

Returning to NBC tonight after winter-holiday runs over the past two seasons, "The Sing-Off" offers a $200,000 prize for a group that can stand out only by blending in.

Because in a capella, it's about the harmony more than it is the money.

"When you hear voices combine in harmony, and it sounds good, I don't care who you are, the only way you can't react is if you're dead."

So says Shawn Stockman, of Philly's Boyz II Men, who's returning as a "Sing-Off" judge.

Reminiscing in Beverly Hills, Calif., last month about the days when the group performed on the Broad Street Line ("the acoustics were incredible . . . and the harmonies would go for miles"), Stockman insisted money hasn't changed the way he felt then.

"Our intention behind doing the music was always the right intentions. It didn't have anything to do with having a lawyer or an agent or a manager or trying to be on television or anything like that. We were just four guys, just like our first single says, who wanted to sing," he said.

"That purity still translates with people. . . . It's no real monetary reward, some huge one, that these kids have to go for. They're just doing it for the opportunity and the chance to be heard and to be seen," Stockman said.

"This was something that I could totally relate to. Because I was there. You know, we were those guys that just wanted people to hear us. And we got fulfillment out of just the reaction of people saying, 'Oh my God, that was sick!' You know what I mean? That was what it was about with us, and you see that with each and every one of these contestants."

Harmony, it seems, begets harmony.

"You can't be in an a cappella group and not have the right intention of singing with it because . . . a capella groups [have] a need of the group's actually getting along, and actually needing each other to sound good," he said. "You can't throw a tantrum, or throw your guitar onstage, because there isn't" a guitar to throw.

But how do you keep things pure when you're part of what's been called the most successful R&B group of all time?

"Everybody has to eat, everybody has to have a car, everybody has to have a roof over their heads," said Stockman, who'll be 39 next week and has three children with his wife, Sharonda.

"If it was all about money and things of that nature, and the pursuit of it, [Boyz II Men] probably would have broken up a long time ago. And I think the reason why we stayed together was we knew we couldn't find this chemistry anywhere else. And it was about, you know . . . experiencing something that we haven't even experienced with our own wives, with our own children. It is a camaraderie that can never be broken. And that's what keeps us together, honestly."