Brian Austin Green is leader of the (wedding) band

MANILA, Philippines - Brian Austin Green had a ready laugh and quick answer when he was asked which title he wouldn’t mind getting tagged with: Mr. Megan Fox or Mr. 90210?

Brian is married to Megan, regarded as one of America’s present-day sex symbols. He was also one of the lead stars of the smash hit ’90s teen series Beverly Hills 90210, long defunct but it’s an association as fixed as an appendage, always called to mind during interviews.

Not that it bothers him.

“If I had to be one or the other, Mr. Fox would be better than Mr. 90210, only because 90210 is a zip code, and I don’t know if I’d want to be known as a mailing address,” Brian joked during a tele-conference with select Asian journalists to promote his TV series  Wedding Band.

The newest comedy-musical series in town, which debuts on Philippine TV on Nov. 16 and airs every Friday night at 8:30 exclusively on beTV, might give him a brand-new title being its lead star. (The show’s US premiere is ahead by only a week, on Nov. 10.)

Brian gets to show off his singing skills as Tommy, the hard-partying, unattached frontman of a wedding band called Mother of the Bride. Shredding it on the guitar is his best buddy and married father of two, Eddie (Peter Cambor). Behind Eddie on drums — and everything else in life — is his rock-obsessed brother, Barry (Derek Miller), whose goal is to deliver arena-rock spectacle in black-tie affairs. The newest addition to the band is bassist and session musician Stevie (Harold Perrineau), who has had jammed with all the rock heavyweights “from AC to ZZ,” but he’s never been officially part of any band until Mother of the Bride.

The likable but sometimes reckless foursome would live out their “rock god” dreams every weekend, while holding on to their friendship together and trying to figure out their respective lives. But one thing they’ve figured out is that weddings are the wildest parties in the planet, with bridesmaids as groupies, drinks free and flowing and best of all, with a paycheck waiting at the end of the night.

And as they also take care of the soundtracks of corporate events, high-school reunions and even bachelorette parties, they also have to contend with rival cover bands and work out the things that could bring them to the next level, like attracting the attention of the hardest-to-please, top events organizer Roxie Rutherford (Melora Hardin) and her novice associate Rachel (Jenny Wade).

“Our goal on the show is for people to have more fun at the weddings more than what they’d normally expect. Our characters want to make it a big day for everyone — not just for the bride, or the groom, but for every single person who’s there, and if that means the woman that nobody’s talking to, sitting in the back corner, then she’s the one who becomes our focus for the rest of the night, and we make sure at the end of the night, she’s dancing and having fun,” said Brian.

He said that his character, despite the image of being a perennial playboy and forever bachelor, believes deep-inside in the importance of weddings and marriage. “It’s the one thing he actually takes seriously in life; it’s the idea that this is somebody’s big day, this the day somebody will remember for the rest of their lives. So, to him, it’s a really huge responsibility that he takes on himself to make sure that it truly is that day.

“They have strict rules that they follow, they never interfere with the husband and wife, or do anything that would get in the way, or somehow affect the marriage in a negative way. It means a lot to him. That’s the only thing that means a lot to him, aside from that, hopefully, drinks for free and that there are a bunch of bridesmaids, or wedding party guests that he can hang out with after, but the actual marriage and the wedding itself mean more to him than anything else.”

Brian, whose recent TV credits include memorable support roles in Desperate Housewives and Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles, related how he got the lead part in the Wedding Band: “I auditioned for the lead role so I did the same thing I always did — go in and sing a song. I was lucky enough to be brought on it. In terms of preparation, we spent two and half months in the studio rehearsing and recording and getting everything together to shoot. It was a lot of work.”

That Brian (and the rest of the cast) can actually sing and play an instrument is not a surprise as sometime in his past, he even released a rap album. The foursome get to play at least three songs every episode, all of which will be made available on iTunes.

The Wedding Band’s story has them playing for all sorts of wedding themes, but none of them reminded him of his own wedding yet held in 2010 in Hawaii.

“My wedding was… my wife and I and my then eight-year-old son, we were on a beach. (So) nothing on the show reminded me of my own wedding. Ours was pretty intimate. There was just us, the ocean and a man with a conch shell. We didn’t have a wedding band, we had the ocean. That was our entire wedding party.”

And unlike his character, Brian has happily bid goodbye to his bachelor days and is looking forward to growing his family. He and Megan had their firstborn Noah Shannon Green last September. 

 He shared, “Family life is great. It’s just nice to have that aspect in life complete. It’s just nice to be not single and date, and go out and meet people, and hope to find somebody that maybe I’ll connect with. It’s nice that I have somebody to share everything with and who loves me no matter what… Now, we’re building a family. It’s the best. I wouldn’t trade it for anything; I really wouldn’t.”