BTS RM recalls tears, reunion and emotional strain of making Arirang: 'There was no clear captain'

BTS's RM has never minced words in his livestreams. Perhaps that's why, ARMY always listens carefully to every word that he says; as the conversations always carry a rare, unguarded dimension. Speaking during a recent livestream, RM described the comeback timeline ad opened a window into the emotional strain, creative conflict, and fragile coordination behind BTS’s next chapter after military service. He spoke mostly in Korean, and as always translators helped out international ARMY's with the words and nuances his statements.

He recalled the moment the first military discharge: Jin, who returned in June 2024. While the scene of RM playing the saxophone, and the members hugging each other brought much joy, there were many tears shed, behind the scene. "When Jin-hyung had finished enlistment, when I played the sax, we were all in a tough place. We met up at Jimin's place and we were still soldiers so we were having a tough time and we were all crying and they asked me to do my best to take hold of and lead the team," he said.

He also explained the preparation for the momentous comeback, while they were still in military service. "We decided to do a song camp in July and August and we looked forward to it. And as much as we still had military service to complete, Jin-hyung and Hobi worked extremely hard, doing concerts and lots of variety shows," he recalled.

RM then described the creative chaos that defined their pre-comeback sessions, where the sheer volume of material became both a blessing and a burden: "The problem was this. The pre-sessions were starting in April/May, before we left the military.Some songs from then were BTB, Swim, Normal, Like Animals, and Please? And after we left the military and we gathered in LA, we took time to listen to all the created songs."

He added, "At that time there were about 15 songs and we all had different thoughts about what we liked. You would have seen from our solo work but we are all different and have different things we wanted to show you."

The tension he describes is familiar to any long-running collective, but magnified by BTS’s global scale. Individual artistry, sharpened during solo eras, now had to be folded back into a single identity. And that identity, RM admits, was harder to define than ever: "So how do we bring
all of these together? In the old days, I (usually me) or Yoongi-hyung would
bring us forward, but now all of the members (and this is our strength) but all of us want to protect our great and precious relationship and so we're careful."

As he also said, "What was hard was that there was no clear captain. Someone, a leader or boss, who could strongly say this is right or wrong and lead the way, but at the time that was hard to do. And so it was difficult. We made the album before setting a clear path through it."

RM also revealed a surprising shift in intent around their music choices, including early uncertainty about what would define their return: "At first, we weren't going to have Swim be our title track. We wanted something more powerful and energetic. But BTS was coming back and what should be our title track? Everything each of us said could be the right answer and also not the right answer. Some people would want Dynamite and some people would want something like ON or something like Hooligan that just came out."

He added, "Some people might say, no BTS should do something like this, like Spring Day. We did so many genres in our years so, so everyone's preferences were different. Our fans could feel differently from each other and our members could feel differently and various departments could feel differently. It was too hard to get consensus."

The scale of expectation becomes its own character in the story; every era of BTS pulling against the next, every fan memory offering a different “correct” version of who they should be.

He added, "And thanks to you all, our scale has gotten bigger, and actually we have to schedule 1.5yrs to create an album because so many ppl have to work with us. So it was a very difficult project to pull off. And if there was something that you felt was lacking, it may have been because we didn't have a clear strong leader. But that was the only way we could do it and I think it was something that was due to the situation."

BTS is busy with their Arirang world tour now, each stop giving fans new memories, be it in person or via the internet. The band has brought back their old hits, classics such as Dope, Attack of Bangtan, Black Swan,Run, I Need U, just to name a few. For fans, more than anything else, it is joy and peace to see all seven on stage again, laughing and cheering with the crowds. Of course, given its BTS, the feeling is always and deeply mutual. And meanwhile, the album continues to soar on charts.