When a global cultural phenomenon lets Apple Music get first dips on the first long-form interview about their comeback phenomenon, you know the scale and significance of such a moment. Apple Music’s Global Creative Director Zane Lowe sits down with BTS — RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook — at HYBE  to understand first-hand about how starting this 2.0 era was like, the seven-piece’s growing in and outside of music during their military hiatus, and what they plan to bring to their beloved ARMY. Read on for the interview, then scroll all the way to watch the full clip for their spoken responses.

BTS tell Apple Music they consider what it will take to last forever

Zane: Can this be forever?

Jin: Nothing lasts forever. But we have to make an effort so that the good times can last.

j-hope: It’s impossible to say for sure, ‘This will last forever.’ Nor can you say for sure, ‘This won’t last forever.’ It can happen if we all agree on it. What’s good is good.

SUGA: I think we can make it happen, if we wanted, even when we’re 80 or 90.

V: We just have to put in the effort to be together for a long time.

Jung Kook tells Apple Music it felt naturally to come back together as a group

Zane: Jung Kook, when we spoke here, we talked about the idea of you all moving off separately to work on your own solo music. It felt natural to all of you, it didn’t feel forced. Did this feel as natural, coming back together? I know you said it was a bit strange living together, but when you all found yourself together, even having that first meeting, how did it begin?

Jung Kook: In fact, to me the most natural thing is, I mean, I’ve always done more group projects than solo ones, so it felt only natural. And although we could have done our military service separately, we ended serving around the same time so we could get back together as a group as soon as possible. It didn’t feel like a big deal. It felt natural, like a given. It all came naturally.

SUGA tells Apple Music why being on social media hasn’t really been his style

Zane: Why did you take some time to come back and say hi to ARMY, and how did it feel when you came back and realised that everyone was so happy to see you streaming for the first time?

SUGA: I wasn’t deliberately taking my time. I had been doing something all that time. My cat appearing on Weverse was just because my cat happened to be there then. It just happened. I don’t really remember how often I communicated before going to the military, but I think it’s just my style. Rather than chatting constantly, I tend to pop in at certain moments to talk, then spend some time alone as well. I guess everyone has their own style.

Jimin tells Apple Music how being in the military has inspired him to work harder

Zane: Jimin, I wanted to ask what you think you learned about yourself during the time away, and in particular, during military service. When you came home, how had you tested yourself, and what had you learned about yourself?

Jimin: [laughs] I did a lot of thinking there. I realized how valuable it is to have time to work and pour my energy into something I care about. Not only that, you know, most Korean men go to the military at a very young age, and seeing young men giving their all into everything, even there, I constantly thought that I should work harder, too. I worked on my craft a lot with Jung Kook even in the military. That’s how my time in the military went.

Zane: We’re glad you’re back.

RM: We’re glad we’re back, too.

Jin tells Apple Music he’s thankful to the BTS leaders in the group for guiding him

Zane: Jin, your journey to here is very different to RM’s journey to here. You’ve such a unique journey on how you became a part of BTS, I mean it was almost a happy accident, in a strange way.

Jin: We were on different paths when we started but in the end, our leader guided us well so that we could really understand how fun and joyful music is. Thanks to our leader, many of us have changed and we all came to love music. I’m always thankful to RM, j-hope, and all the members. Lately, I’ve been wondering if I’d have been happy living a different life, and I think the members guided me to the best path for myself. I’m always thankful to the members and I pray that they always succeed.

RM tells Apple Music what its been like to be a leader in BTS

RM: We’ve been together for half of our lives. Like 15 years. That’s a long time. That’s like a family. So as we see each others eyes, we understand. We get it. ‘You’ve been through your hard times, bro. Then I’ll do some more. I’ll take care of you.’ We can just do that without any words or something. So they support me and I can do my roles, but it’s always tricky that I sometimes put too much weight on myself as a leader. But at the same time, I feel like I’m just one of the members. I’m just one of the team. I’m just one of the seven. Sometimes you’ve got to just let it go, just go with the flow, just be part of the team. So I’m still figuring out what is a good leader.

BTS tells Apple Music about collaborating with legendary artists on the new album

Zane Lowe: You worked with some great people on this record. Diplo, Mike WiLL Made-it, El Guincho, incredible. Kevin Parker, what? Teezo Touchdown. It’s pretty wild. I mean, let’s gets into that, the fun part of that. Jung Kook, tell us some stories, or let’s talk about the collaborators and what you loved about all that.

Jung Kook: I worked a lot with El Guincho.

j-hope: Jung Kook worked a lot on the song ‘Hooligan’.

Jung Kook: I got to listen to a lot of the tracks and I was really wowed by just how fresh and new it was. One of the first thoughts I had was, ‘Wow, you can approach a song like this?’ And I felt a lot of pressure about how to make the best use of it. So that must be why I wanted to stay close. So anyway. It was a totally different vibe. A whole new vibe. I hope to work again and have another session with the producers and the songwriters that we worked with.

BTS tells Apple Music about the meaning behind the album title ‘ARIRANG’

RM: I think it was very natural to bring some a key word like Arirang. Arirang is like an old traditional Korean song, hundreds of years, maybe thousand. The song is about, the lyrics are quite abstract, but it’s about a longing and a nostalgia for a hometown. It could be a lover, it could be a hometown, it could be a family, it could be a friend. Lots of our ancestors have been singing it. It’s very like ethnic and very very historical in Korean. So in the military we also thought about like missing the times and the past and the fans, the times that we were together but we couldn’t do anything inside, and we naturally thought about like where we came from and if we unite again, what do we have to do? If BTS should go on, what word could make us into a one, like a group, you know?”

Zane: That’s bigger than you.

RM: Yes. We want to cling to the world where we are rooted. Since we are all Koreans and we are proud of where we came from and I think the song has lyrics and the melodies are very very universal. Everyone has nostalgias and their sadness and their longings, so I think a great art mostly brings a personal thing into a universal thing. So if we bring Arirang into 2026 in our own ways, we thought that we could bring it to the world.

BTS tells Apple Music about future plans for the bands and building a new legacy

j-hope: The funny thing is, after finishing his military service, V went to Jin’s concert as a guest, and he was moved to tears. Really, it always gets emotional. We’re going on a world tour soon meeting fans in stadiums, and it’s been five years since the last time. Embarking again on a world tour after such a long time will feel incredibly fresh.

BTS tell Apple Music about connecting with their fans that are in different places in life and cementing their legacy

Zane: It’s incredible to think that it started just with that. All of this now, this building, this business, this anticipation about this tour, started with you guys on the street just asking people to come see a show.

RM: I know, like, when I first got into the label, it was Big Hit before HYBE, there was nine people in one floor. It was 2010, April. I remember the office was awful. And the nine people they all had to be in charge of three jobs. Somebody had to do, like, mails and shippings and design at the same time. Now it’s like, more than 2,500 people right now. We still sometimes can’t believe that we are here, actually. And we also just got out of the army and the military, and things change so fast back and forth. But we just naturally always think about like, you know, they just brought us here. We’re for them and they’re for us at the same time. It’s really amazing to see a growth. So they’re getting older right now, as well, because we’re getting older too. When we had our debut they were like elementary school students, and now they’re like 25 and someone’s gotten married. It’s amazing getting old with the fans.

Zane: Well this is an interesting time because this is, in my opinion, a legacy play. That first phase was the building and the amassing of success and fans and achievements. You could’ve ended there. And it would’ve been a perfect journey up to that point. To come back, you have an opportunity now, probably the first of your generation, to mature this experience.

RM: It’s still a big challenge that I’m also really afraid of a new chapter. Because we have to show different things to convince the fans and the people out there. We want to reach maybe a different type of people as well. Since we love each other so much, we’re just here, still. And the fans are there. So what is the reason that we have to stop this precious brand and thing and family. Because, for my rest of my life, I can’t ever meet people like this. Because I’m like 33. I was 15 when I first met them. But now I’m like 32, maybe, but it was my teenage, and they are really symbolizing my youth, as well. So I don’t want to miss this chance, and I don’t want to regret years later, like, “Man, we had to do it again,” we just shouldn’t have stopped this journey.’ We didn’t want to do that thing, like “Interstellar,” you know.

Zane: Was that a conversation? That was beautifully put in reflection, but was that actually a conversation amongst the seven of you?

j-hope: We seemed to share the same perspective about our future, and we felt this without even necessarily having to talk about it. Then after completing military service, just naturally, we came back together. That is the big reason why we were able to do this together. It just was a natural culmination of our thinking and it’s now showing through. All seven of us were on the same page on what we needed to do moving forward, which allowed us to do what we are doing now, without having to say it out loud. And there was a lot of synergy bouncing off of all of us.

Once you are done with this story, click here to catch up with our March 2026 issue.