Lifehouse frontman Jason Wade admits the message in the band’s latest single, “Whatever It Takes,” is personal.

“I’ve been married seven years. So, do the numbers.”

Sure, marriage at 20 seems pretty “un-rock star” in any era, let alone these days. But on the flip, Lifehouse don’t always follow the grains that these days offer up.

Ponder this: The pop-rock trio delivered 2001’s most spun song, “Hanging by a Moment.” In 2005, “You and Me” kept the Billboard Hot 100 company for over 60 weeks.

Yet the Malibu, California, band believes so adamantly in its latest work, the LP Who We Are, that this weekend they embarked on radio promo tour in Pennsylvania after an engagement in Atlantic City.

That’s right, Lifehouse travel even further away from “rock star” by discounting all of the previous successes and — you saw this coming — doing whatever it takes to break yet another deep power ballad onto the charts.

Monday the group found itself inside the Mall at Steamtown in downtown Scranton, PA. Wade, along with bassist Bryce Soderberg and drummer Rick Woolstenhulme, performed a short and sweet three-song acoustic set. After Wade belted out the honest, relatable message in “Whatever It Takes,” the band moved to the more recognizable “First Time” and “You and Me.”

Of course, the group impressed. As one sound tech accurately assessed it, “These acoustic sets really separate the men from the boys.”

As if Lifehouse had to prove their maturity in this business, the award-winning group went a step further to send adoring fans home happy. Every person who attended and wanted to snap a picture with the band could.

In another words, if you know a Lifehouse fan who resides in NEPA, their MySpace profile picture probably includes a couple of guys that look famous, even though you might not recognize them.

Still, here were these three musicians, more sushi than hot dog, more sandals than snow boots, slugging through dreary northeast PA weather during the middle of January. Why?

“Because we need [stations to add the song to their playlists],” Soderberg succinctly stated. “We get some of these markets on the new single and it’ll catch.”

To what lengths will Lifehouse go so that you’ll hear the new track? Here’s a heads up — if you hear Wade’s trademark voice pleading over a jukebox near you, a member of the band might not be far behind. As was the case Sunday night at TGI Friday’s in Wilkes-Barre.

A couple of my cohorts and I were there discussing details of the acoustic performance our radio station had hosted. The soundtrack seemed a little too coincidental, especially when the new single hit the bar-area speakers.

Soderberg and Woolstenhulme were behind the culture-crime, with the tall, lanky bassist wasting no time in blaming his bandmate for the song selection.

Not that we minded. Or expected otherwise. After seven years of discarding the unspoken “rock star” guidelines, why start now?

Check out all of ralphieaversa’s uploads at yourhere.mtv.com…