This is it, Backstreet Boys fans! The Florida-based band's self-titled debut album finally hits record stores this April.
But don't start cheering yet-we've got even better news. After months of travelling around the world
and performing hit songs like "We've Got It Goin' On" and "I'll Never Break Your Heart" for fans in other nations, the Backstreet Boys-Nick Carter, Howie
Dorough, Brian Littrell, A.J. McLean and Kevin Richardson-are now planning to spend a lot more time in the United States. This doesn'y mean, however
that the Backstreet Boys had a totally awful time touring other countries. In fact, they each have extra-special memories of places they visited.
Nick and Brian loved the laid-back lifestyle and always-sunny skies of Brisbane, Ausralia.
"It's a little bit more mellow (than other cities)," 17-year-old Nick says. "It's very
quiet and the weather was so great."
Howie and Kevin, on the other hand were happiest on the other side of the world. "For me,
sentimentally, my favorite places were Germany, Austria and Switzerland because that's where
it really happened for the Backstreet Boys first," Kevin, 24, tells Bop, adding that he also liked
soaking up a little history in these countries. "I really like looking at all the old castles, and there
are lots of castles in Germany. We also saw some remnants of castles in Switzerland while
we were driving through the alps."
Howie, 23, liked poking around Europe's historical sites, too-especially in Spain, where there are lots
of centuries-old cathedrals, castles and cobblestone alleys to explore. "It's weird, because
seeing all the history over there you relize that America is a very young country," Howie tells Bop. "There is
a lot of history out there in the rest of the world."
As for 19-year-old A.J., well, he had a great time everywhere he went. "I enjoyed just about all
the places we went to: Spain, England, Germany, Australia. I mean, I just love to travel around the worla and visit new countries," he says.
Although the boys love spending time in other countries, they're definitely not planning
on packing up and moving out of the United States permanently. The truth is that all of their
traveling has made them want to spend more time in their own country. "We definitely have
a better appreciation for what we have in the United States," Kevin explains to Bop. "Now
we see that (ourcountry) is a melting pot and we understand where all our different cultures come from."
That's why the Backstreet Boys are so excited that they're finally brining their music to
their fans at home. "We finally have time to focus on our homeland," 22-year-old Brian
sats. "We got our start everywhere in the world except home, so it's time to come back
and focus on all the U.S. fans who have been waiting so long for this."
Taken from the June 1997 issue of Bop magazine.
A Nick Carter Exclusive
Orlando, Florida's Backstreet Boys released a chart-busting single in America ("We've Got It Goin' On")
but then they were called overseas to do their musical duty. They won platinum and gold awards in a
zillion countries, and now their very first U.S. album is hitting the stores this August. Listen in as youngest BSB member, Nick Carter,
17-all six gorgeous feet of him!-chat with your favorite teen mag!
Superteen: Hey, Nick! Superteen met you at the very begining of the Backstreet Boys' career-life must be way different now!
Nick: We're pretty much always on the road doing something active!
Superteen: We heard that you're recording your second European album, but that you just managed to get some vacation time in...
Nick: Yeah, I did get some time off and I went down to the Florida Keys. It was great!
Superteen: Since you travel so much, you're still based in your family's home. Have you bought yourself anything special?
Or something to fix up your room?
Nick: A couple of things. I'd really like to buy myself a truck really soon though; I'm getting my license. i do buy a lot of CDs.
Superteen: Does listening to music make you feel more at home when your traveling?
Nick: Music to me, can bring back memories. I listen to old time rock 'n roll, alternative, R&B, rap. Depends how I'm feeling.
Superteen: Who have you been rooming with on the road?
Nick: I room with my parents. I'm under 18, so I still have to have someone with me.
Superteen: How do the five BSB members cope with all the travelling?
Nick: The travelling does get kind of gruesome sometimes. I'm alway from the rest of my family, and I miss them.
Superteen: What do you do for fun?
Nick: I like to play a lot of video games and read video game magazines. Sometimes the guys and I play together, or
we play jokes on each other. One time on stage, I found myself sining into a banana! They stuck it on my microphone.
Superteen: What's the girl situation?
Nick: We meet a lot of girls, we're never in one place long enough for relationships to develope.
I'd feel sorry for us if we did have relasionships. It's very hard when your always on the run.
Superteen: How does it feel having another single in the U.S.?
Nick: Great! They started playing "Quit Playing Games" in my area. Tampa, pretty early on in April.
Superteen: How do you think life will change with your album coming out in August?
Nick: We've already had European fans travel to Florida just to see us. Who knows what's going to happen!
Losing privacy can be a down side to all of this, but over all, it's very flattering.
Superteen: There are a lot of new young performers in music today. Where do you see the Backstreet Boys in relation to them?
Nick: We're a little bit different...Young people can make good music as well as older people, now it's our turn to show the world what's going on.
Superteen: What do you know about performing that you didn't know when you first started out?
Nick: We've learned that our performances make people happy-that's what we're here for. And our performances are getting tighter; we're just
becoming tighter as a group. And we're really looking forward to doing our showss here at home!
Taken from Superteen magazine, the September 1997 issue.
Which Backstreet Boy is playing games with your heart?
Every Backstreet Boys fan has a favorite member
of the group. Do you love Nick, Howie D., AJ,
Kevin or B-Rok? Here's how to tell . . .
You're the girl for AJ if . . .
1. You love to dance. AJ has studied everything
from ballet to hip-hop to jazz. "I wanted it to
be my first career," he says, "either that or
acting."
2. You like to compare your love to a summer's
day--ie. You think poetry is cool. "I've written
about 75 poems between the time I was 15 to now,"
says this utter romantic who's been known to find
poetic inspiration in fans just like you.
3. You can find fun in almost any situation. "I
love people who are spontaneous," says AJ. "I
like a girl with a really catchy personality. The
kind where we can go to McDonald's and she'll
still have a good time." He says that he's
attracted to "a person who has a lot of good
morals and is very personable."
4. You live to shop! One of the highlights of
AJ's world travels has been the shopping. "My
perfect day would be to write music, go to the
movies and then shop until I couldn't fit any
more bags in my car," he says.
5. Silver makes you happy! "I love jewelry," says
AJ. "I love all kinds of silver, especially
exotic Brazilian and African styles."
You've got it bad for Nick if . . .
2. You liked the lessons on the Middle Ages in
history class. "I just love medieval times!" says
this prince of pop.
3. You think it's cool to try different styles of
clothing--but nothing too weird. "My kind of
style is sportswear-- jerseys, sneakers. It just
depends how I feel," says Nick. "If I want to
dress alternative, I'll dress alternative. If I
want to dress prep, I'll dress prep. Whatever,
it's just me."
4. You're a video game fanatic! "I'm like
addicted to that stuff," says Nick who brings
along both a Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 on
tour. He's mostly into playing sports games on
them.
5. You can take a joke! As everyone knows, Nick's
a big prankster. "I haven't been able to pull
(pranks) off lately because everyone knows my
tricks," says this fan of itching powder and gum
that makes your tongue turn blue.
B-Rok rocks your world if . . .
1. You're way into sports. "Athletics have been
an important part of my life ever since I was
little," says Brian, who was hoping to go to
college on a basketball scholarship before he
joined Backstreet Boys.
2. You're a natural. "I'm attracted to a girl
with a great personality, who is very open,
trustworthy, giving and just willing to have
fun," he says.
3. You do unto others as you would have them do
unto you. "I'm not real religious but my family
brought me up with a religious background," says
Brian, who got his start as a singer in his
church choir. "I try to stay somewhat focused on
that and do my own thing," he says.
4. You love music! Needless to say, music is an
extremely important part of this Backstreet Boy's
life. He particularly loves the vocal groups Boyz
II Men, Take 6 and Jodeci.
5. You take your education seriously. As we
mentioned earlier, Brian was college-bound before
joining the group and he hasn't discounted the
possibility of continuing his studies sometime in
the future. He's really attracted to girls who
have important thoughts on their minds.
You're Howie D.'s girl if . . .
1. You're a night owl! Howie admits that mornings
are not his best time of day. He comes alive as
the sun is setting and the night is heating up.
This charming sweetie loves to go out clubbing
under the stars.
2. You like to try new things. In all his world
travels with BSB, Howie is always interested in
learning about different people, visiting new
places and eating local food.
3. You have a sweet tooth. Howie ‘used' to have a
real craving for gummy bears, but once the word
got out all his fans started sending him more
than he could eat! In the interest of keeping his
perfect body, Howie's sweet treat of choice these
days is Extra gum, sugar-free in cinnamon flavor.
4. You don't believe in traveling light! "I
practically bring my whole house with me," says
Howie. "My bag is so heavy nobody wants to carry
it. It has everything from my CD player, CDs,
cassette player, Spanish books, sunglasses,
everything and anything."
5. You're a family-oriented kind of girl. "I'm
really tight with my family. It's hard to be away
for so long," says Howie, who buys presents for
the whole Dorough clan on the road. No wonder his
bags are so heavy!
Kevin's the guy for you if . . .
1. You love riding horseback. "I learned to ride
horses when I was little," says Kevin who spent
the first eight years of his life living on a
Kentucky farm. "My brother had his own horse. He
went to the state fair all the time to show his
horse."
2. You have definite goals for your life. "I'm a
real perfectionist," says Kevin. "I want to go
places and I want things to be done right." He
thinks the girl in his life should feel the same
way.
3. You like a guy who knows how to treat a lady.
"I like to go to dinner and have some good
conversation," says Kevin of his ideal date. "If
the vibe is right, then maybe a romantic walk in
the park or on a beach."
4. You want kids someday. "I don't want to be out
on the road all my life," says Kevin. "Family is
very important to me and eventually I'd like to
have one of my own."
5. You don't need conversation all the time.
Kevin admits that he's not always the most
outgoing guy in the world. "I'm a shy guy," he
says. "Sometimes I think too much about what I'm
going to say to somebody or what they're going to
think."
Taken from the April 1998 issue of Teen Machine magazine.
Pop star temper tantrums revealed
Nick:
"When we sing live we have the battery packs for our headset mics fastened to our backs. Mine fell off when I was
performing 'Party' recently and the others had to sing it for me. When we came off stage I lost it and
started throwing things at people on our tour bus!"
Howie:
"We'd planned to go on a trip to Spain and I was really looking forward to it. I'd arranged to meet
friends there, but right at the last minute they CANCELLED! I don't usually express my feelings, but this time
I told them how upset I was. I didn't shout or anything because I'm a very calm person. Instead I didn't speak to them
for a couple of days - that was a temper tantrum for me!"
A.J.:
"we were on stage rehearsing our dance routines for our tour and the guys were all fooling around, not concentrating. I became
really upset cos they wouldn't pay attention and we had loads of work to do. I was trying to make sure they were doing it right
so that no one would get hurt during the show. They just kept fooling around and I ended up really
yelling andd screaming at them. In the end up i thought, 'The HELL with it,' and went off to have some lunch."
Brian:
"I was playing one-on-one basketball with one of my friends and I beat him, fair and square. He just couldn't stand losing and started to go mad.
He was bigger than me and pushed me across the parking lot. I was really angry and picked him up and slammed him on his back. Just as I
was about to pop him one a teacher grabbed my arm. I was so angry. We made up after, of course."
Kevin:
"I don't really lose it a lot but when I do, ooh, watch out. Recently, we were rehearsing but we also has to do some promotion the same day.
I wanted to focus on the rehearsal and it upset me that we had other stuff to do, and I went all quiet.
Every time someone asked me what was wrong I just growled at them. Grrrr!"
Taken from Top of the Pops magazine.
Backstreet Boys -- Before They Were Stars
Its hard to imagine a time when Nick, Kevin, Howie, Brian and A.J. weren’t huge successes being totally idolized by girls around the world. But there was a time when these cuties were regular kind of guys you might have spotted at the mall or drooled over in class – and they had the same day-to-day hassles and heartbreaks as you do!
With their way-romantic his songs “As Long As You Love Me” and “Quit Playin’ Games (With My Heart)” topping charts, it would be easy to put Backstreet Boys babes Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough and AJ McLean on a superstar pedestal. But you better believe that before they were household names, these five fab guys were going through the same growing-up stuff that everybody does. And even though they’re way cool now, it wasn’t any easier for them than it is for anyone else.
Don’t buy it? Well, Nick can sure set you straight. Even though he was as adorable in junior high as he is now, he was completely dissed by his classmates. "I had a pretty hard time in school," the blonde and beautiful 18-year-old tells BB. "I was doing a lot of acting and stuff like that and I always had to leave school. All the kids would wonder why I left. I wasn’t quite respected by any of them because they were jealous." Ouch!!
Dissed and Dismissed
A.J. probably wouldn’t have won any popularity contests, either – with his schedule, he wouldn’t have time to enter one! "I was doing a lot of musical theater and modeling and I was in school as well," the 20-year-old babe recalls. "I was in regular school and I was in FADA, which is the Florida Academy of Dramatic Arts. I did everything."
Even though AJ was majorly busy, that didn’t mean he didn’t have time to fall in love. The only problem was, the girls he craved would give him the time of day! "It happened all the time," AJ groans. "Back in high school, I can think back on how there were a lot of girls that I really liked that didn’t want anything to do with me."
Of course, you know those gals are kicking themselves now – and don’t feel too bad for AJ. On the bright side, going solo just meant the future superstar had a little more time to practice his singing. You see, before he became a Backstreet Boy, AJ was more interested in moving to the music than singing to it. "I did the singing thing just to have something to fall back on incase the dancing thing didn’t work out," AJ admits to BB. Sounds like it was a good thing that when his chance to join the group cam around, AJ had spent more time working on his back-up plan than he had dating!
AJ isn't the only one who discovered it was easier to strut his stuff on stage than go one on one with his classmates. Howie had his hard times in school, too. Even though he's an outgoing guy nowadays, the Orlando, Florida native wasn't always that way. In fact, Howie feels that part of the reason why he was so shy as a kid was that he spent so much time performing, he didn't have time to shape up his social skills! "I had kind of an awkward childhood," the 24-year-old hottie confesses. "I've been in the business since I was 6 years old, so my free time, after school or during weekends or whatever, was always tied up doing auditions, plays, or voice lessons. I didn’t really get into dating until my last couple years of high school.
