ARTICLE FROM TEEN PEOPLE
As they were getting ready to embark on their first major U.S. tour,
Backstreet Boys invited TEEN PEOPLE to hang with them at their home base
in Orlando and on the L.A. set of their newest video, "I'll Never Break
Your Heart." We learned that, as tight as this group may be, the Boys
are still total individuals.
by LORI MAJEWSKI
NICK:
At 18, Nickolas Gene Carter is the group's youngest member. He's also
the tallest (six-feet-one), the blondest and the most popular. Which is
why he's having a hard time convincing a record company rep to let him
wear his hair in a multitude of funky braids for the band's new video.
"It'll look phat," Nick insists, intent on modeling his look on Cloud, a
character in PlayStation's Final Fantasy VII game. Finally, a compromise
is reached: no braids, but a definitely edgier-than-usual 'do that
complements Nick's futuristic get-up and plastic bubble gun.
With his cherubic face and his obsession with toys and comic books (he
plans on drawing an official Backstreet Boys series), Nick is every inch
the baby Boy. But he's not as innocent as he seems. A five-year music
industry veteran, he's more business-minded -- and more worldly -- than
his band mates were when they were 18.
"I can't imagine having to deal with what we have to deal with now at
his age," says Nick's best pal Brian Littrell, 23. "When I was eighteen,
we weren't a hot commodity. I got to ease into it."
Nick, on the other hand, has a hard time remembering what it was like
not to be in high demand. Only 13 when he joined up with the Boys, Nick
worked with a full-time tutor from junior high on; this past spring, he
received his high school diploma in a hotel room while the group was on
the road.
Missing out on high school doesn't bother Nick, but missing out on
everyday things -- like shooting hoops -- does. "I love basketball. Just
to play, period," says Nick, who once dreamed of playing college ball.
"I could be so much better, but I don't have the time."
He laments not having time for a girlfriend either. "Takes devotion," he
says of a relationship, adding, "A few of the other guys have had
girlfriends in the past, and it just didn't work."
Nevertheless, the Carter home near Tampa, Fla., remains a magnet for
girls who sit -- sometimes all day long -- with their faces pressed
against the eight-foot-high fence. Nick takes advantage of nearby Tampa
Bay for his escape from all the attention, spending time aboard his
boat. Sometimes he brings his family -- sisters Bobbi Jean, 16; Lesley,
12; and Angel, 10 (whose twin brother, Aaron, is the clan's newest
singing sensation); dad Bob, his career advisor; and mom Jane, who
manages Aaron. But often, he sets sail alone. "The ocean does something
to me that is unexplainable," Nick says.
"Just being out there and realizing I'm alive."
BRIAN:
Brian Littrell is lucky to be alive. When he was five years old, his
heart suddenly stopped beating for about 30 seconds. "I remember them
taking me out of bed and putting me in a tub of ice to cool my body
off," the Lexington, Ky., native says of the nightmarish hospital stay
that doctors said should have been his last. "Then they put
me back in bed with only a sheet to cover me. Ten minutes later, they
put
me back in the ice. This kept up for an hour. Then I blacked out."
His mom, Jackie, watched as her son's eyes rolled back in his head.
Warned that Brian, his heart weakened and infected, probably wasn't
going to make it, she did the only thing she could: pray. "I just had a
faith inside that this wasn't the end for Brian," says Jackie. "God just
reached down and touched that child, and he started on his way up."
Eighteen years later, the Littrells, Jackie and Harold, found themselves
once again worrying about the health of their younger son (Brian's
brother, Harold Jr., is 26). Last November, doctors discovered that the
congenital hole in Brian's heart had caused the organ to enlarge
considerably: If it wasn't operated on soon, his life could be in
danger.
"My initial thought was, 'Great timing!'" Brian says, sighing. The Boys
were finally successful in the U.S., thanks to their first chart-topping
single, "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)." Two months without a lead
singer would seriously impact the group. So, for the benefit of his band
-- and against his parents' wishes -- Brian put off the procedure for
six months. (He finally underwent surgery in May and is now fully
recovered.) Brian's mom resigned herself to his decision: "He's always
been a team
player."
And a fighter. Jackie recalls Brian's annual attempts to join his high
school basketball team: "He never made it, because of his size."
Finally, after getting cut yet again his junior year, the church
choirboy made an announcement. "I learned something today," he said. "I
can play ball as good as any of those guys, but none of them can sing
like me."
And now he's got the fans to prove it.
HOWIE:
Howard Dorough, Howie D. for short, is known to the others as Sweet D.
"Once, when we couldn't sign autographs because there were too many
fans, he was too nice and stopped, and got trampled by them," says A.J.
McLean, Howie's pal of 10 years and his BSB cofounder. "He fell down
like a turtle on its back, his feet kicking up."
Good-natured Howie, 24, loves to give back to his fans. While the other
Boys vacationed during Brian's recovery this past spring, Howie made
appearances in South America, where his Puerto Rican heritage (on his
mom's side) and his Spanish speaking skills (he's even appeared on
Spanish soap operas) have made him incredibly popular.
Howie has been acting and singing since he was a kid, but his first real
love was dancing. "I was in an all-boy ballet group one time," says the
Orlando native (and arguably the Boys' best dancer). "It was cool as
heck."
But then came a talent competition in Howie's senior year. "When I sang
'Unchained Melody,' I hit the high note and got a standing ovation," he
says. "When I was done, they didn't even want to (see) any more people.
They were ready to give me the award."
Now the falsetto in a wildly successful singing group, Howie couldn't be
happier. Well, actually, he could -- if BSB's detractors would stop
criticizing them for not playing instruments. "You don't see Boyz II Men
playing instruments," he says. "We're not like Hanson -- we're not a
rock 'n' roll band. We're an R&B harmony vocalist group."
As one of the eldest Boys, Howie is focusing on the future: He's started
a company, Sweet D Inc., which is currently developing condominiums on
Florida's east coast. And he hired some of his family (which consists of
mom Paula; dad Hoke; older brother John; and older sisters Pollyanna,
Caroline and Angie) to run the operation.
Sweet D-eal.
A.J.:
Alexander James McLean, known as A.J., is technically an only child. But
he considers the Boys his adopted brothers, and his mom, Denise, is the
group's unofficial den mother. She monitors their schedule, deals with
emergencies (like when Kevin Richardson had to have his appendix out in
Germany last October) and is the liaison for the band's international
fan clubs.
Denise and A.J.'s dad, Robert, got a divorce when A.J. was four years
old. Then, when he was six, A.J. says, "I saw him for about two days at
Christmastime. That was it. I never saw him again." Until he was 18,
that is, when A.J. decided to pay his dad a surprise visit. "This guy
opens the door and I'm like, 'Is there a Robert McLean home?'" says
A.J., who earlier the same morning had discovered that his father lived
just minutes away from his own Orlando apartment complex. "He said,
'Alex?' I was like,
'Whoa! Dad, you recognize me?' I walked in, and there's Backstreet Boys
stuff everywhere! He'd been keeping up with me since the day I started!"
The most rebellious Boy, 20-year-old A.J. plays up his nonconformist
image with frequent hair-color changes, a variety of tattoos and a
gruff, rap-style singing voice. But he wasn't always so tough, it seems.
Laughs Howie, "The first time I met him at a talent competition he was
just a little pipsqueak, a little geek." Howie and A.J. were both
aspiring actors as kids, and Howie reports they were often up for the
same parts because of their similar Latin looks. "He was doing this
little puppet show to the
Paula Abdul song 'Opposites Attract.'"
A.J.'s still an occasional puppeteer -- and he still loves to be in
control. In fact, although the Boys' record company executives and
management aren't exactly thrilled with his bad-boy look, he keeps
pushing the limits. Even today, with the smell of peroxide perfuming his
newly bleached hair, he's pondering his next style statement: a pierced
eyebrow. Why is A.J. so intent on challenging the powers that be? One
good reason: "The fans love it."
KEVIN:
He may not be the flashiest dancer. And of the five Boys, he probably
has the fewest lead parts to sing. But behind the scenes, it is Kevin
Richardson, the one the others sometimes call Freight, who keeps the
speeding Backstreet train on track. A
perfectionist, Kevin approaches each task -- whether it's giving a pep
talk to his fellow singers during the TEEN PEOPLE photo shoot or making
sure a steak is barbecued just right -- with the take-charge manner of a
CEO. "My dad was probably the one who instilled that in me," says Kevin,
26, taking a break between Walt Disney World's Grad Night shows
underneath Cinderella Castle, the very place he used to suit up as
Aladdin when he worked there in 1993. "'He would always say -- pardon my
French -- 'If you're gonna half-ass it, don't do it at all.'"
His father Jerald's death from colon cancer six years ago made Kevin "a
lot more serious," says Brian, who's also Kevin's cousin (Brian's dad
and Kevin's mom, Ann, are siblings). A Kentucky native, Kevin joined the
Backstreet Boys soon after moving to Orlando. At 21, the baby of the
family (his brothers are Jerald Jr., 33, and Tim, 30) suddenly found
himself a big brother to his new band mates -- three of whom had yet to
finish high school. But Kevin's self-appointed role as the group's
watchdog doesn't always sit well with the others.
"I think deep down inside he feels that his contribution to the group is
to be the oldest and to make sure everything is straight. That's just
the way he is," says Brian. "But here I am, gonna be twenty-four, and I
really don't need Kevin telling me what to do."
"The fellas probably think I'm the hardest or the roughest or the
meanest," admits Kevin, "but I'll cry at the drop of a hat sometimes."
And in public, no less. When the group played his home state for the
first time, Kevin teared up upon spotting his family in the audience. He
also wept during a show on their last trip to Montreal: "There was a kid
in the front row, and I knew he was blind. He
couldn't see us, but he was smiling. I said to A.J., 'He's blind, go and
touch his hand,' and A.J. did. And I just started crying, you know? I
just lost it."
Though the cutthroat music business can sometimes be unsettling for this
family-oriented country boy (record execs have tried on occasion to
break up the group by offering certain members solo contracts), Kevin
says fans like that one make it all worthwhile.
"We're touching people's lives and making people forget about their
problems for a moment." He pauses. "That's what music's all about, I
think."
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