DON'T CALL US
On Backstreet Boys' first tour of Europe they were invited twice to appear on the german answer to MTV, Viva. Unfortunatly a lot of very nice cars were damaged outside the television station's studios When they came between the BSB"s fan's and the guy"s tour bus. "the mistake was publicizingall week that Backstreet Boys are gonna be here," remembers A.J. "There were over 200 girls waiting for us and they ended up walking and jumping on soft-top convertibles and putting holes in them. The rukas that caused made Viva tell us they don't want us back."
PICKED OUT IN PICCADILLY
Piccadilly Circus in London doesn't have clowns and a giant tent. It's actually a touristy area of the city with lot's of cool restaurants, cafes, theaters and places to shop. A.J. and howie were there minding thier own buisnessone night when they became surrounded by fans. "Things were just starting to happen[for the group] there. So we're in Picadilly Circus to get somthing to get somthing to eat and we were on a corner waiting for some friends and the next thing you Know we were surrounded by all these europeeans."
Without any security to get them out of the crowd the guysended up signing autographs for almoast an hour . "You can't control it," adds A.J. "With security, they'll be like 'Okay that's enough, the guys han=ve to go, but we were like 'Okay, okay. okay. okay' and we were trying to work our way back into the mall area." In case you were wondering, A.J. and Howie did eventually find thier friends and have dinner, although a bit later than they expected.
EAT ALL YOUR VEGGIES
Of course it's not always who get a little nuts, sometimes Backstreet Boys' own crew acts a bit zany. The Boys say that the first and last nights of a concert tour are usually easy targets for a practicle joke. "We always do stuff to mess with each- other," says A.J. "The last show on our christmas tour was ridiculouse." Interjects Howie, "Anything and everything can happen on the last show.""Our crew was trying stuff with us. We did the song 'Boys Will Be Boys'where we're supposed to dance with our mikestands," recalls A.J. Apparantly, the crew thought that the Backstreet Boys needed some more Vitamin "A" in their diets. "they put carrots in our mikestands!" says A.J. "I didn't know what it was and I couldn't stop laughing!"
At Home With The Family
Although Backstreet Boy Mania hasn't hit full effect in the U.S yet, plenty of fans from other countries have found thier way's to the homes of the Backstreet Boys and thier relatives. "My family has had it all," says Kevin. "Not just my mother, but grandmother's and grandfather's brothers and sistersbecause we all have thw same last name. My grandfather actually had come to his house in Kentucky from Germany."
Similar incidents have happened to the families of other Backstreet boys families, too."My mom dad have met fans," says Brian "There will be little girls in the U.S who'll come visit thier families. A little girl[who was visiting] drove from Ohio to come visit my family in Lexington and they contacted my parants. So mu mom said, 'Okay you can't come to the house but I'll meet you for breakfest.' So they met and because she went to all that trouble to bring a fan letter personally to my mother so I could get it -- my mother was like ,' Brian Thomas you write that girl back!'"
A DIFFERENT KIND OF CHRISTMAS
Nick's family has had such a hard time keeping of the lawn and out of the garden that they finally put a fence around their property.That hasn't stopped the fans from visiting--even on holidays!"This Christmas, some fans came to my house.We were all dressed up and getting ready to eat Christmas dinner.I came out and signed a few autographs anyway,"recalls Nick."They came back the next day to apologize for bothering us on Christmas, but they wrote me a letter explaining that this was their Christmas present.I was like, wow."
PLEASE DON'T PICK THE FLOWERS
Nick's family home has definetly come under seige! "This sounds really nuts, but where Nick lives there was a gentlemen who was selling maps to Nick's house!"say's Brian in disbelief. "He would charter a bus that would go out to his court and he'd get everyone out-they were getting 30 people a day at his poor little house!They'd go up and steal flowers for souvenirs. Nick had a basketball left in the front yard and they took it!!
THE CASE OF THE DANCING HOUSE
Some people are a lot more considerate though.They don't take anything more than photos of their favourite group members home. One photo of Nick's house really surprised the group by turning up when they least expected it."We were perfroming and some girl was holding up this big poster,"remembers Kevin. "It was a picture of Nick's house and it said 'I was there.'Brian adds, "It was so funny cause we were right at the begining of the show and I was standing by Nick. He looked down and said 'My house is in the audience!' I looked and there it was!"
DON'T FEED HOWIE THE BEARS
It's always nice to recieve a well meaning present from a person who appreciates your talent, but these days Backstreet Boys are careful what they wish for! "I'm sick of Gummi Bears,"says Howie. " A while back I said I liked them, but then I got sent sooooo many by fans that I was eating them every day. Now I am like 'No more Gummi Bears' I try to keep my figure.
FAN FEVER
Most of the time, fans don't mean to harm, they just want to get a little bit closer to their favourite stars. That love can go in to overdrive, however, when fan fever hits a mob of girls who have been waiting all day (and sometimes part of the night)for just one glimpse. "We've done signings at a record stoes where ther've been over 3000 people,"says Brian."One time in Germany,there was a riot,I'm telling you!We signed cd's for five minutes-we had a chance to sign maybe 10 autographs-and the girls busted through the barriers. They wrecked the store and stole poster and stand-ups of us that they had on display. We had to leave. But we know it's only because our fans want to get close to us, and we really do love them."
