| Backstreet Quotes-- From and About the Backstreet Boys
Nick: Ok, coming up next, we're gonna ask fish head over here (points at Brian) where he used to work, and what was on, what was on the menu in the drive thru. Ok, thats coming up.
Brian: And I'm sure you've heard of the food chain before, but...I started out cooking fish and chicken and shrimp and...
"I like Nick's Butt"-AJ McLean(repeating what a fan said)
Carson: "We'll Get to Nick's butt in a minute" Nick: "No we aren't"
"If you don't know grow a fro!" -all of em
Eugene: "Cute group, great clothes, great voices!" - (Duchess of York's daughter)'s comment on the boys!"
Aaliyah: I can't choose-- each have their own little flavor, they're fly." - when asked her favorite.
Foxy Brown: "They're my boys. I love them so much. I'm a very big fan and it's good to see that they're fans also. I love them, so it's dope."
"This must be my room. . .look at all these heads."-Brian "The people in Spain speak Spanish."-Nick "I'm very soft, ya know."-Brian "I'm a manly man."-Brian "None of us do drugs. The only way to get high for us is to be on stage, performing for the fans. We like that." -Nick "If I had a girl I'd love to see her in my clothes. It's real romantic."-Brian "The type of girl who'll let me hold hand, and then kiss her. The type that'll let me take her to the movies, and then kiss her, the type who'd let me hold her so tight and let me kiss her, and kiss her, and kiss her, and kiss her!" -Nick "I dreaded Easter every year because my mum made me go around hospitals giving out Easter eggs. ..dressed as a fluffy Easter bunny!"-AJ "I want to be crazy forever, even when I'm 80."-Nick "The only person I'd be really sorry to lose to is that Marilyn Manson dude." -Brian Talking about the MTV Awards in Europe "AJ 'cause he stutters. He goes, 'Da-da-da-da-don't say that!' And he just cracks us up! You can always tell when he's saying something that isn't true 'cause he'll stutter." - Howie, when asked who's most fun to argue with. "You think you know what it is? Okay then. What is it?"-Nick (Brian talkin' 'bout Nick) "Once, we threw him out of the dressing room in his underwear in front of a whole bunch of girls. he got real mad, but it was really funny!" "I'm sick of Gummi Bears! A while back I said I liked them, but I got sent so many by fans that I was eating them every day! Now I'm like 'No more Gummi bears!' I'm trying to keep my figure!"-Howie "Harrump! (Pauses for a moment with a cheeky grin on his face) Let's say my neck coz' it's very sensitive. Am I sure? Um. . .Yeah." -Brian, when asked where he'd most like to be kissed "I love these guys . . . oh gosh !!"-Brian "I broke a lamp once. I just got really mad one night and punched it - it didn't hurt my hand, but it hurt the lamp! I've chucked fruit at cars out of the window, too. Sometimes you get so bored you want to run riot for a while!" -AJ "Facts are facts, you guys said 5 minutes and it's been 5 minutes and 35 seconds."-Brian "I read somewhere on the net that I have 101 tattoos."-AJ "Hi, my name is Brian. But you can call me B-Rok cause i'll be rockin' your house!"-Brian "Flirting is always good fun."-Nick "Everyone was afraid of me cause I was such a freak. No one would come near me, they were like, 'What the hell's wrong with him, he's so weird?' I didn't fit in."-AJ "Are you a Backstreet Boy?"-Kevin asks Brian "No. Hell no!"-Brian's response "Are you a Backstreet Boy?"-Kevin asks Nick "No, no don't interview me."-Nick's response "What a rude, rude young man."-Kevin on Nick "We've been together every day for four years now. . . It's like family. I never had a little brother, but now I've got four." --- Kevin on relationship between the boys
"It was actually a flea market, the Backstreet Market in Orlando. It was like a hangout place." --- Howie on the meaning of "Backstreet Boys"
"We had to name it something, and we knew we wanted to add 'Boys' at the end of it --- kind of like the Beach Boys. So Backstreet Boys was just a name that we collectively decided on." --- Nick on the how the group came up with the name "Backstreet Boys"
"If it wasn't for your dreams, our dreams wouldn't be possible." --- Brian on "Big Poppa" AKA Louis J. Pearlman
"Before I saw them perform, I wasn't sure if we wanted to get involved. The New Kids had just finished up two years prior. But hearing them sing just gave me chills running from the back of my heels to the top of my head. I really felt like we had something there." --- Johnny Wright (the boys' former music manager) on how he and Donna (his wife) felt at first about the boys
"Those were the hardest crowds to perform to. You could tell they were thinking, 'What is this, the second coming of the New Kids on the Block?' But once we started singing a cappella and showing them we could really sing, we won them over every time." --- Kevin on their early performances
"We'd go to local labels and sing a cappella in their foyers. We'd sing anywhere, for anybody." --- Brian on 'the early days'
"We auditioned for like five or six different labels. Then, the one label that chose us, wasn't even there! We were in a middle school, in a gym. This was before we were even really known. We just came running in wearing our own clothes, not even wearing wardrobe. It looked like your bunch of average kids running in right off the street. We went over huge." --- A.J. on a school gig in Cleveland, Ohio
"When we heard the way these five guys sing, we felt that they are as real for the pop genre as Garth Brooks is to country and our own R. Kelly is to the R & B market. . . We see this group, because of their vocal ability, as not being just a teen-appeal group, despite the fact that [teens] are going to be a very big part of their audience. . . It's not, like we said, 'Oh, my God, there's a void in the marketplace for teen groups. Let's go out and sign one.' When we signed this group, it wasn't too dissimilar to when we signed any other group. We believe that there is real artistry in what they do." --- Barry Weiss (Jive records president) on what he feels about the boys
"The scene wasn't exactly right for our style of group. Grunge was still heavily going, rap was really hard, and the pop scene wasn't really in phase at the time." --- Howie on why their first single, "We've Got It Goin' On" didn't go too well in the U.S.
"Over there they had a bunch of what's called 'boy groups,' so we had a ready-made market. But since we were American, we were a fresh new sound for Europe. We had more of an edge, and unlike a lot of those other boy groups, we were more than just a bunch of pretty guys. We could sing." --- Brian on why they were successful in Europe
"Backstreet Boys only sing live and do five-piece harmony, a cappella. . . We just want to make everyone realize that we are real, there's nothing fake. . . " A.J. on the Boys
"We've been at radio stations in Germany and had to climb out of the windows to get out of the place. But in the end, it's all fun. We sit and laugh about it." --- Nick on "escaping"
"The girls were outside this building. We thought some kind of club was going on, but apparently it was a bunch of fans waiting for us. We went upstairs to do our thing on the radio station and we got pinned inside. They were blocking the stairway and the exits. Our security got us out but warned us not to sign autographs. Well, dummy me, decided to sign an autograph while Howie's being yanked away --- Howie's yelling and I'm not noticing, just standing there happy and signing autographs!" --- A.J. on an appearance at a Berlin radio station
"It was some kind of year." --- Kevin on 1996, the year when they "took over the world"
"We finally have time to focus on our homeland. We got our start everywhere else, all over the world, except home, so it's time to just come back, relax a little bit, and focus on the U.S. fans." --- Brian on bringing it back to the U.S.
"We've always wanted to bring it back home. We wanted to make sure we brought it back strong." --- Nick on bringing it back to the U.S.
"We want to bring it home. We want our teachers, and family, and friends to see what we've been doing with our lives." --- Kevin on bringing it back to the U.S.
"This is our home country and we've been waiting so long to come home. We took the backwards approach, going around the world, and then coming back here. But I think, loooking on it all, it was a good decision. We wouldn't change anything because we got the chance to really hone our craft and got a chance to see the world. I think a lot of artists who become big over here, then go around the world--- they just go briefly, in and out, just for the show. We got the chance to actually go into these countries and actually see the culture, visit some of the really small cities. The people there really appreciate us." --- Howie on bringing it back to the U.S.
"I think the second time is a charm for us instead of the third time. I think we are going to be more legit this time. Better music." --- A.J. on bringing it back to the U.S.
"I'm very excited, I'm very happy, and I'm very nervous because you never know what the future holds and we've worked so very long all over the world to bring it back here. Who knows?" --- Brian on bringing it back to the U.S.
"They've got their work cut out for them. They have to reintroduce themselves to a national audience and to radio, and wait and see waht happens. But certainly they have a nice buzz coming from overseas." --- Hedy End of SuperTeen and Superstars magazines on what the Backstreet Boys have to to
"There have been a lot of older celebrities in the charts. There was also a lot of rap music that didn't necessarily appeal to our readers. It's a little too serious and often didn't have very nice things to say about girls and women, so there was no real interest from our readers." --- Hedy End on why the music scene was a somewhat barren territory for teen magazines
"The band's influence is not limited to the teen market, but you have to build from a base, and we know that these young fans are particularly active. They are the ones that are going to rush out to make the scene. Besides, I don't think adults are going to know that there is a teen market for this band because they're not reading TEEN magazine. They are seeing the band's videos and hearing them on Top 40 radio stations." --- Janet Kleinbaum (Jive records marketing executive) on why she started with teens in re-introducing Backstreet Boys.
"They may be getting harder to tell apart, but all male vocal groups are not created equal. While many in the R & B camp convey soulfulness by moaning, groaning, and contorting their voices in mock pain, their more pop-conscious counterparts in Backstreet Boys sing like they're having a ball. Already international megastars, with more than eleven million albums sold outside the U.S., the Orlando-based quintet has struck gold at home with the Top 5 single 'Quit Playing Games (With My Heart).' Their self-titled debut CD fares best when the funk flows, but ballads like 'Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) and 'All I Have To Give' are so peppy, despite a tinge of melacholy in the group's harmonies, one can't help smiling. . . " --- PEOPLE magazine's Backstreet Boys review.
"First rule of college: Study hard. Real hard. Rule number two: Get funky! Get loose! Get it goin' on with music that's got it goin' on! Jive Records' Backstreet Boys are five very fine guys who sing a cappella. Heavily influenced by groups like All-4-One, Boyz II Men, Shai, and Jodeci, BSB's album is an R &B romantic's delight. Powerful ballads speak straight to the yearning heart and outrageous live harmonies make any heart swell. Check 'em out. . . on Jive Records." --- SEVENTEEN with advice on going to college
"This album has five of our singles that we released in Europe already. Great songs. Since we released our album in Europem lots of producers became interested in working with us and we have gotten some really great new songs added. So, it's like the best of what we've been doing for the past two years. We are really excited." --- Kevin on their U.S. album (Teen beat)
"We are getting a little more clout, a little more say in who the director is. Nigel Dick is a wonderful, wonderful director. He is so creative and he works with us. he doesn't boss us around, saying, 'You do that, you do that.' He's like, 'What do you think if we do this? What do you think, fellows? Does this make you uncomfortable?' He cares about our well being and he is looking through our eyes, how we want ourselves to look. It's great. And we are getting ready to do another video next week . . . which will be a Ninties version of Michael Jackson's Thriller video concept. It's all done in a kind of dream sequence and there are a lots of twists." --- A.J. on Nigel Dick, and their video for "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"
"All of us thought of it. We had the idea that our bus breaks down and we have to go to a castle, where Brian falls asleep. . . he's dreaming and he turns into a weerewold. . . It's definitely a step above the normal Backstreet Boys video." --- A.J. on the concept of the video for "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"
"I really wanted to get some of those cats'-eye contact lenses, but they have to be specially made and there wasn't enough time. I did have my own set of porcelain fangs though. They made them from the same material they use for dentures." --- Howie on getting into caracter for the "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" video
What the boys said about choosing characters for their "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" video :
"We all chose our own I was dracula, Nicky was a mummy. . . " (Howie) "They wanted me to be Frankenstein. . . " (Kevin) "He would've been a great Frankenstein. . . " (Nick) "Just because everybody knows that character, but when they finished him with the makeup and long hair and nails, his charater came out cool." (A.J.)
"We go to Canada. We have a show up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then we're going to do five shows in Montreal and the Sky Dome in Toronto." --- Kevin about what they were getting ready to do the day after Christmas!!
"We hardly ever have spare time, but when we do, the record company manages to get us in the recording studio." --- Howie on spending spare time.
"We're always thinking ahead to the next album, or the next video. . . what we can do better, be more creative, go to another level. And with the writing too . . . expecially the third album. We've going to collaborate with Denniz Pop and Full Force. So we're real excited about the writing because we've learned a lot in the past couple of years from the writers and producers we've worked with, and eventually we want to be writing and producing our own stuff." --- Kevin on work.
"We hope to have just as many fans in America as around the world. At the same time, we're not going to leave our international fans in the gutter. . . they were there for us in the beginning. The plans we have right now are just basically be ourselves." --- Nick on plans for the future
"Considering we're with each other 24-7, we've grown to love each other. We have a tight bond. We know which buttons to push and which not to." --- Howie on the relationship between the boys
"It was a lounge called the Yankee Rebel, which my father and Grandfather both owned. . . it was a small place. We had a little dance floor at the Yankee Rebel, and my dad used to be a DJ and play records. When I was real small, I used to get up there in my diapers and dance around. I have pictures of me with headphones on that were bigger than my face. I was just a little chunk; everybody used to call me Charlie Brown." --- Nick on the good ol' days
"They packed up their old Cadillac El Dorado and loaded all our stuff into a little trailer. So we made it to Florida, and we moved into our first house. It was a retirement home. . . that's where my dad started working. We lived there for maybe a year. It was big enough for sixteen people, but we built on to it." --- Nick on the big move to Florida
"I'd come in and sing for them. It was kind of sad 'cause I had a few favorites there, but they soon passed away." --- Nick on performing for the elders at the retirement home.
"I had to try. I'm not really a dancer though. I was always so nervous doing those things. You gotta remember, I was really young when I started doing that stuff. --- Nick on what it was like performing when he was little
"We used to always hang out together. We used to get in trouble all the time . . . not bad trouble! There was this big pond where we lived. . . we used to go fishing there. And I remember one time Brent and I sneaked into this shed that was there and we took some shovels out. We started digging in the lawns and everything., and we left the shovels there and just took off! We were bad!" --- Nick on Brent (his former best buddy)
"I've been a scuba diver since I was twelve. When I was fifteen I got my open water permit. . . that's a regular diving license. Before that I had a junior permit that allowed me to only go seventy-five feet deep. With and open water permit there are no restrictions. My dad is a diving instructor so he was always with me when I went deep. With an open permit, you can go wreck diving, night diving, and deep sea diving." --- Nick on scuba diving
"I keep it berthed on the canal next to my house that leads to the Florida coast. I fill the engine with gas and just head out to the sea. The Florida Keys are the greatest stretch of ocean in the world with lots of small islands you can stop off at. Many a time, I've played football on the beach with my brothers and sisters. A lot of times I go out on the boat alone. Being on my own, with just the silence of the sea, is such an escape from the constant screaming of fans on a Backstreet Boys tour. It's something i need to do. . . just to get away from it all. To me, the Florida Keys is paradise on earth!!!" --- Nick on his boat and the Florida Keys
"I'm a big ham and I gotta be out there and doing crazy stuff for no apparent reason, especially on stage!" --- A.J. on himself
"It was my first performance. I started in musical theater and it was my first role. It's kind of funny. They weren't sure I was a good speaker. I grew up with a speech impediment. I had a lisp and I stutter. . . I still do. I guess I think slower than my mouth speaks, but my first role was in a show called Snow White. I was Dopey. He didnt' say anything. He was a little mute. I was about seven. Basically, for lack of a better word, I stole the show. I was the main squeeze. All the girls thought I was really cute. And I went out and signed autographs for all the little kids. And it was funny. . . back then I signed my full name, because that's what I thought you were supposed to do. But now, I just write 'A.J.' because that's who I am. But back then I wrote 'Alexander James McLean'. It would take my forever!" --- A.J. on his first performance (also his best childhood memory)
"I like to sit by the pool and write music. And sometimes, if I have the opportunity, I'll go to our manager Johnny Wright's house and record my own ideas." --- A.J. on the "intellectual" side of himself
"Maybe, I've written about seventy-five poems between when I was about fifteen and now. if I ever et the real time to sit down and go back over them, spell-check them, proof-read them, and maybe make a couple of changes, maybe I will." --- A.J. on whether or not he plans on publishing his poetry
"I started traveling with the group with A.J. as his guardian because he started when he was under eighteen. I'm not the type to sit around, so I started helping him with wardrobe and makeup. I had done theater work, so I knew how to do that. So I styled him for photo shoots and things in the beginning. I did everything from selling T-shirts to getting him dressed, to selling cassettes, to doing everything on the road. I eventually got into wardrobe, and started doing that for all of them." --- Denise (A.J.'s mother) on helping out
"No we have a good time actually. It's just he and I together most of him life, so we're buddies." --- Denise on her relationship with A.J.
"You know, typical things, like going out real late when he has to get up for something in the morning, or eating the wrong foods and not taking care of himself. That's about it." --- Denise on what she worries about A.J.
"I'm going to try to chill out on the McDonald's food. Sometimes I eat too much of it and I've had problems in the past with my stomach. I dont' want to make it worse than it is, so I'm trying to eat less greasy, fattening foods, and take better care of myself." --- A.J. on his diet
"Michael had a big influence on my life. He's a great artist. He's incredibly talented. When I was a little kid, I had the album Thriller, I had the Michael Jackson glove, and I even had the Thriller skateboard!!" --- Howie on Michael Jackson
"I had an uncle who was a doctor and my father was actually a police officer, so it was between those two. But once my sister got me involved at the age of six or seven, then I started dreaming that someday I would be singing live in front of a bit audience." --- Howie on what his original career choices were
"I really started performing when I was seven. My first play was The Wizard of Oz., I played a Muchkin." --- Howie on how he started perfoming
"Did tons of commercials for Disney world." --- Howie on his previous performing experiences
"Music is love, love is music, music is my life and I love my life. thank you and goodnight" --- A.J. on what music, love, and his life is (also a goodnight wish!)
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