Littrell Fulfills one dream: Playing Rupp

Published Tuesday, August 24, 1999, in the Herald-Leader By Heather Svokos HERALD-LEADER POP CULTURE WRITER

Sure, Backstreet Boys sold out 53 tour dates in one day, but for Brian Littrell, there was icing on the cake: playing Rupp Arena.

``It's a milestone beyond all milestones,'' he said. ``It's something I've always wanted to do since I left in 1993.''

But about those 53 dates. ...

``It's pretty amazing,'' Littrell said. ``To do what we did -- it's not really something we set out to do. It was management's idea to put them all on sale at the same time, to create the hysteria.''

When he was reminded of the many fans who walked away from the ticket sales dejected and empty-handed, Littrell smiled sympathetically.

``I know we have offers to come back to do more shows next summer,'' he said, adding that he hoped the unlucky fans would have good luck in ticket giveaways throughout town.

But for fans who do get to see the Nov. 26 show in Lexington, there's a special treat in store.

``We plan to have the Tates Creek choir on stage,'' he said, referring to the choir whose backing vocal tracks appear on the song Perfect Fan on their current album, Millennium.

``They might even travel with us to Cincinnati,'' he said.

Littrell and cousin Kevin Richardson -- who was born in Lexington -- are two-fifths of the Orlando, Fla.-based harmony group that has been taking the cash registers and Billboard charts by storm. (Millennium has spent 12 weeks on the Billboard 200 album charts, nine at No. 1; the CD has sold 12 million copies since it was released in May.)

Ann Richardson, Kevin's mother, was at yesterday's groundbreaking for the Beaumont Centre Family YMCA. She said the boys' fame can border on the surreal.

``It's really hard to describe it,'' she said. ``But he's just my son, and Brian is just my nephew.''