60 EW.COM FEBRUARY 24/MARCH 3, 2017KEVIN We played anywhere we could.
Johnny got us these school tours. One day
we might be at a middle school out in the
woods of Pennsylvania, the next day we
might be at a high school in inner-city New
Jersey. It gave us a lot of experience in
terms of how to win a crowd over.In 1994, the Backstreet Boys signed with Jive
Records, who sent the group to Stockholm,
Sweden, to record with Denniz PoP and his
little-known protégé Max Martin, who would
go on to write and produce hits for Britney
Spears, Taylor Swift, and other superstars.
The group’s early recordings were hugely
popular in Europe, but Stateside success
was elusive.
NICKAt the time, Denniz had a lot of suc-
cess with Ace of Base and Robyn. It was a
movement that [Jive founder] Clive Calder
caught on to early. We thought it was dope.
KEVIN We dropped a single, “We’ve Got It
Goin’ On,” and it peaked at No. 69 [on the
Billboard Hot 100].HOWIE It was Johnny’s idea to go to Ger-
many. He knew a promoter over there. We
stumbled into a world that accepted us
because [Europe] was already used to
groups like us.
AJ That’s how we finally got accepted here:
through Europe. France passes [the music]
over the pond to Montreal and Quebec, and
it floods down into the United States.
KEVINCities like Buffalo and Detroit would
hear the radio stations across the border. Peo-
ple were calling to request our songs, but the
DJs were like, “We don’t know who they are!”
NICK Then the Spice Girls dropped “Wan-
nabe” [in the U.S. in ’97] and that really
helped us. That and Hanson’s “MMMBop”
broke open the door for pop music to flood
into America.In the summer of 1997, “Quit Playing Games
(With My Heart)” became the group’s break-
out single in the U.S. Their self-titled U.S.
debut also became a top five album the fol-
lowing year. But problems with Pearlman
had already surfaced.
KEVIN When you play a 20-day tour in
Germany and come home and you ain’t got
no money, that’s a red flag.
BRIAN I remember doing two sold-out
European tours. I get home, and I’ve got
$88,000 in my bank account. That was
more than I’d ever seen in my life, but onIn 1992, the entrepreneur Lou Pearlman
placed an ad in theOrlando Sentinel looking
to form an all-male vocal group in the vein of
New Kids on the Block. After a few member
changes and lineup replacements, he found
his crew in AJ McLean, Nick Carter, Howie
Dorough, Kevin Richardson, and Brian
Littrell, who came together for the first time
on April 20, 1993.
NICKLou had a blimp business at the time,
and we were rehearsing in a blimp hangar. We
would be there five days a week. There was no
air conditioner. It was insane, the amount of
work we put into it. We were doing vocal
lessons, dance lessons, recording sessions.
AJ Lou brings in Johnny Wright, who had
road-managed New Kids on the Block. He
knew what it was like to be with guys like
us. But at the time there was a lot of back-
lash from New Kids.
BRIAN Radio was all grunge and rap. We
would go to New York and sing a cappella
for record executives, but none of them
were really into it.the Backstreet Boys before you see them. At an unassuming dance studio in
Los Angeles in mid-February, the group’s catalog blasts from an open door, and
inside, its five members are reacquainting themselves with the moves they’ve
been breaking out on stage for nearly a quarter century. Whether you turned
up your nose at them during their heyday or plastered their posters all over the
walls of your childhood (or adult) bedroom, you know these songs. The Back-
street Boys are the best-selling boy band in history, and their hits—from “Quit
Playing Games (With My Heart)” to “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”—are as
iconic as their sales figures are impressive: That’s 130 million records sold
worldwide and nine top 10 albums. From their unglamorous origins in Orlando,
the group helped create the modern pop-music machine, defined theTRL
era...and left millions around the world wondering what the heck “I Want It That
Way” was all about, anyway. (Spoiler alert: They’re still not sure.) As they pre-
pared to launch their new Las Vegas residency, Backstreet Boys: Larger Than
Life, which kicks off at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino’s AXIS theater on
March 1, the band sat down with EW to share their story in their own words.YOU CA
HEAR