On a recent flight, a woman seated next to the Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter and Howie Dorough asked who they were. Without missing a beat, Howie answered, "We're in a church choir group." Keeping totally straight faces, Nick and Howie told her they were former juvenile delinquents who once saw some kids fighting on a "back street." Instead of joining the brawl, they started singing, wouldya believe, it stopped the fight? They told her it was a omen, so now they travel the world singing as the Backstreet Boys. Hey, it's not often these guys don't get recognized, so can you blame 'em for having a little fun? And that's just what they deserve now that the band has written, produced and delievered album number two: Millennium. Teen spent some rare downtime with A.J. McLean, Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson, Nick and Howie and got to hear some major personal dish.
As his tiny chihuahua, Little Tyke, sits on his lap, 24-year-old Brian admits he sometime uses the dog as a diversionary tactic. "I'll have someone hold him up and be like. 'Look everybody. Look at the cute puppy!' Then i cnan slip by fans unnoticed." Hmmm...chihuahua or Brian? Don't think we'd be fooled.
Are you guys competitive?We have our little pow-wows and out ins and outs, but we all have the same goals and we have our plan in progress----a new album, the whole thing all over. Here we go again!
Who has the best body naked?Oh my gosh, you just stumped me. That's a first time question, so......
OK, who's got the worst body? I'd rather keep my peace.
Well, who's got the most hair on their back? Probably Howie.
Do you live out here most of the time? My girlfriend has an apartment out here. But I live in Orlando, so we're both East and West Coast.
How do you know your girlfriend's not just with you because your a Backstreet Boy? You have to be cery careful. Being in this business, you get a lot of friends and family members you never knew you had and people trying to get in touch with you. You have to have a thicker gaurd.
Are you good moneywise?I try to be. A lot of people really flip out when they come into a lot of money and lots of people look at us as being multimillionaires. Let me tell you, it's not like that. I have $20 in my wallett.
Because? Because my girlfriend'd got the rest of it!
What do you do in your downtime? Try to remain as normal as possible. I watch a lot of Sports Center and play a lot of basketball, tennis and golf.
Really? Are you 100 percent OK as far as the heart stuff? Yeah. I just went for a check up, and everythings good.
True to his image, Sweet D walks in smiling. No wonder the 25-year-old's been labeled BSB's "friendliest member." He spent most of his time with us coordinating that night's plans---so now we call him BSB's social master.
Does your high-profile visibility ever get uncomfortable? It sometimes gets awkward. But I try to keep a normal life. I still go to the grocery store. I go to the malls. It's very flattering when people come up and ask me for and autograph.
Has having money changed your lifestyle? Any big splurges? I grew up in a middle-class family, and nothing was ever just given to me. I always said if I made any money, I wanted to take care of my family. So i fixed up my parents' house. we refinished the floor and put in central air and heat and fixed some landscaping.
You're still living at home, huh? why? I come from a large family of five kids, and I'm the baby. We're all really tight. I used to have and apartment with Kevin and Brian, but I always ended up at my parents' house anyways.
Do you hang around in your underpants watching TV? Not in my underpants! Boxers. But never underpants. I've got a lot of sisters, so I don't want them seenng too much!
Does your room still look like it did when you were growing up? The only thing I changed is the bed. I used to have one of those captian's beds that pulled out from the bottom when you had your friends sleep over. The bed was really high and had this circular mirror and bells like a captain's room. It kept me down to reality. I finally got a bigger bed, though.
Do you like performing or do you get nervous? I love performing. That's where I'mmost comfortable. I'm usually a little bit nervous right before I go on or especially if I make a mistake at the beginning of the show.
Really? You guys mess up on stage? yeah, and whoever messed up usually has a giggle on his face.
Do you guys ever fight? We've had a few scraps here and there over just silly, stupid things.
Who's got the shortest temper? Probably Nick. Just because he;'s the youngest of the group and everybody's always kind of picking on him. Nos he's getting bigger...
He's 19 now, but Nivk wears his youngest-in-the-group badge with pride. And 6'1" reformed prankster certainly doesn't lack and ounce of confidence. "Remember, when you're dressing me, your dressing Shaq!" he told our wardrobe stylist.
Was the age difference between you and the other guys ever a big deal? when we first started I was like 13, so there was a big difference between me and the next youngest, A.J., who was 16. Bit I've learned a lot of the years---how to communicate, how to be respectful and how not to be a pest, which I was when I was younger.
So you were annoying on purpose? Yeah, I like to get a laugh out of things. I was a prankster back then.
How would you discribe yourself now? I'm a very quiet person. I consider myself a modern-day hermit. I don't like to party. I'm happy if I'm in my hotel room chillin'.
So what do you do when you're off? I play video games and sports with my friends. I go to the movies and drive around in my car.
Do you have your own place? Yeah, I'm a real big fan of the beach and the ocean, so my place has just about everything to do with the ocean. It's on a small canal, so I'm thinking about getting a boat.
Do you have a girlfriend? I'm seeing somebody.
How long have you been seeing her? That's classified. That's kind of the secret part of my life, you know?
What do you look for in a girl? You don't really know until you meet the person. She could be tall,or small...
So you don't date just gorgeous girls? When I was in school I wasn't ver attractive to girls in school. But I remember a girl I dated who was sweet and really kind. I've dated girls who might not have bee that attractive, but they were just as kind ans as sweethearted as anybody.
If there's a hot trend of the moment, all eyes are on the multi-tattooed, peirced, wild-haired and extentioned A.J. The 21-year-old hipster rebel considers his body his canvas and we gotta admit we like art.
Why the pink hair? The guys actually said, "why don't you dye your hair pink?" I was shocked. These guys are so used to it now, and it kind of ticks me off that nothing shocks them anymore. Like, if I dye my hair blue, they're all, "Man, that looks cool."
Have you ever made a makeover mistake? I had my hair put into braids, and i pulled it back in a ponytil. When I saw it the first thing I said to myself was "What was I thinking?" I ended up taking them all out. I sat on my butt for eight hours getting those things tied in my head and it didn't even pay off! I looked absolutely stupid.
Do you get aggravation for your tattoo's? I don't care. I'm the complete opposite of the every clean-vut, decent-looking guy you could think of, yet I have the biggest heart in the world. I got my first tattoo two years ago, and I haven't been able to stop. I've got 10 of them now. I'm going to get on tomorrow on my stomach. It'll be 69, my lucky number.
Are you dating someone? I just broke up with my girlfriend of 5 years, but I've been with my new girlfriend now for almost nine months.
Won't some of your fans be bummed to know you've got a girlfriend?When the group first started, we weren't supposed to have girlfriends, or if we did, we were supposed to say that we didn't. But now it's gotten to the point where the fans accept us for who we are and realize "OK, these are five good-looking guys. They have normal lives. Unless they are all gar"----which we're not---"they have to have girlfriends."
What grosses you out?I've nevered blown my nose. My mom probably did it when I was a baby, but I can't do it. I can stand to see blood and puke, but when it comes to anything mucus-oriented or phlegm or someone spitting I gag.
BSB's oldest member, Kevin is always focused and ready to work. "c'mon, let's go," the 27-year-old says in effort to round up the rest of the guys. "so is Kevin the ringleader?" someone asks. "He wants to be!" Brian shouts back.
As the oldest in the group, do you act big brotherish to the rest of the guys? It just happens, yeah. It's like my big brother growing up. They were always on me about things, but I knew that they loved me and cared about me. These guys are like family. We've been together for six years, and we've gone through a lot together. It sounds kinda corny, but we fight like brothers and we love each other like brother's. We've never have fist fights, though.
Anybody ever threaten to leave the group? No, it's never come to that luckily.
What would you do if you lost your hair? I'd probably go ahead and shave it. That's be cool. I'd probably look pretty freaky with these big ol' eyebrows.
If your manager said, "what's with the eyebrows? We gotta change them,"would you? I wouldn't let anybody touch my eyebrows because I don't want to look like a made-up girl or whatever. They're big ol' Groucho Marx brows. I think you just have to be happy with what God give you.
What do you do in your free time? I hang out with my best friends who is a rap artist. I co-produced some stuff with him. I mostly do normal things like go skiing, go tot the beach, surf, write music.
Do you have a girlfriend? I'm dating someone right now. I've known her for seven years and she really means a lot to me, so we'll see what happens.
I know you went through a tough time losing your dad. I was 19 years old when he passed aways. I was 21 when I met the fellas
Did it save you? It motivated me. When my father got sick I moved home to Kentucky. After he passed away I lived there for almost a year, and then i was like, "I can't stand this anymore." Life id too short. I just followed my heart, and it brought me back to Orlando.
Do you dream about going to your high school reunion and saying, "check me out!"? My reunion is coming up. I'm from a really small town in Kentucky. There were only about 100 people in my graduating class. everybody is really happy for me.
Are they gonna make you get up and perform? Nah, I'm just going to go and hang out and catch up.
Can you be doing this in six years with these guys or is there no way? That seem to be the big thing with the press. Now that we've gotta kinda successfull, they're like, "ah, they'll be gone in a year" or "they wont last." But I feel like as long as we keep making hit records and nobody gets thrown in jail or goes crazy, we can make records as long as we want.
