Source: Teen People - August 1998

~~Unlike most Backstreet fans, singer Aaliyah doesn't have a favorite Boy. "I can't choose--they each have their own little flavor," she says. "They're fly."~~

As they were getting ready to embark on their first major U.S. tour, Backstreet Boys invited TEEN PEOPLE to hang with them at their home base in Orlando and on the L.A. set of their new video, "I'll Never Break Your Heart." We learned that, as tight as this group may be, the Boys are still individuals.

NICK - At 18, Nickolas Gene Carter is the group's youngest member. He's also the
tallest (six- feet-one), the blondest and the most popular. Which is why he's having
a hard time convincing a record company rep to let him wear his hair in a multitude
of funky braids for the band's new video. "It'll look phat," Nick insists, intent on
modeling his look on Cloud, a character in Play Station's Final Fantasy VII game.
Finally, a compromise is reached: no braids, but a definitely edgier-than-usual 'do
that complements Nick's futuristic get-up and plastic bubble gun.

With his cherubic face and his obsession with toys and comic books (he plans on
drawing an official Backstreet Boys series), Nick is every inch the baby Boy. But
he's not as innocent as he seems. A five-year music industry veteran, he's more
business-minded--and more worldly--than his band mates when they were 18. "I
can't imagine having to deal with what we have to deal with now at his age," says
Nick's best pal Brian Littrell, 23. "When I was eighteen, we weren't a hot
commodity. I got to ease into it."

Nick, on the other hand, has a hard time remembering what it was like not to be in
high demand. Only 13 when he joined up with the Boys, Nick worked with a
full-time tutor from junior high on; this past spring, he received his high school
diploma in a hotel room while the group was on the road.

Missing out on high school doesn't bother Nick, but missing out on everyday
things--like shooting hoops--does. "I love basketball. Just to play, period," says
Nick, who once dreamed of playing college ball. "I could be so much better, but I
don't have the time." He laments not having time for a girlfriend either. "Takes
devotion," he says of a relationship, adding, "A few of the guys have had
girlfriends in the past, and it just didn't work."

Nevertheless, the Carter home near Tampa, Fla., remains a magnet for girls who
sit--sometimes all day long--with their faces pressed against the eight-foot-high
fence. Nick takes advantage of nearby Tampa Bay for his escape from all the
attention, spending time aboard his boat. Sometimes he brings his family--sisters
Bobbi Jean, 16; Lesley, 12; and Angel, 10 (whose twin brother, Aaron, is the clan's
newest singing sensation); dad Bob, his career advisor; and mom Jane, who manages
Aaron. But often, he sets sail alone. "The ocean does something to me that is
unexplainable," Nick says. "Just being out there and realizing I'm alive."

BRIAN - "Sometimes I want to just get in my Jeep and drive myself home," says
Brian. "For me to leave a show, I need an escort, an escape route."

Brian Thomas Littrell is lucky to be alive. When he was five years old, his heart
suddenly stopped beating for about 30 seconds. "I remember them taking me out
of bed and putting me in a tub of ice to cool my body off," the Lexington, Ky.,
native says of the nightmarish hospital stay that doctors said should have been his
last. "Then they put me back in bed with only a sheet to cover me. Ten minutes
later, they put me back in the ice. This kept up for an hour. Then I blacked out."

His mom, Jackie, watched as her son's eyes rolled back in his head. Warned that
Brian, his heart weakened and infected, probably wasn't going to make it, she did
the only thing she could: pray. "I just had faith inside that this wasn't the end for
Brian," says Jackie. "God just reached down and touched that child, and he started
on his way up."

Eighteen years later, the Littrells, Jackie and Harold, found themselves once again
worrying about the health of their younger son (Brian's brother, Harold Jr., is
26). Last November, doctors discovered that the congenital hole in Brian's heard
had caused the organ to enlarge considerably: If it wasn't for operated on soon,
his life could be in danger.

"My initial thought was, 'Great timing!'" Brian says, sighing. The Boys were finally
successful in the U.S., thanks to their first chart-topping single, "Quit Playing
Games (With My Heart)." Two months without a lead could seriously impact the
group. So, for the benefit of his band--and against his parents' wishes--Brian put
off the procedure for six months. (He finally underwent surgery in May and is now
fully recovered.) Brian's mom resigned herself to his decision: "He's always been a
team player."

And a fighter. Jackie recalls Brian's annual attempts to join his high school
basketball team: "He never made it, because of his size." Finally, after getting cut
yet again his junior year, the church choirboy made an announcement. "I learned
something today," he said. "I can play ball as good as any of those guys, but none
of them can sing like me." And now he's got the fans to prove it.

HOWIE - "I've noticed that guys listen to us. I just hope that they respect us
like I respected Boyz II Men."

Howard Dorough, Howie D. for short, is known to the others as Sweet D. "Once,
when we couldn't sign autographs because there were too many fans, he was too
nice and stopped, and got trampled by them," says A.J. McLean, Howie's pal of 10
years and his BSB cofounder. "He fell down like a turtle on its back, his feet
kicking up."

Good-natured Howie, 24, loves to give back to his fans. While the other Boys
vacationed during Brian's recovery this past spring, Howie made appearances in
South America, where his Puerto Rican heritage (on his mom's side) and his Spanish
speaking skills (he's even appeared on Spanish soap operas) have made him
incredibly popular.

Howie has been acting and singing since he was a kid, but his first real love was
dancing. "I was in an all-boy ballet group one time," says the Orlando native (and
arguably the Boys' best dancer). "It was cool as heck." But then came a talent
competition in Howie's senior year. "When I sang 'Unchained Melody,' I hit the
high note and got a standing ovation," he says. "When I was done, they didn't even
want to [see] any more people. They were ready to give me the award."

Now the falsetto in a wildly successful singing group, Howie couldn't be happier.
Well, actually, he could--if the BSB's detractors would stop criticizing them for
not playing instruments. "You don't see Boyz II Men playing instruments," he says.
"We're not like Hanson--we're not a rock 'n' roll band. We're an R&B harmony
vocalist group."

As one of the eldest Boys, Howie is focusing on the future: He's started a
company, Sweet D Inc., which is currently developing condominiums on Florida's
east coast. And he hired some of his family (which consists of mom Paula; dad
Hoke; older brother John; and older sisters Pollyanna, Caroline and Angie) to run
the operation. Sweet D-eal.

A.J. - Alexander James McLean, known as A.J., is technically an only child. But he
considers the Boys his adopted brothers, and his mom, Denise, is the group's
unofficial den mother. She monitors their schedule, deals with emergencies (like
when Kevin Richardson had to have his appendix out in Germany last October) and
is the liaison for the band's international fan clubs.

Denise and A.J.'s dad, Robert, got a divorce when A.J. was four years old. Then,
when he was six, A.J. says, "I saw him for about two days at Christmastime. That
was it. I never saw him again." Until he was 18, that is, when A.J. decided to pay
his dad a surprise visit. "This guy opens the door and I'm like, 'Is there a Robert
McLean home?'" says A.J., who earlier the same morning had discovered that his
father lived just minutes away from his own Orlando apartment complex. "He said,
'Alex?' I was like, 'Whoa! Dad, you recognize me?' I walked in, and there's
Backstreet Boys stuff everywhere! He'd been keeping up with me since the day I
started!"

The most rebellious Boy, 20-year-old A.J. plays up his nonconformist image with
frequent hair-color changes, a variety of tattoos and a gruff, rap-style singing
voice. But he wasn't always so tough, it seems. Laughs Howie, "the first time I met
him at a talent competition, he was just a little pipsqueak, a little geek." Howie and
A.J. were both aspiring actors as kids, and Howie reports they were often up for
the same parts because of their similar Latin looks. "He was doing this little
puppet show to the Paula Abdul song 'Opposites Attract.'"

A.J.'s still an occasional puppeteer--and he still loves to be in control. In fact,
although the Boys' record company executives and management aren't exactly
thrilled with his bad-boy look, he keeps pushing the limits. Even today, with the
smell of peroxide perfuming his newly bleached hair, he's pondering his next style
statement: a pierced eyebrow. Why is A.J. so intent on challenging the powers that
be? One good reason: "The fans love it."

KEVIN - "It's like family: We love each other like brothers, and we argue like
brothers."

He may not be the flashiest dancer. And of the five Boys, he probably has the
fewest lead parts to sing. But behind the scenes, it is Kevin Richardson, the one the
others sometimes call Freight, who keeps the speeding Backstreet train on track. A
perfectionist, Kevin approaches each task--whether it's giving a pep talk to his
fellow singers during the TEEN PEOPLE photo shoot or making sure a steak is
barbecued just right--with the take-charge manner of a CEO. "My dad was
probably the one who instilled that in me," says Kevin, 26, taking a break between
Walt Disney World's Grad Night shows underneath Cinderella Castle, the very
place he used to suit up as Aladdin when he worked there in 1993. "He would
always say--pardon my French--'If you're gonna half-ass it, don't do it at all.'"

His father Jerald's death from colon cancer six years ago made Kevin "a lot more
serious," says Brian, who's also Kevin's cousin (Brian's dad and Kevin's mom are
siblings). A Kentucky native, Kevin joined the Backstreet Boys soon after moving
to Orlando. At 21, the baby of the family (his brothers are Jerald Jr., 33, and
Tim, 30) suddenly found himself a big brother to his new band mates--three of
whom had yet to finish high school. But Kevin's self-appointed role as the group's
watchdog doesn't always sit well with the others.

"I think deep down inside he feels that his contribution to the group is to be the
oldest and to make sure everything is straight. That's just the way he is," says
Brian. "But here I am, gonna be twenty-four, and I really don't need Kevin telling
me what to do."

"The fellas probably think I'm the hardest or the roughest," admits Kevin, "but
I'll cry at the drop of a hat sometimes." And in public, no less. When the group
played his home state for the first time, Kevin teared up upon spotting his family
in the audience. He also wept during a show on their last trip to Montreal: "There
was a kid in the front row, and I knew he was blind. He couldn't see us but he was
smiling. I said to A.J., 'He's blind, go and touch his hand,' and A.J. did. And I just
lost it."

Though the cutthroat music business can sometimes be unsettling for this
family-oriented country boy (record execs have tried on occasion to break up the
group by offering certain members solo contracts), Kevin says fans like that one
make it all worthwhile. "We're touching people's lives and making people forget
about their problems for a moment." He pauses. "That's what music's all about, I
think."