Lynnsey could not believe it. He was a Backstreet Boy!! She had never seen it coming! And he totally didn’t act like someone who was famous… He seemed so humble, and considerate… it was almost unreal. She watched him as he promoted the find-a-cure fundraiser, and he did it with such sincerity, that it warmed her heart. He had spent several hours in the waiting room with her and her mom the day before, and he had absolutely enchanted both of them. He told them about his experiences as a Backstreet Boy, and the things he felt when his dad died. He provided comfort for her and her mom, even at the risk of fans finding him, and for that, Lynnsey would always appreciate him.
“Kevin, what kind of cancer did your father die from?” a caller asked.
“Colon,” Kevin responded. “Not many people really knew about colon cancer, but ever since Katie Couric’s husband died of it, it has come out into the light a little bit more.”
“I’ll donate 200 dollars,” the caller said.
“Thank you,” Kevin replied.
“Kevin,” the radio DJ said, “how has being a Backstreet Boy for you and the other guys in the group helped you take advantage of that and use it for good causes?”
“Well, as many people know, my cousin, Brian Littrell, had heart surgery about 2 years ago, and he started a foundation that gives money for insurance to little kids who have heart problems, but don’t have the money to pay for necessary medical attention. Also, Howie Dorough started a foundation for the research of Lupus after his sister died. Besides that, we’re always participating and cooperating with charities, and giving money we’re lucky enough to have. And it’s not to make ourselves look good or to make ourselves feel like we’ve done our share, but it’s to help other people and to make some contribution to what’s going on around us.”
The DJ nodded. “Well, we’re gonna take a break, but when we come back, more with Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson, and we’ll be taking pledges during the commercial break and after.”
“Thanks Kevin. You’ve been a huge comfort,” Lynnsey said.
“The pleasure is all mine. Nice meeting you, Mrs. Parker,” Kevin said to Lynnsey’s mom.
“I hope we’ll be seeing you again sometime soon,” she replied.
“Bye,” Kevin said.
“Bye.”
He left them in the hotel lobby and got into the awaiting limo that would take him to the airport. He really felt for that family. It just so happened that Lynnsey’s dad was the Mayor of Tampa, so there had been several local newspeople in the hospital trying to talk to members of the Parker family. Hospital personnel had finally had to kick them all out. He hoped that Mayor Parker would survive, but it was very, very doubtful.
~ As Lynnsey and her mother watched the limo pull away, Lynnsey’s mother said, “Now there’s a guy you should never let get away.”
Of all the nerve! Michelle didn’t think much of Lisa, but she would never ever say something like that about her to the press! The fuel behind the rivalry between Lisa and Michelle was simple: they were both in their early twenties, similar looking with the dark hair and the same build, and so there was always comparisons in the media, and they were always competing for the same roles. The rivalry had escalated in March when Michelle had won ‘Best Supporting Actress’ at the Oscars, beating out Lisa and two other women. Lisa hated her, and boy, was the feeling mutual.
“Leslie, all I can tell you is that you’re going to find someone else, and believe me, he’ll make you forget all about this other guy. You think I haven’t been through this a million times with my girlfriends?”
After a half-hour, they hung up, and Nick felt some satisfaction in helping his sister. It did make him feel good. He wanted to pop this guy who had dumped her one, though. What a jerk.
“Nick, come see!” Brian called.
“Yeah?”
“Your woman’s on TV.”
It was MTV’s FANatic show, and Gretchen Jones was on at the moment, being interviewed by her fan.
“Grow up,” Nick replied, but he sat down to watch it.
“How often do you see your family when you’re on the road?” the fan, Alyssa, asked.
“Not very often,” Gretchen replied. “I see my parents more than my siblings, because they can travel at any given time to come see me if I’m somewhere near Georgia doing a concert, but my sisters and brother have school and other stuff, so I don’t see them as much. And I’m just like anyone else with their brothers and sisters; I don’t always get along with them, and they aren’t always on my good side or the other way around, but once a month goes by without seeing them, I’m missing them like crazy.”
Nick nodded. He felt that way too.
“When we go to Los Angeles, we’re going to have to spend a day with some reporter,” Brian said.
“Huh? Why?” Nick asked.
“Because PEOPLE magazine is featuring us on their ’25 Most Intriguing People’ cover, and the reporter is doing an in-depth article on us,” Brian replied.
“When was someone going to tell me this?” Nick asked.
“Whenever. Don’t worry, we’ll have a full day to do nothing, you’ll have some free time,” Brian said. “By the way, your smiling butt is in PEOPLE this week.”
Nick tried to think back to if he had mooned someone. “What? I haven’t mooned anyone… lately.”
“Yeah, and you resign in Florida too, huh Nick? I didn’t mean your butt was showing, stupid.”
“Brian, it’s been like 5 years since I made that comment. I can’t believe you still tease me about it,” Nick responded.
“Only when you have your stupid moments, Nickolas.”
“Whatever. I guess I’ll go pick me up a copy, see what the media buffs are saying about me this week,” Nick said.
Later
Nick paid for the copy of PEOPLE, and got back to the New York hotel. He flipped through it, and found what Brian had been referring to: the picture taken of him and Gretchen at the ET post-party.
It was a cute picture of her, but he looked kinda out of it. He rolled his eyes at the caption: In the tradition of female pop stars getting ‘close’ with members of boy bands, Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) and Gretchen Jones follow the pattern set by Britney Spears & Justin Timberlake (‘N Sync), as well as Jessica Simpson & Nick Lachey (98 Degrees).
“What a rip,” Nick said. The media was so screwed up.
Kara tried to calm the butterflies in her stomach as she got ready to go meet the Backstreet Boys. It shouldn’t seem like a big deal- she regularly talked with members of ‘N Sync, and they were almost as popular as BSB, but she couldn’t help being nervous. This was her first big feature, and if she screwed it up, she’d never get an opportunity like this again. She buttoned her dress-suit top, and patted her hair. She picked up her purse, and headed for the Los Angeles Hotel, which was where she was meeting them.
Nick ran through the guys’ schedule in his head. They would be with this reporter person from 9 AM to 2 PM, and then that night they were all going to go out to eat to celebrate the start of their upcoming tour. The next day they had off, so Howie had said he was planning on going miniature golfing with AJ, and Kevin and Brian were going to go different things by themselves. Nick was going to go meet Gretchen at the studio she was recording at. She had given him the address and the time to show up- 12 PM. She was stopping recording early for the day, due to the producers, so she would have plenty of time to spend with him. He hoped whatever they did went well, and that he could feel better about the situation afterwards. He didn’t like the confused feeling he had, and it would only be shaken off when he saw her.
Kevin wanted to look up Florida news and see if he could find any articles on Mayor Parker’s health, but he hadn’t had time. He hoped Lynnsey was doing all right.
“The reporter’s here,” AJ said, looking out the window. “Let’s go down to the lobby and meet her.”
She smiled politely.
“Hey,” they all said, coming over to shake her hand. They each introduced themselves, and then looked at her to do the same.
“I’m Kara… your interviewer.”
“Do you pronounce it like Care-a or Car-a. With the words ‘care’ or ‘car’?” Kevin asked.
“It’s not the usual pronunciation. It’s like you say the word ‘Car’ and then the ‘a’. ‘Car-a’. Kara.”
The guys nodded. Nick was confused, but he just thought, ‘Whatever.’
“So, the first thing we’re going to do is go out to eat breakfast, I’m paying for it, and I’ll ask the first set of questions over that, “Kara said.
She and the guys got into the van she had had to rent, and ended up at a French café’, Café’ Du Monde.
After the guys had each ordered coffee and begniets, she started the questioning, and turned on her tape recorder.
“How did you feel about getting nominated for those 4 Grammy awards, and then losing them all?” Kara asked.
“She gets right down to business,” AJ mumbled.
“It might have been more of an upset to us if it weren’t Santana we had lost to. He’s a great performer, and he deserved those awards,” Howie said.
Kara smiled at Howie, and he smiled back.
“Do you think that there’s a good chance that you will be nominated for any Grammies this upcoming year?” Kara asked.
“It’s always a possibility,” Kevin responded.
“We try not to dwell on how many awards we win, or don’t win. We are more about getting respect from our fans and peers first. Awards are secondary,” Howie said.
“Very intelligent answers,” Kara complimented him.
Howie smiled.
“With the whole ‘girlfriend’ thing, you guys were at one point, instructed to lie about whether you had girlfriends or not, correct?” Kara asked.
“When we were with our old management, yes, they had us lie about being single, because they wanted us to look more accessible to fans. Now, with our new management, we can be honest with our fans, because they deserve the truth from us,” AJ said.
5 questions later, Kara was done with her first set. She made a few notes and turned off the tape recorder.
“Y’all are doing great,” she commented.
Howie smiled at her, and she felt kind of flustered. She looked down at the tabletop. ‘Concentrate,’ she told herself.
The next set of questions was asked after the boys finished up their coffee and headed with Kara to the town’s bowling alley. The alley had been reserved that morning just for them so that they could have some peace there. The guys started the game, and Kara asked each guy when it wasn’t their turn different kinds of questions. To Brian: “Is marriage a possibility in the future?” His answer: “Maybe.” To AJ: “When do fans become out of control?” His answer: “When they swear and yell at my girlfriend.” To Kevin: “How do you feel about all the controversy surrounding your eyebrows?” His answer: “I don’t care. I mean, what do they want me to do about them? Pluck them? Then they’d be calling me gay.” To Howie: “Did you ever confront your former management about the lack of solos you and Kevin were getting for the first album?” His answer: “Yes. We all confronted our former management about things we were uncomfortable with, but most of the time, how we felt wasn’t as important as what sold .” To Nick: “Would you mind telling me why you and your last girlfriend broke up?” His answer: “She’s just not ‘the one’, I guess.”
After 3 games of bowling, which were all won by Brian, it was time for an early lunch.
Kara had not told them that she was cousins with JC Chasez, and she was instructed to ask them about ‘N Sync. She prepared herself to keep calm if they said anything bad about her cousin’s group.
As they started to eat their lunch, Kara asked them, “I know you guys have been asked about this subject a million times, but if you choose to answer it, you won’t be misquoted and we won’t make it look like you guys implied something negative when it really wasn’t that way. Can you tell me your different opinions on ‘N Sync? How do you feel about them breaking your album sales record? How do you feel about some of the comments they’ve made regarding you? Have you heard any of their new album, and how do you feel about it if you have?”
Kevin started first. “This is a very big business, and there are many different types of music. We don’t consider anyone else to have the same sound as us, we’re in our own category with that. The only concerns we had with that were that it seemed as if a lot of the things we did were happening again with the other group. It may not have been intentional, but it was very disturbing to us, because we want to be unique. We don’t want anyone to be like us. As for the record sales, many congratulations to them, because that doesn’t bother us. You see Madonna, Michael Jackson, Sting, Santana… they don’t have an album sales record, and they’re all living legends. The records and awards are not what’s important.”
“We don’t have any hard feelings towards them. The media blows it all out of proportion. They’re good guys,” Brian said.
And after that, Kara knew that the Backstreet Boys were good guys.