"Sometimes it's hard to realize that those people are scraming at you," Brian Littrell said. "You still look around wondering what's happening. Then you realize that what's happening is YOU. It's really strange."

Strange, indeed. But the Boys wouldn't change their headline-grabbing, heart-stopping success for anything! They've loved every moment of their time in the spotlight - though they do admit that it hasn't come without a coast. There's always a price that has to be paid when fame and fortune are one's goals. Even a band like the Backstreet Boys, a gropu that come across as the hippest, the happiest and the most happenin' act around, have had to pay their dues in order to reach the current level of acclaim.

One way or another Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, AJ McLean and Howie Dorough have each sacrificed something in exchange for riding the magic musical carpet to international acclaim. Maybe that price was a lost love, maybe it was a stable home life, maybe it was friends and family that had to be left behind. Whatever it was the Backstreet Boys have each paid that price - and they've reaped the benefits of their diligence towards their chosen craft.

With sales for their debut album now past the three million level world-wide, and talk that the disc may end up selling another three million before it's finished wreaking havoc on the international sales charts, the BsB have certainly gained a hard earned place in the pop pantheon. But what most of their fans want to know is how the band is really handling their new-found superstardom. Has it changed Nick? Has it turned AJ around? Has it gotten into Howie's head? Older, and perhaps wiser performers before them have come face-to-cafe with the sweet taste of fame, and it has served to alter their perspectives on life and love. Could such a fate ever happen to the Boys?

"If you can't be happy making music, touring the world and coming in contact with thousands of people who love you, what can you be ahppy doing?" AJ asked. "We're so lucky to be able to perform and be received as we've been. It's great. And the best part is that everyone in this band has been able to enjoy what's happened without losing who we really are. We're still the same guys we were before this all began to happen, and we're determined to keep it that way."

Of course, the loyal fans of the Backstreet Boys already knew that their heroes would never change their style over a few bucks or a truckload of platinum albums. These guys are too cool for that! perhaps the fact that they had to handle their fair share of adversity along their trip to the top has been the magic elixir that has allowed them to so adeptly avoid the pitfall of powerfully swollen egos and dangerously swelled heads. After all, at the exact same time that these good lookin' Florida natives were conquering distant shores from Japan to Germany, many in their home nation were turning their backs on them. For many State-side pop fans the Backstreet Bosy simply didn't exist. No matter how much acclaim they were receiving overseas, it had to really hurt to realize that to your friends and family you were still just a musician struglling to make it in the biggest market on Earth.

Of course, all that began to change earlier this year when The Backstreet Boys rocketed into the Top 10 of the US sales charts, and the band soon began popping up everywhere - from MTV to a morning stint on Regis & Kathie Lee. (Of course, Regis took full credit for breaking the band in America, thank you very much!) Suddenly it seemed like you couldn't turn on a radio, flip on a TV or open a magazine without the smiling faces of the BsB beaming back at you. By March they were the biggest thing in the pop world, and by early summer, when their first full-scale US tour hit high gear, you couldn't beg, stel or borrow a ticket to one of their shows. To put it simply, the Backstreet Boys had arrived - and they had arrived in style!

"There's a real pop renaissance happening all over the world," a noted music industry insider revealed. "Hanson may have started it, but the Backstreet Boys are really the ones who pushed it over the top all over the planet. By breaking in Asia and Europe first,t hey solidified their position as the Number One pop act in the world. Hanson may be bigger in the US, but world-wide they can't touch the Backstreet Boys. They've done a brilliant job of marketing themselves - and more importantly, they've got the talent and the drive to back it all up."

- Starline

August 1998