Backstreet Boys: Recall The Ache Of Heartbreak
Would you turn down a date with a Backstreet Boys babe? Heck, no! Well, you might not believe it, but even though the five guys behind the single "I'll Never Break Your Heart" have killer looks and out-of-this-world personalities, the Florida-based boys tell BOP that they've each had their heart broken.
Does your stomach do flip-flops when you hear Backstreet Boys Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, Kevin Richardson and AJ McLean sing sweet songs from their 1997 self-titled debut album, like "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" and "As Long As You Love Me"? Maybe that's because their heartwarming harmonies really do come straight from their hearts!

Turns out, these gorgeous guys have seriously sad stories about beind dissed by their dream girls. "It's always that way," AJ sighs. But AJ and the other ultra-smart sweeties didn't let their dating duds get them down. Instead, they looked on the bright side - and now look at them!

It wasn't too long ago that Nick, the baby of the group at 18, couldn't get the girl of his dreams to go out with him. "When I was in high school, for some reason, the girls didn't like me. I remember trying to ask a few girls out and they said, 'No,'" the singer with the super smile shares. "I dated all the girls the other guys wouldn't date."

It may be mega-hard to believe, but the blue-eyed babe points out one particular person he had puppy love for to prove it. "her name was Melinda and she liked this guy named Wayne. I will never forget, he was like Italian or something like that and he had dark hair and [he was] really skinny and he was a cool guy," Nick remembers. "I guess that I wasn't like the typical cool person in school."

Being cool in school and getting all the popular girls didn't happen for Howie, either. "I was just like a normal guy," 24-year-old Howie says. "I was never really into the sports scene or anything, so I wasn't a jock or anything."

But just like his groupmates, good-natured Howie takes his girl-powered problems all in stride. "There's tons of girls you gotta have," Howie explains. "I didn't really ask so many people [out]. I was always the shy guy. It took a lot of nerve to ask somebody out or to ask somebody to dance, that was like the biggest thing."

When Kevin finally got up the guys to ask out the girl he was ga-ga over, it didn't go so well for the gorgeous green-eyed guy. "There was an occasion where we had a girl who moved into town from out of state, and she came to our school. I just thought she was sooo pretty, and I had the biggest crush on her," Kevin confides to BOP. "Somebody told me that she liked me. I was like, 'No, you've got be kidding! She likes me?' The next day, I went over to her and she ignored me. She just didn't like me anymore, pretty much."

Although the sweet-hearted singer was bummed, the ultra-smart now-26-year-old didn't let the episode get him majorly depressed and down in the dumps. "I mean, I wasn't really sad or anything," he shares, "I was just like, 'Dang, what happened?'" Turns out, Kevin didn't have to humiliate himself by asking her what went wrong. "One of her friends told me, 'She just doesn't fancy you any more. She likes someone else,'" he recalls. Ouch!

AJ can totally relate to Kevin's being brushed off by a girl. The 20-year-old singer says that there were "a lot of girls" in high school that he really liked who wouldn't even give him the time of day. AJ didn't volunteer any details, but we have to wonder: How can that happen to such a sweet-natured guy?

Although Brian's most memorable crush experience wasn't that crushing, this 23-year-old found out the hard way that dating the girl of his dreams isn't always what it's cracked up to be. "That happened to me in high school. I like this girl forever and a day, and we were always best friends," Brian shares. "But, you know those nice guys that you come to talk to when you have a problem with your oyfriend? You know, one of those in-between dudes? That was me to her. And all this time I was falling for her. But then she decided to give me the time of day, and by then when I saw the other side, like from a boyfriend's perspective rather than a friend's perspective, I didn't like her as much as I thought I did. We dated for three months, but then it was like, 'I'm sorry, but this is not working out.' And she was like, 'Huh? What?'"

Now that the guys are mega-successful, you can bet the girls who brushed off these boys must be totally bummed! But don't worry, the fabulous five have totally recovered from the cold shoulders they've received - and they're even on the lookout for the perfect girl to settle down with someday. "Everybody in the group has thought about that," Nick smirks. Adds Howie: "As long as I know that the person likes me for who I really am!"

- BOP

September 1998

backstreetgal@writeme.com
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