When the lights go down at the Charlotte Coliseum in North Carolina, the group will finally see the same sort of success that they have been seeing in Europe for years. "This is our first big American tour here where we're doing arenas and fairgrounds," Howie Dorough told MTV News of the tour.

The group has finally reached A-level status in the States, but when the Boys came together in Orlando, Florida in 1993, the musical climate didn't appear to be ready for their pop sensibilities. The group then spent the next two years honing their craft on tour in Europe, and finally saw U.S. success with their self-titled album (which is currently the best-selling non-"Titanic" album of 1998).

"It's actually, this is our biggest tour that we've put together," Dorough remarked as the band rehearsed for the tour in Orlando. "We've done several tours over in Europe and in America, and America is constantly trying to catch up with the tours over internationally, and now we're finally on the same page [500k QuickTime] with this last tour here. It's a really great show. It's almost two hours, an hour and 45 minutes, it's jam-packed full of energy. There's choreography throughout pretty much every song."

After the tour kicks off in Charlotte, the Backstreet Boys play Jacksonville, Florida on Thursday.

- MTV News Gallery

July 7, 1998