Tiger Beat: Backstreet Boys are currently on a break. How are you all spending your time?
AJ: Kevin's up in Kentucky right now visiting his mom for her birthday. I think he wants to get his mom a car like mine (A.J. has a new purple Corvette!). His mom has done everything for him since he was a kid, so it's time to pay back mom in some way, with a nice birthday present. Howie's in New York recording, which is where I'll be next week.
We're getting our individual writing trips - where each of us can go write with different people, and get kind of a different span of music, stuff like that. That's what he's doing. Nick's in Tampa, and he's just veggin' out, riding his boat, playing with his brother and sisters and just cruisin' around, going to the mall, playing basketball. Just bein' a kid.
TB: Does Nick feel any competition from his baby brother Aaron?
AJ: No, I don't think so. He's been kind of more or less like a father figure to Aaron. Like when he feels Aaron's overworked, even when Aaron might want to keep going - he's a little kid, he's got so much energy - Nick will say, "I don't want Aaron working anymore. I want Aaron to just come back and be a kid." Nick just bought him little four-wheel ATV to just run around on, so Aaron's just having a blast doing that.
TB: What else is new?
AJ: Well, Nick's dog almost killed me the other day! I went to go visit Nick just out of the blue, I decided to drive over to Tampa. And I had heard about his dog; I knew it was golden retriever, but it's trained to kill! (laughs) So it about killed me! I had to jump back in my car. his dog is like Cujo.
TB: Maybe Nick has the dog trained to keep all you Backstreet Boys away!
AJ: (laughs) Right! And he's saying, "Now when this one comes... kill!" So that's his way of getting us back for all those times we used to pick on him when he was a kid.
TB: You changed your hair to blond again.
AJ: Oh, my hair changes like I change my underwear. Daily, basically. I had polka dots last week, and I had a zebra print the week before. Now I'm back to blond. I'm really bored. Really, truly I can honestly say I'm bored on my vacation. But it's good. I mean, I actually went and saw 'N SYNC's show last ngiht. It was an excellent show. Innosense did incredible. Those girls are incredible. Those girls did a really good job. Average Joe did a really good job. He's one of our close personal friends, all of them are.
TB: How did Brian's heart surgery affect Backstreet Boys?
AJ: After Brian's surgery, we all kind of took a little time to really grow up. I think we all... Brian especially made a comment to me the toehr day that he's really grown up in this past time that he's had the surgery up to now - and that I think all of us have taken the opportunity to really look at this and see that it can happen to anybody. It doesn't matter how old you are. And it's not a bad thing, or a good thing. I think everything happens for a reason. And it was bound to happen one day or another.
TB: Has that new knowledge affected the songs you're writing for Backstreet Boys' next album?
AJ: I think it has affected the way we write, but we're writing more on an adult level now. It's still songs for everyone, or every race and color and age, but it's just I think we're thinking more now than we ever used to. [To] not just write a song about 'let's go have a party and have a good time," and all this stuff that you hear nowadays. We're all a little bit more emotional now, and a little bit more grown up. Even Nick looks like he's 30 now! Nick's getting facial hair for crying out loud! Before you know it, Kevin's going to be 30, and that's gonna be scary. Because once Nick turns 21, Kevin will be 30, and there'll be a 30-year-old Backstreet Boy! That's really weird, man!
TB: Have you got a message for your fans?
AJ: Yeah. I want to say thanks to all of them. Backstreet Boys would not be where we are today without them and we remember that every single day.
- Dennis Walkling, Tiger Beat
February 1999