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Top US boy band Backstreet Boys have never been ones to air their dirty linen public...until now, that is...
Howie D gives us a knowing look. "You want the goosey goosip stuff, the dirty grind, huh?" he asks. We not eagerly. So Kevin leans forward and confesses all about his peanut butter fetish.
Damn, he's only talking about smearing the stuff on Ritz crackers. C'mon guys, we want real down-on-the-farm much spreading! Blank looks. Even using amateur hypnosis, it's hard to wrangle any info on who's sported the tackiest love bite, let alone any bedroom stories. It's time to quit playing games, guys!!
Now, just where did we put that torture kit? Come on, don't be shy, give us...
Nick: Bone. That's all I'm saying! It has a meaning, but I can't tell you it--you have to figure it out. It's a secret.
Brian: A.J. is Mr. Talkative. He's always on the phone to his family in Florida. I'd hate to see his phone bill. He'll chat to anyone and tell you stories all day long, whether they're true or not. Sometimes, after a gig, I want to be quiet and rest, but he's like, "Let me tell you what happened!" And I'm like, "Listen, I was there, I saw it!"
Kevin: Sometimes A.J. just can't say no, because he doesn't want to upset anyone. He makes too many promises. He's also the funniest drunk. He just gets silly.
Howie: I remember one time when A.J. was hanging around some girls and he brok into some poetry, saying something like, "Girls are like diamonds--at first, they are rough on the edges, but once they are polished and smooth, they are very beautiful." I was like, "Where did that come from?" I was kinda embarassed. I tease him all the time about that.
"Well the diamond situation? Let me see...sometimes you're with a girl and you don't know what you're going to say, so you say whatever sounds good and usually girls have a really good sensitive side, so you can go mushy on them. Shoot, I didn't know what I was thinking at the time."
"I embarassed myself too days ago when we did a photo-shoot where I was dressed as The Riddler in this green spandex outfit. I mean, I looked just like Jim Carrey! Anyway, I went out on stage and introduced our two opening acts dressed like that. The audience went absolutely nuts and all the guys were tripping out--they were like, 'I can't believe you did it!'"
He bites the skin around his fingers.
Kevin:"Brian is a real clown. My best way to wind Brian up is to say, 'Oh, that's real professional of you! Yeah, nice attitude, that's really good.' If he wants to do the same to me, he'll say, 'Oh, that's real mature.' We all like to rile each other and get under each other's skin.
A.J.:He cries--at least he did when we got our gold record. Him and Kevin both.
Nick: We're very competitive, especially in sports. When he beats me...oh my God!
Howie: He's an attention getter--big time! A.J. can strike up a conversation with anyone, but Brian will get the attention! It's all his facial expressions--jumping around, acting like a monkey! I call him a 'comodian,' not a comedian.
"I get that side of me from my family--we're always trying to do something funny and make each other laugh."
"I bite my fingernails. I've bitten them all my life. My mom was always like, 'Get your fingers out of your mouth!' I've tried to stop and it's something that bothers me because when I'm signing autographs, the girls are like, 'You bite your nails!' But I still do it!"
He once waited in a car outside Tower Records in London's Piccadilly Circus just to see what Mariah Carey looks like in person.
Brian: He is a perfectionist. He's got a lot of positive aspects, but he lets his perfectionist side get in the way sometimes, because he wants things to be too perfect. He knows he needs to lighten up--sometimes he looks at people and they think he's going to rip their head off!!
A.J.: His nickname is Train, because when he's on automatic pilot, he'll just knock you over. Like when he's playing basketball, he'll trample all over you!
Howie: He's mature, responsible, professional, and knows what he wants, but sometimes he doesn't know the most successful way to achieve it. He's the authoritative. You need someone like that, who has leadership qualities, to get the guys together. Sometimes, we'll get together and talk to the other guys because he doesn't want to come across as the one telling everyone what to do.
Nick: He's into weight-lifting, always wanting to look good.
"In the entertainment business, everyone is so critical of what you look like. It's not necessarily about making myself look good, I just don't feel good when I'm not eating right and I'm not getting excersize--I feel like a piece of crap! I like it when the show is really hot and we're sweating. My weakness is peanut butter. Oh my gosh, I could eat peanut butter on anything! I like peanut butter and jam on Ritz crackers--I could eat those babies all day!"
"I wish I had A.J.'s voice! He has that raspy, soul funk voice, and Brian has that smooth Kenny Loggins voice. Mine is really pure, nothing special about it."
He used to dress as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and wear a wig as Aladdin when he worked for Disney.
A.J.: Howie has a few problems with his hair because it's so curly, so the easiest way to wind him up is to mess with his hair. Like if he was on a really hot date, I'd walk up behind him and go, "Hey, Howie!" and ruffle his hair, out of sheer spite!
Kevin: I wish I could always be as thoughtful as he is to others. He really has a big heart. His nickname is Sweet D. He can be very sensitive.
Nick: Howie's got some weird clothes. A long time ago, when we first started the group, he used to wear a lot of tight trousers at the time baggy trousers were in--and now tight trousers are back in, he's into baggy trousers. That's Howie!
Brian: Howie is Mr. Quiet--the peacemaker of the group. He's like, "Guys, can't we just get along?" Being that we're five individuals, we can't always see eye-to-eye on what to wear or where we're going. Howie always sits back. He's not opinionated and doesn't express his feelings off the top of his head. He'll wait and listen to two sides of a story and then he'll say, "This is what I think." Sometimes it's like pulling teeth, getting information out of him--he just sits back and listens for so long.
"My motto is, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' I would never do anything to someone that I wouldn't want to do to me. I'm a very respectful type of person."
"I'm sick of gummi bears! A while back, I said I liked them, but then I got sent so many by fans that I was eating them everyday. Now I'm like, 'No more gummi bears!' I try to keep my figure, so I've got to stay away from chocolates, too."
His Spanish heritage has given him a reputation as a 'Latin Lover,' but he says, "I've got more of a softer romantic style. I'm not like Rico Suave--I don't go around with big cuffs and collars!"
Kevin: Nick's real young and hyper. I wish I could be as carefree as he is. The downside is that sometimes he doesn't want to do the serious stuff. My way of winding Nick up is to correct him in front of everybody. He's the clumsiest in the group. That's because he's grown so much in the past year--like, three feet! (He's only 16 and already six foot!)
Brian: He's like the little brother I never had. I can teach him and help him with things. He's come a long way and he's very mature for his age. If I was doing the thing's he's doing at 16, I don't think I'd have handled it as well. But i'm a little bit better than him at basketball right now, but when we play, he plays so hard that he gets frustrated. He reminds me of myself when I was that age. Even now, I'll get mad when he beats me at a Nintendo game.
A.J.: Nick's a real prankster. Last tour, he put a sock filled with different odds and ends that really stank (he won't reveal the exact contents) behind the drums, and during the show, it started smelling real bad. Revenge is being plotted as we speak.
Howie: He's full of energy when he wants to be, but he doesn't always know how to focus his energy. He's also very grumpy in the mornings, and when he gets in his nagging moods, being young, he slaps you around the head! Worst of all, he totally hogs the Nintendo!
"I admit it--I'm addicted to Nintendo! I play sports games and adventure games and role-playing like Final Fantasy 3. I can't always do what I want to do, like play basketball, because I can't go outside the hotel. So when I play Nintendo, I enter a different world and relax."
"I don't have many friends. I just have these guys."
He listens to country music! Then again, he listens to everything! This is what we found in his CD case:
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