Get your own Free Home Page(Super Teen, December 1997)
This issue of Super Teen features the first in series of Backstreet Boys life stories, in which Nick, Brian, A.J., Kevin, and Howie tell you all about themselves in their own words!
"It all started in a small town in Upstate New York called Jamestown. I was born in the same hospital as Lucille Ball of I Love Lucy fame. There was a lounge called Yankee Rebel, which my father and my grandmother both owned--it was a small place. My sister B.J. was born up there, but my other brother and sisters were born in Florida. We had a house on Webber Road; I used to love it up there, it was so fun! My grandparents all lived up there.
"We had a little dance floor at the Yankee Rebel, and my dad used to be a D.J. and play records. When I was real small, I'd get up there in my diapers, and dance around! I have pictures of me wearing headphones that were bigger than my face! I was just a little chunk; everybody used to call me 'Charlie Brown' when I was little. This is all before B.J. was born. One time my parents thought they lost me, they were walking around looking for my saying, 'Where's Nicky? Where's Nicky?' We had an old Pac-Man game and I had pulled up a stool; there I was in my white diaper sitting on the stoll playing the game. That was when my love of video games began!
"My parents thought maybe it'd be cool to move down to Florida and start a different business, so they pakced up their old Cadillac Eldorado and loaded all our stuff into this little trailor. I was about five or six then. The performing bug really didn't hit me until I was about six or seven...'maybe I can sing, maybe I can do this, maybe I can do that.'
"So we make it to Florida, and we've moved into our first home. I guess it was a retirement home, because that's where my dad first started working. We lived there for maybe a year. It was about a 16-person facility and we built onto it. My sister and I used to play with frogs and stuff around there! I have pictures of us all in mud and we have frogs on top of our heads! We got into some paint one time! We were painting a chair for my father and we were joking around and started paing each other. And so we had to take a bath in one of those little swimming pools. We, me and B.J., used to get into so much mischief, it was so funny.
"One of my favorite things to do in the backyard was go swinging on the hammock. I'd have her on it, and twist her up in it, let it go, and watch her spin. She kept spinning and she'd get up all dizzy and tell mom. This was a big backyard and the senior citizens really didn't care. Another thing my sister and I like to do was sword fights with wooden sticks. We would do that all the time. We got friendly with a few of the older people. My sister got really close to a woman named Millie, then Millie passed away. They used to be real good friends; Millie would buy her stuff. Being around older people, I learned to respect people and that also helped me.
"When we moved to another place, I met one of my best friends, his name was Brent and he and I used to get in trouble and all that. In all, I'd say my family and I have lived in about five different houses down here. We kept the same business, we just kept trying to live closer to the retirement home without living there. Eventually we did, we moved very close to it. My mom was a cook at the retirement home, an excellent cook. My mom's a really good cook! My brother, Aaron, and my sister, Angel (they're twins), were born at Tampa General/Children's Hospital. Leslie was born at the retirement home. She wasn't born in the hospital.
"I had to cope with my mother giving Leslie more attention than me and B.J.. We would talk to each other and say, 'Gosh, she's getting all the attention.' My grandma would spoil her. We get along now, because Leslie gets treated the same as us now. When the twins came, that really affected everybody. Leslie got jealous, too! I was exctied to have another brother! The twins really didn't change my life that much, but I guess you could say it was a happy change, because now I have lots of siblings! My dad, who's an only child, got all the attentiong, but had to make friends. I make friends, but always have someone to play with and hang out with.
"My first school was Miles Elementary. Miles was my favorite school, I loved that school! I was there for four years. That was when I did my first play, The Phantom of the Opera. The teacher helped me get into it. What happened was she picked someone for the role, but he couldn't sing, so he sort of strayed off. She needed to find somebody and luckily I was there. I was real nervous about my first play, but I pulled through. I felt good about it. Being on-stage is my life!
"Next year, I went to Orange Grove. I had favorite teachers there, too. this was elementary, I missed a lot of school, because I did a lot of acting then. I started when I was about nine years old, right after Phantom of the Opera. We were kind of tossed between acting, dancing, or singing, so I kind of dabbled in a few of them. I did plays and commercials for the Lottery and the Money Store (I was about 10), a lot of that kind of stuff. I really decided waht I wanted to be when I was singing. I auditioned for the Mickey Mouse Club and the Backstreet Boys. And the Mickey Mouse Club said they wanted me! I had a feeling that that was going to be my good acting year--everybody has a good acting year! I had to choose between the two of them...Backstreet Boys or the Mickey Mouse Club!"
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(Note from Elyse: If anybody has the Kevin, Howie, A.J., or Brian one of these articles (actually, I think the Brian one can be found on His Life, His Words, I have to ask Krystal 'bout that one, but I'm pretty sure) could you PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP SEND IT TO ME???? THANX SO MUCH IN ADVANCE, I REALLY APPRECIATE IT AND I WILL DEFINITELY GIVE YOU CREDIT!!!)
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