("The SEXY List", Teen People, Music 2000, Summer 2000)
One by one, the five Backstreet Boys arrive at the Presidential Suite in Indianopolis's Canterbury Hotel for ther noon TEEN PEOPLE photo shoot, each accompanied by his own bodyguard. A policeman is stationed outside the room too, and with good reason: Fans have been staking ou the place since the Boys' arrival. This morning several teenage girls roam the halls, hoping to get a glimpse of the band. One girl, accompanied by friends and her mother, clutches a homemade, bare-chested Howie Dorough doll, complete with ponytail and leather pants.
When Nick Carter, 20, the last to arrive, straggles in bleary-eyed, he leaps onto A.J. McLean, 22, wrestles him onto a bed and smooches his pal on the cheek--much to the chagrin of A.J., who makes a "leave me alone" face. He and the other guys are exhaused on this mid-March day, having gone out the n ight before to bowl and play paint tag to celebrate the end of their sold-out Millennium tour, which wraps up next week.
Although the Orland fivesome has been actively promoting the 12-million-selling Millennium for almost a year now, there's no sign that things are cooling down. Even the announcement that cousins Brian Littrell, 25, and Kevin Richardson, 28, have both become engaged seemes to have done nothing to temper Backstreet fever. Congratulatory signs pepper every venue. "I've gotten a few 'Marry me instead' [signs]," says Brian. "But those are OK too."
To say that Backstreet Boys have had a successful year would be an understatement. Millennium not only outsold all competitors in 1999 but also became the first of the recent teen-pop albums to be favorably acknowledged by critcs and postadolescent crowd. "I Want it That Way" even spent 52 weeks on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
CRAZY SEXY COOL
Backstreet Boys also have been extremely well received by fans for their physical attributes. Kevin was declared the "Sexiest Pop Star" by People magazine--to the great amusement of his mates. "They call me Mr. Sexy," he says, rolling his eyes. One European magazine gave the others even more ammunition by dubbing Kevin "Mr. Body Beautiful." "We still bust his chops about it," says Howie, 26.
But, of course, golden-boy Nick still comes first with the fans. "All I can say is, it's very flattering," he says, appearing uncomfortable. "I try to make myself look as normal as possible because I like poeple to relate to me." But Nick is no slave to his fans' expectations: "If I feel like cutting my hair, I'll do it," he says, running a hand through his new short 'do. At the Billboard Music Awards in December, he gelled his hair straight up, an idea that came to him in the limo en route to the ceremony. (For long-locked Howie, hair-raising experiences can be traced back to high school: "I let my mom relax my hair my junior year, and I went to school and everyone thought I had a toupee on my head," he remembers.)
Now that more eyes then ever are focused on the Boys, one might expect their image to become even more imporatant to them, but A.J. insists the opposite is true. "You get up at seven in the morning, you get on the [tour] bus, and there are fans outside. You just don't care what you look like. But," he emphasizes, "you must brush your teeth. That's a must."
When recalling his own prefame years, A.J. says, "I was a geek. Every day I would go to school with a different style: One day I'd wear something really ghetto fabulous, and one day I would get all prepped out." Today, he says, "tons of kids come to me and say, 'I like your style because you're different.'" (His tattoo tally is now up to eight.)
But enough about their looks. The compliments from fans are fine, but, says Howie, "We really want them to respect our music first."
Not to worry. Simply being cute doesn't get you six Grammy nods (for the 1999 and 2000 ceremonies combined)--and some wonder whether it was the band's youth appeal that prevented them from taking home a single trophy from the February awards. Nick says they weren't bothered by the shutout. "Just to be able to perform at the Grammys and to be nominated against people like Santana--it's an honor to be in his category," he says. "I would have liked to take [an award] home, but everyone gets their time to shine. Maybe [ours will be] in 30 years, like Santana."
For his part, Howie drew upon the experience of losing his 37-year-old sister, Caroline, to lupus in 1998. (He's since established a foundation in her name, the Caroline Dorough-Cochran Lupus Memorial Foundation.) "To me, [the video] was a tribute," he says. "She's making me be the strong person in my family, the one that goes out there and makes a difference."
Kevin drew upon emotions from a tragedy of his own for his scenes: He lost his father, Jerald, to cancer in 1991. "At first I was angry because he was 49 years old and he was such a good, generous man and a good father," he says. "The only thing that helped me get through that was the fact that in the hospital, there were, like, five- and six-year-olds dying. I was like, 'You know what? At least my dad got 49 years.'"
The boys are now hard at work on their third U.S. release, scheduled to drop in October. They plan to be more involved in the songwriting and producing: A.J. says that double CD is even a possibility. To write it, "we're going to take a trip to an island for a few weeks, just us five and studio engineers," he says. "We're trying to go a little more edgy, but that doesn't mean we're gonig to totally change our style."
Brian--who cowrote Millennium's "Larger Than Life" and "The Perfect Fan"--nods in agreement. "The chemistry and feel of the previous albums will be the same, just a little older. And productionwise, we're looking for a natural, raw feel, where everything isn't perfect. We want to go with a live-sounding studio band, kind of like the Beatles."
This spring they also began work on individual projects. A.J. was the first to break away form the group, launching a mini solo tour in March as alter ego Johnny NoName to benefit the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, which helps restore music programs in public schools. "The kids, I think, were really proud that one of us finally stood up and did something on our own," says A.J., who performed material by the likes of Prodigy and Stone Temple Pilots. "I guess the fans were wating to see which one was going to be the first to have the guts to do it. As always, the first one to do something off the wall was me." He also joined Howie in writing and producing some songs for pop trio EYC. On his own, Howie cowrote the song "I Like It" for Mandy Moore's platinum debut, So Real. Meanwhile, Nick is moonlighting as a writer and potential producer for a still-unnamed rock band made up of friends.
The breakup made the proposal more unexpected. "We were going from Kentucky to Kansas, where her family lives, for Christmas," says Kevin. "I was like, 'We've gotta go to Orlando'--I have a house there--'I've got some Christmas presents there.' So we went, and we went to a place on the beach where I first told her I loved her. She freaked out. She thought I got [the ring] out of a gum-ball machine."
A few days later, on Christmas night, Brian proposed to Leighanne Wallace, 30, in Marietta, Ga., presenting her with a canary-yellow diamond engagement ring. They met three years ago when Leighanne, an actress, was an extra in the video for "As Long As You Love Me." "She was there in the beginning, when things were just beginning to take off," Brian says. "She was the second face I saw when I woke up from heart surgery. I saw my grandmother's first, then Leighanne's."
With Backstreet's intense work schedule, married life won't be a piece of cake, but the future grooms are optimistic. "Our fiancées know we got here through hard work and perseverence," says Brian, "and they're behind us all the way."
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Brian, Nick, A.J., Howie, Kevin
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