Boys Meet World

It's 8am and five Backstreet Boys stagger out of their hotel rooms blinking and rubbing their eyes, Although the lads have spent the night at the dead posh Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam, they didn't get much sleep. "Too many fans singing too many songs," sighs Howie. "I fell asleep just as they started singing Backstreet's Back for the fourth time."

They boys are in Amsterdam for just one day to perform on an afternoon show, then they'll board a coach to Rotterdam where they'll play another show. In between, they'll be filming for MTV, meeting fans and taking part in two photo shoots. As frantic as all this may sound, it's just an average day for the biggest boy band on the planet. "Sometimes I don't look at our schedule," admits AJ, "Because I know it will freak me out too much. I haven't seen my own bedroom for months." And by the looks things, there's no sign things are slowing down. There's a new album in the pipeline and then yet another tour (hooray!). Will these boys ever have a day off?

You're always surrounded by screaming fans, isn't that weird?
Howie: "Yeah, in Europe we can't go anywhere without a bodyguard."
AJ: "We get one each which is weird cos wherever I go Lonnie, my bodyguard, goes too. I'm never on my own. Well, apart from when I have to go to the bathroom!"

Who do you think is more famous, you or the Spice Girls?
Nick: "I don't know. That sort of thing doesn't matter to us at all. We see the girls everywhere because we are always on the same TV shows. When we first started getting popular they were too, so we feel like we've kind of grown with them."
Kevin: "It's weird cos we'll both be on world tours at the same time. We're very similar to them, but they're probably better known for their private live than we are, but that's fine by us."
AJ: "I think we're neck and neck. In Amsterdam, when we announced our tour dates we sold out the huge Gelredome Stadium in 20 minutes - the Spice Girls did it in 16, so we're four minutes behind 'em!

Is it harder to become superstars in America than in Europe?
Brian: "Yeah, I think a lot of people in America view us as a boy band. In Europe, they know we put on a huge show and we can entertain. We don't just mime to a backing track, we sing live and have a great time."

You work hard on your videos don't you?
Nick: "We love making them cos we get a chance to show off and be really over-the-top."
Brian: "We loved making Backstreet's Back. I want to make more videos like that. It was cool to do!"

Do you think your lives are very showbiz?
AJ: "No we're very normal. To us, it's totally normal to have girls screaming but everyone else it must seem real weird. I find it strange when a girl is telling me she loves me and I'm thinking, 'You don't know me'."
Kevin: "What I find is strange is the level of hysteria. The girls will do anything to get into our hotel room. One girl phoned up in England and said she was y pregnant girlfriend and she was having the baby. They put her through to me but when she talked to me she was just giggled. I was like, 'What are you doing?'"

Don't you ever get starstruck when you meet other celebs?
Howie: "Yeah. If I met Janet Jackson I would have no idea what to say. I think I'd totally lose me nerve."
AJ: "I wouldn't get tongue-tied if I met Gwen Stefani. I'd be real cool and make her ditch her boyfriend!"

Are you all vain?
Brian: "We care how we look but I don't spend my days checking my hair look OK."
AJ: "I'd say I care the most about my appearance. I have real bad hair days and I drive the others crazy when I talk about it!"
Nick: "We all tell each other when we think we look good and when we look bad."
Kevin: "We get really tired so obviously some days we have huge shadows under out eyes and we're not really with it."

Do you ever with you could stop being a BSB for one day?
Kevin: "Nope. Not ever. I know I can't go out for a pizza with my friends and I know I can't even walk down the street without fans chasing me but I realise how lucky I am to be doing what I've always wanted as a career."
Howie: "Sometimes you wake up at 6am, you're tired and far away from home and you know you won't be alone all day. At that point, I do wish I was somewhere else."
Brian: "If we did something else we would find that weird. For the last few years we've lived like this and we could never change now."

Do you feel famous?
Brian: "That's a great question. No, I don't. I'm still Brian Littrell from Florida who used to get told off at school for singing in class. Sometimes when we're on stage I think, 'Wow, look at me', but that's it."
Howie: "No, but only because we have people around us who keep our feet on the ground. We don't behave like stars."
AJ: "We have a team around us who plan our day down to the last second. When we wake up we know what time we'll be eating breakfast and even what time we'll be eating dinner! There's not time to even think about how famous we are."