Our Gift to You: Backstreet Boys Cutest Photo and 20 FAN-tastic Facts

THEY'RE the hottest musical group on the planet...the five fellas known as the Backstreet Boys...who play to sold-out stadiums around the world and sell millions of albums. In fact, their new CD, Millennium, made history when it rang up the most sales in one week--1.13 million units--wiping Garth Brooks out of the record books!

The previous self-titled album from teenybopper heartthrobs Nick Carter, 19, Brian Littrell, 24, Kevin Ricardson, 27, A.J. McLean, 21, and 25-year-old Howie Dorough sold an astonishing 10 million copies and scored four Top 10 hits. And their new hit single I Want it That Way has already climbed into the Top 10 in Billboard magazine's charts.

At right is what 12-year-old Backstreet Boys fan club member Yamileth Medina of Florida calls "the cutest photo I've ever seen"--and here are 20 fascinating facts about the Backstreet Boys that'll make you a top fan, too!

(1) The group took their name from the open-air Backstreet Market in Orlando, Fla., where founding members A.J., Howie, and Nick used to perform.
(2) Kevin, added as the fourth member of the group, once worked as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle at Walt Disney World and as Aladdin at the Disney-MGM Studios.
(3) The guys wanted another voice so Kevin called his cousin in Kentucky--Brian--who was hired as the fifth Backstreet Boy.
(4) A.J.'s a skilled puppeteer who worked on the Nickelodeon show Welcome Freshmen.
(5) Howie is half-Irish and half-Puerto Rican, but learned Spanish in school, not at home.
(6) Nick's a talented drummer who takes a turn pounding the skins during BSB concerts.
(7) Brian had open-heart surgery last year to correct a congenital hole in his heart, which had enlarged to dangerous propportions. Paramedics stand by at every concert in case he needs oxygen.
(8) Kevin grew up on a 10-acre farm in Lexington, Ky., until he was 9 years old and then spent the next eight years living in a modern-day log cabin.
(9) Nick's parents had to put a fence around the family's Orlando house to keep admiring fans from ripping up flowers or clumps of grass to take home as souvenirs. And he's not the only hunk the fans come to see--his kid brother Aaron followed in Nick's showbiz footsteps and is also a popstar.
(10) Howie appeared in the movies Cop And a Half and Parenthood.
(11) Each of the guys except Nick has a nickname. Howie is Sweet-D, Kevin's are Boo and Pumpkin, A.J.'s is Bone, and Brian's is B-Rok, because of the way he rocks playing his favorite sport, basketball.
(12) Nick is a licensed scuba diver who can often be spotted diving off the family boat in the Gulf of Mexico.
(13) The person hitting the amazing high notes in Backstreet Boys songs is Howie.
(14) A.J. once ended up on crutches after his foot was crushed while he was trying to get away from overzealous Canadian fans.
(15) Don't ask Brian to go to the top of the Empire State Building--he's afraid of heights.
(16) When they got their first gold record for I'll Never Break Your Heart, Kevin and Brian burst into tears!
(17) If Kevin ever left the group, he could get a job as a ballroom dance instructor.
(18) As a practical joke, the boys once threw Nick out of the dressing room into a throng of awaiting fans--in his underpants!
(19) A.J. now sings Lay Down Beside Me two octaves lower than he originally did.
(20) They have no plans to change their name from Backstreet Boys to Backstreet Men as they get older (ever hear of the Beach Boys?).

National Examiner
Articles Main
Main Page