Backstreet Boys: The real guys. (Scandinavian)

*Brian, you're about to go into hospital. Are you going to leave the band?

BRIAN: No, I'm not leaving the band. That's not true."

*Has being in the band make you ill?

BRIAN: No! It's equally tough for all of us. Even Kevin's not feeling too good at the moment. The bad weather's making him feel ill. Luckily, we have a doctor who comes to check up on us and he gives us vitamin shots. We do look after ourselves. It's hard to stay healthy, especially when you are on tour but we do our best.

*And Nick, you're definitely not going solo then?

NICK: I think all of us, professionally, would like to do something independently in the future, sure. But we have a lot more to achieve as the Backstreet Boys first. We've get our world tour plans, another album - several more albums to do. We haven't toured in places like Russia and Africa yet!

*Have you had to postpone your next album because of Brian's op?

KEVIN: No, we're working on it right now. We've recorded three tracks already and the rest of us are actually getting a chance to do more while Brian is having his operation. All of us, including Brian, will do some writing with the producers and on the upcoming album you'll see our names more on the credits.

*Will you change your name to Backstreet when you feel you're not boys anymore?

NICK: Not at all. Anyway, AJ and I are still teenagers!

AJ: No, Nick, I'm 20.

NICK: Oh my God, I forgot!

HOWIE: We don't consider ourselves as a boy band. We want to be considered a vocal harmony group.

Kevin: What's wrong with getting older, anyway? As we grow older, things will only get better. As a singer, your voice doesn't mature until you're in your mid-30s. So we still have a lot to look forward to vocally so we're only going to get better and stronger as singers, writers and performers. We're all looking forward to growing old together!

*Your fans treat you like gods. Isn't that weird?

KEVIN: We're not perfect at all. We have bad days, we get zits on our faces, we get sick, you know. We're human beings, we make mistakes.

NICK: Yeah, we mess up, we make mistakes like everyone else.

AJ: But that's a nice compliment anyway.

*Are you going to do a Backstreet World: The Movie?

HOWIE: There have been offers. Right now we're oncentrating on our music. We want to put on a big world tour at the beginning of next year. That's a big priority. Right now there's no time do a movie or a TV series. But it may happen because it can open doors in the acting world for us. Some of us used to act and we would like to do it again.

*Do you think you're the male Spice Girls?

AJ: We're quite different to the Spice Girls, not just because we're male. We're vocal harmony group and our music is based on intricate harmonies. For us, it's all about the music.

NICK: Yeah, it's not an image thing. We don't have Scary Boy or Baby Boy! Making music is our sole interest.

KEVIN: I say, 'Congratulations to the Spice Girls, they have great success. We started out a little time before them, but we remember doing shows with them before anybody knew them and now they are huge.

BRIAN: Yeah, we shared some dressing rooms with them, so let's start some gossip! No, it isn't true...

*A lot of your fans think you all have secret girlfriends...

AJ: That's not true! But we are all dating. We date around, but it's nothing serious. When you're in the entertainment business and you travel a lot, you have to be careful about who you open yourself up to. So we're taking it slow with girls and seeing what happens.

NICK: If you have a serious relationship you always end up having arguments. You argue because, in this job, you're away all the time, travelling to different countries. It's very hard to find someone who would put up with one schedules when we're always flying around.

AJ: And the world has a lot of beautiful women too!

*Are you all millionaires now?

HOWIE: We're not exactly there yet, we're working on it. In this business you don't make much early on. And whatever money we have received, each of us is trying to be smart with it. We're investing and saving it for a rainy day!

* Have you changed a lot over the last few years?

KEVIN: I don't think we've changed much as people. We've grown up together in the past five years. Nick's definitely a lot taller, that's one thing! We've just grown as a team and as a family. We don't have a lot of time off now. We work almost 24 hours, seven days a week. But it's all fun and it's all worth it in the end.

BRIAN: Sometimes we get time off and we're normal guys who get to go home and see our families. We all go home, go shopping and go to the movies.

*Do you always meet the fans who hang around your hotel?

KEVIN: Not always. We can't. What we do is have our security guy go out and say, 'If you guys are cool and calm, the fells will come and sign autographs for you.' But as soon as we walk out of the hotel or get off our tour bus, they start pulling our hair and pulling our hats off...

AJ: Then it gets crazy. Otherwise we'd stay outside and sign as long as we possibly can.

NICK: Only today we had some trouble. When we came out of the hotel and stopped to say hi we saw one of our security guards get knocked over! If it was up to me, I'd be outside with the fans and I'd let them jump on top of us but it isn't safe.

*Do You feel guilty when fans are sleeping outside your hotels in the cold and you're in your luxury suites?

KEVIN: We try and make it worth their while. When we see fans in their sleeping bags in front of our hotel, we try to find opportunity to talk to some of them and sign some autographs. When somebody tells you that they've been camping for four days, it's mind-blowing. It's flattering but it makes us feel bad that they've been out in the cold. The other day I told some fans that they needed to go home and get some warm cocoa or some soup.

*Do you feel any responsibility when girls faint at your concerts?

AJ: It disappoints us because we want everybody to be able to enjoy our shows. We don't want them to faint.

KEVIN: Safety, especially during the show, is very important to us. We want our fans to enjoy the show. That's why we have people making sure the crowd get a lot of water so they don't.



Thank you to Jennifer Carter for the interview!!