The light on the stage is low,
when the first sounds of the romantic ballad "I'll never break your heart" begin. With a low voice and
serious face Kevin sings the first lyrics from this sad song. Kevin (born on Oct.
3/1971) reveals. "This song reminds me of my big love Beth. We were even
engaged." Even though they broke up over a year ago, it's hard for
Kev to talk about it. He tells: "Beth was 25 when I met her on a beach
in Florida in 1990. It was love at first sight, even though Beth was six
years older than me. I was happy as never before in my life."
But only few weeks later something horrible happened. His father, Who lived in Kentucky, got cancer. Kev was shocked, because he was very close with his Dad. "I went immediately to Kentucky, when my father came to the hospital. The doctors gave us no big hopes. I prayed that Dad survives the illness."
Kevin's father lost the fight against cancer. In 1991 Gerald Richardson died at the age of 49. Kevin:"I cried for days. I loved Dad so much!"
He found help by Beth. "We talked for hours about the sense of life and death ", remembers Kev. "Beth's love gave me the strength. We swore that we will never break up. We got engaged and wanted to get married and have children later."
They were together for three years, when Kevin's big love broke. In 1993 Beth fell in love with someone else and left Kevin. "That was hard for me. I was again sad. But I realised that I depended on Beth too much."
"Sometimes it's hard for me to have fun", says he. He remembers these hard blows of fate. Kevin is a silent, serious guy. He feels that he has to keep an eye on the other BSB members. "My parents were religious and they raise me and my brothers Gerald (31) and Tim (28) very strict". Despite of that Kevin liked his childhood. Kev grew up in the country, near a small town by Irvine/Kentucky. The town was in a forest between mountains. Kevin had to help his dad who worked in a youth camp every day. He cleaned the rooms and made trips with kids who were in the camp. "I am a professional mountain leader. I went hiking with kids and we played football and volleyball." But his secret passion was music and acting. "Music was my favorite subject in school." When he was nine years old he began to play keyboard. "I learned everything by myself, I sat by the radio and I played songs from charts. But I couldn't read notes", tells Kev. He wrote songs by himself and played them on school parties. "My first song I wrote when I was 13, it was called As Time Goes By." When Kev was 16, he got a job in a restaurant as a piano player. "It was called Ceder Village and I had to play there every evening. I got $40 for that. With that money I bought my first design clothes", says Kevin and smiles for the first time in the interview. "I admit I am a little vein. The boys in the band call me Mr Body Beautiful. In the restaurant where he worked Kev met the 16 year old Christy. "I fell in love with her and after a year we slept together for the first time. Even though I wanted it myself, I felt bad and blamed himself. My belief doesn't allow sex before marriage. When Kevin went to Orlando in 1990, the relationship with Christy broke. "I wanted to be in the showbuseness." He worked as Aladdin and Ninja Turtle in Disney World and played in the evenings in the theater ans italian gangsterboss. In Orlando Kev heard about the manager Lou Pearman, who searched for people for a band. Kevin sang something for Lou and the next day he met Nick, Howie and A.J. for the first time. Three weeks later Kevin got his cousin Brian to come to Orlando. Kevin is proud that they made it so far. Only one wish can't come true. Kev says sad at the end:"When I think that my father can't see our success, I could cry..."
Taken from BRAVO magazine.
