Only thanx to
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First, All about me: I'm Anibal(Jr.) Pires-my bro(Agostinho Joseph) and I are AJs
And this is how I met the Backstreet Boys:
It's Saturday, July 18th (my birthday). I took the day off from work to go with
my brother and two of his friends(both girls are SERIOUS B-Rok fans) to the
BSB concert at the New Haven Coliseum. Yes, I'm a guy, but ever since I was
introduced two music majors at my college, I now look at music...musically,
and musically, BSB is a great group. This we all agree on.
There is a packed line of concert-goers outside wanting in. A local radio DJ
is promising to bring letters and flowers from many ardent fans backstage, but
it's tough, even for her. She spent weeks trying to score backstage passes for
my brother and I to meet them. I mean, it was our birthday-we had to meet
them. But to no avail. So I stood outside talking to an acquaintance at
college who brought his girlfriend and sister to see...who else? Nick. Another
girl remembered me from the last concert. She was to win front row tickets,
but because her little cousin kept calling, and the phone became tied up, she
lost(the girl who did win was the fourth girl called-imagine: what were the
other three doing). I knew what one was doing. She was crying in her pillow.
So there I am telling one girl that she'll never meet Nick and at the same
time telling the other girl that maybe this was God's way of putting
perspective in her life. I mean, they are regular people, not 5 Golden Calves
to we worshipped, or something to that respect. The BSB bus pulls around the
building three times, each time escorted by throngs of fans, taking pictures
of the tinted windows, swearing that they saw Howie D. smile or B-Rok pointing
at them. I'm talking with my college buddy, with onlookers laughing at my
observations of the whole fiasco. When all of a sudden, the door I was leaning
against pushes towards my back. A woman with dyed brown hair holds up what
seems to be a green 2" by 4" card with something in blue marker written on it.
"One Meet-and-Greet with the BACKSTREET BOYS-$30!!!" She screams.
Without thinking, I grabbed her raised arm, uttering "Oh, come with me." I
pulled her inside, and as I looked back, the very girls I lectured were giving
me the ultimate face of disbelief. I felt bad. Thinking it was a hoax, and not
wanting to be jipped on my B-Day, I asked her for identification, to which she
threatened to give it to someone else. I apologized, saying that it was my
birthday, and I didn't want to be suckered on what could be a fun evening. She
understood my concern, wished me Happy Birthday, and introduced me to her
granddaughter, who would be niece of the manager. That's how she acquired her
pass. Someone didn't show, and she wanted to hook up someone. My chance was
the work of God: plain and simple!
Thinking of my brother, I asked her for another pass, but she didn't have one.
So I put my pass in my pocket, and asked to see him so I can get something(I
had a li'l something for Kevin) to bring. The said to hurry, for it could be
any minute. I ran outside, screamed for my brother, and told him of my
situation. He was bummed that he couldn't go back and meet AJ(he's in awe of
his voice), but my friend gave me a poster book and her camera. The people
watching us heard us and was muttering about my luck, which scared me cuz I
didn't want to be trampled by 60 13 yr. olds for my pass. So I went in, with
my brother and everyone looking through the window. Someone says inside with
me, "Look, AJ's mother!" I lip-serviced the same message to my friends and
they were excited for me. I tried to keep my composure.
What was I thinking? "It shouldn't be me!" It should be my brother. It should
be Missy or Leia(my 2 friends), one of the girls I talked to, ANY girl. Why
me? I know they are big in Europe-VERY big. Girls from Germany came to see
them in concert here. I knew my position. But the BSB are people, like you and
me, so what's the fuss? Maybe I'll set a precedent as someone who will respect
them as they want to be respected: for their talent. Not that no one respects
their talent, but from what I read, they don't like it when a girl says, "I
love you!" to them. The fans don't know them that intimately. All we really
know about them is their music. And that was what I was going to stick to-that
and I don't have a crush on them for the obvious reason: my heart belongs to
Tyra Banks.
We are escorted by security up a long handicap ramp to a door on our left-hand
side. At the door was Ms. McLean. At the end of the ramp is a short flight of
stairs to a pair of double doors at the other side of the room. These doors
opened, and it was them...three of them.
AJ was the first.(hold on-gotta get the pictures). He had red hair, his
multiple peircings, and yellow tinted goggles ornamenting his forehead. He was
head to toe in light blue activewear-very casual. Behind him was Howie in dark
pants, and a white short-sleeve "Nike Soccer" shirt. People were watching them
kiss AJ's mom, so no one noticed B-Rok creeping up the stairs. When he hit the
top, everyone was like "Oh, B-Rok! He's alright(after heart surgery)". He
raises his eyebrows as his salutation to his fans and goes inside.
Then Kev walks through the doors. He has a fisherman's hat on, a navy-blue
Nike shirt(I have the same one), black shorts, and slippers. He looked quite
business-minded, like "let's get this part of the evening started." Almost
business-like. I wasn't going to let it be like that. He was going to have my
gift and loosen up. That was my goal, so I could stay level-headed. Because
the goal was Kevin-centered, I felt I should write to this page, not just from
a live Point of View, but from a guy's Point of View-takes away the bias of
them being cute, and I can't romanticize the situation, totally eliminating
the realistic aspect. But that's not giving you girls enough credit, so sorry
in advance if I offended anyone. Anyway, he was not as tall as I pictured him
to be. Then again, I'm taller than Brian-which I found funny. Not so larger-
than-life when you meet them. They're "people-sized." Then...the one I hated,
my enemy has arrived. Nick walks up the stairs and says, "Hey" to the line and
walks inside. I rolled my eyes to the line behind me(I was fourth in line),
and all the girls were huddled up, "Ohmigod, Nick!" they mumbled. "Well,
that's their thing," I rationalized. It doesn't mean he's evil or something.
We were then told to go inside. I went, but not without some brownie-points.
As I walked passed Ms. McLean, I asked "Can I give the young lady a kiss,
too?" She smiled and said, "Of course, I never miss a chance to be kissed by a
young man." She definitely felt like a mom. She was too cool. I kissed her
cheek and went in the room.
After the BSB did the pictures and the Meet-&-Greet with the contest winners,
they went around the room talking to the other guests, Kev was the first on
the right. I had to keep to my goal. Brian was on my left, and dropped a
letter. I tested my conversation skills. "Excuse me, Mr. Litrell? You dropped
this." D'oh, what an idiot I was. "Mr. Litrell?" C'mon. Loosen up. He grabs it
from my hand. "Yup, it has my name on it." He smiles, and turns around. OK, if
he's comfortable, I should be, too. So I see Ms. McLean again. I ask her for a
picture with me, to which she happily agreed to. A girl to my left takes my
friend's camera and takes the picture. As we finish, AJ comes up and talks to
his mom. New photo-op: son with his mother.
"AJ!" I blurted out. "Yeah?" he asks. I had to come up with something sweet;
buttkissing, kinda. "Can I get a picture with you and your younger, attractive
sister?" AJ's mom laughs, saying, "I LOVE this guy." "Yeah, you're cool, man,"
AJ says. I was so flattered that they respected my kindness. I try to act that
way normally, but they acknowledged it, which took me back. I took the
picture, and let me say, this is the DEFINING pic for any AJ fan. I blew it up
today on the scanner, and I made it a page big. Let me tell you, this pic is a
must see. Hopefully this letter will be followed by pics shortly. I can't
believe how perfect this shot is. One person I showed it to almost cried when
they saw it.
Then Kev showed up on my right. Let the games begin. "Hey, how's it goin'?" he
asked. He has a hard stare. Not intentionally, but he looked at me like he's
the father of the daughter I'm taking out on a date. It made me edgy. "I'm
good, you?" Then and there I picked up the poster book(I have to scan that,
too). "Can you sign this?" "Sure," he says. "Make it our to 'Jr,'" I say.
"Jr.?" He mutters and looks at me, asking assuming that I'm the Jr. in
question. "OK" He does the autograph. Then my letter comes at him. "What's
this?" he wonders.
"This is for you. In it is a letter for you because I was going to give it to
one of the DJs, but as it works out, I'm talking to you, so..." He opens the
letter, and his eyes widen. He saw all the $20 bills in the envelope. "What
the..." He was confused. I asked him if he had started the charity in his
father's name yet. He replied with a no. That made my eyes widen. "Oh, I
thought you did, well, take it anyway. It's $300.00. That's all I could save
up." Kevin's eyes actually started to tear up, but only after mine(whoops,
getting sappy here, but consider yourselves warned). "No, no...I can't take
this. Here..." he begs. "NO. Let me explain myself. In the summer of '96 I
went to Portugal, and though I considered it a crummy trip, three things
happened: I met my only grandparent, my grandpa(who looked like my dad :) ),
my father didn't have to work night and day to support my family and was
"happy" and smiled for a change, and I was first introduced to your music.
Well, that following winter, my father suffered a stroke, and the next March,
my grandpa died(though I finally met him). In the last month I attended two
funerals: a classmate from grammar school who died in a car accident and my
friend's father who had kidney failure, among other things. My boss's first
husband and another co-worker's father both died of colon Cancer. All this was
in the letter." In the corner of my eye, I could see AJ overhearing my plea
and he came over to listen in. "You can use your celebrity to give others, if
anything, awareness of these things, and you have the ability to use your
celebrity as a venue to spread your message. So now it's our birthday, and..."
"Happy Birthday" Kevin wishes.
I explain how my brother and I are 20 today and AJ makes a funny face-"20,
like MEEEE!!!" I said how Augie wanted to meet AJ, and naturally he wonders
where he is. "Outside". Then Kev goes "So how did you get back here?" Oops. I
said how "she" hooked me up. I point to her. AJ sees that with the little
girl is a brown haired woman and a gray-haired woman, who, unbeknownst to AJ,
was his aunt-his mom had to tell him later on.
"So anyway, this is for you. If you don't have anything put together yet,
then..." I look at AJ, who smiles at my perplexity. "...then get him(AJ) some
shades," I tell Kev. "Well, that was really nice of you. Thanks so much."
Kevin gives his arm out for a hi-five/handshake and we did a handshake-into-a-
hug kinda thing. "Hey, AJ, wanna pose with us for a picture?" Kev asks. AJ
obliges, and as the pics were being taken, Howie kneels down at my poster book
and asks if it's mine. I say yes and ask him to sign at the headshot. He
didn't but that was a good thing; there was no room without ruining the shot.
AJ grabs the book. "I'll sign-show me where" I point to the page and he makes
it out to my bro Augie, "Happy B-Day. AJ" That was cool.
Then B-Rok came by. "Thanks for the letter," he says. "Not for long" I reply.
I pull out two more letters, and he's like, "cool". "Wanna pose for a
picture?" he asks me. I'm like, "Me?" He mentions correctly that I'm the one
with the camera, so we take the picture, and he makes the autograph out to
"Missy". She lost her breath when I showed her it.
A minute goes by, and I'm playing with the camera, not knowing how many pics
are left, and I hear a voice say "Hey, how's it going?" Comedically, I look up
slowly only to see a striped shirt, then a hand sticking out for a handshake
and the smile and the blonde hair...NICK! I was not to be swayed. "I'm good.
You?" I respond. "I'm fine..." he says. "...it should be a fun night." He was
being so nice, so I apologize, "Sorry guys just write your group off without
giving you a chance." "Awwww, that's alright" he assures me. "NO, THAT'S NOT
ALRIGHT! And I can't wait until they hear your new single 'I'll Never Break
Your Heart'(in the USA, it's the new single, *and* new updated video(!)) and
you'll win them over with your talent!" "Where did that come from?" I thought.
Nick I think had the exact same question on his mind. It certainly looked that
way on his face. It was so funny. He says "...thanks...wow...want to take a
picture?" I laughed and we took the picture. Then he made his autograph out to
Missy's little sister, Lisa, and thank God I remembered her name-I guessed it
not knowing what it was. He thanked me for the kind words and off he went. I
have a whole new respect for him!
I turn around and Howie is just standing there. I asked him for a picture and
he was happy to do it. I got all five! Then Brian was by himself and I asked
him about his heart. "You must do a lot of cardiovascular exercise during the
concert. Is your heart giving you any problems(Kev was with Bri, btw)?" He
explained, "Well, when I got out of the hospital, we had to get back on the
routine we have. The guys are, like, 'Let's go!' and they hopped on the
machines. I couldn't be on them for 5 minutes! And I was tired! But as you
will see tonight, I have made a full recovery." Kev pulls Brian away to get
the group together, but not without thanking me again, which was nice of him.
I talked to AJ's mom again and she was telling me AJ's life story, and he
pulls her away, and we had to be escorted to our seats.
The concert was good. Aaron was embarrassing to watch. He tripped and fell on
the paper wall he jumped through, and picture this: A ten year old kid with
over-sized clothes doing muffled dance moves, due to his wardrobe, and two
guys over twice his age dancing with him. Too weird. Than S.O.A.P. came out
and kicked MAJOR butt. The older one is gorgeous. The music was great. Jimmy
Ray was the next act, then BSB came out. The concert ran late, which was good.
Kev did "Nobody But You", AJ did "Lay Down Beside Me", and so on(each did a
song by themselves). The final act was "Everybody(Backstreet's Back)".
The concert was fun, but moreso cuz I met them. The were as grounded as they
say, not a snotty one among them-a real sense of family. Then every car left,
blasting their music. My brother and I met all of these pretty girls, a
definite PLUS for guys to go to these concerts. Girls wanted the poster book,
and one girl even wanted my used Meet-and-Greet pass for $55, $25 more than
what I paid for it. I kept it, doing us both a favor. I saw a girl from my old
high school there who LOVES Nick, and when she found out I met them, she
almost fainted. I have 15 girls who want my pictures, and many wished my
brother and me Happy Birthday! Girls would be in their cars:"We love the
Backstreet Boys!!!!" Aug would open the book to Nick's autograph: "I MET THE
BACKSTREET BOYS!!!!" They would beg me for the book. "AJ wrote Happy B-DAY for
my bro in it" we'd tell them. "Oh, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" They would scream. It was
one of the best days of my life, and I'd like to thank the BSB, but especially
the girls for making it enjoyable for us. This is why I'm sharing this story-
thanks, ladies!
Jr. Pires
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I'm 20 yrs old.
I'm from Waterbury, CT. USA
"Our Birthday?" askes AJ.
P.S - I would love to get a feedback! If you'd like to, email me (Jr) at ainohi@aol.com!
this Kevvy site exists