BACKSTREET BOYS Bust a Move - BB Dec 99
Even these seasoned songsters, currently covering the country on their "Millennium" tour, have their share of silly onstage slip-ups
It's the moment you've been waiting for: your big solo in the school play. On your way to center stage, you step on the hem of your dress and fall flat on your face. Yikes! What would be more embarrassing? Don't believe us? We here at BB have been watching "Larger Than Life" lovlies since the beginning and have witnessed the flubs and falls pre-dating their 1997 self-titled album. But, now, two albums and a zillion performances later, Backstreet Boys Brian, Kevin, Nick, Howie and A.J. are wowing crowds with dazzling dance moves and super singing as they tour in support of their 1999 album, Millennium. Still, these body-shakin' songsters obliged us when we smooth-talked them into revisiting their most humilitating and humbling moments on stage.
Nineteen-year-old Nick Carter, the baby of the BSB bunch, pondered our proposition and then 'fessed a frightening first. "I play the drums on stage and I was doing a solo with Kevin," explains the blond babe. "My kick drum just totally cut out, and the crowd couldn't hear it, so basically I was just playing the snare drum." The stunned silence of the crowd made this otherwise-outgoing guy want to dash behind the stage and hide!
And why is it that totally blushworthy stuff happens right when everybody is focusing directly on you? Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell, the 24-year-old with the heartmelting grin, definitely knows all about that. But this Kentucky-born cutie understands that experiencing the embarrassment of flubbing up during a performance is all part of the job. "I've kicked off a shoe one afternoon and then I kept going and it was like, 'Oh oh!'" B-Rok remembers. "People slip and fall and things like that on stage, but you gotta keep going."
"What are you singing?!"
Bri's cousin Kevin Richardson agrees. And you can bet that this suave songster has had his share of those days where nothing seems to be going right. "Oh, yeah, all the time," professes the 28-year-old looker. But after spending nearly a decade as a Backstreet Boy, this brown-eyed babe has learned that the key to surviving a mild mishap on stage is to make a quick recovery. "Just laugh it off and jump back in," Kevin confides.
Florida native A.J. McLean has certainly felt the sting of embarassment in front of fans. The 21-year-old talent recalls more than one occasion when, he admits, "I forget the words and I start making up my own words to the song. When all the fans know all the words and you're singing them wrong, they're like, 'What are you singing?!' This is your own song and you don't know the words?'" Easygoing A.J. laughs about his lyrical lapse now, but you can bet that was a scary onstage moment!
When things go awry, the Backstreet Boys can count on team player Howie Dorough to step in, which is great--unless he loses his footing! As the 26-year-old tunester recalls, "We were doing this song called 'Get Down' and we were on a little catwalk stage and right in the middle of the song there's like a rap. A.J. was rapping it, so it was Nicky and I who decided to, you know, go out and all a sudden join him. Nicky didn't realize I was there and he threw up his hands really hard and all of a sudden he knocks me over--I lost my balance and I was right on the edge of him. I was just hanging on like a little door or something!"
"If you stop, it's obvious"
If these fine five have been singing together for so long, how do these mistakes happen? "It's weird," explains cool, calm and collected Kevin. "There are certain times when you're on stage and you don't even think about it and you just--you don't misstep--you just perform it. And then there are other times when you'll be like, 'I want to make sure I don't mess up.' And then those are the times when you mess up when you're thinking about it."
Then again, these seasoned songsters can just, you know, space out sometimes. As smiley-guy Brian admits, "Sometimes we blank out and we just forget. It's tough remembering an hour and a half of routine." No doubt! What with singing and dancing and costume changes, even performance-lovin' A.J. has mess-up moments. "I've just froze a couple of times," he reveals, "but I can play it off pretty well. I'll just start doing something else or doing whatever--just keeping myself moving. If you stop it's obvious, if you keep moving and you kind of catch up and kind of blend back in, nobody's going to know except for you and the guys." And some in-the-know Boppers!