Backstreet’s back (alright)
’90s heartthrobs hit the road with families in tow in career second coming
Backstreet Boys member Howie Dorough calls it “the second coming” of the biggest-selling boy band in the world that already boasts 130 million album sales worldwide.
The’90svocalgrouphasa new disc, DNA, just released, that was preceded by a 2019 Grammy-nominated first single, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. Its biggest world tour in 18 years includes seven Canadian arena dates in July.
The quintet’s Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood is also still going strong with more dates this year.
But given the five members of Backstreet Boys are now all in their late 30s to mid-40s and married with kids, shouldn’t we really be calling them Backstreet Men by now?
“Like Backstreet Old Men, you think?” Dorough joked in this interview.
At 45, he’s the second-oldest in the group rounded out by Nick Carter (38), AJ McLean (41), Brian Littrell (43) and Kevin Richardson (47).
Q So, are you still a “boy band?” A
We’re still being called a boy band. If anything, we’ve embraced it over these years. The fact that we’re still being included in that category, we’re tinkled pink. In the early years, when we decided to name ourselves the Backstreet Boys, the name was never something that we thought in the future (we would) have to rebrand or rethink. Boys to us wasn’t an age. It was more like saying, ‘We’re buds.’ At the time there was the Beastie Boys, the Pet Shop Boys, the Oakridge Boys, the Beach Boys, and they never had to change their names. So why do we?
Q Your video for the latest single, No Place, shows all the Backstreet Boys at home with their families. Why did you decide to share such intimate moments? A
We embrace what the fans want. And they want to know what our lives are like outside of just performing music. In other words, just real people. And this video was just a very easy way to show that, our family, our family life and our homes.
Q And your family was cool with it? A
At first, my wife (Leigh) was like, ‘Argh, I got to be on camera?’ But she embraced it. My kids, they’re a bunch of hams. My (nine-year-old) son James, he’s already got a YouTube page of his own, so he’s out there, James The Great. He’s shown my house to everybody before I’ve even shown my house. His little videos. He’s a little ham. He loves it. I think he’s got the bug. The second one (five-year-old Holden) has got it as well, wants to be a performer. He’s done musical theatre at school and he has classes and voice lessons with my sister. He’s a singer as well.
Q So we could see the boys of the Backstreet Boys performing one day? A.
Kevin and I, we have two each and they’re right around the same age so you never know. It could be another Backstreet Boys, Part Two, down the line somewhere.
Q Will your families also come out on the road? A
It’s like National Lampoon’s Griswold Vacation. When we’re back home in the States and Canada, we all have our (own tour) bus and the kids come with us and we truly make a vacation out of it. I feel it’s the best education they could ever ask for in the world. My eldest son, if he doesn’t see the tour bus for more than a couple of years, he’ll ask, ‘Dad, what is going on? Are you OK?’ It becomes our little home away from home. They have a bedroom in the back and bunks and the kids, you would think they are going to Disney World, they’re so excited about it.
Q Could you have imagined when you guys started in 1993 that you’d still be at this in 2019? A
Every day blows my mind. We took it day by day and we’re still taking it day by day and trying to live in the moment and to have us have almost what I’d call ‘a second coming,’ or a comeback, to me is amazing. How many artists are able to say, you now, 25 years (in), now this is the time in our career when we’re hit- ting our stride again. All the love we’ve had from radio and putting our tour on sale, it almost being sold out in a couple of months, doing arenas again.
Q Is the tour selling well in Canada? A
Toronto and Montreal I think have already sold out, so now we’re trying to think, ‘When can we come back and do a second leg in some places?’ Canada has been amazing. America wouldn’t even be possible if Canada hadn’t embraced us (in the first place).
Q (SPOILER ALERT) I loved your cameo at the very end of Canadian Seth Rogen’s 2013 black comedy This is the End. Did you all say yes right away? A
We were all fans of (his), movies for like the last 10 years. We were like, ‘OK, what’s going to happen. Are we getting punked? Are we going to be made fun of?’ And we’re obviously able to poke fun at ourselves if it’s done in good taste and so we read the script and went, ‘Wow, we got the star cameo and twice in the movie. The song Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) at the very beginning and the song at the very end and to be in heaven with all of them.
Q What did Rogen tell you when you were on set? A
Seth was like, ‘We were forever trying to figure out how to come up with the ending of the movie.’ And he said it was his wife who said, ‘Why don’t you bring the Backstreet Boys out?’ He said him and (co-star) Jay (Baruchel), ‘We’re huge fans of you guys.’ And we’re like, ‘You are?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah.’ We didn’t realize they were both from Canada. And they were like, ‘We grew up listening to you guys and we totally love your music.’ And they were totally down to learn the choreography and everything.