Backstreet Boys Get Candid! Who’s Coaching Baseball, How They Keep Dancing and the Need for ‘Fancy Bodyguards’ (Exclusive)

The year was 1999. Everyone on the planet was about to embrace a brand-new millennium, including Nick Carter, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough. Though the Backstreet Boys had found success in Europe, releasing a new album in the U.S. ahead of the new year came with a lot of pressure, but it would ultimately change their lives.

“Millennium was our sophomore album in the United States, but our third album pretty much everywhere else in the world,” Richardson, 53, exclusively tells Parade. “We had a lot looming over us. We didn’t really feel it too hard, but we knew it was there: the Sophomore Slump. How [are] you guys going to do it? Are you going to be successful?”

Carter, now 45, was the youngest member in the band at 19 years old when the album dropped on May 18, 1999, but he remembers how captivated the world was with pop culture heading into the 21st century.

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“Y2K, and pop music was at its height: Britney Spears, *NSYNC, all these other kinds of bands that were out at the time,” he begins. “It was special because TRL [MTV’s Total Request Live] and all the shows we were doing, the award shows that we were on, everyone was performing and singing live and dancing. It was just a really, really good time.”

If you’d asked Carter in 1993, when the Backstreet Boys were formed, whether they’d still be making new music together and performing in sold-out shows all these years later, the answer would’ve been simple.

“We hoped,” he says with a smile. “We always aspired to have a career, and we love what we do. [Our career] seems to be album to album, song to song.”

It’s been over six years since BSB’s Larger Than Life Vegas residency concluded at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in 2019, and Backstreet’s back yet again. Over 25 years since Millennium sent shockwaves through pop music’s radio airwaves, the guys are reliving the magic with a new song called “Hey” on their re-released album Millennium 2.0 as well as another Sin City residency, Into the Millennium, at Sphere (July 11 through Aug. 24). 

“Planet Hollywood was our first residency, and we were so honored,” Dorough, 51, shares. “For us to come to Vegas was amazing the first time. And so for us to think about coming back to Vegas, there was always an underlying thought, like, ‘How do we top what we did before?’ And I don’t think we get any better than doing the Sphere.”

Die-hard fans best be ready because the boys will be performing not only every single song off their No. 1 album Millennium, but many more. Parade sat down with them inside their former dressing room at Planet Hollywood to discuss their most nostalgic memories, getting older, boy band feuds and what it’s like seeing their kids become the next generation of music.

Parade: How did your residency at Sphere come together?

Howie: We give a lot of credit to Kevin with the idea. His oldest son [Mason]’s gonna be graduating this next year, so [it was hard] for him to think about going out on the road and being away from his son that much. But he came to us and said, “What can we do that still makes us able to work, provide for all of our families and celebrate the timing of Millennium?” That’s where the Vegas residency came up, and it’s perfect. 

Nick: We’re always looking forward to what’s next. Sphere was going to elevate our show to this next stratosphere, so to speak, and every single time we get up on the stage, we’re like, “Wow, this is incredible!” 

Fans used to throw their underwear and bras on stage and wait for hours outside your hotel. Times have changed, but your fandom is still there. How will you prepare for something like that happening?

AJ: We have fancy bodyguards! It really hasn’t [changed], to be honest. We still get things thrown on stage, even to this day.

Kevin: They’re just larger — the size has gotten larger. Well… they’re larger than life.

Let’s be honest, guys… You’re not in your 20s anymore! Is age nothing but a number to you?

Brian: For the record, we just finished the DNA World Tour, which was 218 shows in 46 different countries, OK? So you talk about the Backstreet Boys being too old… We’re not too old! We’re not there yet. We’re taking every step, just like Nick said, to move forward because we always think ahead. This is a marathon; this is not a sprint.

When you’re dancing, do you have to adjust your dance moves? Is it frustrating that you might not be able to do certain moves that you could do before? 

Nick: We don’t accept it, and our choreographers don’t accept it either. There is no quit. There’s only 100%. Sometimes we joke, “We need this knee brace.” But when it comes to the show, we get on stage, [and] it’s the same intensity, the same show that we’ve always done — and that is giving 100% to the audience and making sure that they get their money’s worth.

Howie: If anything, we’re probably taking Advil now for the pain the next day instead of the hangovers.

Kevin: We’re using chiropractors, ice, masseuses, cryo, plus taking care of our bodies. Pre and post recovery.

How do you keep your voices sounding so good?

AJ: That’s kind of the nuts and bolts of who we are. We’re a vocal harmony group, and that’s No. 1. Obviously, the dancing and the stage stuff is secondary. But, you know, we all try to take as best care of our voices as we can. Some of us drink herbal teas, [like] Throat Coat. We try to have vocal rest until we absolutely have to sing. Like right now, we’re in production rehearsals. We’re just focusing on getting all the staging right, and then probably in the next day or two, we’re going to start adding in singing and all of that to get our chops back up. Then, in the blink of an eye, it’s going to be opening night. 

Brian, you’ve been open about your vocal diagnosis [vocal tension dysphonia, a condition involving muscle tension around the vocal cords that causes strain and difficulty singing and speaking]. How are you managing it?

Brian: Well, that’s part of it, just managing. I’m seeing a vocal therapist in California, so you know, it’s starting to come out. It’s starting to feel a little more natural. But, yeah, it’s a work in progress. It always will be.

You’ve done a Beach Boys tribute. Do you ever think about who you’d like to see do a tribute to the Backstreet Boys? 

AJ: We’ve never been asked that! There’s been a couple of tribute bands that do us. When we did our Backstreet Boys Cancun trip with all of our fans down in Cancun, there was a tribute band [from South America], and they were incredible. They had our outfits from our residency here in Las Vegas. They knew all the moves. It was a little surreal to watch. They got us down to a science.

Howie: We always get a kick out of when, every so often, it’ll pop up on our Instagrams. Or fans will send us stuff like Ed Sheeran at a bar just, you know, busting out a guitar, doing karaoke. I recently saw Bad Bunny with Jimmy Fallon at a subway station doing a mix of one of our songs and doing [“I Want It That Way”].

Are your kids friends with each other?

Kevin: [Howie’s kids] Holden [and] James and [my kids] Mason and Max will game together. We vacation together. We went up to Alaska together. We’ve gone skiing together. I’d say ours are the closest in age. And Brian, he’s got a man now. And Nick’s got a baseball team.

Nick: My daughter [Saoirse] is 5, my youngest [Pearl] is 4, and my son [Odin] is 9. I did this Instagram video with AJ, and I had to say, “Do you remember Uncle AJ?” because they didn’t. They’re just really young, but when we get to the Sphere, we’re going to have a family room, and [in] that family room, they’re all going to be kicking it together. 

What did everyone think of Brian’s son, Baylee Littrell, on American Idol? Did you guys get a little choked up?

AJ: I was taking my oldest daughter [Elliott] to school, and I was waiting for her to get ready and watching one of the first performances he did, and my wife [Rochelle] turned around, and she’s like, “What’s wrong? Is everything OK?” I was bawling my eyes out, and she’s like, “What’re you watching?” I’m like, “Baylee!” We’ve known Baylee his whole life, so to watch him come from singing with us during soundcheck to opening up for us back in the day to now, having his own career… He’s an incredible songwriter. It’s unbelievable, the level of talent. Obviously, the apple didn’t fall far. Honestly, he did fantastic in my opinion.

Brian, was it your idea for him to do Idol?

Brian: No, it wasn’t actually. To be honest with you, I didn’t want him to do it at first, but they courted him for a couple of years. They were like, “Come and audition,” and he was like, “Nah.” I don’t think he was ready at that time, but he did well. He stepped up. He’s super professional. He’s just a great individual. He’s just a great person. He has a heart of gold, and he’s super talented. So it’s just trying to cultivate that talent, keep him focused, keep him driven. We’ll see what happens, but I appreciate what [AJ] said. Because I get choked up a little bit when I talk about my boy. He’s just [the] most inspiring thing in my life right now. He inspires me more than anything. Top 20 isn’t a bad thing out of 124,000. Let me just take this shameless plug really quick: His first single comes out [July 24]. It’s called “Hey Jesus.” Check that out.

Related: This Backstreet Boy Reveals ‘The Masked Singer’ Keeps ‘Trying’ to Get Him to Do the Show

Has anybody else’s kids caught the singing or acting bug?

AJ: My daughters [Elliott and Lyric] are competitive dancers. Their work ethic is just incredible. They never stop dancing. They both play instruments. My oldest plays guitar. My youngest plays piano. They both sing — and not like singing in the shower. They can sing. They both have great pitch. They’ve turned me on to a bunch of new artists that I never [heard of]. They’re the next generation. 

Nick: When we’re in the car, [Saoirse is] very eclectic with the music that we listen to, so there’s always this fight between all the kids. They need to have their turn. But when we come around to her turn, she’s listening to classic rock. She’s listening to it all, and then I’ll hear her singing on the side, and she’ll just be singing by herself, like in a room or something like that, and she has this vibrato. And I’m like, “How in the world did she get that beautiful vibrato? I don’t know where that came from!” Maybe it’s in them, maybe it’s not. I don’t know. We’re going to have to see.

Nick, you live in Vegas full-time now and coach your son Odin’s Little League team. What is it like doing that with people who probably came to your concert like 15 years ago?

Nick: They all ask me for tickets! [Laughs.] No. I felt like team sports would be really good for him to be active and to have this community of people, so I’ve met a lot of really great parents. I’ll just be showing up…sitting at games with everybody else, just like normal. We all respect each other. We’re sitting there screaming for the kids. I got [to] this point where I’m like, “I think I want to coach.” So now I’m out there co-coaching, with two other fathers who are locals out here, and we’re having a blast. It’s a dream to me. It’s a lot of fun, and the kids kind of listen to us, which is great. I’ve always loved sports.

Is there any chance that maybe when you celebrate 35 or 40 years, you and *NSYNC would share the same stage?

Nick: We’ve talked about it a ton, actually. We’ve had those conversations internally [with] managers. It just hasn’t lined up yet, but we did it with New Kids on the Block, and that was a really great experience for us and the fans because they never thought that it would ever happen. So we’re always thinking of really cool collaborations like that, and it has come up as a conversation.

AJ, at 90s Con, you talked about a fight that happened in Kevin’s apartment between you and Nick. Have there been any other altercations? 

AJ: Of course there’s been more! Listen, we’re like brothers.

Kevin: We all have a lot of testosterone. Well, not as much [as we used to]. We’re getting creative, and then sometimes, we’ll be some place, we might have had a few cocktails, and [there are] some insults. Then you end up rolling around on the floor for a couple minutes.

Nick: The moral of the story is we love each other.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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