Source:Starshine Magazine
Cover Story Backstreet's Back Alright!! Howie Dorough assured us of that
while he took a couple of days off of recording with the group to host a
fundraiser for his charity, the Dorough Lupus Foundation. We brought back
pictures, audio and all of the Sweet Details of Howie's visit to New York
City!
Random Facts Howie Dorough fills out StarShine's random fact sheet and find
out how you can win it!
One being the obvious...our cover man, Howie Dorough. As some of you know, I
am a BSB fan and was very honored to be able to interview Howie. I want to
give a BIG shoutout to Pollyanna Dorough for making it possible as well as
everyone else at the DLF.
Howie Takes a Backstreet Break for Charity!
With a smile and a wink, there is no way to describe Backstreet Boy, Howie
Dorough other than his already given identity of "Sweet D". The brown-eyed
heartthrob took a couple of days off from recording with the group to make a
brief stop in New York City this past February. It wasn't for rest and
relaxation though, but it was for something very personal to him: the
Dorough Lupus Foundation. The foundation, abbreviated as the DLF, was
started by Howie and the rest of the Dorough family in memory of his sister,
Caroline who succumbed to the disease in 1998. Since then, the DLF has
raised awareness and a bundle of money to help fight lupus and help other
families dealing with it.
The event that took place on that cold winter's day in February was an
intimate one where ticket buyers spent the day with Howie as well as his
sister and chairperson of the DLF, Angie. Despite the chill of New York,
Howie was excited about the day's events when StarShine caught up with him
at Planet Hollywood. "I took the red-eye in from LA last night. Got here
this morning. Had a couple of hours of sleep and I'm up and at it." Howie
says in good spirits even though his schedule was a hectic one, including TV
appearances that morning, an auction and a Broadway show that night before
his early morning flight the next day.
Howie was definitely a good sport about it all. Not only was he more than
happy to do anything for his charity, but he was willing to make it
worthwhile for both fans and press that attended the event. In fact,
StarShine had to insist Howie ate lunch before our interview. Howie felt bad
making us wait. It's rare a celebrity ever cares about someone else's
schedule, so that was a shock and a nice one at that.
After the press was taken care of, Howie had some time to finish up lunch
with his sister and crew before the madness started. Anyone who's been in a
500 foot radius of Backstreet Boys fans know exactly what I mean by madness.
Girls screeched, well, actually there seemed to be more women than teenagers
screaming as if it were a Chippendale's event. It appears the group did just
what critics said wouldn't happen -- their fans didn't outgrow BSB, they
grew with them.
The auction started and Howie was a mixture of bashful, flattered and loving
the attention. Requests were screamed as he modeled jerseys, jackets and
shirts to be won off his back and autographed. "Dance!" "Sing!" "Take it
off!" Did Howie comply? Yes, with a pelvic thrust, an a cappella version of
"All I Have To Give" and as for taking it off, well, he stripped down to a
t-shirt, but that's as far as it went. Fans spent hundreds of dollars on
autographed merchandise and special phone calls from Howie. How they afford
it, we have no idea, but hey, it's for a worthy cause.
With the many events and experiences Howie's had since starting the Dorough
Lupus Foundation, StarShine asked him what is the most memorable to him. He
admits it was hard to choose, but starting a lupus support group and having
their first anniversary recently definitely stands out. "It was a dream of
my mom's to have a support group like this for other families out there to
provide a good healthy environment for people to come to in Orlando." Howie
explains. The support group meets once a month with different speakers to
educate everyone.
All and all, Howie seemed to enjoy his break from the studio and had a great
turnout, but he was also happy to get back to his music. "It feels great."
Howie says about being back as a group. "I'm very excited with the material
we have gotten done and I'm looking forward to the material that's going to
be coming out as well." Howie says the Backstreet Boys sound has matured
since during their break, of course the group has had different experiences
separately. So we had to ask, is it hard to come together as a whole again?
"It feels like we're back on a bicycle again and you never forget." Howie
describes. That's good to hear because it's evident that fans, though they
supported their individual projects fell in love with them first as a group
and you never forget your first love.
"Having the break off, I think was good." Howie says, though speculation was
made about the group breaking up. "It gave us a chance to get some hunger in
ourselves to come out there once again to do it. We came off a ten year
nonstop schedule." He continues to explain the situation and demand BSB were
under. "I think in order to maintain a healthy career like the Eagles and
Aerosmith, you need a little break. Just to live life and to experience
stuff, even to write music. I mean I've been writing a lot of stuff now that
I've had a chance to experience in the last two years. It's only helping us
in the long run." Howie finishes with confidence. StarShine couldn't agree
more. We expressed the voice of the fans and the worry we had experienced
from them. I myself had told the fans on occasion the group deserved a break
and Howie joked, "We're only human." Howie said he hopes the fans had also
developed a "hunger" for the Backstreet Boys again since he says in the past
their audience had been "bombarded" with their music as he put it. With
great albums like Millennium and Black & Blue, it was no punishment,
however.
So how does the new BSB material compare to the old style? "The music style
is changing a little bit, so we're going to have to obviously go with the
change, but I don't think we're going to stray too far from where we were."
Howie says, though he admits they're still experimenting at this point.
"We're just going in the studio trying to create good music and just see
what comes out of it."
With the group back in full swing, where does that leave solo albums and
other individual projects? "We decided to make a new record, that's a full
process within itself. In order to do it properly, we had to put our
individual projects on the side." Howie says. "Each of us are still working
on it during the down time and the weekends and stuff when we have off, but
obviously Backstreet has to come first right now. I think when the timing is
right, we're going to try to get out and hopefully release our stuff
individually as well." He concludes.
As StarShine wrapped up our interview, we had to let Howie know just how
much influence Backstreet Boys have in this industry. In fact, one of my
first articles in high school was written about the group and being a fan
myself, I was inspired to follow my dreams in this field just by seeing how
much they achieved. Howie was flattered, but joked about it. "Man, I feel
old." Of course, we couldn't say goodbye to Howie without getting the rest
of his fans a message from him.
"I just want to say thank you to the fans for actually sticking behind us
during this time that we had off and not losing the Backstreet pride.
Keeping it alive and thank you as well to each of them for not only
supporting us in our group work, but also for our individual endeavors.
Whether it's music or it's acting or it's Broadway, our foundation work...I
think we have some of the best fans in the world. They're Larger Than Life
as the song says. They keep us thriving to do more and more. It's because of
them that we're out here doing a record again." Howie says with the utmost
gratitude. That record that Howie credits to you is expected to be out this
July, he hopes and the group plans to do a world tour this September. Is
anyone else looking forward to the summer time because of five more amazing
reasons?
We're introducing a brand new type of fact sheet to our StarShine stars.
This one is longer, more humorous and of course completely random. One thing
that stays the same from our original fact sheet is, you still get a chance
to win the handwritten one!
Our first victim for the new fact sheet was none other than this issue's
cover story, Howie Dorough. Get to know him a little more personally right
now...
YAY or NAY:
Reality TV? Nay
Underwear? Yay
Body Piercings? Yay/Nay (Howie had his ears pierced, so he's not completely
against piercings.)
FAVORITE...
Movie: "The Outsiders"
TV Show: TRL
Actor: Tom Hanks
Actress: Whoopi Goldberg
Song: "Unchained Melody"
Music Artist: Boyz II Men
THIS or THAT
McJagger or Steven Tyler? Steven Tyler
Madonna or Mariah? Mariah
LA or NY? Both
Sponge Bob or Jimmy Neutron? Jimmy Neutron
BEFORE YOU WERE A ROCK STAR...
Favorite Toy: Karaoke Machine
Favorite Hangout: Zuma Beach Club (which is now turned into Tabu, a club
Howie co-owns.)
Age Stopped Wetting the Bed: "Still"
The Last Thing You Were Punished Over: "Not giving my mom a hello kiss."
TELL ALL!Grossest Habit: None
Most Embarrassing Moment: "Mess up the Star Spangle Banner at a high school
basketball game."
First Kiss: "12 years old--yeah!!!"
Celebrity Crush: Alyssa Milano
If you could be anyone else, you'd be: Tom Cruise
�Howie Dorough Contest!�
1. StarShine is giving you the chance to own this exclusive autographed fact
sheet which includes all of the information shown in the previous column and
includes Howie's autograph and a picture he drew.
Here's how you can win!
Tell StarShine how Howie and his charity work touched your life!
Entries should be no longer than 2 typed pages.
Along with your entry, send your first + last name, age, city, state and
mailing address to:
[email protected]
Entries must be received on or before May 5th.
This contest is supported by StarShine Magazine and no other companies. All
entries will be judged by the StarShine Magazine staff. Only one entry per
person. All personal information submitted is private and is only for use of
this contest. One winner will be selected based on content of entry to win
the original StarShine Official Handwritten Random Fact Sheet autographed by
Howie Dorough. The winner will be notified by e-mail and must be subscribed
to the magazine at the close of the contest. StarShine Magazine reserves the
right to change the rules of the contest and all entries will be notified of
the changes if the case may be.