The boys are back
Appeal of Backstreet Boys like new disc - 'Never Gone"
Source: mcall.com
By John J. Moser
With the release of their first studio album in nearly five years and on their first tour in more than three, the Backstreet Boys � that late '90s phenomenal boy band that sold more than 35 million albums and had 12 Top 40 hits � are back.
But back playing to whom? When last we saw Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, A.J. McLean and Kevin Richardson, they were playing to sold-out stadiums of swooning, screaming teenyboppers who, oh these years later, now are young women.
But the Boys � men, really, at ages 25 to 33, some married and fathers � are still their darlings.
The new album, ''Never Gone'' (Jive Records) and its first single, ''Incomplete,'' have topped the Billboard charts, especially adult contemporary singles, where it's still rising after 14 weeks.
And now the boys are selling out arena-size venues on a tour that started Friday and brings them to Atlantic City next Friday, HersheyPark on Aug. 12 and Camden, N.J., on Aug. 13.
''When we were recording the disc, our record company was not sure really who our fan base was,'' Richardson says in a recent group telephone interview. ''We didn't make it for any particular demographic. We've never gone into the recording process with an attitude that we were going to make it for a particular demographic.''
But when the group did a ''comeback'' club tour early this year, ''it kind of revealed our fan base and we did see a lot of the familiar faces that we recognized from the past,'' Richardson says.
''So we feel like we've hung on to a lot of our fans, but at the same time, we noticed that there were some young kids out there that when we took our break could've only been about 8 years old. So we feel like we're gaining some new fans. ... We saw high school students, we saw college students, we saw parents with their children, and we even saw some grandparents.''
The ''break'' that Richardson spoke of was the group's time apart after breaking sales records starting in 1997 with two albums � ''Backsteet Boys'' and ''Millennium'' � that sold 13 million copies each with the hits ''Quit Playing Games (With My Heart),'' ''Everybody (Backstreet's Back),'' ''Shape of My Heart,'' ''Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely'' and ''I Want It That Way.''
''Black and Blue'' in 2000 sold 8 million copies, but the boy-band fad was fading, and a greatest hits album in 2001 just went platinum.
''I believe we thought, you know, we just really wanted to � we needed to � take some time to ourselves on the break,'' Carter says. ''I mean, we'd been on eight years of touring non-stop over in Europe and all around the world, four albums and, you know, it was just time to take a break.''
Littrell recorded a Christian album, married, and became a father, while Richardson did ''Chicago'' on Broadway. But McLean, who had struggled with substance abuse and even delayed the group's ''Black and Blue'' tour by checking into rehab, relapsed and again spent in-patient time.
Carter, who used the time to release a solo record and tour, also has substance trouble: a March drunken-driving arrest got him sentenced last month to a three-month alcohol treatment program that he will start after the tour.
Despite being apart, members say they always expected to reunite.
''When I would come out of the [Broadway] theater, there would be lots of fans there and I would sign autographs, and the question was, 'Are you guys broken up? And if not, then, when's the new album?''' Richardson says.
''And I would say, 'No, we haven't broken up. We're just taking a well-needed break, and when the time is right, we will get back together.' But that did seem to be the question on all the fans' minds.''
The opportunity came when McLean appeared on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' to talk about his addictions and sobriety. The others decided to surprise him by showing up to support him, and began talking about working again.
''The feeling was just there again,'' Carter says. ''It was like, 'Hey, how do you feel, guys, and how do you feel about the music that's out there right now?' And to me, I find the fun is back and the adventure is back in it again.''
Still, the band says they were unsure of the music they would make and how it would be received.
''Everything moves pretty quickly in the music industry, in the entertainment industry,'' Richardson says. ''It's always about what's new, what's next, what's going on. Whenever you take a break like we did, especially for as long as we did, there's always a risk that when you're out of sight, you're out of mind.''
The band recorded more than 50 songs for the 12-track disc and took 11/2 years to record it, ''and then we let the direction of the album kind of reveal itself on its own just by recording and writing a bunch of different tracks, and working with a bunch of producers that we hadn't worked with before,'' Richardson says.
''Our goals were, we're going to give a 100 percent, we're going to make the best record that we can, and just trust and hope that we'll have our fans there and people will still miss us and want to hear us.''
The title of ''Never Gone'' conjures images of a defiant return, but the album actually is a mellow, more mature and personal disc. And Richardson says the title song, which he wrote, actually refers to the loss of his father.
Carter calls ''Never Gone'' the band's ''favorite album to date.'' And now that the group is resuming touring, ''it's like a dream come true still.''
Members say that after the current tour, they expect to ''always give each other the room to do individual things,'' but expect to work together again, Richardson says.
''As far as how long Backstreet will be together, I mean, we're going to take it day by day, album by album,'' he says. ''And who knows? We may be like the Eagles or the Beach Boys or the Rolling Stones and the Temptations � still doing shows somewhere in our 50s.''