At one point in time The Backstreet Boys were arguably the biggest band on the planet. Thousands of infatuated women and gay men flocked to concerts and bought albums, leading to 10 top ten singles in Canada. Like them or not, they were a big part of pop culture.
They may not be selling out 50,000 seat stadiums anymore, but The Backstreet Boys are survivors. Both AJ Mclean and Nick Carter have had stints in rehab, original member Kevin Richardson left the band in 2006, and they have all had their own struggles professionally and personally. They released This Is Us in October 2009. O-Town, 98 Degrees, and *NSYNC are no longer together, leaving BSB as the last boys standing from that era.
“I guess everyone else has quit, you know? We don’t quit. We are all highly competitive people that believe that what we did and what we want to do will happen. That is what makes the difference. Everyone else didn’t believe in what they did, and we do completely 100% believe it. We love the music that we are doing,” Nick Carter told GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine.
I chatted with Carter on a rare day off, in the midst of their current tour which brings them to the Saddledome in Calgary August 8th and Edmonton’s Rexall Place August 9th - four-packs of tickets are just $99! There was a time when a Backstreet Boys concert was a spectacle: hoverboards, pyrotechnics, meteor showers, giant walkways through the audience. The most recent tours – Unbreakable in 2008 and Never Gone in 2005 - saw the shows a little stripped down. According to Carter, the current tour is a return to the spectacle that made their concerts so much fun in the past.
“We want to get it back to a production where it is really entertaining. We stepped this one up and made the production a lot better. We have brought four dancers out and you can tell by people’s faces that they are in shock. With the economy, everything that has been going on and people not coming to Backstreet Boys shows the way they used to, and the backlash and all that stuff - now that it is gone people are coming back and seeing one hell of a show, even better than before.”
The connection with the audience is what has kept the boys alive. On the Never Gone tour, Carter actually went into the audience to shake hands and high five fans, much to security’s dismay.
“This show is eye catching, that is what it is all about now. We wanted to step it up to where we don’t just have to wave and go in the audience to do something. People are paying to see a show and be entertained, that is our job to be entertaining. The relationship with the fans is a natural part of what we do. We make them feel like we know them and they know us.”
With 8 albums under their belt another challenge is in balancing out their set list between songs going back to their 1996 debut, and promoting their current album This Is Us.
“It is challenging. We definitely have to make sure we don’t become one of those artists that perform for themselves and forget about the stuff that people love. We have to put our hits in there, we just do. A majority of them everyone has heard and it takes people back. There is a definite mixture with the old stuff which fits really well with the new stuff. We have a DJ and four dancers, it is just highly entertaining and gives people what they want.”
Carter was excited to bring the tour to Canada, whose support helped launch the Backstreet Boys career in 1996.
“[Canadians] are the most dedicated. Since the beginning of our career they have been there and don’t let go, they keep coming back. They don’t discriminate or pay attention to outsiders’ opinions, we are not a fad up there…it is dedicated fans. At the end of the day we have to still continue to deliver great music that they love. I think that we do that. …I am getting ready to go up there and start doing some recording for a solo record with some Canadian writers.”
It is hard to believe that the “kid” of the band is now 30 years old. Carter admits that, even though he is an “adult” now, he still has his youthful side, part of what made him one of the most popular boys.
“It is something that you have to deal with, you know? But then I don’t deal with it, I still have the mentality that I am having fun. I do have to handle responsibility as an adult but at the same time when it comes to being creative, there are no boundaries. That is what is great about the energy of the business. That mentality has people go, how old are you again? I am 30 but I don’t look it, and it is all in your head. I try to bring youthfulness to the group because it is who I am. I am here to have fun.”
Despite the ups and downs of the past 18 years, Carter remains close to his band mates McLean, Howie Dorough and Brian Littrell.
“The relationship is really good, it is like a family. When we leave each other for a month or so we want to get back to each other. If we are not on tour we find ways to hang out with each other. We have a great relationship, they have become my extended real family in a way.”
The Backstreet Boys have received their share of criticism, but some of it is simply petty. “They are a bunch of fags” is a description thrown frequently at the band since it began. Even the gay community itself seemed to wait patiently for one of them to admit they were gay. It’s been with some disappointment that every boy has gotten engaged, married, or had high profile girlfriends. Still, the band appreciates the gay fan base, to the point where they made an appearance at San Francisco Pride on June 27th, 2010.
“It was a lot of fun. We were the Grand Marshals of the parade. People were just so happy and it was a beautiful day. I remember seeing the support in the city, which was extraordinary. It showed how important it was to everyone and we were there to help make a statement as well.”
Having dealt with homophobia as much as any straight guy really could, Carter professed his respect and love for the gay men in the audience who screamed and sang along just as loudly as any woman, and who have been just as loyal in their support of The Backstreet Boys.
“Honestly we embrace it and love it. We share a lot of things in common from a beautiful side to the human side of things. One thing that we share in common with gays is that we do music that only certain people out there, very special people, relate to and want to listen to.
“We have had people discriminate against us in the past 15 years that has nothing to do with the music, and has to do with the image and what we are associated with. That is fine, whatever. …We don’t really care. In the same way that people don’t care, they are gay and want to be, that is the same place where we are at, where we stand: staying true to yourself, lasting, staying honorable and staying who you are for a long enough period of time - it breaks down barriers. Eventually people stop caring. At the end of the day it is just music and we are just people, that is the common respect and bond here.”