August 20, 2025 • 34 mins
We are backstage at Sphere Las Vegas for Backstreet Boys Into the Millennium! But Becca and Tanya aren’t alone… they’re joined by founding member AJ McLean!
AJ shares all the secrets, like how they make the set list from their countless hits, how his kids react to having a pop star dad, and we ask the big question… where did the name “Backstreet Boys” come from??
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scrubbing In with Becca Tilly and Tanya rad and iHeartRadio
and two times People's Choice Award winning podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello everybody, we are scrubbing it.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
It's tills in ya in the scrubbing In pad nice.
Every time I breathe, I take you in and my
heartbeats again.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Baby yeah, oh, can't help it. Give me jawming in
you love.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
You know you're a true Bactory Boys fan when you
get when you love the deep cuts, you know.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The deep cut, the deep pets is in Like what like,
what's a deep cut?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I mean not just like the hits, the ones that
everybody knows.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Just in my mind, every song that they.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Have was a hit. Yeah, I agree, like I was every.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
When I think about the Backstreet Boys and I think
about the songs I know, or even what you refer
to as the deep cuts.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Was not like I don't think it was. I think
it was like a deep cut, Like I don't think
it was like a song that was drawn. Yeah, but
we also realized we love the call.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
The call.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, that's a thrill thrill.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It gave me thrill vibe.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I have a whole like routine for it. Oh my gosh,
I made my own music video.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Let's tell them where we are, because we are not
scrubbing in in Burbank in the iHeart studio.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
No, we are not in California anymore, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
We are not even close to being in the studio.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
We are backstage at this sphere and Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That Backstreet Boys.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I don't know how they let us back here
with your history with Kevin.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Okay, well, so we found out we did pod Meats World,
he did a pod swap with pod Meats World, and
we found out that they are interviewing AJ and Kevin,
and we.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Are told us they were just slipped in.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
They slid it in there and we were like, oh,
not just AJ, and they're like, no, AJ and Kevin.
I was like, huh, I wonder if there's a restraint
against me.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Tanya's eyes cut to me and was like, do you
hear that?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I was just thinking maybe they're surprising us with Kevin
and then we found out.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
No, they're not.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
No, no, So I thought it was like cute. But
when I was a teenager, I used to make out
with my like we all did, didn't You used to
make out with like Backstreet boys?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I'm aga woman now, so I think it's safe to
say I.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Was not making out with Jonathan Taylor Thomas post.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Oh my God. I loved John and Saw.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I loved them, and the only person whose posters I
had in my oh my wall was JTT.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Okay, so I had jtts and I didn't kiss them.
Or you didn't practice making out on your posters?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
No, no, I think a lot of people did.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
I'm serious.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
No, I think I always thought that was from the movie.
So when you told me that, I was like, why did.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
You practice kissing? What did you practice?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
I don't think a person.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I just you didn't practice before a person.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
I think I would like kiss like the hand thing,
but like, okay.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
That's so much better than a poster of a action boy.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Yeah no, yeah no, because it's like wet paper.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Anyway, she put a hole in the Kevin portion of the.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Poster, burned a hole or my Kevin portion of the poster.
And I told him that an interview that he did
when he was on air with Ryan Seacrest, and things
haven't been the same since.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So we're not getting Kevin, but we did, like, first
of all, this is our first time at the sphere.
So this has been on my bucket list for a
minute to come.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, I'm excited and I'm so excited.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And Haley and Robbie are with us as well.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, and Haley, I feel like I've gotten to see
twelve year old Hailey.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
I don't think I've ever seen her like this.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
She's like she was.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Getting nervous and anxious and they handed us we got
these like really cool lanyards of the IP access and
she was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
She's in the room and here's me.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
But it's really really cute, and we're just excited that
we all get to be here together.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
You feel the same.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Way like, And I just feel like I was so,
so so obsessed with all the boy bands back in
the day. I mean it was really just backstory, poison
and sync, but I mean I ran deep. I did
like ninety eight degrees. I also liked what are the brothers?
The three by Hanson? Uh, not the Jonas brothers, but
(04:21):
also the Jonah's brothers. Yeah, who what are they?
Speaker 4 (04:24):
A boy band fan for a long time.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, so it feels very what's the word three sixty?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah? What if you're what?
Speaker 6 (04:33):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
They call them stands, but you're stn because Tonyn.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
You're stne. Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So when you walk in the sphere, there's this door
and it has all of the old posters, I mean
like posters from magazine.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah, Iconic fourteen seventeen. And Tanya found.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
The poster that I located it Yes, Kevin's face off
of Yes, and they.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
High up to where she wouldn't be able to reach.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I couldn't get it with my mouth and that feels personal.
Try it's too was way.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Too high, the highest one.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I'm like, they heard you were coming and they said
that one's got to go top show.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah. Yeah, but I also have like the personal ones too,
you know, like the ones of them solo. My room
was covered. Whoa, I know someways my parents let me
do that.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So we're I don't know the set you know, a
lot of people look at the set list.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
But when the set list, you do. Obviously, I've watched
every TikTok. I've seen every video.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
We've tried to not watch, Like Ashley, I posted all
of them and we tried not to watch because we
want it to be like.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Totally just blind going in as much as we can.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
So you're one of those people who when you go
to a restaurant, you don't look at the menu before.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I look at Haley's going because I need to see
if they can accommodate her out.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
But you wouldn't look normally. No, Oh my god, I.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Don't feel like that's comparable.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
There's two types of people in this world.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Look at the menu of a menu is not like
a show that they like.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
It is the menu.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It's the menu of the songs we're getting tonight. Hell
anybody else? Okay, so thank you?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
My head abouts feeling just that feels my teamwork. What
of the setless songs? What are you most excited about?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Want to?
Speaker 4 (06:19):
I can assume we already talked about that. Yeah, anything else?
That's all we've given attention to.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That's all I want to give attention to.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Okay, I am excited for the feeling of I want
it that way live. Yeah, I'm excited. I really want
it was one of their first hits. The wait, they're asked,
I don't care who.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You are, you don't care what you did, as long
as you love.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Me may man.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, so I'm really excited about I have sing that
is that on there.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, of course. Oh well no, that's the one thing
about these shows I feel like is they they're going
to give you the hits. They're not golly be hanging.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I actually saw them a few years ago, and you
know what I was thinking about. I feel like the
Backstree Boys because there's a lot of boy brand a
lot of boy bands.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Can I not speak the boy bands broke up?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, and I feel like Backstree.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Boys is what brought everyone back together because they did
it first.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
They were the first to come back.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I believe they were me looking for confirmation that I
remember they never technically broke up.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I feel like none of
them like wanted to be like the breakout star and
have their own solo career. They took like breaks, but
they never like officially broke up. Yeah that's what I
felt like. Yeah, because instinct did break up.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
They did.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Why break up? Why not just take some space because.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
They have Okay, I have this theory and I don't
know this. Obviously I'm not part of a boy band
or a musical band, but I think that people when
they're in a band, they feel like their creativity is
stifled because they have to like do what's right for
the whole team, and people want to express themselves artistically
in their own like creative way, and so they like,
I'm going to do this and I'm gonna do it better,
(08:15):
and then they go off and try and do it
better and it doesn't work, and then they're.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Like, oh, I know, but sometimes it does work out
for one person, right, and that's the.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Yeah, correct, Nick Jonas.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
But the Jonas brothers are back and better than that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
What I'm saying though, it's like sometimes you just have
to realize I had my time of separation, that.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
We're better, we're better together, like us like me and you, yeah,
get the band back together. We're definitely better together, do
you think.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah. Anyways, So so we're about to interview a j
He's going to come in here and and then we
have like a cute dinner. We're gonna do like cute
like double date dinner, and then we're gonna come back
for the show and just like pop in. You know,
it's like a twenty four hours in Vegas. I feel
(09:08):
like we're like Lady Gaga just flying in for the night,
you know. Is that what she does I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Yeah, talk storry to like.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
The best part though, was that Tanya has been nauseous
since we got here and we haven't had a single drink. Nothing,
We've done, nothing that would make us nauseous that would
typically happen in Vegas.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Just the bumpy fight.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I think I could have a drink because of how
nauseous I feel.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Are we drinking tonight?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I'll have a drink.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
I was thinking that too.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, I gotta be careful my illness.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
I'm still battling.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
And I were like, we've literally been sick for so long,
and then all of a sudden, it's.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Like our first thing back is Vegas.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, it's we're throwing you in.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah, yeah, you got to jump into the deep end.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
All right, that's enough about us, because you hear from
us every week, but it's not every week that we
get to interview one a member of one of the
greatest boy bands of.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
All all time?
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Do you think they would rather be a man men
men man band? Because boy band?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
No, you don't know, they're okay, one of the greatest
I think boy band boy bands of all time.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Band sounds sounds dirty, It sounds like sexual kind.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Of it doesn't have to. It doesn't have to.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I think goes dirty, yeah, scrubbing in we have a
j here. This is crazy, right, but for us.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Like for us, I think crazier for us than for Yeah,
but that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I mean, crazy is good when it's putting smiles on
your faces, like it is right now, that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Well, because I mean you know this, but like I
used to have, my walls were covered in posters of
you guys, like just covered in posters of you all,
and like it's so crazy to be here for interviewing
you and then to be able to see you guys
at the sphere. Like it's just it feels like a
like a weird life moment.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I mean, everything comes full circle. Yeah, I mean so
I think it's I I love hearing things like that
because it's just reminds me of why we love to
do what we do, because, like I said, it's full circle.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
You know, talking to a lot of the fans in
our meet and greets after the show or if we
have a chance before the show to talk to people,
you know, just hearing the stories of how us as
a band or our music has inspired people, or it's
influenced people, or it takes them back to a certain memory.
It's just it's just so like joyful to like hear
(12:00):
that and to know that we were a part of
someone's life in a positive way through our music, you know.
I mean. And now getting to kind of take everybody
back to nineteen ninety nine with a little bit of
two thousand and current in one show at the most
state of the art venue is pretty rad.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I was going to ask, what do you remember where
you were when you got the call or the email
whatever it was that y'all were going to.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Be Oh, that was non intentional thank.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You when I got the page, like.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
When they told you that y'all were going to be
at the sphere Because in my mind, and I am
not an artist, so I don't know, but this just
feels like the dream come true.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I mean, this is the next phase for anyone I
think that wants to do any type of residency in
Las Vegas. We did a residency at Plant Hollywood back
in seventeen to nineteen, and there was a subject matter
that I kept bringing up over the last seven years
that I wish I could take credit for, but it
was my wife's idea to recreate the Millennium tour that
(13:05):
was this thing like no one had ever done something
like that before to where they go and they kind
of recreate their biggest tour ever. And it just wasn't
the right timing. It wasn't the right situation, and we
were still on tour doing the DNA tour. We're doing
the tour prior to that, and it just never really
made sense. And then we started hearing rumblings about Vegas
(13:28):
wanting us to come back and do another residency, and
we were talking to different hotels and I threw it
out in the atmosphere to our management. I'm like, you
know what, what about doing sphere? And then it just
kind of went radio silent. But I think that's because
they already knew that there was they didn't want to
tell us, and so I don't know, when did you
(13:53):
tell us? Like I do you want a conference call? Yeah?
And it was just like okay, like now what? But
what was so cool was the process of a show
like this is really two shows in one, especially for
like guys like us that are doing our normal stage production,
dancing and singing, the whole gambit. There's that's that's one show,
(14:16):
and then you have this insane content behind you, which
is a completely separate show. So the process of making
this was really really fun. We actually physically, I think
for five songs, shot content for it that you'll see tonight.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
But I feel like, so when when you when Backstreet
Boys first started, so when you guys were like just
starting when you were.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Like I was fourteen.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Kids, Yeah, and like so you're touring or doing like
and girls are going fairal for you, right, and they
still are. But like I want to, I feel like
it's so crazy because you guys have just been around
for so long. Like what was it like when you
were touring back then before like people had their like
filming everything.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I mean, it was a it was a whole different world.
I mean, I'm for me personally, I'm very thankful there
was no social media back in the time for personal reasons,
back when I was in my party phase before I
got sober, I was definitely happy about that. No, it
was a different time completely in the sense of, like
you know, even for us when it came to like
(15:20):
press and media, like you had to show up to
the radio station, meet the program directors, do the interviews
there at the station. There was no zoom interviews. There
was none. You know, even this feels retro like to
actually sit down and see people face to face and
actually do an interview compared to what it normally is
nowadays it's all virtual. But the one upside is fans
(15:46):
back then they might have had their you know, disposable
cameras or you know, their polaroids or their camera cameras,
which there was a lot of those, but there was
a lot less of this watching the show through. But
I will say, though I don't know why this one has,
it doesn't feel like there's that many phones out during
(16:08):
this show. I don't know why that is. I feel
like there's more people actually engaging in wanting to watch
what's happening on stage and on the screen, like in
real time and not through their phone, which is kind
of a breath of fresh air, because we had talked
about the idea of maybe not having phones allowed, and
that would not go over well. You know, our fans
would lose their mind if they couldn't have their phones,
(16:30):
because you know, once you post it after opening night,
the world knows what the show is, what the intro is.
But it's not the same in this venue. You have
to physically be here to experience it. You'll never feel
that through your phone. We have.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I was telling her, I've tried to skip every video
anyone's posted because I've just wanted to be like a.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I've watched every single video, every single person. I know everything,
Like no, I know, I know, just know everything.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
But have you seen a show here before?
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Never? Never?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, it's it's it's gonna it's gonna mess you guys up,
Like it's gonna mess up just concerts in general. Like
I've been hearing that from a lot of people, Like,
like seeing seeing a show here in general is like
ruining it for people to go see a normal concert
outside of her because you'll never on on the planet
anywhere else but this venue experience what you experienced here.
(17:24):
Oh wow, it's never gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Also, you were saying when you sat down that you
finished your album.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You just finished my debut solo record last night at
three in the morning with my Yeah, last night was
a late night. Last night was a late night. But
we've been we've been in the studio all week this week,
so this was my week off. But it wasn't a
week off. But doing something like that, to me is
just so much fun, like finally getting to put a
(17:50):
you know, to button this up. It's been about four
years because we were on tour doing the DNA tour
and then we had to stop the tour because of
COVID then resume the tour. We didn't that tour till
May of twenty twenty three, so I didn't have a
lot of time. And then right after the tour was
done in twenty three, I took a little trip to Scottsdale,
Arizona to do a little mental health retreat for me,
(18:11):
a little bit of me time that I had never done,
and it truly saved me. It like put me in
the right headspace I've never been in to actually have
self esteem, to love myself, to respect myself, to put
myself first, and to know that all of that's okay,
and to know that no is a complete sentence and
I know what boundaries are now.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And you know what's interesting though, I always feel like
just because I remember, like, and I'm just one person,
how obsessed I was with you guys, Like it must
be so crazy to have all that like attention from
millions and millions of people like it's got to be
a weird thing to navigate.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
It's weird. But I think for me, I I loved it.
I loved it for the wrong reasons, and I never
I never felt that I deserved it. Among many things,
I also never felt.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Like imposters syndrome. Huh, imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, Like I never like I always had this. You know,
I lived in this mindset, a piece of sism. That's
what I literally called it is. That's kind of the
headspace I was in, and I didn't realize it untill
I really got into the party phase. And why all
that happened, you know, the drugs and drinking and all
that was just symptomatic to what was really going on
inside here and inside here, which was that self sabotage
(19:30):
of not liking the person I was. And today, finally
after I mean, I'm forty seven, it took me a
while better late than ever, I can look at myself
in the mirror and I like who I see, And
it shows across the board. It shows with my relationships
with my family, shows with my relationship with the boys,
with my friends, with you know, the people that I
(19:50):
care about the most like I can be present, I
can be here, you know, and so yeah, but I
think I think you have competition as far as fans go.
I think my daughters might beat U as far as
the biggest Backtory boy fans.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Wow, maybe they might.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
They might have a little edge on you.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, they might have a little edge.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I have a question because we just binged or watched
Building the band Nice and we love We just love you,
And I was wondering if that took.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You back to the process of because I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
First of all, Haley, my fiance was like, ask him,
what where did Backstreet come from?
Speaker 4 (20:30):
What does backstreet mean?
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I mean we so we got our name from a
flea market. Essentially. It was a place called the Backstreet
Market in our Orlando, Florida, just off it was off
this little road called International Drive, which was like Tourist Central,
Like they had those stupid sling shot things that you
know where they people are getting sick, and tattoo shops, bars,
Tgi Friday's, freaking Bennegan's. All that stuff was on there.
(20:54):
But that's where we got the name Backstreet. And then
boys because we're all boys. Boys, well, we were boys.
But you know, like you've got the beach Boys, the
Oakrage Boys, the pet shop boys, beastie boys, like you know,
they're all in their fifties, sixties, seventies, whatever, but they're
still boys like that. So that's never going to change.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
For Yeah, Becca was like, should we call them Backstreet men?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
I was like, oh man band, Oh right.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, no, I mean look, doing the show it it
did bring back a lot of memories. Although it was
a different approach than how we did things. You know,
because you're filming a show, it's a lot more fast paced.
You know, they would get information on a Friday morning,
and Friday afternoon they have to perform three songs live
and do this and do that, so it's like it
(21:42):
was really quick.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
But what I love so much about the show is
how they formed and how they were put together. Where
we were put together put together. I was the original og.
I helped put the group together. But the way that
we did it on the show where there it's basically blind,
you're doing it based on talent and compatibility. I love
that part of this show because you really are going
(22:06):
based on talent. You don't care about what that person
looks like and you really are trying to trying to
form this connection with someone sight unseen. And to me,
the most like emotional moment was when they first got
to meet each other face to face. Like watching that
from size stage was just so freaking badass, Like some
(22:27):
of them could even finished singing, Yeah, that was awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
When y'all forms the band, were you you consider your
Do you consider yourself the leader of the band because
you came in and you were like looking at all
of our white and you were like, this was my idea.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
No, definitely, I'm definitely not the leader. Leaders might think
they are, but I won't say names.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
I feel like you're.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
No.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
But Kevin ageins Kevin gets deemed the leader because he's
the oldest.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I always felt like he was the leader.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I'm the second youngest, so you wouldn't want me to
be the leader. But no, I I'm just look, there
is no real leader. Everybody kind of knows their place.
We all pull each other's weight, we all back each
other up, and we all have like a clear understanding
of what each of us likes, dislikes, what we're willing
to do not not willing to do so. And now
(23:38):
today I feel we're the tightest we've ever been.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
That comes through by the.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Way we are. We went through Helen back over the
last thirty two years, highs lows, highs lows, lawsuits, management, companies, girlfriends, wives, whatever,
different things, all this stuff, like we've we've been through
everything together and now it's just this unspoken comfortability, this
unspoken connection that I just feel is the tightest it's
(24:06):
ever been. So we know we can sit down and
have a little pow wow. I'm not the money guy, Like,
I don't talk to me about the money side of things,
the business side of things, because I suck at that.
You want to talk to me about creative or about
stuff like the white outfits or you know that's my wheelhouse.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Who's the business guy in the group.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
It's Howie and Brian. I think there really are two
strong business guys. We're all creative across the ri but
everybody kind of brings something different to the creative side.
Like Kevin. He will be here till six in the morning,
listening to the music, watching the edits, looking at the stage,
making sure everything.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
He's a perfectionist, but he's definitely loosened up a little
bit where like, you know what, you got to go
with the flow sometimes, yeah something it's not always going
to be perfect.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
And I want to say congratulations because you guys extended
your dates we did, which is huge, which means the
demand is there.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
The demand is there, and I mean we're being told
it was even a bigger poll than it was the
first time around. So December twenty sixth through January third
is the next batch. And then I mean, we're gonna
stay here as long as they want us here, you
know what I mean. Like this is it's a it's
a it's a dream job. It's a dream scenario because
you're in one place, You're in an international hub. You're
(25:23):
getting people from all over the world coming to the
twenty four to seven. So it's a great way and
it's easier on our bodies.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, touring is it's.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Not necessarily the same as it was back in the day,
you know. But for me personally, I do miss being
on a tour bus. I love being on a tour bus.
That's my homeway from home. I just love traveling and
seeing the world. But so who knows if we'll do
a tour down the road at some point. I don't know,
but we're gonna stay here as long as they want
us to.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
What's your favorite song of this set? Do you have
a favorite moment? And what's your favorite outfit? Because I
feel like you're a.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
My favorite like in this show. Yeah, favorite out in
the show is the last look because it's the most
for me personally, it's the most me being me. Everything
else is stagy and very costume, but classy and fun
and fashion driven. But favorite song to perform in the
show A probably Visually Siberia is A.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
It's trippy. It's trippy. We shot content for that and
it's disturbing. I'm just gonna tell you it's disturbing. It's
it's cool, but it's weird. But that one's just fun
because it's it's it's one of our favorites. It was
on Never Gone, so it's nowhere near the millennium time period,
but we haven't performed at Lives in d since two
(26:45):
thousand and four, so we wanted to put that back in.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
It's our favorite. But for me probably, I do love
getting another boyfriend. It's still one of my favorites. I
don't know. Actually, Larger than Life. The whole intro of
the show is really really really cool, between the visuals,
the costumes, the staging, everything, it's it's really really cool.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
When y'all were doing the set list, was it like, hey,
I want to do this, so how do you do that?
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Well?
Speaker 4 (27:16):
How do you pick something when you have such a huge.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I mean, the one thing that was imperative was we
had to do the entire Millennium album. So you will
see and hear every song from the Millennium Album in
the show. Some of them are not full songs. We
did four of them in a medley during the show.
One of those songs is actually probably one of the
most emotional moments, which is perfect fan. You know, we
(27:40):
have a collage of photos of all of our our
moms and our wives that are moms now, so like
it's a pretty opening night. Kevin couldn't even get the
first line out because he lost his mom not that
long ago, and so you know, and he's a he's
probably the most emotional out of all of us. He's headstrong,
but he cries like that and once he goes, then
(28:02):
we go. It's one of those it's one of those Yeah,
But like I said, I just tell people you're in
for a ride.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Okay, so you extended dates the album. When's your sol
album coming out?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So the album we're looking at actually is around or
on my birthday, which it just happens to be January ninth,
which is a Friday, which is when you release new music. Okay,
and the EP will be out in November.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Very exciting.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
What's the But what can you tell us anything about
the album?
Speaker 1 (28:28):
It's pop, R and B, a little bit of funk
and yeah, it's just it's it's a feel good record,
like there's it's it's all kind of gelled well together.
There's a couple of songs that kind of stick out
on their own, that are in their own lane. But
I mean, the cream rose to the top last night.
(28:49):
The songs that we just finished are just like.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
When you know you know, yeah, like they picked you yeah,
like when you know.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
You know, and like between all of the writers and
my just amazing, Like we just we just walked out
of the studio last night like we did it, like yeah,
this is it, Like it's just good.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Like y'all wrote some of the songs that will be
on the album, just started them last night and ended them.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Well, we started writing on Monday and we finished last night.
We got about four songs in so and then there's
one more that I want to I'm going to finish
when I get back to LA after we're done with
this leg, but that'll be on the album, so I
have time to get that way done and mixed.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
So are you someone who needs to be doing something
all the time, because I'm like, you're doing this massive
show and then you're writing your own album.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I am. I mean yes, and no, I've I've slowed
down a lot because I've kind of had to, like
and plus I want to, like I want to take
everything in. Yeah, normally, like I'm in the gym every day.
I'm you know, I take my case of school in
the morning. I do normal life when I'm home. You know,
(30:02):
I'm on the golf course as much as I can be.
But I unfortunately have a torn rotator cuff right now,
so like there's not a lot I can do, like
even doing the show. It hurts, but what are you
gonna do? Like, the show must go on and my
arm hasn't fallen off yet, so we're good. I'm trying
to avoid surgery, but I have a surgery date setup
(30:22):
for October. It's two months of downtime. It's fine. But yeah,
now hopefully now it's out there as public because when
we did our after party last weekend, a couple of
people pulled on my arm and it hurts so bad,
but nobody knew right now. But I'm fine. I'm fine,
like I can move it. It just it hurts. But no,
(30:43):
I am definitely slowing down. I want to really, like
I blink my eyes. And my daughters are now starting
school again, and my oldest is going to be thirteen
in November, Like you know, I want to be I
don't want to miss anything, you know, So where I
so when I'm home, I slow it down. When I'm
(31:05):
out here it's already fast paced. I like to keep moving.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And sleep. Sleep is nice. I take more naps now
than I ever have in my life.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I sep naps are great.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
What was the age of your kids, like when when
was there a moment where they realized what you do and.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Who you are.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
For my oldest, I think it was honestly kindergarten because
when I would do drop off, I was one of
the only dads that would do drop off. So all
the moms are like right in the sweet spot. So
it was like they literally I kind of got swarmed
the first day of school and like all of them
were talking about having posters in their room and a
couple of them on the road, yeah, them on the ceiling.
(31:48):
I'm like, Okay, I.
Speaker 7 (31:48):
Don't whom I but oh.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Thank you. And I'm a and I'm a huge advocate.
So I mean, everyone knows I'm the I'm the I'm
the I'm a huge I'm I'm a huge ally. Everyone
everyone knows that big time lgbt Q plus ally big time.
But yeah, it's you know they It's funny because now
(32:20):
now they kind of go nother in the phase where
like they love and don't love what I do because
they don't love that it takes me away from them.
And also like when they come see the show out
here or we go out to dinner back in LA
or whatever, and like people keep coming up to Daddy
that bothers them. But for example, they're coming to the
(32:41):
second to last show with all their little friends and
I gave them a shout out last weekend. Now they're like, Dad,
when you talked with during the show, can you give
us a shout out? So that our friends could see.
I'm like, Okay, now I see you like daddy to
be a backshet boy when it's convenient for you.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
But no, Daddy's actually boys and daddy.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Make it weird.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
No, it's not. This has become a thing with Kevin
and I. They're calling him a daddy and me and Zaddy,
which is freaking like, I don't even know. I guess
it's you're ZADDI.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Yeah, but I.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Kind of want to change it, like you want to daddy?
You want me like dad?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, like they've kind of ruined the Daddy's been ruined
it for plus that my kids call me his daddy.
It's like, no, you've ruined it for me.
Speaker 6 (33:38):
I know.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
I know you said that. I could see her, I
could see it going and I.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Was like, thank you so much for your time. We
really appreciate it. We cannot wait to see the show.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
Love you so much, and I'm just so excited.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I'm so excited that you're releasing your music finally, and congratulations.
I know finishing an album is like such a I
know you probably just feel like a weight is lifted off.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I do, And hopefully Season two for building the band
and uh, like I said, we're gonna stay here until
they kick us out.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Hell yeah yeah, we cannot wait to watch. Thank you
so much, Thanks
Scrubbing In with Becca Tilly and Tanya rad and iHeartRadio
and two times People's Choice Award winning podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello everybody, we are scrubbing it.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
It's tills in ya in the scrubbing In pad nice.
Every time I breathe, I take you in and my
heartbeats again.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Baby yeah, oh, can't help it. Give me jawming in
you love.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
You know you're a true Bactory Boys fan when you
get when you love the deep cuts, you know.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The deep cut, the deep pets is in Like what like,
what's a deep cut?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I mean not just like the hits, the ones that
everybody knows.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Just in my mind, every song that they.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Have was a hit. Yeah, I agree, like I was every.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
When I think about the Backstreet Boys and I think
about the songs I know, or even what you refer
to as the deep cuts.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Was not like I don't think it was. I think
it was like a deep cut, Like I don't think
it was like a song that was drawn. Yeah, but
we also realized we love the call.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
The call.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, that's a thrill thrill.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It gave me thrill vibe.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I have a whole like routine for it. Oh my gosh,
I made my own music video.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Let's tell them where we are, because we are not
scrubbing in in Burbank in the iHeart studio.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
No, we are not in California anymore, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
We are not even close to being in the studio.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
We are backstage at this sphere and Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That Backstreet Boys.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I don't know how they let us back here
with your history with Kevin.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Okay, well, so we found out we did pod Meats World,
he did a pod swap with pod Meats World, and
we found out that they are interviewing AJ and Kevin,
and we.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Are told us they were just slipped in.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
They slid it in there and we were like, oh,
not just AJ, and they're like, no, AJ and Kevin.
I was like, huh, I wonder if there's a restraint
against me.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Tanya's eyes cut to me and was like, do you
hear that?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I was just thinking maybe they're surprising us with Kevin
and then we found out.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
No, they're not.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
No, no, So I thought it was like cute. But
when I was a teenager, I used to make out
with my like we all did, didn't You used to
make out with like Backstreet boys?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I'm aga woman now, so I think it's safe to
say I.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Was not making out with Jonathan Taylor Thomas post.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Oh my God. I loved John and Saw.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I loved them, and the only person whose posters I
had in my oh my wall was JTT.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Okay, so I had jtts and I didn't kiss them.
Or you didn't practice making out on your posters?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
No, no, I think a lot of people did.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
I'm serious.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
No, I think I always thought that was from the movie.
So when you told me that, I was like, why did.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
You practice kissing? What did you practice?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
I don't think a person.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I just you didn't practice before a person.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
I think I would like kiss like the hand thing,
but like, okay.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
That's so much better than a poster of a action boy.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Yeah no, yeah no, because it's like wet paper.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Anyway, she put a hole in the Kevin portion of the.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Poster, burned a hole or my Kevin portion of the poster.
And I told him that an interview that he did
when he was on air with Ryan Seacrest, and things
haven't been the same since.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So we're not getting Kevin, but we did, like, first
of all, this is our first time at the sphere.
So this has been on my bucket list for a
minute to come.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, I'm excited and I'm so excited.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And Haley and Robbie are with us as well.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, and Haley, I feel like I've gotten to see
twelve year old Hailey.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
I don't think I've ever seen her like this.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
She's like she was.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Getting nervous and anxious and they handed us we got
these like really cool lanyards of the IP access and
she was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
She's in the room and here's me.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
But it's really really cute, and we're just excited that
we all get to be here together.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
You feel the same.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Way like, And I just feel like I was so,
so so obsessed with all the boy bands back in
the day. I mean it was really just backstory, poison
and sync, but I mean I ran deep. I did
like ninety eight degrees. I also liked what are the brothers?
The three by Hanson? Uh, not the Jonas brothers, but
(04:21):
also the Jonah's brothers. Yeah, who what are they?
Speaker 4 (04:24):
A boy band fan for a long time.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, so it feels very what's the word three sixty?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah? What if you're what?
Speaker 6 (04:33):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
They call them stands, but you're stn because Tonyn.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
You're stne. Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So when you walk in the sphere, there's this door
and it has all of the old posters, I mean
like posters from magazine.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah, Iconic fourteen seventeen. And Tanya found.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
The poster that I located it Yes, Kevin's face off
of Yes, and they.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
High up to where she wouldn't be able to reach.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I couldn't get it with my mouth and that feels personal.
Try it's too was way.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Too high, the highest one.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I'm like, they heard you were coming and they said
that one's got to go top show.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah. Yeah, but I also have like the personal ones too,
you know, like the ones of them solo. My room
was covered. Whoa, I know someways my parents let me
do that.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So we're I don't know the set you know, a
lot of people look at the set list.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
But when the set list, you do. Obviously, I've watched
every TikTok. I've seen every video.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
We've tried to not watch, Like Ashley, I posted all
of them and we tried not to watch because we
want it to be like.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Totally just blind going in as much as we can.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
So you're one of those people who when you go
to a restaurant, you don't look at the menu before.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I look at Haley's going because I need to see
if they can accommodate her out.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
But you wouldn't look normally. No, Oh my god, I.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Don't feel like that's comparable.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
There's two types of people in this world.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Look at the menu of a menu is not like
a show that they like.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
It is the menu.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It's the menu of the songs we're getting tonight. Hell
anybody else? Okay, so thank you?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
My head abouts feeling just that feels my teamwork. What
of the setless songs? What are you most excited about?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Want to?
Speaker 4 (06:19):
I can assume we already talked about that. Yeah, anything else?
That's all we've given attention to.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That's all I want to give attention to.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Okay, I am excited for the feeling of I want
it that way live. Yeah, I'm excited. I really want
it was one of their first hits. The wait, they're asked,
I don't care who.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You are, you don't care what you did, as long
as you love.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Me may man.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, so I'm really excited about I have sing that
is that on there.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, of course. Oh well no, that's the one thing
about these shows I feel like is they they're going
to give you the hits. They're not golly be hanging.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I actually saw them a few years ago, and you
know what I was thinking about. I feel like the
Backstree Boys because there's a lot of boy brand a
lot of boy bands.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Can I not speak the boy bands broke up?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, and I feel like Backstree.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Boys is what brought everyone back together because they did
it first.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
They were the first to come back.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I believe they were me looking for confirmation that I
remember they never technically broke up.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I feel like none of
them like wanted to be like the breakout star and
have their own solo career. They took like breaks, but
they never like officially broke up. Yeah that's what I
felt like. Yeah, because instinct did break up.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
They did.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Why break up? Why not just take some space because.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
They have Okay, I have this theory and I don't
know this. Obviously I'm not part of a boy band
or a musical band, but I think that people when
they're in a band, they feel like their creativity is
stifled because they have to like do what's right for
the whole team, and people want to express themselves artistically
in their own like creative way, and so they like,
I'm going to do this and I'm gonna do it better,
(08:15):
and then they go off and try and do it
better and it doesn't work, and then they're.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Like, oh, I know, but sometimes it does work out
for one person, right, and that's the.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Yeah, correct, Nick Jonas.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
But the Jonas brothers are back and better than that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
What I'm saying though, it's like sometimes you just have
to realize I had my time of separation, that.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
We're better, we're better together, like us like me and you, yeah,
get the band back together. We're definitely better together, do
you think.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah. Anyways, So so we're about to interview a j
He's going to come in here and and then we
have like a cute dinner. We're gonna do like cute
like double date dinner, and then we're gonna come back
for the show and just like pop in. You know,
it's like a twenty four hours in Vegas. I feel
(09:08):
like we're like Lady Gaga just flying in for the night,
you know. Is that what she does I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Yeah, talk storry to like.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
The best part though, was that Tanya has been nauseous
since we got here and we haven't had a single drink. Nothing,
We've done, nothing that would make us nauseous that would
typically happen in Vegas.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Just the bumpy fight.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I think I could have a drink because of how
nauseous I feel.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Are we drinking tonight?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I'll have a drink.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
I was thinking that too.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, I gotta be careful my illness.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
I'm still battling.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
And I were like, we've literally been sick for so long,
and then all of a sudden, it's.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Like our first thing back is Vegas.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, it's we're throwing you in.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah, yeah, you got to jump into the deep end.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
All right, that's enough about us, because you hear from
us every week, but it's not every week that we
get to interview one a member of one of the
greatest boy bands of.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
All all time?
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Do you think they would rather be a man men
men man band? Because boy band?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
No, you don't know, they're okay, one of the greatest
I think boy band boy bands of all time.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Band sounds sounds dirty, It sounds like sexual kind.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Of it doesn't have to. It doesn't have to.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I think goes dirty, yeah, scrubbing in we have a
j here. This is crazy, right, but for us.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Like for us, I think crazier for us than for Yeah,
but that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I mean, crazy is good when it's putting smiles on
your faces, like it is right now, that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Well, because I mean you know this, but like I
used to have, my walls were covered in posters of
you guys, like just covered in posters of you all,
and like it's so crazy to be here for interviewing
you and then to be able to see you guys
at the sphere. Like it's just it feels like a
like a weird life moment.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I mean, everything comes full circle. Yeah, I mean so
I think it's I I love hearing things like that
because it's just reminds me of why we love to
do what we do, because, like I said, it's full circle.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
You know, talking to a lot of the fans in
our meet and greets after the show or if we
have a chance before the show to talk to people,
you know, just hearing the stories of how us as
a band or our music has inspired people, or it's
influenced people, or it takes them back to a certain memory.
It's just it's just so like joyful to like hear
(12:00):
that and to know that we were a part of
someone's life in a positive way through our music, you know.
I mean. And now getting to kind of take everybody
back to nineteen ninety nine with a little bit of
two thousand and current in one show at the most
state of the art venue is pretty rad.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I was going to ask, what do you remember where
you were when you got the call or the email
whatever it was that y'all were going to.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Be Oh, that was non intentional thank.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You when I got the page, like.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
When they told you that y'all were going to be
at the sphere Because in my mind, and I am
not an artist, so I don't know, but this just
feels like the dream come true.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I mean, this is the next phase for anyone I
think that wants to do any type of residency in
Las Vegas. We did a residency at Plant Hollywood back
in seventeen to nineteen, and there was a subject matter
that I kept bringing up over the last seven years
that I wish I could take credit for, but it
was my wife's idea to recreate the Millennium tour that
(13:05):
was this thing like no one had ever done something
like that before to where they go and they kind
of recreate their biggest tour ever. And it just wasn't
the right timing. It wasn't the right situation, and we
were still on tour doing the DNA tour. We're doing
the tour prior to that, and it just never really
made sense. And then we started hearing rumblings about Vegas
(13:28):
wanting us to come back and do another residency, and
we were talking to different hotels and I threw it
out in the atmosphere to our management. I'm like, you
know what, what about doing sphere? And then it just
kind of went radio silent. But I think that's because
they already knew that there was they didn't want to
tell us, and so I don't know, when did you
(13:53):
tell us? Like I do you want a conference call? Yeah?
And it was just like okay, like now what? But
what was so cool was the process of a show
like this is really two shows in one, especially for
like guys like us that are doing our normal stage production,
dancing and singing, the whole gambit. There's that's that's one show,
(14:16):
and then you have this insane content behind you, which
is a completely separate show. So the process of making
this was really really fun. We actually physically, I think
for five songs, shot content for it that you'll see tonight.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
But I feel like, so when when you when Backstreet
Boys first started, so when you guys were like just
starting when you were.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Like I was fourteen.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Kids, Yeah, and like so you're touring or doing like
and girls are going fairal for you, right, and they
still are. But like I want to, I feel like
it's so crazy because you guys have just been around
for so long. Like what was it like when you
were touring back then before like people had their like
filming everything.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I mean, it was a it was a whole different world.
I mean, I'm for me personally, I'm very thankful there
was no social media back in the time for personal reasons,
back when I was in my party phase before I
got sober, I was definitely happy about that. No, it
was a different time completely in the sense of, like
you know, even for us when it came to like
(15:20):
press and media, like you had to show up to
the radio station, meet the program directors, do the interviews
there at the station. There was no zoom interviews. There
was none. You know, even this feels retro like to
actually sit down and see people face to face and
actually do an interview compared to what it normally is
nowadays it's all virtual. But the one upside is fans
(15:46):
back then they might have had their you know, disposable
cameras or you know, their polaroids or their camera cameras,
which there was a lot of those, but there was
a lot less of this watching the show through. But
I will say, though I don't know why this one has,
it doesn't feel like there's that many phones out during
(16:08):
this show. I don't know why that is. I feel
like there's more people actually engaging in wanting to watch
what's happening on stage and on the screen, like in
real time and not through their phone, which is kind
of a breath of fresh air, because we had talked
about the idea of maybe not having phones allowed, and
that would not go over well. You know, our fans
would lose their mind if they couldn't have their phones,
(16:30):
because you know, once you post it after opening night,
the world knows what the show is, what the intro is.
But it's not the same in this venue. You have
to physically be here to experience it. You'll never feel
that through your phone. We have.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I was telling her, I've tried to skip every video
anyone's posted because I've just wanted to be like a.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I've watched every single video, every single person. I know everything,
Like no, I know, I know, just know everything.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
But have you seen a show here before?
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Never? Never?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, it's it's it's gonna it's gonna mess you guys up,
Like it's gonna mess up just concerts in general. Like
I've been hearing that from a lot of people, Like,
like seeing seeing a show here in general is like
ruining it for people to go see a normal concert
outside of her because you'll never on on the planet
anywhere else but this venue experience what you experienced here.
(17:24):
Oh wow, it's never gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Also, you were saying when you sat down that you
finished your album.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You just finished my debut solo record last night at
three in the morning with my Yeah, last night was
a late night. Last night was a late night. But
we've been we've been in the studio all week this week,
so this was my week off. But it wasn't a
week off. But doing something like that, to me is
just so much fun, like finally getting to put a
(17:50):
you know, to button this up. It's been about four
years because we were on tour doing the DNA tour
and then we had to stop the tour because of
COVID then resume the tour. We didn't that tour till
May of twenty twenty three, so I didn't have a
lot of time. And then right after the tour was
done in twenty three, I took a little trip to Scottsdale,
Arizona to do a little mental health retreat for me,
(18:11):
a little bit of me time that I had never done,
and it truly saved me. It like put me in
the right headspace I've never been in to actually have
self esteem, to love myself, to respect myself, to put
myself first, and to know that all of that's okay,
and to know that no is a complete sentence and
I know what boundaries are now.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And you know what's interesting though, I always feel like
just because I remember, like, and I'm just one person,
how obsessed I was with you guys, Like it must
be so crazy to have all that like attention from
millions and millions of people like it's got to be
a weird thing to navigate.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
It's weird. But I think for me, I I loved it.
I loved it for the wrong reasons, and I never
I never felt that I deserved it. Among many things,
I also never felt.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Like imposters syndrome. Huh, imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, Like I never like I always had this. You know,
I lived in this mindset, a piece of sism. That's
what I literally called it is. That's kind of the
headspace I was in, and I didn't realize it untill
I really got into the party phase. And why all
that happened, you know, the drugs and drinking and all
that was just symptomatic to what was really going on
inside here and inside here, which was that self sabotage
(19:30):
of not liking the person I was. And today, finally
after I mean, I'm forty seven, it took me a
while better late than ever, I can look at myself
in the mirror and I like who I see, And
it shows across the board. It shows with my relationships
with my family, shows with my relationship with the boys,
with my friends, with you know, the people that I
(19:50):
care about the most like I can be present, I
can be here, you know, and so yeah, but I
think I think you have competition as far as fans go.
I think my daughters might beat U as far as
the biggest Backtory boy fans.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Wow, maybe they might.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
They might have a little edge on you.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, they might have a little edge.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I have a question because we just binged or watched
Building the band Nice and we love We just love you,
And I was wondering if that took.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You back to the process of because I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
First of all, Haley, my fiance was like, ask him,
what where did Backstreet come from?
Speaker 4 (20:30):
What does backstreet mean?
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I mean we so we got our name from a
flea market. Essentially. It was a place called the Backstreet
Market in our Orlando, Florida, just off it was off
this little road called International Drive, which was like Tourist Central,
Like they had those stupid sling shot things that you
know where they people are getting sick, and tattoo shops, bars,
Tgi Friday's, freaking Bennegan's. All that stuff was on there.
(20:54):
But that's where we got the name Backstreet. And then
boys because we're all boys. Boys, well, we were boys.
But you know, like you've got the beach Boys, the
Oakrage Boys, the pet shop boys, beastie boys, like you know,
they're all in their fifties, sixties, seventies, whatever, but they're
still boys like that. So that's never going to change.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
For Yeah, Becca was like, should we call them Backstreet men?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
I was like, oh man band, Oh right.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, no, I mean look, doing the show it it
did bring back a lot of memories. Although it was
a different approach than how we did things. You know,
because you're filming a show, it's a lot more fast paced.
You know, they would get information on a Friday morning,
and Friday afternoon they have to perform three songs live
and do this and do that, so it's like it
(21:42):
was really quick.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
But what I love so much about the show is
how they formed and how they were put together. Where
we were put together put together. I was the original og.
I helped put the group together. But the way that
we did it on the show where there it's basically blind,
you're doing it based on talent and compatibility. I love
that part of this show because you really are going
(22:06):
based on talent. You don't care about what that person
looks like and you really are trying to trying to
form this connection with someone sight unseen. And to me,
the most like emotional moment was when they first got
to meet each other face to face. Like watching that
from size stage was just so freaking badass, Like some
(22:27):
of them could even finished singing, Yeah, that was awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
When y'all forms the band, were you you consider your
Do you consider yourself the leader of the band because
you came in and you were like looking at all
of our white and you were like, this was my idea.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
No, definitely, I'm definitely not the leader. Leaders might think
they are, but I won't say names.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
I feel like you're.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
No.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
But Kevin ageins Kevin gets deemed the leader because he's
the oldest.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I always felt like he was the leader.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I'm the second youngest, so you wouldn't want me to
be the leader. But no, I I'm just look, there
is no real leader. Everybody kind of knows their place.
We all pull each other's weight, we all back each
other up, and we all have like a clear understanding
of what each of us likes, dislikes, what we're willing
to do not not willing to do so. And now
(23:38):
today I feel we're the tightest we've ever been.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
That comes through by the.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Way we are. We went through Helen back over the
last thirty two years, highs lows, highs lows, lawsuits, management, companies, girlfriends, wives, whatever,
different things, all this stuff, like we've we've been through
everything together and now it's just this unspoken comfortability, this
unspoken connection that I just feel is the tightest it's
(24:06):
ever been. So we know we can sit down and
have a little pow wow. I'm not the money guy, Like,
I don't talk to me about the money side of things,
the business side of things, because I suck at that.
You want to talk to me about creative or about
stuff like the white outfits or you know that's my wheelhouse.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Who's the business guy in the group.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
It's Howie and Brian. I think there really are two
strong business guys. We're all creative across the ri but
everybody kind of brings something different to the creative side.
Like Kevin. He will be here till six in the morning,
listening to the music, watching the edits, looking at the stage,
making sure everything.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
He's a perfectionist, but he's definitely loosened up a little
bit where like, you know what, you got to go
with the flow sometimes, yeah something it's not always going
to be perfect.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
And I want to say congratulations because you guys extended
your dates we did, which is huge, which means the
demand is there.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
The demand is there, and I mean we're being told
it was even a bigger poll than it was the
first time around. So December twenty sixth through January third
is the next batch. And then I mean, we're gonna
stay here as long as they want us here, you
know what I mean. Like this is it's a it's
a it's a dream job. It's a dream scenario because
you're in one place, You're in an international hub. You're
(25:23):
getting people from all over the world coming to the
twenty four to seven. So it's a great way and
it's easier on our bodies.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, touring is it's.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Not necessarily the same as it was back in the day,
you know. But for me personally, I do miss being
on a tour bus. I love being on a tour bus.
That's my homeway from home. I just love traveling and
seeing the world. But so who knows if we'll do
a tour down the road at some point. I don't know,
but we're gonna stay here as long as they want
us to.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
What's your favorite song of this set? Do you have
a favorite moment? And what's your favorite outfit? Because I
feel like you're a.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
My favorite like in this show. Yeah, favorite out in
the show is the last look because it's the most
for me personally, it's the most me being me. Everything
else is stagy and very costume, but classy and fun
and fashion driven. But favorite song to perform in the
show A probably Visually Siberia is A.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
It's trippy. It's trippy. We shot content for that and
it's disturbing. I'm just gonna tell you it's disturbing. It's
it's cool, but it's weird. But that one's just fun
because it's it's it's one of our favorites. It was
on Never Gone, so it's nowhere near the millennium time period,
but we haven't performed at Lives in d since two
(26:45):
thousand and four, so we wanted to put that back in.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
It's our favorite. But for me probably, I do love
getting another boyfriend. It's still one of my favorites. I
don't know. Actually, Larger than Life. The whole intro of
the show is really really really cool, between the visuals,
the costumes, the staging, everything, it's it's really really cool.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
When y'all were doing the set list, was it like, hey,
I want to do this, so how do you do that?
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Well?
Speaker 4 (27:16):
How do you pick something when you have such a huge.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I mean, the one thing that was imperative was we
had to do the entire Millennium album. So you will
see and hear every song from the Millennium Album in
the show. Some of them are not full songs. We
did four of them in a medley during the show.
One of those songs is actually probably one of the
most emotional moments, which is perfect fan. You know, we
(27:40):
have a collage of photos of all of our our
moms and our wives that are moms now, so like
it's a pretty opening night. Kevin couldn't even get the
first line out because he lost his mom not that
long ago, and so you know, and he's a he's
probably the most emotional out of all of us. He's headstrong,
but he cries like that and once he goes, then
(28:02):
we go. It's one of those it's one of those Yeah,
But like I said, I just tell people you're in
for a ride.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Okay, so you extended dates the album. When's your sol
album coming out?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So the album we're looking at actually is around or
on my birthday, which it just happens to be January ninth,
which is a Friday, which is when you release new music. Okay,
and the EP will be out in November.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Very exciting.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
What's the But what can you tell us anything about
the album?
Speaker 1 (28:28):
It's pop, R and B, a little bit of funk
and yeah, it's just it's it's a feel good record,
like there's it's it's all kind of gelled well together.
There's a couple of songs that kind of stick out
on their own, that are in their own lane. But
I mean, the cream rose to the top last night.
(28:49):
The songs that we just finished are just like.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
When you know you know, yeah, like they picked you yeah,
like when you know.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
You know, and like between all of the writers and
my just amazing, Like we just we just walked out
of the studio last night like we did it, like yeah,
this is it, Like it's just good.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Like y'all wrote some of the songs that will be
on the album, just started them last night and ended them.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Well, we started writing on Monday and we finished last night.
We got about four songs in so and then there's
one more that I want to I'm going to finish
when I get back to LA after we're done with
this leg, but that'll be on the album, so I
have time to get that way done and mixed.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
So are you someone who needs to be doing something
all the time, because I'm like, you're doing this massive
show and then you're writing your own album.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I am. I mean yes, and no, I've I've slowed
down a lot because I've kind of had to, like
and plus I want to, like I want to take
everything in. Yeah, normally, like I'm in the gym every day.
I'm you know, I take my case of school in
the morning. I do normal life when I'm home. You know,
(30:02):
I'm on the golf course as much as I can be.
But I unfortunately have a torn rotator cuff right now,
so like there's not a lot I can do, like
even doing the show. It hurts, but what are you
gonna do? Like, the show must go on and my
arm hasn't fallen off yet, so we're good. I'm trying
to avoid surgery, but I have a surgery date setup
(30:22):
for October. It's two months of downtime. It's fine. But yeah,
now hopefully now it's out there as public because when
we did our after party last weekend, a couple of
people pulled on my arm and it hurts so bad,
but nobody knew right now. But I'm fine. I'm fine,
like I can move it. It just it hurts. But no,
(30:43):
I am definitely slowing down. I want to really, like
I blink my eyes. And my daughters are now starting
school again, and my oldest is going to be thirteen
in November, Like you know, I want to be I
don't want to miss anything, you know, So where I
so when I'm home, I slow it down. When I'm
(31:05):
out here it's already fast paced. I like to keep moving.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And sleep. Sleep is nice. I take more naps now
than I ever have in my life.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I sep naps are great.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
What was the age of your kids, like when when
was there a moment where they realized what you do and.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Who you are.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
For my oldest, I think it was honestly kindergarten because
when I would do drop off, I was one of
the only dads that would do drop off. So all
the moms are like right in the sweet spot. So
it was like they literally I kind of got swarmed
the first day of school and like all of them
were talking about having posters in their room and a
couple of them on the road, yeah, them on the ceiling.
(31:48):
I'm like, Okay, I.
Speaker 7 (31:48):
Don't whom I but oh.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Thank you. And I'm a and I'm a huge advocate.
So I mean, everyone knows I'm the I'm the I'm
the I'm a huge I'm I'm a huge ally. Everyone
everyone knows that big time lgbt Q plus ally big time.
But yeah, it's you know they It's funny because now
(32:20):
now they kind of go nother in the phase where
like they love and don't love what I do because
they don't love that it takes me away from them.
And also like when they come see the show out
here or we go out to dinner back in LA
or whatever, and like people keep coming up to Daddy
that bothers them. But for example, they're coming to the
(32:41):
second to last show with all their little friends and
I gave them a shout out last weekend. Now they're like, Dad,
when you talked with during the show, can you give
us a shout out? So that our friends could see.
I'm like, Okay, now I see you like daddy to
be a backshet boy when it's convenient for you.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
But no, Daddy's actually boys and daddy.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Make it weird.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
No, it's not. This has become a thing with Kevin
and I. They're calling him a daddy and me and Zaddy,
which is freaking like, I don't even know. I guess
it's you're ZADDI.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Yeah, but I.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Kind of want to change it, like you want to daddy?
You want me like dad?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, like they've kind of ruined the Daddy's been ruined
it for plus that my kids call me his daddy.
It's like, no, you've ruined it for me.
Speaker 6 (33:38):
I know.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
I know you said that. I could see her, I
could see it going and I.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Was like, thank you so much for your time. We
really appreciate it. We cannot wait to see the show.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
Love you so much, and I'm just so excited.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I'm so excited that you're releasing your music finally, and congratulations.
I know finishing an album is like such a I
know you probably just feel like a weight is lifted off.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I do, And hopefully Season two for building the band
and uh, like I said, we're gonna stay here until
they kick us out.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Hell yeah yeah, we cannot wait to watch. Thank you
so much, Thanks
Hosts And Creators
Tanya Rad
Rebecca Tilley
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