AJ McLean

Backstreet Boy star AJ McLean checks in to talk about his new solo music and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're on with Mario a little bit. It's up on
Mario Lopez joint me know on Zoom singer actor Backstreet
Boy A J. McClean. Welcome to the show man. How
are you? I am very well. How about yourself? Man?
Always looking great, Bro, You're always looking just fit, ready
to go. Man, I love it. Good looking at buddy.
I appreciate it. And likewise, by the way, congrats the

(00:20):
new solo singles now Here Smoke giving me give me
some Prince vibes with that one? Did didn't know you
have that funking you player? Right? Hey? Yeah? Yeah, man,
you know it's funny. Uh. When I actually was in
the studio writing the song with a bunch of beyond
talented writers, uh, my amazing producer at kill Abe. Uh.

(00:43):
It was one of the last songs that we actually
wrote the first batch of writing sessions, which happened in
January of this year. And uh, I just sat him
down and I and I was like, you know, I
just kind of want like a Prince George Michael kind
of vibe. And he laced the tracked down and then
once the track was done, it was just easy to
write too. But I mean, I've been a fan of

(01:05):
Prince and George Michael and Stevie and uh gosh, David Bowie,
you know, Freddie Mercury since I was a kid. So
that's the kind of music that I grew up with.
That's what's in me. Um, you know. I I did
the little country thing for a hot second, which was fun,
It was great, It was a cool experience, but it

(01:26):
was never really me, like truly me being myself. And
now now I think I finally found found who I
really am. So well, I dig that sound and you've
got great taste right there. This is often the new
album also digging this title Sex and Bodies. Uh, kind
of straight to the point right there. Does the rest
of the album have the same influences. Definitely? Uh, you know.

(01:49):
To me honestly, even though I I I do believe
that Smoke is an incredible record. It's a great kickoff point,
but it's not the best best song on the album.
Believe you when I tell you that. Um, there is
stuff that's got kind of an old blues funk sound
that there's eighties. Um, there's a bit of a rock

(02:10):
influence there's it just kind of covers the entire spectrum
of what genres and what styles I've been a fan
of since I Can you know, think, But there's definitely
still that cohesive sound that still falls into that funk
R and B realm. So I mean, yes, it's still
considered pop. Everything's popped today. It doesn't matter if you're

(02:32):
eminem or you're you know, audio slate, It's still pop,
you know what I mean. So there's always gonna be
that element. Gotcha, gotcha? And the Backstreet Boys have a
lot of tour in the head. When are you gonna
get a chance to perform these solo songs? Uh? So
I did. I did a little thing for fans in

(02:53):
Upstate New York about about three weeks ago. I've got
another show coming up hopefully soon year in Toronto. Um
but once the album is finalized and done, we are
looking at release. I'm literally I'm currently home right now.
I leave to go back on tour tomorrow for one night.

(03:14):
Then then on Saturday Sunday, I've got fittings, a bunch
of other stuff going. On Monday, I shoot my video
for my second single, a song called Electric, and then
Backstreet Boys have two Christmas videos back to back on Tuesday. Wednesday,
and then we go back on tour for one more
month here in the US, so hopefully or even somewhere,

(03:38):
I'll be able to finally tour and do things on
my own because the album will be out, and I
think people are gonna lose their minds, honestly, And I
hope I gained new fans outside of the Backstreet Boy
fans that are the most loyal fans in the entire universe.
I do want to gain new fans as well. Yeah, man,
I love in respect the hustle. Good for you being busy.

(03:58):
Speaking of being on the road, I hear you've been
having some bus problems here, just keeps breaking down. Yeah,
you know, it's kind of unfortunate. You know. That's what
they call the new bus blues. My bus is the
only bus out of the five of us that is
brand spanking new, and wouldn't you know it, uh, bus
broke down twice. Now I didn't have a bus for
four days. Um. I had to move my family from

(04:21):
coming out on a certain date because if I didn't
have a bus, they had nowhere to go. So excuse me.
So I was stuck on Knicks bus, and I say
stuck on Nick's bus because Nick likes the prank people
Nick Nick Nick likes to wake everybody up when he
gets up, So it was a fun couple of days
that kind of guy. Man, what do you do to
pass your time on the bus? Um? You know? We

(04:45):
uh so it's myself, are our photographer, and my personal security.
So it's definitely a bro bus. We got Xbox. I'm
a big, big gamer. I'm I'm a major movie guy.
Movies and TV shows. Um, We're always trying to catch
up on what's the latest and greatest. Um. But now

(05:06):
that Yeah, but now that we finished The Boys season three,
now we're like, what are we gonna watch? Now that
we did that in two days? Stranger Things two days,
So now it's like, what are we gonna do? You know,
our bus rides range anywhere from two hours to eighteen hours,
so a lot of good shows out there. Man. There
is Yeah, Tokyo Vice I was just told is killer

(05:29):
and apparently one episode from what I've been told, I
haven't seen it. They feature I want it that way
And there's a whole like five or six minute debate
between ansel Edgard's character and one of the yakuza talking
about this songment. That's great, cool man, it's all cool.
That's very cool. Um, you mentioned your family earlier. How

(05:49):
many kids have got? How old do they? I have
two girls, uh, Eva and Lyric. They are nine and five. Um,
and uh they were just on the road with me
with my amazing wife, and uh, you know, it's funny
because my youngest has never really been on the roach,
so she became what I call bust Lyric, Like she

(06:11):
was running the bus. She was telling everybody what to do,
where to go, how things need to run and and
yeah and uh and then my, oh my god, she's
gonna kill me for saying this. But my oldest uh
kind of got a little boy crazy and had a
little baby crush on one of Kevin's boys. And I

(06:31):
was like, no, that's like tat amount to incests to me,
Like this is my brother, that's his kids. No no, no no,
no, no no no. So but they're but they're still really
good friends and they were hanging out, so they had
a really good time. You know, did the girls inspire
the nail polish passion because you guys are selling your
own nail polish now, huh yep, yep, Eva Dean, we've

(06:55):
been now on the market about a year and a
half and things are just continuing into to just crush
the market. Um. We also just created the official Battery
Boys DNA set, so each of my boys picked out
their favorite color they named it. We're selling it on
the Abadan website as well as of the shows. Um.

(07:15):
But yeah, I mean I've been wearing nail polished for
at least, geez, twenty five years. And uh yeah, I
mean it basically started from me like the end of
are like, yeah, somewhere in there. Um, and you know,
it's just but it was always black black black black.
I've never tried any other colors. And uh, oddly enough,

(07:38):
my security Josh, who is my business partner within the company,
like about seven years ago, we started talking about it
seriously and it took us about six years to really
develop it and really get it to where it is today. Uh,
it's pretty nuts how much goes into creating nail polish,
the bottling, the brushes, the caps, the colors, what you know.

(08:01):
I mean, all of our stuff is animal cruelty free,
it's vegan, it's organic. Um, and uh so it's it's
been a long process, but the payoff has been fantastic.
Everyone's loving it. And my girls get to pick out
their own colors. My wife picked out hers, I picked
out mine, and the girls are always coming up with
brand new names, brand new colors. So yeah, the plan

(08:23):
is to move into a full beauty line at some point,
like full on makeup, blush, foundation, concealer, lipstick, all of that.
So that's our next that's our phase three. I like it. Well, well,
good luck with that, and good luck with being out
on the road, and congrats on everything, man, and listen
to smoke on I Heart Radio or wherever you get
your music. Hey J. Stay safe out there, man, We'll

(08:45):
see as soon. Thank you, brother, absolutely man. Always a pleasure,
all right, brother, take care. On with Mario Lopez