Nick looked over at them and his eyes went back down to the carpet as AJ spoke,
"Any publicity Nick gets is publicity we get. You'll never see an article or see a TV story about Nick and they don't mention the group. So, it's cool." Kevin cleared his throat,
"I think before it was that way because Nick is the youngest and he was the age of our fans. Now that the fans are older I don't think that really matters that he's the youngest, the cutest, the blondest, all that stuff." Greg nodded,
"More so than other groups, you DON'T have one person that sticks out unless it's for something personal like AJ's rehab or Nick's personal life. Although it's Justin and NSYNC, Beyonce and Destiny's Child, Gwen and No Doubt. Why do you think you guys don't deal with that when it comes to the media?" They all looked around smiling as they realized it was true, they didn't deal with that. Brian nodded,
"Yeah, we're five equal parts and that's how we present ourselves. No one person makes the decisions for us. Someone might suggest something and if we agree then cool, if not we discuss it. We stop letting people do that to us. At first, especially before we hit it big in the US, we were Nick Carter and the Backstreet Boys but once we started taking control we changed that. Whether it's singing, photo shoots or who sits where." Greg looked at Nick,
"What was it like at first being put up front? Did you feel animosity from the other guys?" Nick sighed as he looked around the room, he didn't want to make anyone upset but sometimes he did feel they didn't like it,
"I think it got hard for them, for me too. I didn't like it, I just wanted to be one of the guys and they knew I wasn't trying to make it like that so it was cool."
"Why do you think your private life has been an issue lately?" He wanted to scream, why was it an issue lately,
"I don't know, I guess because it changed. Before no one cared but now that I broke up I guess that's why. I hate it." Greg looked down at notebook,
"How is this album different from the others?" Kevin cleared his throat, the others knew this was his type of question anyway so they didn't bother to try and answer first,
"We've done a lot of growing. We wrote with some amazing writers, we did more writing than we have ever done. It's fresh for us because we worked with all new people." Brian decided to enter the mix,
"We truly had more control on this album, it's us." Greg nodded and looked at them all,
"That's pretty much what you said about the last album, so how is this different?" It was quiet for a moment until AJ tried to save them,
"How is any album different from the last? It's not so much what is different as what's the same...and we're the same, it's us, that's what makes it what it is...it's us. It's music, it's different, it's the same, whatever, it's just music and it's us and we're proud of it." This is one of those time they wished they were being asked about their idea of a perfect date,
"So, there won't be any disappointments after this album like the last time?" Ouch, where was that favorite color question when you needed it? Kevin seemed to be irritated,
"Those were circumstances that were just difficult. The politics of this whole industry. It's dirty, it's crazy and you can never completely agree with your label, its hard to deal with. I think we'd all rather go our own ways than be victims to this industry." They continued on for another fifteen minutes and once Greg was gone they all let out a breath they didn't know they were holding as Howie sighed,
"God, can't wait to see how that one comes out." Their PR people, surprisingly, never stepped in and tried to shelter them from a question; maybe it was payback for their answers about the record label. Sally, one of their many PR people, walked over,
"Nick, you have an interview with Cosmo in a couple of days." He frowned,
"What's with all these interviews?" Her face matched his frown,
"You guys are getting weak, it's not like you're all over the place. You're only doing six magazines for this CD promotion. And you're only on the cover of three of them. Teen People, Rolling Stone and Seventeen." Nick nodded,
"Guess you're right, guess it's cause we haven't done anything in a while. So what's this Cosmo interview for?" He groaned in repsonse to her smile,
"Music's eligible bachelors." The others laughed as he complained,
"Come on, what's with this? Why can't they get Justin Timberlake?" Sally laughed,
"We got a call for him too. Look, it's all because of these reports of you and girls lately. Usually, you are under the radar when it comes to stuff like this but the stories, the pictures, girls selling stories to rag mags about hooking up with you has made you a hot commodity. We've been getting all kinds of calls for interviews. Most we just turn down and don't bother to tell you, we know you wouldn't want to do them anyway. We have a CD to promote so we aren't saying no to Cosmo, the amount of subscribers they have alone is in the tens of millions." He sighed as he sat back in his chair,
"Is it over the phone at least?" She laughed,
"Hell no, you're not getting out of it that easy and you have a photo shoot for it too." He groaned and closed his eyes as they waited for lunch.
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Chapter 83