Backstreet Boys

On Tour With The Backstreet Boys In England

How wild are you on tour?

A.J: we have our moments , usually after the show when the five of us hang out. We grab some drinks from the back of the bus so we don't have to pay for them at the hotel bar. Howie: I've been really tired since this tour started , so I restrict the partying. I just crash out. We don't have throw TVs out of hotels.

Kevin: I love going to clubs but unfortunately we can't all go together cuz Nick is only 16. When I'm in London I always go to browns or to The Bluenote. I also went to some really wild foam parties in Florida but I can't talk about that?

How do you all get on?

Kevin: Well, we are together 24 hours , seven days a week, so we have our ups and downs. We never physically fight but we do have spats.

Brian: We do argue but most of the time we make up straight afterward. We have days where we just can't agree on anything at all.

Who has the most annoying habits on tour?

A.J: Well, we don't have problem with smelly feet because we change our shoes as soon as we come off the stage. We all sleep in separate rooms so we don't have to put up with snoring. Brian: We all have very smelly feet. I bite my finger nails and that can get quite annoyed by that. Kevin: I chew on my tongue when I get nervous but I don't think anyone get annoyed by that.

Who get on the best in the band?

A.J: Brian and Nick are so close they're amazing. Even though Brian is 21 and Nick is 16 they are very very close. They're like the same person sometimes. a double act. Me, Kev and Howie like to go to clubs , explore whatever city we're in or just hang out.

What special things do you always take on tour?

A.J: I used to always take my blanket. I had it for fourteen years and it went everywhere with me. My great-great grandmother made it for me. But one day I left it in a hotel bed in America, it looked like a rag and it got thrown away. So I fiddle with my jeans all the time now, I just rub the material together between my fingers.

Howie: I always take the same pyjamas. They are oriental silk PJ's and I love them. They're so soft on the skin.

Brian: I have to eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches or I can't survive.

Nick: I love video games so I take my Play Station. I love Mortal Kombat and I love the football games. I beat Brian al the time. We have this projector to watch films.

Do you get homesick?

Nick: Yeah I do but when I'm on tour my parents are often with me, it's really weird living out of a suitcase. It's hard to sit and relax. I always feel I should be doing something active.

Howie: I miss not friving. I have being in a bus or a cab . I've got a Mazda 626, it was a present from my parents when I graduated from high school. I love to cuise roudn in it. I also miss my friends and family although they're not really things are they?

Do you have any backstage rituals?

Howie: Yeah, we pray together. We get in a circle and focus on the show and then we stretch out, warm up and say good luck!

Has anything embarrassing ever happened on stage?

Howie: I've fallen off the stage. One time I gell over and went hurtling towards the edge of the stage when a security guard caught me and pushed me back on . I would have died otherwise.

Kevin: For the past couple of nights I haven't been able to keep hold of my microphone stand . I'm such a butterfingers. It keeps slipping out of my hand.

How wild are your fans?

Howie: They read my sister's name in the magazines and then they phone up the hotels we've in and say 'I'm Howie's sister'. Them I'm like : 'You're not my sister, she doesn't have a British accent!'

A.J: very wild, I mean, what guy wouldn't want all these girls throwing themselves at us. They've tried to climb up the fire escapes. They say they're our maids.

What are the most outrageous things they've done?

A.J: I've been flashed from the stage. It happened in London, this girl was watching me when I was singing return of the mack and then she reached up under her shirt and made me lose my concentration . Then she pulled her bra out , screamed my name and whipped up her T-shirt up and showed me her breasts. I forgot the words and I stopped singing. I was like: you lied to me...and then I saw the breasts and I was like OH!

Howie: on my birthday a fan flew especially from Europe to America to bring me a gummy bear cake. She flew all the way but I was in Germany so she just gave it my family she was guted she'd missed me!

We noticed you get underwear thrown on stage?

Brian: yeah, I get bras sent to me all the time but I never know what to do with them. I can't wear them!

Nick: It makes me laugh when we have to wade through all this underwear when we're on stage. It's really weird. Our fans in Canada are the craziest. They're very aggressive, they scare me!