You Can't Ask That!

Source: Smash Hits January issue

They Came and they went in the blink of an eye. So when you've only got the BSB for just a few hours, you have to ask the questions that really matter...

Why only four months between the last single from ‘Millennium’ and the first single from the new album?

Kevin: A bit quick for you? (laughs) It’s a good time for us to come back. We haven’t been gone too long but we have been gone. Gone but not forgotten! That should have been the name of the album.

Howie, you’re another pop star who’s going into acting. What’s with that?
Howie: I did the last episode of ‘Roswell’. I was a cliff-hanger! In the last one of the last episode of the last season. I introduce some new alien life for the next season – and I’m the leader!
AJ: What do you wear?
Howie: I have a grey suit with a tie.
Nick: So how long were you in it?
Howie: Oh, five seconds. It was the last line – it was like, (adopting gruff, whispering alien voice) “It has begun”. Like one take! They asked me to come back next season, so depending on my time schedule...

AJ: You wait till you see me and Nick! We’re gonna blow up!
Nick: I want to be in an action film. If I could be Arnold Schwarzeneggar and not have to talk, then I’d be happy.
AJ: When Nick and I were both younger, we were really into comic books and we both really loved the X-Men movie. There are a couple of characters that they’re gonna re-introduce in the next one and I’d love to be one of them. I know Nick would too.

When will you split up?
AJ: Well, Howie has his stuff, Nick wants to do stuff with his brother and I did the whole Johnny No-Name thing. We’re all starting to ease into things, but we’re not saying “Ok fellas, I’m gonna go record my album next week while you guys go on tour”. Everyone’s doing something that makes them happy. Kevin can’t really do much right now ‘cos he’s hurt his knee. But he’s still enjoying things.

Who’s gonna make a solo record first?
Brian: I have noooooo idea.
AJ: Nick! (sarcastically) Hahaahaha!
Howie: You know what? We don’t know. Maybe all five of us will do it at the same time.

Do you think about how long you want to stay around?
Kevin: As long as we’re having fun, I guess.
Brian: As long as we can put our heads together and make good music. Several of us have aspirations to do solo stuff and we’d never stand in the way of somebody wanting to do that. But at the same time, the group comes first. That’s the way we started, and we plan on finishing this mess that we got ourselves into (everyone laughs)

When you did a photo shoot of music mag Rolling Stone - why did you drop your pants?
Kevin: We were just shooting and they said “Let’s do something crazy”. So I decided to drop my drawers...
Brian: (sarcastically) And he’s the leader so we all had to do it.
Howie: Yes, we were able to air...
AJ: (interrupting) We’re getting ready to do another shoot with them. It’s kind of an 80’s pop vibe. Kevin wants to wear eyeliner, I’m gonna wear lipstick and Brian wants to have a mohawk. It’s very 80’s punk, with short shirts, tight jeans and big spiky hair.

Nick, you’re single at the moment – who are you after?
Nick: (looking at a copy of Smash Hits and spotting a piccie of Billie and saying to it...) Hello! Hey, how ya doin’? I love Billie!

Why did you call your album ‘Black & Blue’ – why not ‘Yellow andPink’?

Kevin: (sniggering) We thought about ‘Fuchsia & Orange’.
AJ: (laughing) It’s a good thing that we weren’t wearing different colours that day! We were taking a picture wearing black outfits on a blue background, and Brian said “We all look black and blue”. It’s very symbolic for us. In this business you take alot of punches. It’s always trying to bring you down, searching through the cracks to find some flaws in you. But nobody’s perfect. You can throw what you want at us and do what you want. But we’re gonna stay around for a while. We ain’t going anywhere. So keep those punches coming – just don’t hit below the belt...

What would you do if ‘Black & Blue’ sold a grand total of eightcopies?
Kevin: That would suck (everyone laughs)
Brian: I’d have to buy eight copies more myself so that I could double the sales overnight.
AJ: I’d start crying and go play with traffic!
Nick: I tell you what, I got a boat, and if that happens, I’m gonna get on my boat and drive off somewhere and never get bugged again.
AJ: No, you know what? Honestly, if we sold eight copies then maybe that’s our destiny telling us we’re not happening anymore. We’ve done a great thing.
Nick: We pray to God it doesn’t happen!
Howie: It’s not gonna happen, but if it does, we’ll just make another album really quickly!
Kevin: We’d call an emergency meeting and regroup.
Brian: We try not to set our goals too high.

So you’d be happy with nine copies?
Brian: Ten, maybe...ten and a half if we’re lucky.

So after selling millions of records, how famous do you think you are?
Kevin: (thoughtfully) I would say at least 50% of the world have heard of us.
Brian: There’s how many billion people in this world? There’s still lots of people who don’t know who we are.
So 51% or 49%?
Kevin: Let’s go for 51%!