Facts About The Backstreet Boys That You Might Not Know.

Howie is the only member of the group to have studied dance.

Howie inherited his exotic good looks from his mom, Paula, who is Puerto Rican heritage and his dad, Hoke, who traces his family roots back to Ireland.

Brian's first experiences singing in public came when he joined his local church's choir.

Porter Memorial Baptist Church was where he gave his first performance.

Kevin used to work as a performer at Disney World.

Before joining the iconic boy band, Kevin made a living portraying characters like Aladdin.

Kevin was once in a local top 40 cover band in Kentucky before heading to Florida.

AJ used to play basketball with Ryan Gosling.

In 1992, AJ Mclean lived in the same building as Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Ryan Gosling. In fact, he used to shoot hoops with Ryan on the basketball court, and one day during a game he asked him to join his new band – which turned out to be the Backstreet Boys. What was Ryan’s response? He simply nodded.

Their first performance was as the opening act for Shamu the Whale at Seaworld.

The Early Years

The Backstreet Boys earned next to nothing during the start of their career. Lou Pearlman, the band’s manager who was later jailed for 25 years for illegal ponzi schemes, made a ton of cash from the teenage boys, who would play stadiums and arenas for $100 or less, and was just enough to cover their living costs.

Nick was only 13 years old at the time of the band's first performance.

Nick and Brian

Nick and Brian were once like brothers, as they were practically inseperable. No matter where in the world they were, the two boys would visit a gym to play basketball. According to Kevin, Nick looked up to Brian, as he was the youngest member of the Backstreet Boys and was travelling without his parents.

The brotherly love didn’t last long, sadly. Nick reportedly felt pushed out when Brian started to grow up and married wife Leighanne. Kevin also stated that Nick was intimidated by Brian for many years after.

He was also in Edward Scissorhands.

You'll have to look very closely, as he only plays one of the little kids playing outside during the film's intro.

Kevin was planning on joining the United States Air Force when he was invited to join the band.

Talk about good timing!

Nick and AJ got in a big fight over a video game.

The two were playing Mario Kart, and apparently a close race resulted in one throwing a controller at the other. They then began fighting before someone came in to break it up.

Their band name was inspired by the name of a flea market.

They saw a market in Orlando called the Backstreet Market. That's when a light bulb went off.

Kevin was engaged to be wed when he was just nineteen.

He also receives the most fan mail of all the boys.

Brian and Kevin are actually cousins!

The Backstreet Boys first gained popularity in Canada and Europe prior to hitting it big in America.

In 1995, the Boys won a Smash Hits Award in London for Best New Tour Act and performed the gold single “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” on “Top of the Pops”.

Before joining the group, Howie went by the stage name Tony Donetti.

At this time in his career, he was dancing and acting on a variety of programs.

Porn and the Backstreet Boys

The band members regularly hung out at manager Lou Pearlman’s home, playing video games and basketball. Sounds pretty innocent, right? Well, it wasn’t. The Backstreet Boys would regularly watch porn together. In fact, Howie had apparently never seen two women kiss each other until the boys found one of Pearlman’s porno movies.

AJ Mclean and Cocaine

It’s pretty fair to say the Backstreet Boys were the cleanest band in pop music until AJ entered rehab. During the height of the band’s fame, AJ began experimenting with drugs, but things took a turn for the worse when the guys filmed “The Call” music video. As his part in the video was not scheduled to be shot until 3.30am, his friend offered AJ cocaine to “perk him up”. AJ attended the set visibly high, which maybe the reason why he wears sunglasses in the video.

AJ, however, developed a taste for cocaine, which later resulted in the singer entering rehab in 2001, and again in 2002, following an intervention from fellow bandmate Kevin Richardson.

Vocal Tension Dysphoria

Brian’s voice isn’t what it used to be, according to the ‘Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of’ documentary. The band is worried that Brian may be losing his singing voice, as he is suffering from vocal tension dysphoria – which is a tightening around the vocal chords.

Kevin’s nickname in the group is Boo Boo.

His secret fantasy is to be the “President” for a day.

The Backstreet Project

Marvel creator Stan Lee made the Backstreet Boys into comic book stars. He created a comic called the “Backstreet Project” and only one issue was ever printed.

Nick also does many comic style drawings of the band while on tour and thinks nothing of sneaking up behind someone and drawing right on their clothing.

In his spare time, Aj tends to write a lot of romantic poetry and adds that special touch to many of their heart-warming ballads.

He used to smoke but he quit when he realized that it was ruining his voice.

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