Group sticks it out through lawsuits, surgery, addiction and death to make it back
Where: Rogers Arena When: Friday night at 7:30 Tickets: $39.50 to $75 or $99 for four-pack at Ticketmaster and livenation. com
Maybe it's long overdue to give credit to the Backstreet Boys for staying together.
In their 17 years, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, A.J. McLean and the erstwhile Kevin Richardson have made the transition from boys to men almost as brothers.
They've faced lawsuits against their first manager, Lou Pearlman, and against their record label, Jive. They've lived through surgery (Littrell's open-heart operation), addictions (McLean's), death (Richardson's father, alluded to in the video of "Incomplete"), a three-year hiatus, the 2006 departure of Richardson and the challenge of selling records in the face of new technology and the simple fact Backstreet isn't as wildly popular as it once was.
These things might have broken a group apart. Instead, they brought the four survivors together.
"Totally," Dorough agrees. "We support each other. As friends, solo artists. It's a family; we're like brothers."
When the band started performing in the mid-'90s, it had to pad its show with solo spots, such as Carter's drum solo, because it had so little new material. As the hits came and the members grew, their individuality began to show, such as Dorough's Latin music heritage, and the nature of the solo spots changed. Backstreet Boys had matured and have modified their life accordingly.
"It all developed really quickly," Dorough says, recalling the mania that engulfed Backstreet before the five had a chance to prepare for it.
"I think in the very initial stages, we had to figure out our strengths and weaknesses. Once we figured that out, our roles within the group got stronger. Right now, we're comfortable with each other.
"But we've always allowed each other to spread their wings."
The band formed in 1993 in Orlando, Fla., the catalyst being a want ad in a local paper placed by Pearlman, who was attempting to put together a "boy band." This probably accounts for the suspicion that Backstreet Boys was put together as a coldly calculated and synthetic model. However, several of them already were friends and they could sing.
At first, Backstreet Boys were a success in Europe, then Canada, but by the time of its Millenium album, which was the best-selling album of 1999, Backstreet was the hottest band in America.
Subsequent pressures, such as those lawsuits, led to a hiatus in 2000, but a series of albums titled Never Gone, Unbreakable and This Is Us tell their own story. In a way, they are a comment on Backstreet's history since 2005.
"When we came back, we all had to realize that we were coming back to a scene that was totally different," Dorough says. "But we're very lucky that we have a loyal fan base and we can tour around the world."
It doesn't hurt that the group is big enough to let its members be who they are and small enough for them to find themselves.
"There are no egos in this group," Dorough says. "We realize each other's strengths."
tharrison@theprovince.com
© Copyright (c) The Province
Thursday, August 05, 2010
THIS IS US TOUR: Boys Prove They Are Unbreakable
0 comments:
Post a Comment