'Boy band’s tour exploring new territory' - AJ interview

Boy band’s tour exploring new territory

By Allan Wishart - Prince George Free Press



Published: October 28, 2008 4:00 PM

AJ McLean is fighting a cold.

“At least it was kind enough to wait until we did
the national anthem at the first game of the World Series,” says
McLean, one-quarter of the Backstreet Boys. “With any luck, it should
be gone by the time we start the tour again.”

That tour sees the (almost) re-united Backstreet Boys visiting the CN Centre in Prince George on Nov. 16.

“It’s our first time up that way,” McLean says. “On
this tour we wanted to go back and cover as much ground as possible,
then we found out there were a lot of places we had never been who
wanted to see us.

“So we extended the tour.”

It’s the (almost) re-united Backstreet Boys because
Kevin Richardson left the band on good terms a few years ago. Visiting
the band’s website at www.backstreetboys.com, however, you see the four
current members – and one pair of empty shoes.

“That started as a joke,” McLean says, “and the fans loved it. It means Kevin is definitely missed by all of us.”

And yes, he agrees, it also means no one else can
fill those shoes. Finding out McLean’s favourite movies are horror
films means it isn’t a surprise to find he and Nick Carter came up with
the main idea for the video some years ago for Everybody (Backstreet’s
Back), which featured each of the band members as a horror-movie
character.

“The Phantom (of the Opera) has always ben my
favourite,” McLean says. “If I do more musical theatre, that’s one role
I want to do before I die.”

While he won’t be singing any Phantom songs, the current tour has a mix of styles, although it is all Backstreet Boys, he says.

“It’s probably about 60 per cent old stuff, 40 per
cent stuff from the new album (Unbreakable). We also do some medleys
and remixes of our old stuff, and each of has a solo time.”

Carter and Brian Littrell have both released solo albums, while McLean and Howie Dorough are each working on one.

“I’m finishing my solo album as we speak,” McLean
says. “I’m excited about this first record on my own. I’ve probably
been working on it for four or five years.”

He describes the sound as “funk-rock soul”.
Dorough’s album, he says, has a Latin rock feel to it. Carter’s album
was pop-rock, while Littrell released,an album of Christian music.
McLean laughs when asked about the wide range of styles.

“That’s the funny part. We’re four very different personalities, but we fit together so well. We’re a family.”

While the Backstreet Boys as a group have a couple
of writing credits on Unbreakable, McLean has an unusual shared credit
on Treat Me Right. His co-writers are Theron Feemster, also known as
Neff-U, and JC Chasez, also known as a member of *Nsync, one of the
Boys’ rival bands in the 1990s.

“I’ve known JC for years,” McLean says. “Since
*Nsync broke up and decided not to get back together, he’s been doing a
lot of writing.”

The two share the same manager for their
individual projects, so it wasn’t odd that the suggestion was made for
McLean and Chasez to get together.

“JC and Neff-U had a track they were working on when I got there. Two or three hours later, we had a song.

“We did up a demo version, I took it back and played it for the rest of the band, and the guys loved it.”

The Backstreet Boys play the CN Centre on Nov. 16. Tickets at all Ticketmaster locations.