They really mean it this time. Backstreet's back, alright?
After decades of churning out chart-toppers and wooing girls with their slick moves and snappy jams, the Backstreet Boys — Nick Carter, AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, and Kevin Richardson — are officially back and kicking off their 20th anniversary with a new album, "In a World Like This."
The album, which hits shelves July 30, will also mark the start of their North American tour beginning three days later in Chicago. This will be the first time all five members have hit the stage as a group since 2006, and their twitter hashtag #comeseeyourboys already has fans drooling.
While the boys say their admirers — formerly teenage girls, now grown women — can expect plenty of classic BSB moments, don't expect them to hit the stage with baggy jeans and bowl haircuts. Their vibe is a little more — dare we say it? — manly.
They are all married with children, with the exception of Carter, 33, who got engaged in February. In an exclusive interview with omg!, the multi-platinum pop group shared how they've grown up together over the past 20 years and dished on everything from their signature dance moves to why they sported all those baggy clothes.
"We've known each other more than half of some of the guy's lives," Dorough, 39, shared. "In our 20s, those first 10 years are some of the best memories. I don’t know how I could top those, but we actually are topping those in different ways. We're getting older and we're sharing different experiences now with each other."
Join us on a trip down memory lane with our special "Then and Now" Q&A with the Backstreet Boys.
Then: Your style could be described as ___.
Brian: It was like hip-hop? Urban baggy?
Nick: We definitely went through a lot of wardrobe transitions through our career.
AJ: Lots of baggy, baggy stuff. We thought we were Kris Kross.
Kevin: That was what was in back then. That's what we liked. We were kinda athletic. We wore a lot of jerseys.
Now: Your style could be described as ___.
Kevin: Refined.
AJ: A little more couture.
Brian: European? European cut suits? Like "Mission Impossible."
Nick: Refined. More modern and sleek.
Then: Your signature dance move was?
All: Backstreet's back [hands].
Now: Your signature dance move is?
Kevin: Our signature dance move is this (stands up and starts snapping doing the step and touch.). Step, touch. Step, touch.
Brian: Noooooo.
AJ: Step touch, step touch and maybe a ball change.
Brian: Sit down on some stools!
The amount of hair products you used then versus now?
AJ: I've been losing my hair for the better part of 10 years, especially in the beginning, and now I finally have some. So I am using more products now than then.
Howie: I used to have longer hair so I used a lot more back then. I spent a long time preparing my presence in the past. Now it is like, less time. I don't use a flatiron.
Nick: The same. I always had long hair. But you didn't have long hair all the time, Howie. You went through Caesar cut and then you went to the Steve Perry look.
Then: Your tour must have item was ___ ?
Brian: This was before the time of the Internet and computers.
Kevin: We had weights and stuff. We had a basketball goal.
Nick: That was the best. That was important.
Brian: We had a ping pong table.
AJ: We had a pool table once. Lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in our dressing room all the time.
Now: Your tour must have item is ___ ?
Kevin: Chiropractor. (Laughs)
Howie: Wine.
AJ: Masseuse.
Nick: Alcohol, chiropractor. Vitamins. We tried juicing on this last tour. It was good for us.
Brian: Advil. Food processor.
Then: Your fans threw ____ on the stage?
Kevin: Stuffed animals.
AJ and Nick: Panties, bras.
Howie: Jewelry.
Now: Your fans throw ____ on the stage?
Brian: Now they throw Depends!
Nick: They actually don't.
Then: Your fans were __?
AJ: Young!
Kevin: They were junior high, high school, some college.
Now: Your fans are ___?
AJ: Now it is like a night out with your girlfriends to come and see us. They'll rent a limo and have a couple cocktails and have a nice night and kick back.
Kevin: Now some of them are mothers and career women.
Nick: Now they're crazier! If they're still outside the hotel, they're crazier than they were before.
Then: When you were on your tour bus, you did ____ ?
Brian: We used to play video games!
Nick: Lots and lots of video games. We still play video games.
Now: When you were on your tour bus, you ____ ?
Kevin: Now it is going to be feeding bottles. My wife is expecting another baby.
Howie: We used to drink and now the bottle service is going to the kids. We used to order bottle service at the club, now it is just baby bottle service.
Kevin: That needs to be a song lyric. Seriously. [starts rapping] 'Used to get bottle service at the club, now we give it to the bub.'
Then: What was the biggest highlight of the '90s?
AJ: Probably getting signed was the first big highlight. Then "Millennium."
Brian: Our first gold record.
Nick: Does it have to pertain to us? Because Bill Clinton's cigar was a big one.
Kevin: I did not have sexual relations with that woman.
One last burning question: Is the Boy Band beef true?
Nick: We actually did a song with Boyz II Men and we never released it.
ALL: No, that's not true!
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