Backstreet Mom: A Mother's Tale of Backstreet Boy AJ McLean's Rise to Fame, Struggle With Addiction, and Ultimate Triumph (18 page)

The more those industry executives and reps were psyched, the more
they would sell the boys to the world. It was their mission to help the
Backstreet Boys become a household word in any language. I was so
happy, tears came to my eyes as I watched it unfold in front of me.
Parents have many times in their lives to be proud of their children.
This had to be at the top of my list.

WHEN WE RETURNED HOME, a mere twenty-four hours after we had left
for the conference, everyone was psyched. We were sure that the reaction they had received in Malaysia would prod Jive to release an album
quickly.

But every time we asked about the album, we were told that the boys
were not yet ready to record the album. In our minds, that was not true.
All you had to do was see the reaction of the girls to know that we had
something real and true. We had thousands of names in our database
from the last tour alone. How could they not be ready?

Finally, in June 1995, jive decided to get serious about the boys going
into the studio. The problem was that none of the songs that had been
pitched to them by American songwriters seemed right for the boys. As
a result, they contacted Swedish songwriter/producer Denniz PoP and
invited him to submit songs. PoP and his writing partner, Max Martin,
reworked a song titled "We've Got it Goin' On" and sent it to Jive. The
A&R department liked it so much that PoP was hired to produce the
single.

When the boys arrived in Sweden, they discovered that PoP and Martin had written two additional songs for them. They liked them so much
that they recorded all three songs: "We've Got it Goin' On," " 1 Wanna
Be With You" and "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)." The sessions
went remarkably well and they returned to the States filled with enthusiasm.

We felt some encouragement when Lynda Simmons, Jive's head of
video production, came to Florida to prepare the boys for a video that
the label wanted to make available to MTV when their first single was
released. They decided to film it in Orlando. As the shoot progressed, I
could see the excitement in Alex's eyes as he sang for the camera. I was
amazed that he could withstand the Florida humidity, with temperatures in the nineties, wearing leather pants, a denim shirt and a leather
vest, singing his heart out for every take. I kept waiting for one of the
boys to faint from heat exhaustion, but it never happened. They just
kept singing for take after take.

After production on the video was completed, the boys did another
Sea World Grad Night show. This time they were actually paid and allowed to perform as headliners since most of the students now knew
who they were. This performance was a bit different in that security
wanted barricades put up so that the girls would not get hurt rushing
the stage.

Rushing the stage? I did not like the sound of that. There is an area
between the barricades and the stage called the pit. From that point on,
that's where I positioned myself during the boys' shows. I taped shows
with my video camera, talked to the fans, and handed out black-andwhite photos.

That was not my only job, though. It now included costume changes
between songs. The boys had thirty seconds to get almost naked and redressed in the dark. I became very good at holding a penlight in my
mouth, while helping my son change wardrobe. Since Alex always had
to have a different "something" to wear, he would invariably ask for a
bandana or a tank top or different sunglasses at the last second. Depending on how far the dressing room was from the stage, I did a marathon run to find him what he needed. Those moments always made me
nervous because I worried about them getting back on stage in time for
the next song.

The end of the show was always the best. By that time, one or more of
the boys was bare-chested or wearing only a tank top. It drove the girls
crazy whenever they saw skin. If the boys lifted their shirts, that made
the girls even crazier. Alex relished the cries of adoration. He never
tired of hearing his name screamed over and over again.

DESPITE THE succESS of the Malaysian trip, jive could not decide where
or when to release the boys' first single. We were all getting very anxious and discouraged at the record company's inability to make a decision. After numerous changes and postponements, it was finally decided
that it would be released simultaneously in the United States and Europe in September 1995.

Fortunately for the boys, all the behind-the-scenes people (sales,
promotional, marketing) had continued to work feverishly to get the
boys' name out there even without a record to back up their efforts.

At around that time, I had begun to feel a bit out of sorts. Management was already benefiting from the boys' efforts, while the boys and
their families were still in debt. We owed Lou and we owed Jive. Things
were a bit tight financially, despite the fact that I had managed to save
some money from the per diem I received while on the road.

Management didn't seem to be under that type of stress. When the boys
signed the record deal, one of the things thatJohnny got for his efforts was
a brand new BMW convertible. The boys were very impressed with the
new wheels. Then they found out how it was paid for. It was at that point
that we began to ask for monthly statements from the accountant. That was tortuous. Excuse after excuse came back to us as to why the statements were not ready or why we really didn't need to see them.

Lou again raised the trust issue. However, this time we were undeterred. Some of the other parents and I wanted to devise a plan that
would enable us to find out how long the boys would have to be paying
out money instead of bringing it in.

The expenses had been enormous over the past few years. I knew
that the number was not going to be a small one. At the very least, I
wanted an itemized list of things to look over before I began to pay
them back. That issue became an ongoing battle between the parents,
Johnny and Lou for the next few years.

In September, we listened to the radio obsessively, waiting for the
boys' single, "We've Got it Goin' On," to hit the airwaves. One day Alex
and I were on our way to rehearsals, when he screamed out of nowhere,
"That's us! That's us on the radio!"

We stopped at a traffic light and he jumped out of the car.

"Turn on your radio! " he shouted to every driver within earshot. "Our
song is on the air! Turn on your radio!"

When we got to rehearsals we immediately called Mom and Dad.
They were so excited when they heard the song that Mom cried tears of
joy. It seemed to all of us that success was just on the horizon.

ON AUGUST 31, 1995, the Backstreet Boys began their first Radio
Promotional Tour in Miami, where they were joined by record company
reps, whose job it was to introduce the boys to the program directors in
each city. They were the people who decided which records received
airplay. Heavy schmoozing was the order of the day.

We quickly learned that when the program directors saw and heard
the boys, it made a world of difference. Initially, several of the stations
that we visited were not interested in the boys. That all changed once
they met the boys and heard them sing.

Quite a few stations asked the boys to come back to sing on the air and
to answer some call-in questions. While we were on the radio tour, we
received exciting news from Orlando, where a radio show called "Survival of the Freshest" had been playing the single every night. The show's
format was to play new music, then to ask listeners to call in to vote for
their favorite songs. The boys won three nights in a row, beating out John
B. and even Boyz II Men, by votes of seventy to eighty percent.

Traveling from town to town was a bit scary for us because we could
never be sure what the reaction would be from the different radio stations. Radio people are very demanding. For example, some of the DJs quizzed the boys about having girlfriends and playing around all the
tine-partying, drinking, money, all the vices that conic with the territory. The boys handled the off-color and inappropriate questions pretty
well most of the time, but they were still a bit green when it came to the
media. When things got out of hand, the Jive rep broke in and bailed
them out.

Sometimes, if the DJs didn't get any dirt on the guys, they made things
up right after we left. In the beginning, that was really distressing to the
boys, given that they had worked so hard to keep up a clean-cut image.
With experience, they found those situations easier to deal with.

I came to understand how celebrities could grow sick and tired of
being hounded by photographers and journalists. Regardless of how
hard you work to maintain a good image, inevitably the media will put
their own spin on things to make it more interesting for their listeners
or readers. They don't seem to consider the negative ramifications of
what they say or write about the celebrities and their families.

Despite the overall success the boys had with the radio stations, their
record was not added to many playlists. The only radio stations that
played the boys' music were in Tampa and Orlando. They found little
support across the rest of the country.

Some people said that the timing was not right for the type of pop
music that the boys wanted to do. Others said that the large number of
radio stations owned by corporate chains make it difficult to break new
artists. Program directors for chain-owned stations often have very little discretion about what they can add to playlists that have been put
together by corporate programmers.

It does not matter how hard you try, or how charming you might be,
if the radio people don't have the power to add your record to their
playlists-or if they simply don't believe in you and your style of music-you don't stand much of a chance.

We finished visiting the radio stations on our list, then traveled across
the country to Seattle, where the boys performed at the Washington
State Fair. Kevin got his shirtsleeve grabbed by a girl in the front row;
security had to pull her off.

After that show, we jumped on a red-eye flight to Chicago for a Cubs
game. From there we went to Cleveland, then Indianapolis and onward
to Roanoke, Virginia, where the boys performed two shows. With each
city we visited, the audience reaction was bigger and better than the
last. Word was obviously spreading about the Backstreet Boys.

Once that leg of the tour was done, we flew to New York to meet with
representatives for BMG. Along the way, we picked up some press people who wrote for the top European teen magazines. It was amazing how
quickly the boys learned to manipulate those reporters.

The charming way that Alex had with female reporters constantly
amazed me. It made me proud to see how well-mannered and professional he was with industry people. He took to that side of the business
like a flower to rain.