Backstreet Mom: A Mother's Tale of Backstreet Boy AJ McLean's Rise to Fame, Struggle With Addiction, and Ultimate Triumph (23 page)

THE SUCCESSFUL RELEASE of the Backstreet Boys' first album in
Europe got them signed as an opening act for a well-established European pop star. Since they would be performing for a longer period of
time on stage now, that meant they had to lengthen and tighten up their
show. However, one pesky little thing kept popping up and getting in
the way of their learning the new material: daily meetings with Big Poppa to straighten out management problems. Trouble had been brewing
for months.

Every time Donna was out on the road with the boys, ugly incidents
occurred. Her battles with record company reps had become famous.
She had arguments with the boys over press issues because she made
decisions without consulting them. Whenever her authority was called
into question, she responded by throwing a tantrum, sometimes in public. Donna's use of foul language in front of the boys and members of the
press was a constant embarrassment. She was extremely hot-tempered
and unpredictable. We never knew when or where she might blow up.

In addition to everything else, Donna and I had very different ideas
when it came to raising children and that created tension between us. It
was almost as if she felt she had the right to stick her nose into every facet of each boy's life and career. When it came to Alex, I felt that she
should keep her advice to herself. Unfortunately, he was still infatuated
with her daughter and that didn't leave inc too much leverage, a situation that only widened the gap between my son and me. That was due
in part to his being a teenager, but it was aided by Donna, who pulled
him away whenever she could.

I sometimes found my son having secret conversations with Donna
in her hotel room while 1 was working. When Alex and I tried to have
discussions about Marisa, or his attitude, I heard things come out of his
mouth that I knew were direct quotes from Donna. Things like, "It's my
life and I am almost eighteen, so I can do what I want."

Donna did her best to promote the relationship between her daughter and Alex. Even the other boys saw what was happening and did not
approve. It was clearly not just me being a typical, overprotective, paranoid mom. It was a real problem.

FINALLY, THE GROUP CAME TOGETHER at Lou's house to review what could
be done about several pressing issues. Only the five boys and Lou were
present. From what I was later told, several valid points were brought
up and incidents were cited about Donna's behavior on the road. For
example, Alex told me that she had bought him drinks when they were
in hotel bars and tried to get the other boys to join them.

The final straw occurred during an important dinner on the West
Coast. Donna and several Jive reps apparently had a bit too much to
drink. They started singing and got very loud and obnoxious at the
dinner table in front of the guests, which included several radio personalities. The boys were horribly embarrassed.

After everyone at the meeting had his say, they reached a consensus:
Donna would have to be fired. They decided to call a second meeting, to
which Johnny and Donna would be invited, but before that happened
Johnny requested a formal business meeting with Lou and the boys so
that he could introduce them to some potential employees. They decided to use Johnny's meeting as a forum for discussing Donna's future.
Lou was much better at doing things kind of sideways like that. He
never wanted to look like the bad guy. Having Johnny call the meeting
played into Big Poppa's hand.

A few days later, the meeting took place in Lou's office, with everyone
present, including myself. Lou brought someone to the meeting to take
minutes so that everything would be properly recorded. That was a first
for him. The meeting began on a good note as Johnny explained why he wanted to hire some new people to help with the workload. In fact, it
seemed to play right into the plan of phasing Donna out.

As the meeting progressed, Donna became more defensive as each boy
told of how he felt she had acted unprofessionally and had invariably
wound up embarrassing him. With each testimony, Donna's eyes flared.
She was boiling! Finally, the last incident was cited. It had something to
do with her and a jive rep sneaking off before a show to have some drinks.
Several people saw her, including one of the other boys' parents.

At that point, Donna jumped out of her chair and stormed out of the
room, shouting a few choice words as she left. We sat there in shock for
a minute, then just continued with our meeting. Suddenly, there was a
knock at the door. Nicole poked her head in with a look of astonishment on her face.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Donna just quit," someone said.

"Donna went into her office and started tearing the boys' pictures off
the walls-I didn't know what to think," Nicole said. "Then she started
throwing papers all around the room. When she finished with that, she
yelled out that she was quitting-and she bolted out of the office."

We asked Nicole to get some help and start cleaning up Donna's office. By that time, Big Poppa was fuming over the incident. To make it
official for the minutes, the boys all voted unanimously to let Donna go
and it was done. I felt a great sense of relief. Now I could try to salvage
some shred of relationship with my son without fear of Donna countering me at every turn.

With all of that behind them, the boys focused their attentions on
getting ready for the new tour. That meant we needed a larger and better-equipped rehearsal space. Once again, we turned to Lou for help.
Unfortunately, his solution merely moved the boys from one bad situation to another.

Lou put them in a warehouse that had been used to store his airship
equipment. However, the word warehouse does not in any way describe
that steam box of a room. It had no windows, no air conditioning or
ceiling fans. To circulate air, they opened the door and put a large fan
there, but that merely moved the hot steamy air from one side of the
room to the other.

The noise generated by the huge blades made it nearly impossible to
think. Now add to that troublesome situation sound equipment generating its own heat, five boys dancing, one manager, one soundman, a
choreographer and who knew who else might show up. That is where
the Backstreet Boys rehearsed for the next two years!

Yet despite those sometimes dismal conditions, the boys kept going
hour after hour. They guzzled down water. They wiped their brows and
continued to learn each dance step until it was pure perfection. Fatima
Robinson, the choreographer, did not make it easy for them. She was
tireless and relentless when it came to her work. She had worked with
stars like Michael Jackson and she was on her way to becoming very
well known in Los Angeles dance circles. The boys were grateful to have
her working with them. They felt that Fatima's creative dance moves
gave them an edge.

While the rehearsals were in full swing, Jive decided to do a video
shoot, so the boys took a break for a week to do that and then got ready
for another trip to the United Kingdom. That only left us a couple of
days at home to regroup. I kept busy washing clothes and making sure
Alex had his schoolwork ready to go. He was excited about completing
high school.

Marisa spent a lot of time at our house during that time. She had
apparently had a falling out with her mother and was trying to decide
whether to stay in Florida or return to Boston to live with her father.
Alex wanted her to stay, but he realized that she had to make some
important decisions about her future. Marisa confided in me about her
growing up years and I felt a bit sorry for her. She was desperately looking for a home and a family to belong to. She felt misplaced and unloved.

To this day I have a soft spot in my heart for her. When her mother
left her father for another man, she felt totally abandoned. Apparently
the time she spent with her mother was not always happy. Making matters worse at home was the fact that Donna was no longer a part of the
boys' career. That was a lot for a young girl to deal with.

I tried to help her as much as I could, but I also had Alex to think
about. The reality was that I truly felt that the last thing he needed at
that point in his life was a girlfriend with so much baggage. It was a
hard place for me to be in, given that I had so much sympathy for Marisa.

At that point, it was time to leave for London. Marisa still had not
made up her mind about what she was going to do, so Alex was preoccupied when we left. However, by the time we arrived in London, he
was able to focus on his work.

The tour was sponsored by a popular television show called Sinaslt
Hits that was similar to our American Bandstand. They produced the
tour every year to showcase up-and-coming groups, as well as to help
the more established ones. The only requirement was that the bands had
to have placed high on the charts to be eligible. That was no problem for our boys, but trouble arose when a few of the more popular groups
dropped out of the tour before we even got there. As a result, the tour
was put on hold. That left some of the groups, including ours, out on a
limb.

The record company helped out by arranging for the boys to go out
as an opening act for a popular British group named PJ and Duncan.
The tour was relatively short, so we hoped the Smash Hits tour would be
rescheduled quickly. To no one's surprise, the Backstreet Boys grabbed
the hearts of the audience from song one. The girls screamed, cried and
sang along with every word. It soon became obvious to the headliners
that there were just as many signs for the Backstreet Boys in the audience as for PJ and Duncan. The Backstreet Boys also intruded on PJ and
Duncan's merchandise sales and that caused some problems.

The Smash Hits tour was rescheduled to begin right after the first leg
of the PJ and Duncan tour ended. That worked out well for Backstreet
since that allowed them to jump off the PJ and Duncan tour, do Smash
Hits, then jump back onto the tour. It gave them great coverage in the
British market.

On the European tour