Way back in
the early 90s, A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough and Nick Carter were all striving
for a career in the enterainment industry. Despite their young ages (they
were all still in school at the time) each had had a fair amount of success
as a singer or actor or both. A.J. had studied dance-everything from jazz
to ballet-for years, and was an accomplished puppeteer who'd worked on
a cable TV ceries.Howie first hit the theater stage as a grammer schoolage
kid and had even appeared in the films Parenthood and Cop And A Half.
Nick, meanwhile, was a featured vocalist for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers halftime
show during the 1991 and 1992 seasons and had won the 1992 New Original
Amateur Hour for his singing skills.
"Me and AJ
met up with each other in Orlando through a talent competition," remembers
Howie. "We had a vocal coach that I used to work with who was, at the time,
his vocal coach. He introduced the two of us."
Being
Orlando-based performers, it's no surprise that Howie and A.J. frequently
saw each other at auditions-particularly auditions for new Nickelodeon
series which always use lots of young performers. To pass the time waiting
for their appointments, Howie and A.J. would sing a cappella. One time,
Nick, who was also auditioning for the same project, heard them and joined
in. Pretty soon it became apparent to the trio that their sound was pretty
exciting. They decided to form a group and seek out someone who could help
them. That person was Louis Pearlman, a successful Florida businessman
with a great love of music.
Meanwhile,
Kevin Richardson, a native of Lexington, Kentucky, had moved down to Orlando
to pursue a dream of his own. Kevin heard about the soon-to-be Backstreet
Boys search for two new members through the Orlando grapevine and auditioned
for the budding group. "There were two other members who didn't work out
and I replaced one of them," he reveals. "Then, we needed another member.
Brian's my cousin, and I called him up and he came down to Florida.. and
he auditioned." Naming the group afther a popular market in Orlando-the
Backstreet Market-Backstreet Boys were born.
"We were in
the group and then we got management, then management got us some shows,
and then shows got us some recognition and we were able to get in to see
some record labels," explains Kevin of the long climb toward success.
Their
persistence paid off when they caught the ear of the folks at Jive Records.
"We were able to sing for them a cappella and we did some more shows and
they came out and saw our show. That's how we got a record deal," remembers
Kevin. The release of their first single, "We Got It Goin' On," led to
a Hot 100 single in the U.S. but totally exploded in Canada and Western
Europe! Soon girls in countries all over the world knew the names of the
Boys and could sing every word to their songs. This is how the Backstreet
Boys story has started!.
