Biography

Beginnings and International Successes: 1993-1996
Lou Pearlman, an aviation entrepreneur based in Florida, was inspired by the success of the New Kids on the Block in the 1980s to create his own clean-cut band. After a series of auditions in 1992 and 1993, he recruited Nick Carter (at 12, the band’s youngest member), Howie Dorough, 19, and Alexander James McLean, 14. Following the departure of two members- Sam Licata (later performing as Phoenix Stone) and Charles Edwards - Kevin Richardson, 21, came aboard in March 1993. The group took its final shape on April 19, 1993, when Brian Littrell, cousin of Kevin, joined the group after a phone audition. Their first concert, on May 8, 1993, was performed for 3,000 teenagers at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. Pearlman later booked them at grade-school assemblies and shopping malls, and assigned management duties to Johnny Wright, who had worked with New Kids on the Block.

After a possible Mercury Records deal failed, the band was spotted in Cleveland, Ohio by an executive from Jive Records in February 1994. By June, they were recording their first single; an urban pop song by writer/producer Denniz PoP called “We’ve Got It Goin’ On”. The single struggled in the US and reached only #69 on the Billboard charts; but it sold well in Europe, later earning the band their first Gold record in Germany. In the summer of 1996, the band’s first self-titled album was released in Europe and Canada, going gold within weeks in Europe. Jive and Pearlman kept the band busy overseas for the next two years, sometimes putting on tours for five straight months.

European popularity grew, and the Backstreet Boys kicked off 1996 being voted the No.1 International Group by TV viewers in Germany - “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” went gold there and hit No.1 in Austria. The group earned their first Platinum record in Germany and toured Asia and Canada.

Breakthrough in the United States: 1997-1999
By 1997, pop music was returning to the forefront in United States. Jive and Pearlman decided to bring the boys back to their home country after 8.5 million discs had been sold worldwide. They began recording their second album, Backstreet’s Back, releasing “Quit Playing Games With My Heart” in August, coinciding with the release of their second international album, the band released a self-titled album in the US which collected songs from both international albums. They hit big on both the U.S. and European charts. In December 1997, the band embarked on a 60-city, 20-country tour.

In 1997, Littrell (soon joined by McLean, Richardson and Dorough) brought a lawsuit against Lou Pearlman, in which they claimed that Pearlman had hidden and misused money earned by the band. The case was settled in 1998.

In 1998, Littrell underwent open heart surgery in the middle of their sold-out US 39-city tour, at the insistence of his then girlfriend (and now wife) Leighanne Wallace; he had twice postponed the surgery in the past. He had been struggling with a heart murmur since he was born, almost dying at the age of 4 due to a bacterial infection. Littrell needed about 8 weeks to recover from the surgery. Shortly after, the Backstreet Boys cancelled an appearance in Minnesota after learning that Howie Dorough’s sister had died of lupus. In October 1998, the band received the keys to the city from the mayor of Orlando in honor of the tornado relief concert the group headlined in March.

Around February 1999, the Boys hired a new management team called The Firm. Along with their new management team, the Backstreet Boys sued Pearlman several more times, until he renegotiated the settlement on terms more favorable to the band. Executives of The Firm stated that the Backstreet Boys had bought out Pearlman’s stake in the band, but he denied this.

Millennium: The follow-up album 1999-2000
On May 18, 1999, the Backstreet Boys released the album Millennium, which sold over 1.13 million units in its first week, setting, at the time, a record for first week sales. In addition to receiving gold and platinum awards in 45 countries, Millennium was nominated for 5 Grammy Award’s including Album of the Year. In August, the Backstreet Boys sold out a 39-city tour in less than a day, selling over 765,000 tickets in a matter of hours, prompting additional shows in many markets and shattering a number of box-office records selling out all 53 concert dates of their Into The Millennium Tour which kicked off in September. The tour drew over 2 million fans, breaking the record for largest indoor audience.

Impressed by the success of the Backstreet Boys, Sony BMG, which already owned 20 percent of Jive’s parent company, purchased a remainder for $3 billion, the most ever paid for an independent record company. In the meantime, The Firm negotiated tens of millions of dollars in advance payments for recordings and performances from Jive and the concert promoter Clear Channel. Also by the end of 1999, the Backstreet Boys faced new problems declaring their current Jive contract null and void, soon striking one of the largest record deals ever valued at $60 million with Jive.

In 2000, the Backstreet Boys graced the pages of the new millennium’s first issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Burger King made a deal with the boys for tour sponsorship, videos, and CDs with unreleased live tracks that were available for sale at Burger King restaurants in August and September. In February, Littrell and Richardson confirmed their engagements to their fiancees.

Black And Blue: 2000-2001
In November 2000, the group released a new album, Black & Blue, with the idea of the title of the album coming from Brian as the boys were in Los Angeles for a photoshoot when they were all dressed in black and standing in front of a blue background when out of the blue, Brian suggested the album be called Black & Blue. To promote the release of Black & Blue, the boys traveled around the world in 100 hours to Sweden, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and the US; 55 of the hours were spent traveling and 45 were spent making public appearances. The album - whose 13-song selection features six songs co-written by members of the group, including two written by all five Backstreet Boys - debuted with 1.6 million units sold in the first week in America, making the band the first ever artist to have two albums sell a million or more copies in the first week.

Towards the end of 2000, McLean first started using cocaine while shooting for the video “The Call”. The album’s second single “The Call” made the Top 10 in the UK and the third single “More Than That” made the Top 20.

In 2001, the Backstreet Boys kicked off the 1st leg of their “2001 Black & Blue World Tour”, in which they were to perform on five continents within the span of 100 hours. The full tour earned US $350 million in ticket sales, placing the tour among the highest-grossing ever, though the tour also had extremely expensive production costs (”The largest concert set ever constructed,” according to the president of Zomba Music Group). The tour was featured on a CBS TV special, The Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life. To coincide with the special, TV Guide issued six different covers of the boys: five individual shots and one group photo.

The second leg of Black & Blue summer tour was put on hold when it was reported that A.J. McLean had checked himself into rehab to battle drinking, drug addiction, and depression, after Richardson had held an intervention for him at a hotel in Boston. The tour was postponed until September.

Greatest Hits: 2001-2002
In October 2001, the boys released The Hits: Chapter One, a disc of their greatest hits. The band members say they resisted the album, feeling that it was too early in their careers for a “greatest hits” collection, and that it would ruin their long held plan to mark the group’s 10th anniversary in 2003 with such a release. The record yielded an international top 10 hit “Drowning”. The Boys performed at the United We Stand concert in Washington, D.C. as well as The Concert for New York City (two benefit concerts for the victims of September 11) and were a part of the All Star Tribute benefit single “What’s Going On” (with proceeds going to AIDS and 9/11 charities). By the end of 2001 and into 2002, it became clear that the Backstreet Boys were on an extended break with no new recordings or releases.

During Their Break: 2002-2004
In 2002, the band expressed a strong desire to leave their management company, The Firm. Not surprisingly, the company did not put up much resistance. However, Carter chose to remain with The Firm to manage his solo career. It became apparent that this was reason for their lack of resistance to the Backstreet Boys moving on and this unexpected move forced the band to take a break. Starved for a blockbuster album release, Jive, according to industry observers, had no choice but to bank on releasing Carter’s solo album by the end of the year, ahead of the next Backstreet Boys’ album, which was due in early 2003. In 2002, Nick Carter’s solo album “Now or Never” was released.

The relationship with Jive got even worse when the Backstreet Boys filed a $75-100 million lawsuit against Zomba Music Group (Jive’s parent company) claiming breach of contract. The band’s lawyer stated that ZMG used the Backstreet Boys’ trademark to shuttle traffic to other Web sites, and that the Boys were not receiving the personal attention they needed and the royalties they were contractually entitled to. According to the suit, in November 1999, the Backstreet Boys revised their 1994 contract and committed to releasing two further albums for Zomba. In exchange for delivering them on time as part of a predetermined schedule, the group would receive multiple non-returnable payments that would serve as advances against future royalties.

During their break, Kevin starred on Broadway’s “Chicago” while Brian, Howie, and AJ all worked on their solo records. In November of 2003, Brian’s wife Leighanne gave birth to the couple’s first child, Baylee Wylee Littrell. In December 2003, McLean appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show where he talked for the first time in public about his addiction to alcohol and drugs, and his struggles rising to fame. The rest of the band surprised him by arriving in person to give him support, marking the first time the Backstreet Boys had appeared together in public in almost two years. The band began to reform and reconcile their differences to start recording a comeback album.

In 2004, the Backstreet Boys started performing together to promote their return to the music scene. In September they kicked-off a small Asian tour, visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, as well as Manila. Then, based on the success of this tour, they announced a Mexican tour, visiting Mexico City and Monterrey, performing all new material. Renewed interest grew with the announcement of airing an hour long televised documentary of the Backstreet Boys on VH1’s Behind The Music.

Comeback: Never Gone 2005-2006
After a three-year hiatus, their new hit single, “Incomplete”, was released to radio stations on March 28, 2005 and quickly became the #1 most requested song in top markets in both U.S. and overseas. On June 14, 2005, the Backstreet Boys released their comeback album Never Gone, which they spent more than a year recording. They began the first leg of their Never Gone Tour in July in West Palm Beach, Florida. Four singles were released from the Never Gone album. Their first single “Incomplete”, the second single was “Just Want You To Know”, the third singles were: “Crawling Back To You” (US) and “I Still…” (international).
On May 2, 2006, Brian Littrell released his first solo album Welcome Home with the title track as the first single. In 2005, he had already scored a #1 hit on the US Christian Charts with the single “In Christ Alone”.

Departure of Kevin Richardson from the band
On June 23, 2006 the band issued a statement regarding Kevin Richardson’s intention to leave the Backstreet Boys. The reason stated was his wish to pursue other interests that he could not while in the group. The rest of the Backstreet Boys wished him the best of luck in the future and they have no plans on replacing him. They noted that he would always be welcome to return should he wish to do so. Since then, Kevin returned to the role of young hotshot lawyer named “Billy Flynn” in the Broadway musical Chicago for a short engagement in Toronto, Canada in late 2006.

Unbreakable: 2007-Present
The Backstreet Boys released their new album, Unbreakable, on October 2 2007. On July 25, the first single was confirmed as “Inconsolable,” a piano driven power ballad similar to Never Gone’s “Incomplete.” It was released to radio on August 27th. “Helpless When She Smiles” is the next single that is being released from Unbreakable.

The album has been well-received compared to the Backstreet Boys’ comeback album Never Gone. It follows the drastic change in their music style on their previous album which has been negatively received by critics. Entertainment Weekly gave the album a “B-”, which is the highest grade from EW for a Backstreet Boys album since Millennium.

While the album has received positive reviews, it has not performed as well as its predecessor, Never Gone. Unbreakable opened at #7 on The Billboard 200, selling 81,000 copies in its first week of release.

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