Courrtesy Vevo/Big Hassle MediaAfter 25 years, The Backstreet Boys are still going strong with a new single, album and tour. But in a new VEVO Originals piece, they admit they never could have lasted this long if they hadn’t been able to find some balance in their lives.
During The Backstreet Boys: Their Bond, Breaking Points and Finding Balance, the guys recall the moments that made them realize there’s more to life than just work.
“Brian’s heart surgery kinda was like, ‘Hello!,'” Kevin Richardson says of Brian Littrell‘s 1998 operation to correct a heart murmur. “That [was] a wake-up call.”
Kevin says it made him realize, “this group, this success — that all can go away real quick if we don’t find some kinda balance to reel this all in and make sure that everybody is O.K.”
“I had, like, a 22% chance that I wouldn’t wake up [from the operation],” Brian agrees. “I delayed my surgery twice so that we could have two different tours, And I got managers screaming at me, going, ‘Tickets are sold! You gotta keep it going!'”
“Talk about perspective, that’s when I was like, ‘OK, I have to start clawing my way out of this to develop something for me.”
AJ McLean‘s wake-up; call? Going to rehab and having his daughter Ava.
“I could deal with my wife if I were to relapse. I could deal with you guys,” AJ says. “But having a child who doesn’t know [the difference] between being drunk Daddy and sober Daddy? That really messed with my head, but…in a good way. Like, ‘No! I wanna always…be there and be a good father and be present.'”
But today, Kevin says, “As long as we’re all healthy…and communicating and getting along…we know that we can be happy.”
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