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00:00They began as anonymous American teens and became a steamy obsession for five continents of fans.
00:20Girls would throw condoms, bras, panties, and some of them, I believe, had just come on.
00:30I mean, it was ridiculous.
00:38Gifted, handsome, and hungry, the Backstreet Boys moved posters and pop albums by the bucket load.
00:44But the relentless rise came at a terrifying price.
00:48We were working literally like 300 days of the year, and it just came to a point where he just couldn't handle it.
00:54He was really scared, and to see him go down the hall, you know, not knowing if he was going to make it.
00:59It was the hardest time, I think, in my life that I've ever been through.
01:02I'll never break your heart.
01:07Their fans thought of the boys as clean-cut kids, little knowing that one of the Backstreeters had been driven down a dangerous path.
01:16He started losing weight.
01:17He started looking gaunt.
01:18At one point, it was Jack Daniels, drugs, and porn on my bus.
01:23That was it.
01:24I'm like, you know what?
01:26I'm done with you.
01:27You're dead to me.
01:30They'd made it to the top together, but one boy's torment threatened to drive them apart for good.
01:36My grandmother died when I was right into my coke binge, and, you know, she died right there in front of me.
01:45And I think that was probably the final turning point when AJ just let it all go.
01:51It's a shocking story you never expected to see.
01:55The Backstreet Boys, behind the music.
02:02Coming up next, more about the Backstreet Boys.
02:06Just a few minutes.
02:09Come on, buddy.
02:11Come on, the Backstreet Boys.
02:15Come on, the Backstreet Boys.
02:16Come on, the Backstreet Boys.
02:19Come on, the Backstreet Boys.
02:23It's March 2005, and four years after the release of their last album, the Backstreet Boys are back.
02:37With a fresh, mature sound and a hot new single called Incomplete.
02:46They hope to appeal to fans old and new.
02:48It's a little scary right now because we feel like, in some ways, we have to kind of start all over again.
02:56We've been gone for so long.
02:57Back the streets, back, all right.
03:00A lot of our fans have grown up.
03:03So have we.
03:04All right.
03:04All right.
03:05All right.
03:06The Boys know their own act is a tough one to follow.
03:10One of the most successful pop groups of all time.
03:12They've sold over 70 million records worldwide and inspired more squealing schoolgirls than any band since the Beatles.
03:20You see girls collapsing and crying.
03:27They're sitting there and they're shaking and they can't talk.
03:30They're trembling.
03:31I don't think in history that there's been too many other things you can compare it to other than Beatlemania.
03:35Hotels hated us because there would be 300 kids in the lobby and we'd come through and all mayhem would break out.
03:47But that's what it was all about.
03:50They broke records.
03:52They drove girls crazy.
03:54They were selling out every single seat in these arenas and just buckets of cash.
03:59The Boys were little more than kids when they entered a whirlwind that could be both exhilarating and frightening.
04:08And in a few short years, they would endure more health scares and heartbreaks than pop stars twice their age.
04:15The rewards are great, but the demands are huge.
04:19Make no mistake, the Backstreet Boys are paid, but they have not had an easy time of it.
04:24It's like hopefully nothing else bad will happen.
04:27You know, we've been through enough.
04:28So?
04:34The Boys' backstory begins in January 1978, when Alexander James McLean was born in West Palm Beach, Florida.
04:43Raised in modest circumstances, A.J. was facing adversity by the age of two, when his parents divorced and his father walked out of his life.
04:52It was a real bad situation for A.J. because his father would say he was going to come over and he wouldn't show up.
04:58That got to be a little traumatic for A.J. as a child.
05:02My grandmother was my second mom, you know, and she was my everything, you know.
05:08What I knew was always my mom and my grandparents. That was it.
05:11Encouraged by his mom and grandmother, Alex escaped into a fantasy world as a stage performer.
05:18By the time he was 12, he'd acted in over 70 plays and had become a master puppeteer.
05:24I was obsessed with puppets.
05:25He started incorporating it into routines so that when he went to talent shows, he had something that was unusual that he could show to kind of separate himself from the other people.
05:37It worked.
05:38By 1992, 14-year-old A.J. was a regular at auditions in the theme parks and movie studios of Orlando, where he soon met another hungry young performer named Howie DeRoe.
05:54Howie and I met at a couple of auditions and we just became friends.
05:59He had, like, a hat and glasses and he had this little puppet routine that he was doing.
06:07You know, like, who's this little pit squeak out there?
06:09A native of Orlando, Howie was the youngest of five kids in a devout Catholic family.
06:14At the age of four, he'd been bitten by the showbiz bug and was soon addicted to the attention of fawning females.
06:21And I remember the girls were like, oh, Howie, and they would come over and I was like, wow, I can get up on stage, do my thing, have girls around.
06:27And they all started from there.
06:29He really enjoyed it.
06:30You know, he loved the attention and he's still getting it.
06:36In July of 92, Howie and A.J. spied an ad in an entertainment circular that had been placed by an entrepreneur named Lou Perlman.
06:44The owner of a charter airline company, Perlman had no experience with music.
06:49And he was convinced he could make a killing with a new boy band.
06:53There was an article in there talking about a singing group.
06:58The New Kids on the Block look with the Boys to Men's Out.
07:01They were looking for five boys between the ages of 12 and 18 at the time.
07:08Howie and A.J. were the first two hires for the crooning quintet.
07:11The group was soon rounded out by Florida native Nick Carter and two Kentucky cousins and ex-choire boys named Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell.
07:20I was just scared half to death and I didn't know what I was getting myself into.
07:26My mentality was, if we could be a white version of Boys to Men, if we let people know and we show them our vocal ability, then that's all that matters.
07:37Taking the name The Backstreet Boys, the five quickly discovered an infectious mix of pop, blues and balladry.
07:44Tell me that I'm dreaming that I'm saying that I'll need you.
07:49Holding down part-time jobs by day, they toiled on their routine after hours, perfecting their moves in the cavernous warehouses of Lou Perlman's company, Transcontinental Airlines.
08:00They were just big open warehouses with no air.
08:05I think they had some of the propellers from the blimps underneath it and they would be trying to blow on us just to keep us cool.
08:11We worked our butts off.
08:13Most of us have come from nothing.
08:15Whether or not people believe that or not, you know, we worked.
08:18In the summer of 1993, after months of rehearsals and small-time gigs, Lou Perlman finally sent a demo tape to boy band veteran Johnny Wright, former manager of New Kids on the Block.
08:38A videotape came to me of the Backstreet Boys at a SeaWorld show.
08:43And at first, my energy was, been there, done that, didn't want to do it again.
08:47And until I had my first meeting with them and really heard that they could sing.
08:51Johnny Wright signed on to manage the group, knowing they were a long way from a record deal.
08:57First, they would have to find some fans with a grinding cross-country tour of dingy malls and high school hallways.
09:05It was an old, broken-down crew bus that had seats, no bunks, barely had air conditioning and heat.
09:13And we literally went across the country, city to city, school to school.
09:18We would go into all these schools and the kids would be like, this is a joke, right? This is a joke.
09:24Junior high and high school students can be the toughest audience you'll ever get in front of because they just don't care.
09:31Shy is one of our favorite groups and we're going to sing a song to this.
09:34The kids would be booing us.
09:36Y'all like it's in the back.
09:37It was just like, is this all that we're going to do?
09:41I mean, what the hell? Is this it?
09:44Are we going to just be stuck to being a middle school, high school act or are we actually going to get a record deal?
09:49After six exhausting months, the Backstreet Boys had a small but growing fan base
09:54and an audition with Mercury Records exec Dave McPherson.
09:59Welcome here to stay.
10:02We were in North Carolina at a hotel and we rented a conference room out to sing for them.
10:08And we sang a couple songs that were original and Dave was like, wow, you know, these boys can sing, you know?
10:15There were no groups like this that were really out in the marketplace at the time and it just sounded really interesting.
10:20But at the time, radio was ruled by grunge rock and gangsta rap and Dave could not convince Mercury to sign a sugary pop group.
10:29So in February 1994, he took the boys to Jive Records, a fledgling label that decided to take a chance on the group.
10:36It was a risk, but it was a very calculated risk that we took.
10:43The fact that we had a major label that was willing to sign us, we were ecstatic.
10:51And you could see that this group could be huge and obviously we wanted them to be huge, but we knew that it wasn't going to be easy.
10:57The Backstreet Boys were finally signed to a record label, but it would take another three long years for them to be finally heard in the United States.
11:10Coming up, a Backstreet Boy faces the ultimate test.
11:14He was really scared and it was seeing him go down the hall, you know, not knowing if he was going to make it.
11:20When Behind the Music continues.
11:22In the summer of 1995, the Backstreet Boys tried to woo U.S. audiences with their first single, We Got It Going On.
11:43But record stores and radio DJs weren't buying.
11:47They just laughed at us, like, you guys are nuts.
11:50We're not going to put this on the air.
11:53You guys are dancing in the rain in fluorescent shirts, in white linen pants.
11:58The hell are you thinking?
12:00All the naysayers said that we were wasting our time, so we had to prove a lot of things to a lot of people.
12:09Ignored in America, the Backstreet Boys were shipped across the Atlantic to try their luck among the more pop-friendly fans of Europe.
12:16And from their first live interview, they stood apart from a dizzying flood of pre-packaged performers.
12:22We sang a cappella.
12:25And the cameraman and the interviewers, everybody around, they were like...
12:35Oh my gosh, you know, these guys are like...
12:45Look, they're really doing it.
12:47The difference between the Backstreet Boys and what a lot of people perceive as being the normal boy band is that they can really sing.
12:55Honey, that's no lie.
12:57And very quickly, the Backstreet Boys discovered that their vocal stylings projected an unusual power over female fans.
13:08In March of 96, at one of their first European performances, the five friends got a hint of the madness that lay ahead of them.
13:16Backstreet Boys!
13:17We start hearing all these chants.
13:20Backstreet Boys!
13:21Backstreet Boys!
13:22Backstreet Boys!
13:23And we look out the window, it's crazy, and there was like a hundred people out there.
13:27Backstreet Boys!
13:28And we stayed a little while longer, and that 100 turned into like 300.
13:33They literally had to carry the boys one by one through this crowd.
13:37A girl grabbed Howie by the back of his hair and ripped some of his hair out.
13:41It was hilarious.
13:42We couldn't believe it.
13:42It was like, what happened?
13:44Why do, why are they reacting this way?
13:47On the heels of their fans' growing frenzy, the boys released their debut album in the summer of 96.
13:53You're the one for me, you're my ecstasy, you're the one I need.
14:02It quickly conquered the continent, going gold within weeks, and making the boys a hot ticket for girls from Dusseldorf to Denmark.
14:10We had a lot of teddy bears come up on stage.
14:17I mean, it was ridiculous.
14:26Girls would throw condoms, bras, panties, and some of them, I believe, had just come off.
14:33It was awesome.
14:35We were having a great time.
14:36You know, girls were going nuts.
14:38They were loving us.
14:39And we were loving it.
14:40Get down, get down, get down, get down.
14:43Get down, get down, yeah.
14:46The boys were a bona fide phenomenon in Europe.
14:50Desperate not to lose their momentum,
14:52they increased the pace of an already relentless schedule.
14:57We would hop on a plane, do a show.
15:04That same night, get on a plane, sleep on the floor for like an hour in the dressing room, get up, perform.
15:12At that point, we were just happy that somebody liked what we were doing.
15:18It was tiring, but we were young, and we were just on a roll, and we weren't going to stop.
15:25By the spring of 1997, the Backstreet Boys had sold over 8 million albums across the Atlantic.
15:36But they were still unknown and ignored at home.
15:39I would walk every way around the world.
15:43She's making me.
15:45We'd leave Europe, and there'd be like, you know, people on the tarmac,
15:48like sometimes 300, 400 girls, you know, just screaming.
15:50We'd fly over, and I'd be like, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp.
15:54We used to call this like No Fan Land.
15:56It was like, it was like, it was truly like No Fan Land.
15:58Love as far as I can see
16:01It's all I'm ever gonna need
16:05None of us really felt that we would be a successful act
16:09until we did the same thing in the United States.
16:14And by June of 97, U.S. tastes were finally shifting to lighter fare.
16:19So when the Boys were finally unleashed on MTV, the Backstreet Buzz began to grow.
16:27Already a huge success in England and Europe.
16:29On Tuesday, the Backstreet Boys released their self-titled debut U.S. album.
16:33Now the Backstreet Boys are hoping to conquer Main Street, U.S.A.
16:37They're big overseas, and they plan on being big here, too.
16:41Little by little, it's like America couldn't deny us to come back home.
16:44And it was like, okay, cool, you know?
16:48Now we're being given a second chance.
16:50Quit playing games with my heart
16:53With my heart
16:56My heart
16:58It was a great ride from that point on,
17:00and the same things that started happening to us in Europe
17:03were now starting to take place in the United States.
17:05At that point in time, we knew that there was something special about to happen.
17:11Quit playing games
17:13In the summer of 1997, the Backstreet Boys finally released their first album in the U.S.,
17:21and it quickly became one of the most successful debuts of all time.
17:27Still, despite skyrocketing sales and overflowing concert halls,
17:32the Boys' bank account seemed slow to catch up.
17:34When we started seeing these tabs of what the debts they had incurred,
17:39the Boys were devastated.
17:42They're looking at this going,
17:43wait a minute, we're never going to make any money.
17:45You look at your bank account, and you think,
17:47well, wow, we did 15,000 seats here,
17:51and we did 10,000 seats here, and 20,000 seats here,
17:54and it just didn't add up.
17:56It took a lot of joy and a lot of wind out of our sails.
18:00What people need to understand about the music business
18:02is the last person to get paid is the artist.
18:07Everybody gets paid before you.
18:09You're the last hand that receives any money.
18:11And that wasn't the only disappointment facing the Backstreet Boys.
18:17They soon discovered that their manager had taken on a new act,
18:21another group of five handsome harmonizers
18:23that went by the name NSYNC.
18:25It's tearing up my heart when I'm with you
18:29When we are apart from being in tune
18:34These guys were talented, meaning NSYNC,
18:36and if we didn't pick them up, somebody else will.
18:39And for me, it was like,
18:40it's better that we control the destiny of both groups
18:43than someone else that are going to turn the group right against you.
18:46The way he put it to us was,
18:49if a TV show or this or a concert comes up,
18:53you guys will be first picked,
18:54and if you turn it down, I'm letting you know I'm going to give it to them.
18:57Everything we turned down, they got.
19:00They were right on our coat tape.
19:02And no matter what I do,
19:06I feel the pain with or without you.
19:11The Backstreet Boys have become pop kings
19:13in the eyes of their adoring fans.
19:16But within the group,
19:18the guys had never felt less secure about their success.
19:27Coming up,
19:28one man's addictions threaten to bust up the boys.
19:32When he offered me cocaine,
19:34I was just like,
19:35what in the hell?
19:37It scared the hell out of me.
19:38When Behind the Music continues.
19:40So I have to keep
19:44With up to what don't
19:46think I can live
19:49By the spring of 1998,
19:51the Backstreet Boys had hit the big time on three continents.
19:55Their debut album was still spinning off hit singles,
19:57and they already faced growing competition
20:00from a flood of fresh young performers.
20:02The Backstreet Boys lit the fuse on the whole 90s teen pop explosion.
20:12They broke down the barriers
20:16and allowed NSYNC, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera
20:19to come charging through that door.
20:21But the grinding rise to glory soon began to batter the boys' spirits and their health.
20:31In March of 1998,
20:32Brian Littrell received some stunning news,
20:34a heart defect he'd been battling since birth
20:37and grown dramatically worse.
20:39We were working like literally like 300 days of the year,
20:42and I think it was really getting to him,
20:45and it just came to a point where he just couldn't handle it.
20:48His heart was growing at the rate of like a 250-pound linebacker,
20:52and it was enlarging because it was working too hard.
20:55I was in a fog because we were just going, going, going, going,
20:58and then somebody tells you,
20:59well, you might think about having heart surgery,
21:01and you're like, what?
21:06Fearful of disappointing the others,
21:08Brian kept silent about his condition for weeks.
21:11Finally, he broke the news to the other Backstreet Boys.
21:14Brian said he needed to have an operation,
21:16and a lot of us, you know, they were like,
21:19well, is it life or death, or can you push it back?
21:23The pressure that I was getting from the outside world,
21:25like, well, we can't stop.
21:28Brian had already canceled two surgeries.
21:32Finally, with his girlfriend Leanne threatening to leave him
21:35if he bailed one more time,
21:37he agreed to undergo the operation.
21:39He was really scared, and it was, um,
21:42to see him go down the hall, you know,
21:44not knowing if he was going to make it,
21:45because, you know, you've always got that problem
21:48with anybody that's going to be put under.
21:49You just, you just, you wonder.
21:54The intricate operation took over two hours.
21:57When Brian awoke, he was elated to survive the surgery,
22:01but crushed that none of his friends were at his bedside.
22:04I know for me, as an individual,
22:05I felt like I didn't get the support that I needed.
22:08Brian had a lot of animosity towards us,
22:11because, uh, we didn't show a lot of compassion.
22:15But, you know, we were young and naive and selfish and afraid.
22:22And at the time, I don't think any of us showed any compassion for a situation.
22:28It was a very hard time for me.
22:31It was the hardest time, I think, in my life that I've ever been through.
22:35Eight weeks after his heart surgery,
22:37Brian was on stage again, toiling through the group's numbers,
22:40as oxygen tanks waited in the wings.
22:43But almost as soon as the Backstreet Boys were back on the road,
22:46they received some more devastating news.
22:49Howie's sister Caroline, who'd lived with lupus since childhood,
22:53had suddenly been rushed to the hospital.
22:55We never realized the degree of her disease.
22:57By the time we had gotten to the hospital,
22:59they were trying to resuscitate her.
23:01It's just a, you know, vivid memory that I'll never forget,
23:03seeing her there and us all trying and praying
23:05and hoping for her to come back to life with us.
23:08And we were all just screaming and hollering
23:12for, Caroline, hang in there, hang in there, Caroline, hang in there.
23:16And there was a plot line.
23:18And they were still trying.
23:22And she was gone.
23:25Caroline DeRoe was only 37 years old.
23:34Still, no matter what happened to them,
23:36the Backstreet Boys seemed determined to survive.
23:39Just three hours after his sister's funeral,
23:41Howie was back on stage for a show,
23:43but his feelings of loss would linger.
23:46That's when I really, I think, sunk in that, wow,
23:49this is all great, but without family and God and, you know, your health, what do you have?
23:55When Howie lost his sister,
23:57we're back on the road as if it never happened.
24:00But he has to deal with it.
24:02He knows it's never going to leave him.
24:05That year, I think, was a real, you know, soul-searching year for all of us.
24:09Growing up and getting older, the Backstreet Boys became determined to take charge of their fate.
24:17In October of 98, they filed suit in a Florida court,
24:21demanding to renegotiate the terms of the record deal they'd signed with Lou Perlman.
24:26It was hard to confront someone that's helped you fulfill your dream,
24:31but at the same time, it needed to be confronted.
24:34It really started hitting them.
24:35We're not just puppets.
24:36We're human beings with lives and deaths happening all around us.
24:40We want to be treated like human beings.
24:42As if a lawsuit with Lou wasn't enough,
24:45the Boys were also battling longtime mentor Johnny Wright,
24:49threatened by Johnny's increasing involvement with arch rival NSYNC.
24:53Here we go.
24:57Here we go.
24:59The Backstreet Boys album was sitting at number four on the charts,
25:02and the NSYNC album jumped over and became number two.
25:05That's when I knew that we were going to have problems.
25:07Here we go.
25:10Johnny had been like a brother to the Boys,
25:13helping them to achieve superstardom.
25:15But now they demanded that he cut his commissions and all ties with NSYNC.
25:20They kind of had it a little easier than we did.
25:23So that kind of made us a little bit bitter towards Johnny.
25:27I basically was given an ultimatum.
25:30Johnny, we like you.
25:31We want to keep you.
25:33But there's some stipulations to the deal.
25:35And I just didn't feel that that was fair.
25:37So we relieved Johnny of his duties.
25:40In a breakup that embittered both sides, Johnny severed relations with his old friends.
25:46The split would only fuel the fierce rivalry dividing boy bands and their teenage fans.
25:51The last thing I said to them was, we've had a great run together, and we were successful together.
25:58But now you're putting me in a position where I have to work against you.
26:03And so I turned my attention to making NSYNC the most successful band I possibly could.
26:08But the Backstreet Boys had plenty of fight left.
26:11In May 1999, they unleashed their monster album, Millennium.
26:16Tell me why it ain't nothing but a song.
26:20Tell me why it ain't nothing but a song.
26:22Selling over a million copies in its first week alone, the disc was gobbled up by a delirious public.
26:29It offered both the boys sugary sounds and a glimpse into their personal pain.
26:33We basically, as a group, laid it all out.
26:46It was exactly what each of us was going through at that point in our life.
26:50It's about losing someone, and it's about being lonely.
26:54And at that time, in the heart of our career, as big as things were, we were lonely at times.
27:01Say what you will about the Backstreet Boys, but you can't deny that they are responsible for some really strong, solid pop songs.
27:09They're timeless elements to some of their bigger hits.
27:12By the end of the millennium, it was obvious that the boys had grown up, but they soon began to grow apart.
27:19Both Brian and Kevin married their longtime sweethearts,
27:22and AJ broke away from the Backstreet Band with a more rebellious alter ego.
27:27An English rock star he called Johnny Nody.
27:31Johnny!
27:35I was dressed up like a pimp, but I was singing rock, and it was fun.
27:47I could get away with whatever I wanted to, and the crowd that I brought in was not your Backstreet crowd.
27:52I think AJ always felt like he wasn't totally able to be who he thought this AJ character was supposed to be,
28:06this rebel-ish, you know, kind of like, you know, Motley Crue, you know, rock and roll dude, yeah!
28:11But his family and friends soon began to question AJ's commitment to the group,
28:17and a personality that was slowly changing.
28:20He was starting to buy into the celebrity thing.
28:23We discovered there were kind of two people here.
28:26You had AJ, who was the stage person, the Backstreet Boy, the bad boy persona,
28:32and you have Alex, who's my son.
28:34Stylistically, AJ had always tried to set himself apart from the rest of the group,
28:39but now he added a partying persona that seemed severely out of step with the Backstreet Boys.
28:44The first time I remember thinking to myself, he may have a problem,
28:50was when we were recording some songs, and he was a little late,
28:55and he said he'd been down the road at the bowling alley, which had a bar,
28:59and he had a couple shots of Jack Daniels to loosen his throat up.
29:03And I was like, hmm, are we Guns N' Roses now, or what's going on here?
29:11Next, AJ's out-of-control addiction stunned both family and friends.
29:22He was like just going through all this anguish, and he was trying to numb the pain.
29:26And Behind the Music continues.
29:34After the release of only two albums,
29:36the Backstreet Boys were already one of the most successful
29:39and exhausted pop groups of all time.
29:48A tour never lasted for just like a month or two.
29:51It was always a year, a year and a half, sometimes two.
29:55It was just crazy, you know?
29:57And before their sophomore release even began to lose steam,
30:07the Backstreet Boys unleashed their third album.
30:10And in November 2000, Black & Blue sold an astonishing 5 million copies worldwide
30:16in its first week of release.
30:18I mean, it just blew up the album, just skyrocketed up the charts.
30:29I will love you more than that
30:32In January 2001, the group announced plans to appear on five continents
30:40in the span of just 100 hours.
30:45They quickly discovered a world besotted with the Backstreet Boys.
30:49Out of all places, Europe was kind of chaotic, but South America was insane.
30:58From the minute we got there to the minute we were supposed to leave,
31:01there was about 48,000 girls.
31:06You can't drive because they're standing in front of you,
31:09they're hanging on the windows.
31:11It's an ocean of people.
31:13It was insane.
31:24Swamped by Brazilian babes, the boys finally reached their hotel.
31:31Only to find themselves besieged by a hormonal crowd that refused to quit.
31:35Kevin was like, we can't just leave.
31:42We have to do something, you know?
31:48So we all went up to the very top of this hotel
31:51and did like five songs for these girls.
31:53But the group's ever-increasing success
32:11only fueled A.J. McLean's desire to be different,
32:14whether it was with looks or liquor.
32:18I mean, everybody parties.
32:19I mean, you know, there was plenty of times that, you know,
32:23I saw Howie drunk or Nick drunk or Kevin drunk or Brian drunk.
32:26But I would keep going until the point of being sloppy drunk.
32:31Then we started seeing, you know, changes in personality
32:34and, you know, he was very snappy and very distant.
32:39At one point, it was Jack Daniels drugs and porn, you know, on my bus.
32:44That was it.
32:45You know, you weren't going to find my little pony on my bus.
32:48As the black and blue tour rolled on,
32:53A.J. became edgy and increasingly unreliable.
32:56To keep up with the group's frantic pace,
32:59he soon added cocaine and prescription pills
33:01to his growing pantheon of addictions.
33:04First time I tried cocaine was the night that we shot the call video.
33:07And I made it a point to tell everybody,
33:11practically everybody on set,
33:12that I was on coke
33:13because I was freaking paranoid like a mother.
33:17When he offered me cocaine,
33:19I was just like,
33:20what in the hell?
33:22It scared the hell out of me.
33:24I'm like,
33:25hell no, are you stupid?
33:27Do you know how dangerous and addictive that is?
33:29He started losing weight.
33:30He started looking gaunt.
33:31He was in circles under his eyes.
33:33He was just not Alex anymore at all at that point.
33:36Then in April 2001,
33:38A.J. received devastating news.
33:43His beloved grandmother was suffering from terminal heart disease.
33:48But even at her deathbed,
33:50he could not abandon his addictions.
33:53Well, he told us later that,
33:57first of all, he wanted to go have a drink.
33:59He needed to go take a hit of cocaine.
34:01He just, he was like, you know,
34:03just going through all this anguish
34:04and he was trying to numb the pain.
34:07And I laid in the bed with her.
34:11She was cold.
34:12And it was just,
34:14it was gnarly.
34:17My grandmother died
34:18when I was right into my coke binge.
34:21And, you know,
34:22she died right there in front of me.
34:26And I think that was probably the final turning point
34:28when A.J. just let it all go.
34:31Isolated and alone,
34:37A.J. retreated into himself,
34:39medicating his sorrow with more drugs
34:41and spending less and less time
34:43with his family and friends.
34:45A.J. had actually,
34:47he had become very scared,
34:48I think, for his own safety,
34:50his own life,
34:50because he had OD'd a couple of times
34:52and kept it a secret from everybody.
34:54But he wouldn't check himself into a hospital.
34:56He wouldn't do anything
34:56because he was afraid
34:57the media would find out.
34:59So he hid it from everybody.
35:02In June of 2001,
35:07A.J. holed up in a Boston hotel room
35:09and refused to attend a publicity shoot.
35:12And the Backstreet Boys' 10-year bond
35:14was on the verge of being broken for good.
35:17He's basically like,
35:20F you,
35:20I'm not working,
35:22it's my day off.
35:23I'm like,
35:23we had this discussion yesterday,
35:25get up.
35:26And he's like,
35:27no.
35:28And I'm like,
35:29you know,
35:29F you,
35:30and you suck,
35:31and you know what you're talking about,
35:32I don't have a problem,
35:33get out of my room,
35:34get out of my life.
35:35I'm like,
35:37you know what,
35:38I'm done with you.
35:40I can't stand you anymore.
35:42I hate you,
35:43you make me sick,
35:44you're dead to me.
35:46As soon as he left,
35:46I called my security and said,
35:47dude, I quit.
35:48I want out of the group.
35:49I'm done.
35:49I'm going to go home.
35:52A.J. abandoned the Backstreet Boys,
35:54but he realized he needed help.
35:57Within days,
35:58he checked into a rehab center in Arizona,
36:00leaving the others to announce
36:02that their tour
36:02had been postponed indefinitely.
36:05Guys, welcome.
36:06I'm sorry it has to be
36:07under these circumstances,
36:08but tell me what's going on.
36:09Kev?
36:10A.J. and we have come to a decision
36:15that he's going to receive treatment
36:18for depression, anxiety,
36:22and his excessive consumption of alcohol.
36:25Initially for 30 days.
36:27I think the hardest part
36:28about letting everybody know the truth
36:31was is that we were letting ourselves
36:33know the truth at the same time.
36:38A.J. endured weeks of grueling rehab.
36:43Finally, he made a dramatic return
36:45to the stage
36:45to ask for forgiveness
36:48from his fans.
36:50Welcome, you guys,
36:51to the Backstreet Boys Black and Blue Tour.
36:53I will never forget
36:54the first day out back.
36:56There's somebody very special
36:58that needs to talk to you
36:59really quickly.
36:59So you guys,
37:00enjoy the rest of the show.
37:01God bless you.
37:02Thanks for coming.
37:07I came rising up on stage.
37:10Houston!
37:13There wasn't a dry eye in the house.
37:15Hats off to you guys.
37:21I definitely want to thank you guys
37:23for all your support.
37:26Today will be 56 days sober and counting.
37:31So, I thank you.
37:35I got a standing ovation.
37:37I literally,
37:39I almost lost it.
37:40I got very choked up.
37:42A.J. McLean was on the mend.
37:48But soon,
37:49the boys in the world
37:50were shocked by the events
37:51of September 11th, 2001.
37:55A tragedy that claimed
37:56a member of their own road crew.
38:00The boys quickly shut down
38:02their troubled tour
38:02with no clear idea
38:04when or if
38:05they would return.
38:08With the combination of
38:09A.J.'s rehab,
38:129-11,
38:13and just
38:14being burnt out,
38:17we all were not
38:18getting along
38:19and having fun
38:22like we used to.
38:23Eating and drinking
38:23and sleeping
38:24and doing everything together
38:26for so long,
38:27we were at that state
38:28where we needed
38:29to be apart a little while.
38:30while Nick Carter
38:39flew home to Florida
38:40to work on a solo album.
38:42I wish I could define
38:44all the thoughts
38:45that crossed my mind.
38:47It wasn't the fact
38:48that he did it.
38:49It was definitely
38:50the whole timing thing.
38:52It was just bad.
38:53Bad time.
38:53Help me
38:55figure out
38:57the difference
38:58between
38:59riding on
39:00and being strong
39:01saying that's
39:02where I belong.
39:04The guys definitely,
39:06a lot of them
39:06didn't agree with it,
39:08but they understood.
39:10They knew
39:10what I was going through.
39:11And for me,
39:12I think
39:13it was also
39:14about growing up.
39:15By the time
39:17Nick Carter's
39:18solo album
39:18was released
39:19in October 2002,
39:21he and his friends
39:22had spent
39:22more than a year apart,
39:24leaving their legions
39:25of fans to wonder
39:27whether the boys
39:30would ever be back.
39:34Next,
39:35the Backstreet Boys
39:36reborn.
39:38I'm really proud
39:38of AJ
39:39and what he's doing.
39:41I'm a cry baby.
39:43When Behind the Music
39:44continues.
39:45And the winner is
39:49Backstreet Boys.
39:51By the fall of 2002,
39:53the Backstreet Boys
39:54have been out of the spotlight
39:55for over a year.
39:57And for the first time
39:58in a decade,
39:59the five friends
39:59were more concerned
40:00with personal projects
40:01than more glory
40:03for the group.
40:04Kevin's
40:04doing Broadway,
40:06Nick's doing
40:07his solo tour,
40:08Howie's buying
40:09condos and cocoa.
40:10I mean,
40:11everybody had their own
40:12thing that they were doing
40:13and it was good.
40:14We needed to be away
40:15from each other.
40:16In November of 2002,
40:18Backstreet or Brian Litchell
40:19had a boy of his own.
40:21As for AJ McLean,
40:22he's continued
40:23to lick his addictions,
40:24emerging from
40:25his harrowing experience
40:26more inspired
40:27and hopeful
40:28than he'd been in years.
40:29I think he's really
40:30starting to find
40:31who AJ really is now.
40:33And, I mean,
40:34we're very proud of him.
40:35I'm really proud of AJ
40:36and what he's doing.
40:37I'm back to the way I was
40:44when I first started
40:45with the guys.
40:47I'm very happy.
40:48See?
40:49I'm very happy.
40:51In the winter of 2003,
40:53the rejuvenated
40:54Backstreet Boys
40:55reunited
40:55and began working
40:56on a new album
40:57that would redefine
40:59their sound.
40:59They also turned
41:02to an old friend.
41:06Burying their six-year feud
41:08with former manager
41:09Johnny Wright.
41:11I just got this feeling,
41:12why not put the A-team
41:14back together
41:14that was together
41:16a decade ago.
41:17And it was like
41:18we had never separated before.
41:20We were on the same page,
41:21same mindset,
41:22same attitudes
41:23towards each other.
41:24We're back.
41:24We're back in the saddle.
41:25That's how we do it.
41:26Except you don't have to get it.
41:28Exactly.
41:28Everything seems to come back
41:30around full circle.
41:31It's right back to the way
41:32it was in the beginning
41:33and it's the way it should be.
41:37In June of 2005,
41:39the Backstreet Boys
41:40released their highly
41:41anticipated album
41:42Never Gone.
41:51Eager for the next phase
41:52of their already
41:53astonishing career.
41:58When you do
41:59get a taste of success,
42:01you taste that blood,
42:02you want it again.
42:03You know,
42:03you always want it.
42:04We've got to get out there
42:05and rock them
42:07one more time.
42:08Several more times.
42:13Whatever awaits
42:14the Backstreet Boys
42:15from here on out,
42:17after 11 years
42:18of huge hits
42:18and hard knocks,
42:20they've learned
42:20that the best way
42:21to face the future
42:22is together.
42:23I feel like I've been
42:26really blessed
42:26to have met four other guys
42:28that are very, very
42:28great souls
42:29in my life.
42:31We're not going to be
42:31goofy and say,
42:32oh, I love you, dude.
42:34But
42:34we do love each other.
42:36We do care about each other
42:37and it's because of us
42:38as a group
42:39and a unit
42:39that we've made it this far.
42:40We do love each other.
42:43We do love each other.
42:47We do love each other.
42:47I try to go on like I never knew you.
42:55I'm awake, but my world is never asleep.
43:00I pray for this heart to be unbroken
43:07But without you all I'm going to be is
43:14Incomplete
43:16I don't need to drag it off
43:20Straight through my heart
43:24My bullet look at me
43:26I can't stop the bleeding
43:28Straight through my heart
43:32Shine me, I just can't believe it
43:36No, I can't resist and I can't be here
43:42I just can't escape this love
43:45Straight through my heart
43:47I don't need to drag it off
43:48I don't need to drag it off
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