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1993
"All right, that was very good," Lou Pearlman said appreciatively as he looked at the odd quartet of young boys standing in front of him. They were quite a mixture, he thought to himself. From the thirteen-year-old, blond haired, impish Nicky, to the twenty-one year old, mature, and annoyed Kevin. In between was the group wild child, Alex, who had recently decided to change his name to AJ, and the sweet-tempered, easily amused Howie. AJ and Howie had known each other for a while; the two of them had met up with Nicky on several occasions. But Kevin was a new member of the nameless group, and there was some friction between them that Lou hoped would smooth out soon. Even though the four of them had just started singing together, even though Nicky’s voice was changing and the carefully made harmonies would have to be entirely changed, Lou could tell that the four of them would make it big. If, and it was a big if, they found what they needed - a power voice to stand out above the rest of the guys’ nice, but common, voices.
"Very good," Lou repeated, this time more thoughtful. He took another long look at the boys, and Nicky started to look uncomfortable.
"What is it, Lou?" he asked. Nicky was still in the young teenage phase where he could misinterpret a glance or idle word easily. AJ rolled his eyes, and Howie nudged him in the side.
"Just cut him some slack, Alex," Howie said under his breath.
"AJ!" he corrected more loudly than he intended to.
"All right, AJ," Howie corrected himself. "Just leave Nicky alone, okay?"
AJ humphed, but nodded his understanding.
"Thanks," whispered Howie.
"What’re you guys talking about?" Kevin’s booming voice asked from behind them.
"Nothing," Howie and AJ said together. They didn’t mean to exclude Kevin, but they had only known the guy a few weeks, and they were still a little nervous about the newcomer who seemed to be annoyed easily by Nicky and always acted like a father figure even to Howie, who was barely a year younger than him.
Kevin looked a little hurt, but backed off.
"Nothing, Nicky," Lou responded to the youngest’s question. He ignored AJ and Howie’s slight, if unintentional, rejection of Kevin. Lou knew that the boys would have to work out their clique problems by themselves. "I was just thinking . . ."
"Congratulations, Lou!" Nicky and AJ chorused, teasing the large man who they had met several months ago and had already come to think of as a father figure. Howie just laughed at his ‘little brothers,’ and Kevin looked a little puzzled under his football helmet-like haircut.
"Yeah, I know, I’m proud of me, too," Lou said, briefly joking with them before he settled back down to business. "Anyway, so when I was using this new-found power of mine to think, I thought that maybe we should try to find another guy for the group. You guys are great, of course," he said hurriedly, not wanting to upset his new talents, "but I think we need to fill out the harmonies a bit. What do you think?"
Howie looked a little discouraged. "It sounds great, Lou, but it took us long enough to find Kev here . . ." He patted Kevin on the back, and Kev smiled at him gratefully for being included.
"Yeah, plus we’re fine the way we are!" Nicky said fiercely. He was already a little upset that Kevin had come. Kevin didn’t joke around with him enough, didn’t understand his almost super-human desire to play Nintendo, and he seemed to think that Nicky was too young to play a big part in the group. The last thing Nicky wanted was another old guy who didn’t understand him.
"Let’s just give it a shot, okay, guys? If we had another member, then the Seaworld thing would be much better," Lou wheedled. He had managed to book an audition for the guys at a Seaworld performance night, and they were all looking forward to it. Each of them was seasoned performers; none were worried about the fact that they would be performing in front of thousands.
"All right," AJ agreed. "What d’you wanna do, place an ad in an entertainment magazine?"
Lou shook his head vigorously. "The last thing I want is to place an ad; that’d leave you guys open to New Kids comparisons. Do you know anyone who might be interested?" he asked hopefully.
"I do," Kevin spoke up. Howie, Nicky, and AJ all turned around. They still weren’t used to the six-foot-one, well-muscled, intimidating guy who was now one of them. "My cousin Brian might be interested. He’s a great singer."
"How old’s he?" questioned Nicky, obviously hoping that Brian, whoever he was, would be his age so that someone else could be the baby of the group.
"Eighteen," Kevin answered. Nicky’s face fell temporarily before he pasted it back together with his acting abilities. "He’d be perfect for us," Kevin added.
"Is he around here or in Kentucky?" asked Lou, his forehead wrinkled.
"Kentucky."
"Well . . ." Lou hesitated. He gave a moment’s thought to it, then said, "Call him up and ask if he’s interested. If he is, then that’s great and he can fly down tomorrow and try out for us. If not, then we’re back to combing through all of you guys’ friends."
Kevin agreed and headed for the telephone to call his aunt, Brian’s mom, and ask her. Brian was still in high school, and if his mother didn’t agree, then he didn’t have a hope of joining the group. "Hi, Aunt Jackie?"
When Kevin began to speak to his aunt, his Southern accent seemed to thicken up a bit as his carefully hidden drawl was coaxed out of hiding by his family members. Nicky and AJ both laughed a bit, and even Lou and Howie had trouble keeping straight faces. "C’mon, guys, let’s let him talk to his aunt by himself," Howie urged. He was used to being the father of the group, and he liked the role. He was the youngest of a large family, and for once, he was doing the babying. Everyone agreed and headed into the hallway in Lou’s business building, leaving Kevin alone in the office.
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"Mr. Spaeth, do you have Brian Littrell?" a voice asked over the Lexington, Kentucky high school’s loud speaker. At the mention of his name, Brian jerked his head away from eyeing the pretty girl sitting next to him and looked to the front of the room, where his History teacher was reading a magazine. With only six weeks left before the senior class graduated, Mr. Spaeth had just given his class a simple worksheet on the Vietnam war and let them do whatever they wanted with the rest of the final period of the day.
"Yes, I do," Mr. Spaeth replied.
"Could you please send him to the main office?" the voice crackled over the intercom.
"Sure. Brian?" Mr. Spaeth prodded. Brian nodded and stood up, gathering his books under one arm. With one last glance at Maria, the nice dark-haired girl who sat next to him, he left for the office.
"Excuse me, I was called down here?" Brian spoke in a question to the secretary at the office.
"Brian Littrell?" the secretary asked him, peering at him above her half-glasses.
"That’s me," he said, smiling.
"Phone call. You may take it here." She gestured to the phone sitting beside her and then continued typing. Curious about who could be calling, and a little nervous, Brian picked up the phone.
"Hello?" he said uncertainly.
"Hey, Brian, it’s Kev," a deep voice answered.
"Who?"
"Your cousin, man!"
"Sorry, Kev, I just wasn’t sure who it was . . . Hey, what’s wrong? Why’re you calling here?" Brian pulse sped up as thoughts raced through his mind about what could have happened in his family to warrant a phone call from his cousin. Brian and Kevin were close - having grown up just a few miles from each other in a close-knit family, they didn’t really have a choice - but Kevin wasn’t exactly in the habit of calling his younger cousin during school.
"Nothing’s wrong," Kevin said quickly, anxious to get any worries out of Brian’s head. "No, the reason I called is that . . . Well, you know that vocal group I’ve been singing with now and then?"
"Um, yeah," Brian replied. He could vaguely recall his parents mentioning it one day at dinner, but that was the same day that Maria had talked to him in the hallway, and Brian’s mind had been filled with the possibility of some hidden meaning in the simple request for the History homework.
"Okay, here’s the deal. We’re looking for a new member, and we think you’d work out great here." Kevin went straight to the point.
"What?" Brian asked, a bit too loudly. The school secretary looked up at him sharply, gave him a warning look, and then returned to her typing. She was punching the keyboard so hard that Brian idly wondered if the keys could break.
"You’ve got a great voice, Bri. Are you at all interested in singing professionally? We’ve got a record label and managers already; we can fly you down here tomorrow to audition. It’d be great, Brian. The group’s coming along really well, and the other guys are great," Kevin tried to persuade him.
"I - I don’t know, Kev . . ." Brian hesitated. "Can I call you tonight and let you know?"
"Sure, talk it over with your parents - I talked to Aunt Jackie, and she said it was all right with her if you wanted to join . . ."
"Thanks so much, Kevin. I’ll think about it hard and let you know by five, okay?"
"Sure. I’d better let you go - you’re in the middle of class, aren’t you?" Kevin asked sheepishly.
"Yeah . . . we aren’t doing much . . . but this girl . . ."
"Say no more," Kevin laughed. "Think about my offer, because I think it’d work out really well. I’d like to have a relative on tour, and I think this group’s gonna work out well. I’ll call your house at five."
"Sounds good. Thanks a lot, Kevin," Brian said sincerely.
"No prob. See you later."
"Bye," Brian replied, hanging up the phone in a daze. A place in a singing group that already had managers and a record deal. Great guys. His cousin was already in it. It was such a cozy situation that a warm feeling ran through Brian as he thought about it. He was still thinking about it when he knocked into someone as he walked through the hallway and smack into someone.
"Hey! Watch it!" an angry girl’s voice rang out. Brian looked at her, and drew in his breath. Maria. He was silent for a minute as he took in how beautiful she was, how much he worshiped her from afar.
"I’m so sorry, Maria," Brian said, bending down to help her pick up her scattered papers.
Maria sighed. "No problem. What’s on your mind so much that you couldn’t see where you were going?" They stood alone in the empty hallway.
"Oh . . . my cousin called me up from Orlando and asked me to join this singing group," he said simply. Maria looked a little puzzled, then broke into a large smile.
"Well, you’re the perfect one for that," she laughed a little. "I still remember how crazy everyone went four years ago when you and what’s-her-name sang that song in the talent show. Every time your name came up, people mentioned ‘Another Time, Another Place’ for months."
"What do they say now when my name comes up?" Brian asked.
"Who says your name still comes up?" Maria countered coyly. Brian arched an eyebrow at her, and she bit her lip. "Anyway, so are you gonna join?"
"I don’t know," Brian said honestly. "I’d have to fly down to Orlando tomorrow."
"It’s a free vacation - why pass it up? Of course, I’d miss you. I’m having a party tomorrow night and I was hoping you’d be there. But what can I do? Well, see you later; I have a doctor’s appointment and that’s why I’m not in class. Bye," she said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before continuing to her locker. Brian turned and watched her for a few minutes.
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"Are you sure you don’t want to join up?" Kevin asked, a little shocked. He had been so sure that Brian would leap at the chance to join the group that he hadn’t even fathomed the idea that Brian wouldn’t want to even try out. It was five o’clock, three hours after he had originally called, and Brian had just phoned to say that he wouldn’t’ be joining the group.
"Positive," Brian replied. "I’ve got so much else to do . . . I was thinking of going to college and stuff . . ." While he was on the phone, Brian gently touched the place where Maria had kissed him on the cheek.
"All right," Kevin said, disappointed. "Well, when we’re really popular and you’re sitting at home with nothing to do, don’t say I didn’t give you the chance," he teased gently.
"No problem," Brian replied. They talked for a few minutes more before Kevin hung up.
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1998
The girls screamed as usual as the Backstreet Boys piled off stage in Lexington, Kentucky. Kevin, Nick (who now wouldn’t bother answering if someone called him Nicky), AJ, Howie, and Craig Demphsy all joked around as they washed off their make-up, changed out of their stage clothes, and put on their hats and dark sunglasses in a fruitless attempt to keep from being recognized by the thousands of fans who had packed the arena to see them. It had been five years since Brian had turned down the invitation to join the group. Just days afterwards, AJ had contacted a friend of his from an acting class and asked him into the group. Craig had auditioned that day and been immediately accepted into their ranks. Craig was fourteen at the time; now he was nineteen. He got along well with all of the other guys, especially Nick, who was thrilled to have someone only one year older than him in the group. With his close-cropped, curly light brown hair, bright green eyes, boyish grin, and five foot nine, well-muscled body, Craig was nearly as popular as Nick with the teenyboppers, a fact that made their friendship even closer.
Kevin was still the loner of the group, but gradually the others had accepted him. A few days after he joined up, Craig was immediately accepted; with Kevin, it took much longer. There was always a friction between Kevin and the rest of the group, but usually they could ignore it.
Just as everyone finished getting de-sweatified from the performance, they all trooped out of the dressing rooms and went to the lounge where the VIPs were sitting. As soon as he entered the room, Kevin ran over to hug his mother, brothers, and four-year-old nephew. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Hi," a grinning Brian said before giving Kevin a hug.
"Hey, Bri, wuzzup?"
"Not too much since I last saw you . . ."
"Except the fact that in the last eight months you had a son!" Kevin laughed.
"Yeah, well . . ." Brian responded, smiling. "Do you want to meet him?" he asked.
"Of course," Kevin said as he followed Brian over to a couch. There, a dark-haired girl was gently cradling her son.
"Hey, sweetie," she said, looking up at Brian.
"Hi, Maria. How’s he doing?" Brian peered at the baby.
"Just fine," she said softly.
"Kev, you remember my wife, Maria, right?"
"Of course. It’s great to see you again." Kevin kissed Maria lightly on the cheek before looking at his cousin’s month-old son. "What’s his name again?"
"Rory," Maria and Brian responded in one voice.
"Do you want to hold him?" Maria asked. Kevin nodded, and she handed over the small bundle. Rory yawned as his father’s cousin took him in his arms.
"He’s going to have your hair, Maria," Kevin said, smiling as he noticed Rory’s fuzzy dark hair. Maria nodded, smiling. "You know, your daddy almost joined up into my singing group, but he decided not to. Good thing, too; I’d love to have him on tour with us, but if he had become a Backstreet Boy, then you wouldn’t be here right now." When he finished talking, Rory was asleep again. Kevin kissed him gently on the forehead before handing him back to Maria.
"Hey, Kev!" Nick said, walking over to where Kevin was still looking at Rory. "What’s up?"
"Nick, this’s my cousin, Brian, his wife, Maria, and their son, Rory. This is Nick Carter - he’s in the group," Kevin introduced him. Nick shook hands with Brian, waved at Maria, and smiled at the baby.
"You’re the guy who almost joined up but didn’t, right?" Nick asked.
Brian nodded. "Almost, but not quite."
"Can we hear you sing? I always kinda wondered if the group would’ve sounded different if you were here instead of Craig," Nick suggested. Brian hesitated, then agreed.
"Sure, why not?"
Nick got Howie and AJ to tear themselves from the girls they were flirting with, and brought them over to where Kevin and Brian were. Craig stood apart from them, smiling a little to himself. "Guys, this is Brian, Kevin’s cousin. The one who we asked to join, but didn’t," Nick said to refresh their memories. They all nodded, and Nick continued. "Do you know the words to ‘I’ll Never Break Your Heart’?"
Brian nodded. "Of course."
"Sing the parts Craig usually does, okay?" Nick suggested. Brian nodded again, and AJ started them off.
"From the first day that I saw your smiling face, girl I knew that we would be together forever . . ."
"Ooo, when I asked you out, you said no, but I found out, girl that you’d been hurt. You thought that you’d never love again. I deserve, try honey, just once, give me a chance and I’ll prove this all wrong," Brian sang. Everyone in the room exchanged quick glances as they heard the man who almost joined the Boys sing. AJ took over again.
"When you walked in you were so quick to judge, but honey, he’s nothin’ like me!"
All five of them joined in for the chorus. "I’ll never break your heart. I’ll never make you cry. I’d rather die than live without you. I’ll give you all of me, honey that’s no lie . . ." They sang the rest of the song, and when they finished, Howie, AJ, and Nick stared at Brian.
"Why didn’t you join the group?" Nick finally asked bluntly. Craig started a bit as he realized that this man had been meant to have his spot.
"Something came up," Brian replied, gazing at his wife. She smiled at him, then the look was erased from her face as she remembered something.
"You don’t mean . . . You didn’t join because I was a little snot to you in the hallway the day Kevin called you . . .?" Maria asked, shocked.
"Well, yeah . . ."
"Oh my . . . Brian, you shouldn’t have!" She looked guilty, as if she had stolen something special from the world.
"Of course I did." Brian leaned down and gently squeezed his wife’s hand.
"Listen, if something ever happens and we need a new member . . ." Howie offered, still in shock.
"I’ll think about it," Brian said, smiling. In his heart, though, he knew that he would never give up his cozy life to live join a flash-in-the-pan group.
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