Backstreet Boys talk Las Vegas Sphere residency, becoming the 'Rolling Stones of pop'
Backstreet Boys talk Las Vegas Sphere residency, becoming the 'Rolling Stones of pop'
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This Backstreet Boy already lives in Las Vegas ahead of Sphere shows
The Backstreet Boys chat with USA TODAY's Ralphie Aversa about relocating to Las Vegas for the band's residency at the Sphere.
NEW YORK – The Backstreet Boys are taking on a new challenge: Be the first pop group to headline the Sphere, a state-of-the-art venue in Las Vegas that has already hosted U2, Phish, Dead & Company and the Eagles. Features of the building include a 160,000-square-foot wraparound LED screens and more than 160,000 speakers.
"Hopefully we sound like angels," Brian Littrell, 49, jokes to USA TODAY during a press junket in midtown Manhattan for the group's upcoming Vegas residency, which kicks off July 11 and runs through August. "Millennium 2.0," a rerelease of the Backstreet Boys career-defining 1999 album, will release in tandem with the start of the shows.
"(There's) not a bad seat in the house," AJ McLean, 47, adds. "Everybody will hear it sonically the same, no matter where you're sitting in the venue, which is incredible."
USA TODAY's music reporter Melissa Ruggieri has attended multiple Sphere concerts, saying it "turns the mundane into magical." When you reflect on the Backstreet Boys discography, specifically their 26-year-old third album, nothing exactly stands out as mundane.
Preparing a new 'Millennium' setlist
The Backstreet Boys residency, "Into the Millennium" and the "Millennium" rerelease are a call back an album that spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It spawned hits "Larger Than Life," "I Want it That Way," and "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely."
But professional and personal challenges preceded the LP's success: In 1998, the Backstreet Boys left their management group and were entangled in a lawsuit with businessman Lou Pearlman over the amount of money earned for their first two albums. Meanwhile, two different bandmates dealt with deaths in the family and Littrell underwent open heart surgery. In a 1999 Rolling Stone profile of the group, Kevin Richardson called the previous year, "the hardest of my life.'
Looking back 26 years later, the band is excited to revisit "Millennium."
"We were starting to get our rhythm with the music that we were writing and creating along with our producers at the time," says Nick Carter, 45, of the lead-up to the album's release. "It was the pinnacle for the Backstreet Boys and the music that we recorded. It was a good time."
The last Backstreet Boys trek, the "DNA World Tour," featured seven of the original 12 songs from "Millennium." For the Sphere residency, the album will be performed in its entirety along with what McLean describes as "personal favorites and the greatest hits."
"I'm excited to perform a song that I wrote called 'Back To Your Heart,'" Richardson, 53, reveals. "I wrote that for my now wife, but when I wrote that song, we were broken up and that helped me win her back."
Taking up a literal Las Vegas residence
Carter has the easiest commute for the Sphere residency. The singer relocated from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 2017 for the group's first Vegas residency. Of the three children he shares with wife Lauren Kitt, two of them were born in Las Vegas.
"I was thinking, '(The Sphere residency) is going to be really great because I get an opportunity to still take my kids to school or take my son to baseball,'" Carter says, before joking about the downside. "Now I'm realizing there's gonna be a little more work because my wife's not going to let me out (of my household responsibilities)."
Howie Dorough, 51, adds: "The fact that we're doing (the residency) the summer makes it a little bit easier because we're able to enjoy this time with our families which is really important. Our kids are growing up, so to have those moments where we can bring them out on the road with us and create memories with them is what keeps the spark going for us."
Richardson and McLean reside in Los Angeles. Dorough and Littrell are both "East Coasters" who haven't decided if they'll commute back-and-forth during the residency or move their families out West.
The Backstreet Boys still got it goin' on
"Millennium 2.0" drops the same day as the start of the Sphere residency. The album includes remasters of the original 12 tracks plus demos, live versions and a new single entitled, "Hey!"
The band has revisited the album and their career in a number of documentaries, from the recent "90's Boy Band Boom" that aired on the CW to Netflix's "This is Pop" and "Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam," which chronicled the business practices of Pearlman. The group also told its own story in the 2015 film, "Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of." For that reason, Richardson usually doesn't agree to sit down for other productions.
"For me mostly I just say, 'No thank you,'" he remarks, eliciting laughter throughout the room. "I'm like, 'I already spilled my soul in a documentary. Go check it out on Netflix.'"
McLean, who granted an interview for the CW special, says the band's participation hinges on individual schedules and the scope of the productions.
"There has been quite a lot of these (documentaries) coming out because there is a lot to be said," he notes. "It's been interesting talking to some personal friends of mine, not knowing a lot of what groups like us actually went through, the highs and lows."
All five of the band members hope there are more chapters to be written.
"We want to manifest a career," Richardson says. "We want to be the Rolling Stones of pop."
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