The Backstreet Boys Have a Podcast Now and It’s Everything

2020 man, 2020.

You can’t say it hasn’t been full of surprises because it definitely has. But the latest surprise was something I think we all needed. Even if we didn’t know it! And yes, the Backstreet Boys have blessed us fans with their own podcast on Apple Music. How great is that? Now of course I don’t like Apple, but for my fandom I downloaded the app. Which you can totally do as a Samsung user. You do need to create an account to listen but…do what I did, do the free trial of Apple Music. It’s three months long and for now that’s all you need. You can cancel it later before you get charged if you end up not wanting it. No big deal. Trust me when I say it’s worth it. My only regret is there’s no video of this zoom chat so we can’t see everything. If that’s possible, it’d make it even better.

Is there someone was can talk to about that?

What’s great about this podcast that I’m literally listening to as I write is that it’s all the things we love about our favorite interviews. They all try to talk at the same time. They go off topic. They get random. Kids pop up. They tell stories. So many stories. I had to pause typing, grab a notebook and jot down some notes instead because I literally couldn’t keep up. Picture your favorite interview. Now get rid of the host, imagine there’s no one to filter it. That’s what this is. This is pure concentrated Backstreet. That’s what makes it so freaking wonderful.

My favorite part, okay I have a lot of those…is the fact they start talking about their own music. If you’re a reader you know I love to do this. I like to pick apart songs. I talk about eras and break them down, performances, etc. Even though I’ve never been musically inclined it’s always been a passion of mine. So to hear one of my favorite groups pick songs of theirs as their favorites to talk about the history? It’s a fan’s dream. Funny enough Kevin chooses as one of his favorites, If You Stay which was literally the post I had just before this. Because it doesn’t get enough credit, and it seems like he feels the same. Talk about cool. And did you know one of AJ’s favorites was Set Adrift On Memory Bliss? I didn’t. Crazy right?

Brian hosts, sort of, before they go into a round robin. Each Boy picked a non-BSB song they really enjoyed and from different genres. Some new and some not. Telling a story to go along with it was probably the best part. Did you know Howie once dressed up as AJ and managed to convince people he was him? AJ had a lot of thoughts on this. Brian says they’ll need 15,000 episodes for this and honestly? I’m okay with that. One story that was adorable was AJ talking about how his girls are all about Boys and love the Jonas Brothers. How cute is that? Especially for those of us who grew up on BSB.

Then they start focusing on their careers.

They broke down each era as…well not fast. Because we know our Boys and their love of talking. But they go through it era by era. One thing I loved was the stories about the early days. They talk about the Red Album (can we talk about how funny it is the Boys know we call it that), and Backstreet’s Back, and the US Debut. That one came more all together which I understand as they all sort of happened together. How it all began, the process of getting those albums together. The fact they thought that We’ve Got It Going On was going to be a huge hit in the US but ended up stopping at sixty nine (and yes Brian, we heard your giggle at that). Then they had a whole tangent about Howie’s nipples in Quit Playing Games.

This post is getting long but that’s because the podcast was wonderfully long!

They go into detail about the strife that came with Millennium, which from a fan aspect is such a contrast. Because that was their peak. Everything seemed so perfect. You know there was no social media then so we had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. The world wasn’t so connected then. But there was something so magical about that time and the ways the stars all aligned. Kevin said that hard times reveal your character and this did. My personal favorite quote of this whole thing was Brian’s.

“Millennium is one of the best albums in pop history.”

Prove. Me. Wrong.

Speaking of strife, they move on into Black and Blue. And one thing I’ve always suspected is that this album made them or could’ve broken them. This was where everything could’ve fallen apart. It was almost the end. But instead as Nick points out, they got closer. This was where their bond strengthed and they carried through even though a break came after. And it’s like AJ points out, they had a lot of dark things going on but they also had great songs and great videos from it. It led him to one of my other favorite quotes tonight.

“We seem to learn something new every cycle, and it helps us grow… in whatever way that it’s meant to.”

You know, I think that’s true. And I think that applies to us fans too.

Moving on to the infamous hiatus, they do talk about that briefly and how long it took for their next album to follow. Nick even jokes that it was probably his fault due to his solo album. But one thing I hadn’t realized is that they’d only all stopped talking for a few months. Interesting cause during their break (not break up) was it felt longer. Weird how that is, isn’t it? Then again for a teenager months can feel like years. Sort of how March lasted for a decade right now in 2020.

Never Gone was something else on this. There’s some key points I found fascinating. First off, they admit they didn’t know who they were anymore when they got back to the studio. Neither did the label. Second they address the fact they recorded SO MANY songs for this due to that issue. Kevin flat out states they had a full r&b album ready to go before they met Max Martin where the genre of the album changed due to said meeting. (Okay, yes I gloated on my twitter cause for years I’ve said this and no one believed me.) But more importantly Kevin talked about releasing it on Apple Music someday. DO IT KEVIN!! I even have a post of reasons WHY. Please! Please! Please!

Okay. I’m okay. Just really want this.

One thing that bugged me a bit, was the fact they skip over Unbreakable, This Is Us, and In A World Like This. Maybe I’m biased because while This Is Us isn’t my favorite album it’s one of my favorite eras. In fact I literally have a new post about it coming soon. I basically put it on hold to write this one first. And as for In A World Like This? That whole time was so special seeing them come back together with Kevin. In fact many fans would love to hear Kevin’s thoughts on the albums without them. I don’t like pretending they don’t exist. They do and great interviews, great songs, and great memories happened during those times. Maybe the episode was running long and they couldn’t. I get that. But please, address it in a future episode guys. We’d love to see you talking about it.

Overall though, this podcast was such a wonderful listen. Songs included it ran about two hours long and I felt like not a minute was wasted. There’s so much I didn’t mention in this post. Mainly because again, I’d be at this forever. Plus I don’t want to ruin it for anyone. Go to Apple Music, do a free trial and give it a go. If you can’t do the free trial but can swing the 10$ a month fee? Honestly? Totally worth it. Because it’s the Boys at their purest. And honestly…isn’t that when they’re at their best?