Brian Littrell was sitting in a high school history class in Kentucky when he got pulled out to take a life-changing call from his cousin, Kevin Richardson. Late music mogul Lou Pearlman was forming a boy band in Orlando, Florida, and a spot had just opened up. The following day — April 20, 1993 — 18-year-old Littrell set off on an adventure of a lifetime. “I’ll never forget that day I met Brian,” says Denise Solis, AJ McLean’s mother. “He had never stepped out of Kentucky, and he got picked up by a limo and dropped to the airport, then flew to meet us. I still remember his wide-eyed, puppy dog look. He was like a deer in the headlights when he got out of the limo, just so enthralled with everything. But probably also thinking, What have I got myself into?”
After sweating it out for endless hours in an Orlando warehouse, Littrell, along with Richardson, McLean, Howie Dorough and Nick Carter, headed to Europe, where they become a musical phenomenon. But it wasn’t until a Montreal radio programmer gave “We’ve Got It Goin’ On” a whirl that the group’s popularity started spilling into North America. Before long, the guys were on the path to becoming the best-selling boy band of all time, selling more than 130 million records worldwide, covering Rolling Stone, delivering the dance anthem “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and topping the charts with their diamond-certified 1999 record, Millennium, and its GRAMMY-nominated hit “I Want It That Way.” While other boy bands came and went, the pop powerhouse rode out everything from lawsuits and loss to alcoholism and health scares.
However, in 2013, as they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the accomplishment marked the beginning of a resurgence. The group released In a World Like This shortly afterward, and the record — which marked Richardson’s return to the group after he left in 2006 — reached the top 5 of the Billboard Top 100 and spawned a tour, which was extended multiple times due to overwhelming demand. The five then pulled off an MTV Movie Award-winning cameo in Seth Rogen’s This Is the End, performed for former president Barack Obama, released their 2015 documentary, Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of, and topped the country charts with their Florida Georgia Line collaborative track, “God, Your Mama, and Me.” And to the delight of the “Backstreet Army,” they’re now preparing to drop the first single from their 10th studio album and continuing their nostalgia-fueled Larger Than Life residency at Planet Hollywood’s Zappos Theater, where they broke the record for fastest-selling residency in Las Vegas and hosted the biggest audience in the history of Sin City’s headlining residencies.
As they mark their milestone 25th anniversary on April 20, ET looks back at the Backstreet Boys’ career through the eyes of some of their greatest friends, collaborators, songwriters, fans and others who have played a part in Richardson, Dorough, Littrell, McLean and Carter’s journey.
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