Backstreet Mom: A Mother's Tale of Backstreet Boy AJ McLean's Rise to Fame, Struggle With Addiction, and Ultimate Triumph (22 page)

Since Alex's grandmother was born in Germany, he thought it would
be nice to buy her something that he could take back on the plane with
him. She had always loved crystal figurines and pewter statues, so we
looked for them wherever we went.

Since the local kids were still in school, we did not think we would
have a problem with fans. However, when you shop, time can fly by. We
stopped in several stores and looked at clothes, crystal for grandma and
the like.

While we were in one of the stores, a couple of girls walked by and
recognized Alex. I did not think that would be a problem, but as we
walked out of the store, I noticed that the girls were not far behind us
talking wildly on their cell phones. It started out with two, then it went
to four-and then ten. Soon twenty-five girls appeared from nowhere.

We ducked into a burger place and sat down to have a quick meal,
but we were quickly surrounded by an army of young girls, both inside
the restaurant and out. They didn't say anything at first. They simply
stared. Then it began. They started calling out his name and asking for
autographs.

I finally just stood up and said, "Look, can you please just let us eatand then he will gladly take pictures and sign anything you want, OK?"

That seemed to calm them down. But then, after a few minutes, the
girls seemed to buzz with subdued chatter. I knew that couldn't be good.

"I think we should make a run for it," I whispered into Alex's ear.

We both pretended we were heading for the restrooms, then, with
the help of the restaurant staff, we quickly slipped out the back door. As
we ran down the street hailing a taxi, we saw a small group of fans fall in
behind us and do the same.

Once we got a taxi and drove off, I saw that we were being followed
by three taxis. I directed the driver to go to the nearest hotel and stop. I
did not want him to go to our real hotel for obvious reasons. We went
into the hotel, called Randy, and asked him to rescue us. Even though
Alex seemed to enjoy the excitement of it all, he later told me that he
had been a bit nervous in the burger place. He said he was glad that I
had been there for him.

By the end of 1995, the Backstreet Boys had reached a new level in
their career. Everywhere they went in Europe, the fans received them
warmly. The other groups seemed to be a bit afraid of the new "U.S. Invasion." By that time, the boys had achieved a measure of success that affected them both positively and negatively On the positive side, their
stage performance was tighter and they had built up a considerable fan
base throughout Europe.

On the negative side, they had become big-headed when it came to
the success they had achieved. I think that way of thinking rubbed off
on them from the other boy bands they had encountered. Oftentimes
those groups came from very small countries. Once they achieved the
slightest bit of success they were quite happy to sit back and ride the
wave. They were not of the mindset that worldwide success was attainable.

Journal Entry, December 12, 1995: My son has definitely gone through
some heavy-duty changes over these past years. Not all for the better, I'm
afraid. The one major factor in my son's metamorphosis has been the influence of outside people coming into his life. Particularly, management and
Lou. Lou has tried to be a positive influence on Alex but unfortunately he
has spoiled him too much. He seems to suffer from the same personality flaw
as Nick, meaning he expects things now and does not wait to be asked. I
have tried to keep him grounded but for- all of my love and sacrifice of time
I get only sarcasm in return. Now I realize he is a teenager and this sort of
behavior comes with the territory, but in his case it is kind of out of proportion. Alex has always been one to learn things the hard way, even though he
is smart and usually ends up making the correct decision in the end. He just
takes a very long and winding path to get there.

By the time the boys left Germany at the beginning of 1996 it had
become increasingly difficult for them to get out of the hotel and do
normal everyday things. The realization that they were losing their anonymity began to set in. Alex discovered that he could no longer escape
to McDonald's, one of his favorite refuges. Girls followed him in droves. If he asked them to allow him to finish his meal, they would simply
stand there and stare at him until he was done. Then they would pounce
on him the minute that last French fry was gone. He took it in stride
and remained polite and friendly.

FROM GERMANY, the boys went to Stockholm, Sweden, to continue work
on their album with Denniz PoP We arrived at the airport with fans
waiting to take pictures and receive autographs. It took three cars to get
all of us, including our twenty-four bags of luggage, to the hotel. The
boys had no clue about how to travel light.

When we arrived at the hotel, there were about fifty or so fans waiting. After quickly dropping off the bags at the quaint little hotel (with
no luggage carts or bellman and an elevator that only went up to the
fifth of six floors), we grabbed the wardrobe and headed out to the local
teen club where the boys were scheduled to perform.

Jive's Swedish record division had done only a small amount of publicizing, so we really didn't expect a huge turnout. But about two hundred girls showed up and they were screaming their heads off most of
the time. By the time we returned to the hotel, the number of fans there
was on the rise.

Apparently, Alex and some of the other boys played games with some
of the fans while going back and forth from the recording studio to the
hotel-and the girls were not very happy about that. By that, I mean
they went into the lobby and took a few choice picks with them back
upstairs. That left the remaining girls most unhappy

When I asked Alex about it, he insisted that they just talked to the
girls, with no funny stuff going on. But the fans did not see it that way.
Soon after that we started getting hate mail. One of the letters was pretty funny It was an unflattering character sketch of the five boys that
depicted Nick with four girls behind him on leashes and Alex with a
nose long enough to drag on the ground. Whatever really happened, I
knew that my son could not get into too much trouble since he had to
return to my room to sleep. And he always did.

All of the other boys shared rooms at that time. One night our room
was next door to Howie and Kevin. We heard girls giggling most of
the evening. Then, suddenly, we heard a different sound, like many
more girls screaming, so we went to investigate and discovered that
Howie had opened the window that faced the street where the fans
were standing outside. As usual, he brought out his video camera and
encouraged the fans to sing, scream and whatever else he could think of. Finally, we got him to send the girls home so that everyone could
get some sleep.

That particular trip was eventful for me because it was the first time
I was asked to do a television interview. They asked me a lot of questions about what it was like to travel with Alex and an up-and-coming
band. I was very proud and hoped that I said all the right things.

Once the recording session wrapped, we went out on the road again
to Cologne, Dortmund and Mulin. Along the way, things began to get
more out of hand with the fans. They became more aggressive at each
hotel. One of the things I could not understand was the attitude of the
girls' parents. It was like the mothers were living vicariously through
their daughters. They were in the lobby morning, noon and night. No
matter what hour we got in, they were waiting. Didn't those people have
other lives and children and husbands to contend with?

It baffled me as to why those mothers would condone and encourage
such behavior in their teenage daughters. My German friend, Doris
Schulte, once told me that it was a very high honor in Germany for a
parent to have their daughter become pregnant by a pop star. They think
the family will be set for life and will never have to work again.

Once I heard that, I went directly to Nina and told her that the game
the boys were playing had to stop. She agreed and held a meeting with
them. Nina tried to make the boys understand that that kind of bad
publicity, before they were even a big name, could end all of their careers. Once they heard that, they became a bit more level-headed, for a
while anyway.

Halloween Day in Germany was a day from hell. First, we had to
reserve seats on an early morning flight to make a date in Hamburg.
That was not in the cards. The Berlin airport was fogged in and the
flight was delayed for hours. Finally, at 12:30 P.M. we left on a chartered
prop plane. None of us were too happy about that, especially in the fog.

From the time we left the hotel that morning, Kevin had complained
of stomach pains and diarrhea. It sounded a bit like indigestion to me,
so I gave him some antacid and it seemed to make him feel better. Even
so, Nina called ahead to the jive rep and asked him to have a doctor
waiting when we got to our hotel in Hamburg.

On the airplane, Nick asked Kevin if he had ever had appendicitis.
We all just laughed and said come on, it was probably just something he
ate. Kevin was always willing to experiment with different types of food,
so it did not seem alarming for him to be a bit under the weather.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we all went to our rooms, while the doctor
followed Kevin upstairs to examine him. What a shock we received when we got back downstairs and learned that Kevin had been taken to the
hospital. The doctor suspected that he might have appendicitis-and
he was right!

Needless to say, we were all very upset. The next day, Lou caught a
flight to join us, but by then everything was fine. Kevin rested comfortably in the hospital after his surgery and the other boys breathed easier
that it had been taken care of so quickly. The only downside was that a
reporter sneaked into Kevin's room and took a rather unflattering picture of him in his hospital gown. The picture ended up in every newspaper across the continent.

By the time we had to move on to our next destination in Munich,
Lou had arrived and stayed with Kevin in Hamburg. Randy spoke to
Johnny about hiring more bodyguards for the boys. Randy knew of a
couple of companies that hired out large guys for just that type of
work. The number of fans was growing and we needed enough manpower to protect the boys. To this day, I believe that someone at Jive
was letting the girls know where we would be staying during our
tour. The fans just knew too much, too fast. It was beginning to get
really scary.

As Kevin took a few more days off to heal, we proceeded with interviews and shows in Munich. While there, we all took a day off to visit
Dachau, the former Nazi concentration camp located outside the city. It
was a very humbling and memorable experience. I felt blessed to be
able to experience something like that with Alex.

By the next day, Kevin was on his way to meet us in Frankfurt, where
the boys were scheduled to perform in their first arena and then later sign
autographs at a large electronics store. They were eager to check out the
arena in advance, so we set out early to try and fit everything in. There
was another pretty popular boy band performing that same night. All of
the boys wanted to find out what the competition would be like. They
were totally psyched at the thought of blowing those other guys away.

Our final day in Germany found me in a reflective mood. I could not
help but think about the effect that this lifestyle has on a family. In
Brian's case, his mom and dad had to deal with separation from their
son very suddenly when he was only eighteen years old. He was still in
school and looking forward to his prom, dating, getting a job. You know,
all of the normal things that eighteen-year-olds do. Well, that was not in
the cards. His life changed when he became a Backstreet Boy. The way
Brian's mom, Jackie, tells it, Brian left home a boy and returned a man.

After what was deemed a smashing success in Germany, we were ready
to head home. All of us missed good ole home cooking and never-ending refills of coffee and soda (not one of the perks of Europe). The German
promoter threw us a lavish party after the show. To end the trip right,
Nina and I smuggled some champagne back from the party to our hotel.
After waiting about an hour for the boys to get snuggled in for the night,
we ran through the hall like commandos, banging on each boy's door
until he opened it. Then we treated each boy to a champagne shower.
After all, moms and record company reps need stress relief, too!

After several heady months in Europe, we returned to the U.S. What
a difference! The Backstreet Boys were total unknowns in the United
States. Even Mom and Dad's constant bragging to family, friends and
anyone who was listening did not help. We dubbed the U.S.A. "NFL"-
No Fan Land.