Backstreet Mom: A Mother's Tale of Backstreet Boy AJ McLean's Rise to Fame, Struggle With Addiction, and Ultimate Triumph (26 page)

Alex had on a sweater and jeans that were too large for him. By the
time we pulled him out of the water, his sleeves were dragging the ground.
Next, Nick went into the pool, soon to be followed by Alex a second
time since he was drenched already. It turned out to be a lot of laughs,
despite those who were there to muddy the water.

That week another meeting about Donna was held. What I thought
was going to be an end to the madness with Donna soon became a larger
nightmare than before. Apparently, Donna had been having conversations with Lou and Johnny behind our backs and somehow had managed to change everyone's mind about firing her.

Out of the blue, Lou stated that we did not have a clear-cut case
against Donna. He said that he was going to reinstate her but planned to
write up a formal complaint against her by the boys that would be kept
in her personnel file.

All of this seemed very odd to me, given that in the last meeting
Donna had voluntarily quit. Come to find out, the way the contracts
were written, the only way to get rid of her would be for Johnny to buy
her out as partner, which meant that Lou would somehow lose money
due to his role in the management company.

So the bottom line was that the boys did not have the right to fire just
one manager unless the others paid the price. They were not willing to
do that, so that meant we were stuck with Donna. It all seemed turned
around to me. I thought management worked for the boys, but it was
beginning to look like it was the other way around.

It was also brought up at the meeting that since Alex had been dating
Donna's daughter he could not voice an opinion. To this day I really
don't understand what that had to do with anything. They all seemed
afraid of Donna for some reason. The only conclusion I could reach was
that Donna either had some incriminating evidence on Johnny or Lou,
or she had gone to an attorney and had grounds for a lawsuit. Either way, it was a twisted system. There was some underlying truth that would
eventually have to come out. Or so I hoped.

WHEN I LEARNED THAT THE BOYS were going to Los Angeles for some
television appearances, I planned a bit of downtime for myself. The night
before they left, I was out having a nice quiet dinner with a friend, when
I received a frantic call on my cell phone. Early on, I knew I would grow
to hate those devices! Anyway, I was told that I had to go with the boys
on their early-morning flight since a four-hour photo shoot for a major
magazine had been added to their schedule at the last minute.

They needed seven changes of clothing for the shoot. I really wasn't
upset about it. The truth was I enjoyed the traveling and I found the
work interesting. I was up until 2:30 A.M. packing for a 5:30 A.M. flight.
The fan-club end of my job had also become more active and I really
enjoyed working with people all over the world on the boys' behalf. I
certainly could never complain that my job was dull.

In addition, my personal life was heating up. An old boyfriend that I
had not seen in months contacted me and told me that he wanted to start
our relationship up again. Oh, my God! January was going to be a stressful month. I looked forward to a bit more sanity in the month of February.

In Los Angeles I was constantly referred to as the boys' stylist. How
flattering. Just another of my many hats. We were gone for about a week
on that little excursion and then returned to Florida to get the boys
ready for a charity event in Orlando. At that time, I received good news
from Germany. A friend called to tell me that the boys came in at number one on the VIVA Hit List (kind of like MTV Europe). That was great
news. Everything went well for the rest of the month, then the boys got
back on a plane without me and traveled to Sweden, where they continued recording with Denniz PoP

For some reason, Jive was still dragging its feet about releasing a second single from the boys' first album. It was frustrating for the boys to
be working so hard and then to have their own record company not able
to make a decision. Alex told me that he really did not like the business
end of the whole thing and wanted me to handle it for him. He had
become very confused by it all and no longer wanted to deal with it. All
he wanted to do was sing and dance.

Alex asked me to become his personal and business manager. I was
thrilled! That would give me the opportunity to remain a close part of
his career and protect him from the sharks that had begun to circle the
group. We asked an attorney who was also a friend, Judith Segelin, to draw up a formal written agreement. Since he was no longer a minor we
both signed it. It basically made me his business manager and gave me
power of attorney. I picked up the usual, rescuing-mom role and ran
with it.

Since the record company seemed incapable of making a decision, we
headed back to Europe, where the boys' popularity had continued to
grow On February 14, 1996, we celebrated the best Valentine's Day ever:
the boys' first gold record was presented in Munich at a very nice restaurant BMG had rented out for the evening. Although the location of the
party had been kept under raps, the fans somehow found us out. It was
an extremely cold evening. It had been snowing on and off all day. The
streets were covered in ice, but that was of no consequence to the loyal
fans that waited for us to arrive.

When the boys emerged from their limos, the fans went wild. The
press and paparazzi were there as well. I was interviewed and had my
picture taken with the boys. I had never been comfortable being in the
limelight, but I felt I had contributed a lot in helping them to achieve
their success, so why not?

BMG's director of promotion made a very nice speech about the boys
and everyone involved. Lou was overwhelmed by the occasion. He cried
during his speech, as did all the other guys. I was fine until Alex said
from across the room, "I love you, Mom." Then I lost it as well. Lots of
happy tears were shed.

The rest of that year was filled with amazing events, both in Europe
and the United States. March 4, 1996, marked another red-letter day for
the Backstreet Boys, when they appeared on VIVA-TV. When we arrived,
there were at least four hundred girls waiting outside, so we circled
around the back and entered through an electric gate. That became a
problem when the bus slowed down to drive though a tight space, giving the girls just enough time to sneak through the gate with the bus.

Security made a path for us and we ran off the bus into the studios.
Once inside, we were led down a long hallway to a green room that was
about twelve by fifteen feet, with windows along three walls. Although
the windows had blinds on them, the fans figured out where we were
and began banging relentlessly on the windows.

A few of the girls squeezed their tiny hands in and unlocked the windows so they could throw small stuffed toys and notes at the boys. Finally, extra security was sent outside to move the girls back past the gate.

The show itself went fine, but when the time came to leave, fans had
climbed the fences and dropped into the parking lot where the bus was
waiting. Security, along with anyone in the building big and strong enough to be effective, ran outside to clear the fans away and make a
path for us to get through to the bus. They got most of the fans outside
the gates again and we thought we were home free.

After witnessing that scene, the boys felt so badly for the fans that
they decided to sign some autographs through the chain link fence. The
five boys were giddy with excitement over the whole thing, but Johnny
and I were terrified. The only thing that separated us from those hundreds of crazy screaming girls was a fence. And they had climbed that
twice already.

With bodyguards close behind, the boys ran back and forth, signing
and shaking hands and going just as crazy as the fans. The frenzy reached
a feverish pitch. All I wanted to do was get those boys back onto the
bus, but they were determined to keep signing autographs.

Suddenly, in between deafening screams, I heard Alex scream out,
"Mom, help!" I turned just in time to see my son with a young girl
literally wrapped around him and five more getting ready to pounce
from the fence. I yelled for security. As they tried to pry the girls off of
Alex, he did his best not to freak out. Once freed, he ran full steam
ahead to the bus, all the while yelling for the others boys to follow suit.

Howie was the next to be attacked. One by one, the boys realized how
totally out of control the situation had become. When that moment of
clarity hit, each headed for the safety of our forty-foot refuge. Once we
were all on board, we realized that the girls had broken the gate by hanging on it. That made it necessary for security to open it manually in order
for us to be able to get out. Six big men pushed open the gates as several
others tried to push the girls out of the way of the bus.

As we inched our way out of the parking lot, our hearts were beating
so hard and fast that I was certain that they could be heard above the
screams. Johnny ran to the back of the bus and grabbed his video camera. He wanted to capture on tape what we thought was a once-in-alifetime event. Little did we know it was only the beginning.

The bus, which by then was buried in fans standing ten deep, could
barely move. The fans banged on the sides and jumped onto the front,
hanging in desperation from the windshield wipers. They were all crying hysterically and screaming the boys' names. It was unbearably nervewracking as we inched our way through the sea of teenage girls. Even
though we were moving, it felt like we were trapped.

Eventually, the police were called to escort us to safety. Laughably,
the first to arrive was an officer on a very small motorbike. He took one
look at the situation and turned around to get backup. We could not
wait for reinforcements, so we kept going.

As we moved toward the main road, the street narrowed, due to the
cars parked along the side. We hoped that would block the girls, but
they did not let that stop them. They simply climbed onto the tops of
the cars to keep up with us. Hoods were crushed and even convertibles
were stomped on. It was amazing to watch those girls push every obstacle out of their way. The people who owned the cars were in for a big
surprise.

It took us two hours to reach the end of that small side street, which
was about one-third the length of a city block. Fans were everywhere
you looked. Randy and the bus driver yelled at the girls to get down off
of the mirrors and windows, but they would not stop. They had worked
themselves up into such a frenzy that I don't think they even knew what
they were doing anymore. Eventually, we turned onto the highway and
they were no longer able to follow us. After a few exits, we stopped to
see if any damage had been done to the bus. We could not believe our
eyes. The girls had written love notes to the boys on every inch of the
white bus. It looked like a giant doodle pad covered in marker.

The "snowball" that had started to gather strength the year before was
now plowing ahead with greater intensity. It all came to a chaotic climax
at the Virgin Megastore in Vienna, Austria, at the Backstreet Boys' last
scheduled in-store appearance in Europe. The BMG people in Vienna were
very nice, but they were totally unprepared for the upcoming events.

The day we arrived, I had a conversation with the promotional guy
and our head of security. Since the experience with the fans at VIVA-TV,
Randy and I knew what to expect. We tried to explain this to the BMG
representative, but he kept insisting that Austrian teens were not as
aggressive as German girls.

The rep believed there would be no problem with the next day's autograph session at the Virgin Megastore. Only 150 fans had come for Had-
daway, when he had a number one record. Since the Backstreet Boys'
record was only number three for two weeks, he figured that no more
than 200 fans would show up for autographs.

Although the boys were scheduled to be at the store at 4:00 P.M., by
1:00 P.M. more than 500 fans had shown up. By 3:00 P.M., they had to close
the store. Not long after that, they were forced to shut down the surrounding streets. By 4:00 P.M., there were more than 2,000 fans jammed
into both levels of the store. Countless more were waiting outside.

Anyone who was available to help with barricades and security was
called in. Once the additional staff were put into place, the boys stepped
into the room, causing the entire building to heave with anticipation. It
took all the strength of several large heavily-muscled men to hold the fans back. They were put at a second-floor table between the elevator
and the exit. I stood behind them and tried to stay calm, all the while
videotaping what had turned into an extraordinary event.

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Rushing home for Alex's graduation