The Backstreet Boys had to go through a difficult period of life, according to AJ McLean, who said that his personal troubles were a contributing factor.
In the new documentary titled Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands, which is available on Paramount+, McLean takes a look back at the history of the band. There, he describes how the band ultimately decided to go their own ways owing to the difficulties they were experiencing in their personal lives.
The singer, who is now 46 years old, begins by saying, “With the Backstreet Boys, there was never a breakup, but 2001 was a really dark, difficult time.”
We had been on tour for nine years in a row, and we had been doing nothing except going on tour, making albums, and going on tour again. “And instead of dealing with my genuine feelings or emotions, I kind of got caught up in the lifestyle, which included partying, drinking, and drug use,” McLean recalls. “I should have been dealing with my feelings first.”
“And it wasn’t until I did what I told myself I would never do — which was drink on stage — that’s when I even had to know, ‘OK dude something’s not right.'”
McLean took the choice to get assistance, and his bandmates were on board with him in doing so, despite the fact that their relationships were strained at the time.
“The day that I flew from tour into rehab, everybody was just at their wit’s end,” he says in an interview. In the year 2001, I made my first effort to quit drinking.
Throughout the years that followed, the band continued to face difficulties. “And then Kevin left for six years to go start a family,” McLean adds, noting the second significant change that occurred in the group in the year 2006. “We gave him our blessing, and he gave us his blessing to continue as four, and we continued on without him,” we said.
During a tour date in Los Angeles in 2008, Richardson made his comeback to the band and made his first public appearance with those members.
“The moment Kevin returned is one that I will never forget. in the time, we were in the Staples Center, and he was performing ‘I Want It That Way.’ That is the most piercing scream I have ever heard. I was forced to remove my in-ear headphones,” McLean recounts.
He did nothing except stand there, and I told him, “Yeah, you need to take it in, friend. Bring that s— in here.’ And after that, we headed back to the recording studio.
Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands is now available to watch on Paramount+, and it provides further information on the history of the Backstreet Boys as well as other great boy bands.
