AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys Reveals the Group Has Gone to Therapy Together, and That They Consider the Band Their “First Marriage”
“No great relationship comes without work.”
This week marks 31 years since the Backstreet Boys—one of the most successful boy bands of all time—formed in Orlando, Florida, and bandmate AJ McLean opened up to Page Six about one way the group has managed to stay together for all of those years: going to therapy together.
The Backstreet Boys go way back, celebrating 31 years this week since their formation in 1993.
“We’ve been around the world and back again,” McLean said. “We’ve had highs, lows, ups, downs, good times, bad times. But really, truly, this is our first marriage—the five of us, this truly is our first marriage. And if it wasn’t for the love and passion for what we do, the most amazing fans in the world, and just good communication skills—I mean, hell, we’ve been to therapy together as a group. You do whatever you can to maintain.”
He added, correctly, “No great relationship comes without work.”
Bandmate AJ McLean, center, revealed that the group has gone to therapy together to maintain their bond.
He also said that they consider the band their first marriage and that they have both an ongoing group chat and weekly Zoom check-ins.
McLean and his fellow Backstreet Boys—Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, and Kevin Richardson—apparently have something big headed fans’ way in 2025, though McLean couldn’t reveal what it was. “We’re gearing up for what’s happening next year, which I can’t talk about,” he said. “It’s a really big, big thing,” he added, before teasing “Something is coming. Something wicked this way comes.”
He also revealed that four of the five bandmates golf together (it’s unclear which one isn’t into the sport), that they have an ongoing group chat (that Carter is apparently always renaming), and that they “do a weekly Zoom just to kind of clean house and see what’s going on, what’s coming up,” McLean said.
BSB, as it is colloquially known, was one of the biggest groups of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Possibly in the pipeline someday? A festival idea McLean is tentatively calling “Popapalooza,” a Lollapalooza or Coachella-type experience, but for pop acts from the 1990s and 2000s. He said it’s been discussed for years and said it would not just be boy bands, but female solo artists, male solo artists—any artist from the time period. “Why not do something in the pop space?” he said. “It would be really, really fun.”
What about a tour of Backstreet Boys and their fellow 1990s boy band, ‘N Sync—a tour that would make many a millennial’s dreams come true? “If us and ‘N Sync ever toured together, that would break the planet,” McLean said. “We already know that.”
The group is still performing today, as seen here in 2022.
McLean, seen here, said the group is nowhere near done.
In addition to the 2025 mystery project, McLean said that he and the rest of the Backstreet Boys would eventually like to make new music down the road, and even make an eventual return to Las Vegas for another residency.
“We’re not stopping anytime soon,” he said. “We’re going to continue to move.” He added “We’re going to keep doing this until we don’t enjoy it anymore, or until the fans don’t want us anymore.”
Well, at least to the latter part, that’s a pretty firm never gonna happen.
