Backstreet Mom: A Mother's Tale of Backstreet Boy AJ McLean's Rise to Fame, Struggle With Addiction, and Ultimate Triumph (19 page)

As THE TOUR CONTINUED, issues with management began to unfold.
Johnny and Donna bickered over everything. Nothing was ever agreed
upon without a heated discussion. Add to that Lou's insistence that we
refer to him as the boys' producer, which meant that he put his two
cents in at every turn, and you can see the dynamics of our little group.
The saving grace in all of this was that most of the time, Lou agreed
with Johnny because he was the one with the music business experience. Normally that would pretty much shut Donna up.

Our setup was a bit abnormal since Lou got his percentage from the
management side and held part of the company, so he definitely had the
power to influence management decisions; but on the other hand he
was also recognized as a sixth Backstreet Boy, so he had the power to
sway votes on either side. He told us to never refer to him as the boys' manager. He suggested that we call him their producer, the sixth memher of the group, or "Big Poppa." We thought it odd at the time, but we
didn't make an issue out of it because we naturally assumed that he
knew what he was doing.

The boys with Lou and Johnny

As if we needed more drama, Donna's daughter Marisa set her sights
on Alex. Marisa was a very cute girl, not too far apart in age from my
son. She, too, had grown up in a broken household, the result of her
mother divorcing her father and marrying Johnny. Marisa was petite,
with long, dirty-blonde hair and a huge smile that was identical to her
mother's. In fact they looked very much alike.

Marisa lived with her father in the Northeast and visited her mother
occasionally. When she and Alex met at rehearsals, I saw the look in my
son's eyes right away. He liked what he saw, a fact that was apparently
not lost on Donna, who seemed to have a special antenna that allowed
her to detect people's weaknesses.

We started out as friends, but, with time, I saw some traits in her that
I wasn't too fond of. She told me story after story about all the people we
had come to know through the boys and she always had dirt on them. A
few times, she even tried to play me against Nick's parents and vice
versa. Her game would be to tell me that they had said something negative about me or Alex. If I responded, she would go running right back
to them. What Donna did not know was that Bob Carter talked to me all
the time. The two of us knew exactly what was going on.

Donna once told me that one of her goals was to take my son away
from me. She was very jealous of my relationship with my son. This was
a way for her to try and push us apart. That is when I decided to keep
my relationship with Donna strictly professional. But as the relationship between Alex and Marisa grew, that became very difficult.

Alex filled me in on the details of Marisa's childhood. While he may
not have really understood the situation very well, it answered a lot of
questions for me. After Donna left her husband for Johnny, her family
ties became very strained. When she tried to bring her children back
into her life, there was an enormous amount of resentment in her family. It was all very sad.

I always regarded the closeness that Alex and I shared as something
that began on the day that he was born and grew out of the fact that his
father and I divorced. There were a lot of times when I felt like it was
really Alex and me against the world. Even though we did have my
parents for support, there were still situations that the two of us confronted on our own while out on the road. He and I could always talk
honestly to one another about any subject. We had no secrets. Every time Alex tried to keep something from me, I always found out-and
not through any digging on my part. Rather, because everyone who knew
us, and knew how close we were, would come to me and tell me if they
thought Alex was doing something weird.

My fears about people's "agendas" became heightened after conversations with some of the other parents regarding the boys' management.
It seemed obvious to some of them as well that Donna was trying to
manipulate the boys. I was not sure if this was due to some insecurity
on her part, given that she was not as experienced as Johnny, or if this
kind of behavior was just her way. Soon it mushroomed into a bigger
issue.

The fact that Donna went out on the road with us for the duration of
the United States tour did not help matters. That presented a lot of problems for everyone concerned. In addition to Donna's management style,
I also had a problem with her attitude toward expenses. She gave parties
for radio people at the drop of a hat and sometimes the boys were not
even present to do any type of promotion. It irritated me, not only because it was wasteful, but because I knew that it would eventually end
up on the boys' tab.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing of all was the way she dealt with
other people. She embarrassed the boys and me on more than one occasion with her vulgar mouth and short temper. Unfortunately, I was not
in any position to really say too much. It became necessary for the boys
to speak up for themselves. They would talk to Johnny or Lou and sometimes they would pull me aside. I just tried to keep the peace since we
all had to live together for the time being. That strategy worked for a
while.

IN THE END, AFTER OUR SKIRMISHES on the road with radio program directors, we lost the battle because there was no market for our sound.
The single went nowhere in the United States. Europe was a different
story. There "We've Got It Goin' On" shot up the charts like a rocket,
taking everyone at jive and BMG by surprise. They quickly put together
a promotional schedule for England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and
the surrounding countries.

As much as we were excited about the possibility of traveling to Europe, Alex and I were apprehensive about leaving the country while the
single was still being played. We quickly learned that when you turn
your future over to a record company, you have to put your blind faith
in their judgment.

Years later, we found out that this was the first time jive Records had
ever attempted to promote a pop group here or in Europe. With the
help of BMG, they were given a crash course in Pop Star 101. BMG had
plenty of experience with groups like ours throughout the world. It
made us feel better to know that we were in good hands.

Our only saving grace on the Jive side of things at that time was a
lady by the name of Nina Bueti. She was the head of all markets outside
the United States. Nina had been involved with the Backstreet Boys since
they broke in Europe. Nina was a tall, very Italian-looking, young woman who knew how to get what she wanted. She was extremely professional and knowledgeable in her work

Another hurdle to be overcome was the fact that both jive and management were giving me a hard time about the added expense of tutors
and guardians traveling abroad. I steadfastly held my ground for two
reasons: I was not going to allow strangers to be solely responsible for
Alex's welfare, and I had made a promise to my son that I would continue to make sure that his education was a priority.

It took days for that battle to be resolved. Finally, I said, "Look-either
the tutor and I both go or Alex does not." Ultimately, we came to terms.

Having already assumed the roles of wardrobe mistress and makeup
artist, I also took on the jobs of fan club organizer and meet-and-greet
coordinator. Since we were all starting from scratch, everyone on the
record company side was open to creative ideas. I worked very closely
with the boys to find out their likes and dislikes with regards to their
appearance whenever they were in public. My involvement with the
project quickly morphed into quite an interesting career.

Eventually, we developed a system. Management in Orlando received
requests from jive or BMG for the lists of attendees. They were then
passed down to me to carry out. That doesn't sound too difficult, but
when you have to get five boys up and running at the same time for
every meeting it can (and usually did) create some unique challenges.

That's when security came to the rescue. We would have meetings
every night with the bodyguards to go over the schedule for the next
day. They were responsible for setting the wakeup calls, as well as arranging for our transportation. It was also their responsibility to make
sure that each boy was up and moving each morning. Alex was the only
one who wasn't an issue. We usually shared a room and I knew where to
find him.

Boys at Chateau Marmont Hotel

Alex graduates with his high school class