Backstreet Mom: A Mother's Tale of Backstreet Boy AJ McLean's Rise to Fame, Struggle With Addiction, and Ultimate Triumph (20 page)

A beautiful shot of Alex looking very AJ

Alex's 24th birthday at Tutu Tangos

Johnny No-Name Charity Show

I'm interviewed by Connie Chung!

Alex with "NO-NAME" band at charity show at Hard Rock Live, Orlando

Alex with the RCA Victrola Dog

Johnny No-Name on New Year's Eve

Alex at Nicole's wedding

Alex and I go through letters of support he received while in rehab

OCTOBER 9, 1995, was the first day of the boys' European tour. When
we arrived in England, after an eight-hour flight in coach, we were happy to find unusually warm weather, a balmy seventy degrees. The sunshine was a pleasant surprise since we had been forewarned as to just
how terrible the weather in London could be.

A delegate from the record company greeted us and gave us a very
warm welcome. When we reached our hotel, the first thing on our minds
was a nice nap before dinner. Alex was so excited he had a hard time
relaxing. He had slept most of the flight, a pattern that would continue
until the present day. He got into that habit because he really dislikes
flying, especially in small, private planes. Alex falls asleep as soon as the
plane takes off and he doesn't wake up until he feels the bump of the
landing.

That evening, we had a nice dinner with the Jive reps. Radio had
been playing "We've Got It Goin' On" in Europe for a few weeks and it
was doing very well. England is historically a very hard market to break
into, but the boys were climbing the charts steadily. Having them there
in the flesh to charm the right people might just push the single to the
top of the charts.

Our first battle with the television stations came when they realized
that the boys wanted to sing live. Apparently, live television performances
are frowned upon there because of the technical difficulties involved.
When the boys arrived for the first show, an argument ensued as to
whether or not they would be allowed to sing live at the taping. Johnny
got in the middle of that argument and, thankfully, we won. Everyone
was thrilled with the outcome.

Not surprisingly, the boys won the hearts of the audiences and threw
all of Europe into a complete tizzy. The effect that television and radio
had on the teens there was amazing. It was so different from home.
Obviously the kids had been waiting for something or someone new to
arrive on the scene. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
When Lou heard the good news, he quickly joined us in London.

Despite the work involved, we managed to have some fun times during our stay in London. It was there that I met photographer Andre
Csillag, a man who would become a lifelong friend and traveling companion. He did his first photo shoot with the boys on that trip and really
made an impression on all of us. Andre was the only photographer the
boys had met who actually tried to make it fun for them.

By then the boys had done so much publicity that they were beginning to get a bit buggy journalists asked the same questions so many
times that I could have done the interviews in my sleep. I felt sorry for the boys-all they really wanted to do was sing and dance. They were
full of energy for the television shows. They loved it. The more frenzied
the fans became, the more the boys gave back.

The interviews and photo shoots, however, had become quite tedious
for them. It was the same scenario every day: a conference room with
drinks on the table, reporters armed with tape machines and an occasional camera, and the inevitable barrage of uninspired questions, asked
over and over again.

That is why Andre was such a breath of fresh air for the boys. This
small-framed, gray-haired proper English gentleman from Hungary gave
us a completely new perspective on what a photo shoot should be about.
He began by planning an outing for the boys. He wanted them to have
fun seeing some sights around London.

We went onto a private boat and took a ride up the River Thames. We
saw Big Ben and the London Bridge and all sorts of things along the way.
The boys had on red, white and blue jackets. They looked great. The
five of them hung from the boat at every angle, allowing Andre to get
lots of fun pictures for the magazines.

Our intrepid photographer, Andre Csillag