Backstreet Mom: A Mother's Tale of Backstreet Boy AJ McLean's Rise to Fame, Struggle With Addiction, and Ultimate Triumph (37 page)

A few more glommers started using Alex's new home as a partying
palace. They swarmed in, trashed the place, crashed overnight and then
left the next day. Sometimes, when I visited Alex, I found bodies lying
in sleeping bags or wrapped in quilts throughout the house. After a
while, Alex began to feel taken advantage of. Unfortunately, he had way
too big of a heart. That, coupled with his phobic fear of confrontation,
limited his ability to throw the glommers out.

I saw an opportunity to solve two problems. First and foremost, I
wanted to get those people away from my son or at least out of his house.
Secondly, I was tired of living with my mom and dad and I welcomed the idea of some space of my own. With those two thoughts in mind, I sat
Alex down and we discussed our options. He agreed that things had
gotten out of hand. He admitted that he wanted the glommers to leave.

We both agreed it was best for me to move in before the next tour. A
new tour of the U.S. and Canada loomed on the horizon. That would be
followed by a trip to South America. I went furniture shopping and
found a nice bed to start off my new room at Alex's house. After that, I
took a few trips to St. Augustine to the antique shops for some nice
accessories. I had a great time.

The summer ended much too quickly and we were off again.

Alex and Howie in South America

WITH BRIAN BACK ON TRACK, we set out for a few dates across
the country and into Canada. Shortly before the tour ended, the boys
took a break to attend the MTV Awards. This go round, the boys were
up for several awards. On our way to the awards, Howie learned that his
sister had been admitted to a hospital for treatment of complications
associated with lupus, a disease that she had battled for a long time.

Devastated, Howie left for home immediately, but by the time he arrived at her bedside she was gone. She was only thirty-five. He was only
able to spend a short time with his family and really had no time to
grieve. This business is ruthless. Each of the boys, except for Nick, lost
loved ones over the course of his career. None of them had the proper
time to adjust to the loss. Their schedules were always so packed that
they were lucky if they had time to fly home and attend the funeral.

Howie dealt with the loss as best as he could and we continued on
the tour. He did not want to disappoint his family, but he had an obligation to his band mates. I think his family understood.

Once the American and Canadian tours ended, we returned home for
a few days to regroup and prepare for our first South American tour. Since the album was blowing out the charts there, Jive wanted the boys
to hit all the major markets.

Ordinarily, that would have been an exciting prospect, but with
Johnny's departure, the boys were in management limbo. They had no
management and were in more demand worldwide than ever. The one
thing they had not thought through before giving Johnny an ultimatum
was who would take over his duties.

None of the boys had a clue as to what went on behind the scenes.
They knew nothing about what it took just to get them through one of
their busy days. I tried to keep things afloat as best as I could. I had
cultivated a good rapport with both Jive and the media. Feeling that the
boys were comfortable with my way of doing things, I stepped in to
handle the day-to-day scheduling. I truly felt that if I didn't do something to help them stay on track, the Backstreet Boys would cease to
exist.

At that point in their career, the boys were in huge demand by every
major television show, high-end magazine and radio program worldwide. The other person in all of this mess who was left in limbo was
Nicole. Her years as an assistant to Johnny and Donna had taught her
an immense amount about the music business. Nicole was the glue that
held things together while we were out on the road. She even kept in
touch with my mom and dad to let them know how Alex and I were
holding up under the
intense schedule.

Me, Nina and Nicole
hanging out

Mom always appreciated how much Nicole
loved the boys and how
hard she worked for
them. Nicole was one of
the most organized people I had ever met.
Wherever we happened
to be in the world,
Nicole always made sure
all of the memos and
communications managed to reach us.

Nina and I both knew we could count on Nicole to be there for us
and get us whatever we needed. She was our anchor. As the situation
with management grew messy, Nicole desperately wanted to quit, but
she needed the paycheck as much as we all did. That consideration,
coupled with the reality that she had come to love the five boys, was
somehow always enough to make her stick it out.

When the boys finally ended their relationship with Lou, Johnny and
Donna, Nicole had a rough couple of weeks trying to figure out where
she would end up. Nina and I kept telling her to hang in there. We
would make sure the boys kept her employed. After all, we needed someone on the home front to keep us going.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Nina and I met with the boys
and they decided to keep Nicole on to operate the home office, while
Nina and I remained on the road with them. The only problem was that
since the boys had broken all ties with Lou, there was no actual office
left to run things from. I offered the spare bedroom in my mom and
dad's apartment.

In between tours, Nicole and I set things up in the office and got the
schedule for the next tour rolling. Nina was based in New York, so she
went back and met with Jive to move the tour along at that end. Turmoil
swirled all around us, yet the boys never missed a beat. Somehow we
were able to affect a smooth transition.

Unfortunately, we may have done our jobs too well. Nina and I had a
couple of run-ins with some of the boys' girlfriends out on the road and
that caused some problems. As a result, the boys began to act resentful
toward us. All we were trying to do was hold it together for them, but
they didn't always see it that way There was always a problem with
something or someone that caused delays and caused tempers to flare.
It was a never-ending battle.

THE FIRST DAY OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN TOUR (which happened to fall
on Friday the 13th), got off to a shaky start when the boys walked into
a press conference more than an hour late. As a result, the initial response from the press and the fans was not good. They were booed.
The boys turned the situation around by charming them with their usual antics and frankness. Once they got past that first day, the response in
South America was overwhelming, considering that the Backstreet Boys
had never been there before.

In Argentina, the boys were booked on a very strange television show
that was filmed in an amusement park. The only way to get there was by helicopter or boat. The boys opted for the boat. By that time, our hotel
had been surrounded by thousands of fans, so we had to sneak out of
the back, while decoy vans drove out the front.

We drove for forty minutes in a very cramped mini-bus without airconditioning from the hotel to the producer's home. From there we boarded an amazing cabin cruiser, complete with full bar and food. Our security
surrounded us in two speedboats. It was like a scene out of that old
television show, Miami Vice.

The ride to the park was like a floating party. A couple of the boys sat
on the bow of the boat and watched the sunset as we sped along the
beautiful waterway. Howie, of course, had his video camera with him
and filmed scenery as it whizzed by.

Alex appeared uneasy about the boat ride. I took him aside and asked
him why. He told me that he felt like he was on a drug runner's boat and
that made him feel very uncomfortable. While it did appear to be a bit
strange, we had traveled so much and in so many different ways over
the years, I told him not to worry about it, that he should just add this
one to his list. My little pep talk didn't do much good. He seemed exceptionally relieved when we finally reached our destination.