Boy Band Confidential

Amazing grace...

How sweet the sound.

- You guys ready for it? - The Backstreet Boys are back.

- We're LFO. - They're 98 Degrees.

Let's go!

That saved...

Take a back seat, Backstreet Boys,

your rivals, NSYNC, now hold the record for album sales.

30 years ago, they made fun of the word "boy band."

It's now a badge of honor.

A wretch like me.

I know it has been a difficult time for you, AJ.

It was a horrible experience for me.

- It's a cutthroat business. - This is crazy!

This is a scam.

This is the first time I'm talking about it this openly.

The people that we thought

had our backs really didn't have them.

I was-- was lost...

But now...

Have to worry just how long

their fame and their money will last.

...am found.

I was victimized.

Was blind...

He was propositioning to these young performers, including me.

- Has been arrested. - He too was assaulted.

We had nobody except each other.

If I had the chance to do it all over again

and end up where I am...

would I do it?

But now I see.

That was really beautiful.

Backstreet Boys!

We love our fans, that's why we're here.

Ah, the stories.

Artists have recorded here.

NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Jonas Brothers,

Boyz II Men, 98 Degrees, Aaron Carter, Snap, Full Force,

Menudo, Galen Brown,

and I don't know who that guy is.

Oh gosh, well over 20 years.

Definitely a lot has changed.

Here's actually kind of funny. There's a photo.

Oh, there it is right there. You can see it right there.

This was literally here.

This was this shot. They were standing there

in the alleyway and shooting us there.

But hilarious enough, look at the big-ass TV,

and now it's a flat screen.

Like, look at just even simple little things like that.

I don't know why it's kind of funny to me.

My name is Joey Fatone. I was in a group called NSYNC.

Once we became a group,

we were doing a stadium tour.

60,000-70,000 people screaming at you.

For the five of us, being able

to be that successful doesn't happen

very, very often.

Yep, too many memories in here.

Too many times sweating our asses off.

Too many times doing the same song over and over and over

and over and over and over and over.

You can't deny that if it wasn't for NSYNC,

Justin Timberlake wouldn't be the way he is right now.

Wouldn't be doing Broadway,

to hosting TV shows, to doing films.

The Deadpool movie used our hit for their open.

Now, it's a younger generation.

They are learning about NSYNC, which is pretty cool.

It's such an amazing experience to be able

to go through this life.

But when we started, we were young.

Justin was 14 years old.

I was, what, 17, 18,

I just graduated high school. Legit.

Now, we couldn't grasp everything that was

happening around.

But now, as we get older, you look at life differently.

And you realize the industry can be wonderful and can be

cruel at the same time.

Would there ever be a reunion still?

I mean, there's always a possibility, of course.

Now, many of our fans don't know

the challenges that we faced.

But throughout my career, I met other performers

from different groups and started to realize

that all these other boy bands had similar experiences

that they kept quiet about,

and it's time we finally share their stories.

- Yo, what up? - What's up, dude?

So how are we feeling about the-- the shoot so far?

Well, it's funny, because I was up very early.

So Joey and I have been talking probably for the past

six to eight months about what stories have people not heard.

See, we're in entertainment, right?

So our job is to portray and to sell

not only a fantasy, but entertain.

Well, in the boy band,

there is a side that's not so glamorous.

There is a side that's not so "sexy."

If you're a human being, you struggle.

- Everybody struggles. - It's just magnified

when you're in a boy band.

I forgot, there's like four or five people I think

we're gonna get in L.A. next week. - Yeah.

And then it's gonna be Jeff Timmons at some point.

What up? Speaking of the devil.

Uh, who else has done it so far?

We're getting AJ in L.A.

I just want to say, "Hi" to you , so.

We're getting, I think, Nick in L.A.

- What's up, brother? - Wanyá.

- OK, speeding. - Got speed.

There's Shawn. Jeff Timmons.

It's one of those things

I love to hear other sides of the story.

Basically, it's still kind of going through

and kind of the trials and tribulations.

We've never had the conversation of just going,

"How did it feel? What happened?"

Because not many people got to experience something like this.

Nick Lachey, take one, AB common mark.

Erik Estrada, take one.

It's kind of long overdue. We've had a bunch of these

and we haven't really told this angle.

All right. All righty.

Easy peasy.

These are our Billboard awards from 1999.

We got four of these.

For years, I didn't have any of my awards out in my house,

because I don't even think I deserved this.

AJ is a character in a band.

Alex is who I am,

Born Alexander McLean, a nerdy kid from Palm Beach, Florida

that had a Huffy bike, played piano,

loved games, loved comic books,

but more than anything loved to perform and sing and dance.

There was a amazing theater

called the Royal Palm Dinner Theater.

One of the first roles that I got was in "Snow White."

They cast me as Dopey because Dopey was a mute

and I had a speech impediment when I was growing up.

I had two, actually, I had a stutter and a lisp.

Of course, I get to be

the character that doesn't have to say anything.

I stole the show.

But I think a negative side of that applause is

how you would perceive it.

Why are they clapping for me? Do I deserve that applause?

I didn't do anything special.

If I were you, I'd be booing me.

Growing up in South Florida, most boys especially,

would look at you like, "Why are you not into sports

or video games?"

Yeah, I would get picked on a lot.

I got bullied a lot.

And it really started to kind of tear me down inside.

I definitely struggled with self-esteem my whole life.

But I had this ability to perform and acting

to bring people joy.

I have to do these things to get people to like me.

And if you look at most of the guys in that era,

a lot of the reason why we choose music

is this way to communicate,

and almost like...

it's a call for help.

I was probably like 10 or 11 years old,

a little bit older than that.

Out comes New Kids on the Block.

We were living in Brooklyn, New York,

and I remember this girl,

this friend of mine, her name was Deborah,

and I used to go to her house and watch all the VHS tapes.

Because I didn't want anybody to know, you know,

you don't watch a boy band. "This is-- that's for girls.

Those were guys. That's sissy stuff,"

is what they would say.

And I was like, "I don't know what you're talking about."

I'm like, I'm enjoying the performances.

I love the songs.

But on top of that, look at how many people are in this arena.

Like, they're performing in arenas right now at that time.

And it's like, I would love to do something like that.

It was groups like that, New Kids or Boyz II Men,

that we looked up to and showed us what was possible.

New Kids on the Block is definitely the OG boy band.

They were a worldwide phenomenon that started

in the late '80s, sold over 80 million records worldwide.

You can never be...

you know, fed up with getting awards and being successful

and having millions of people, you know,

want to buy your records.

I was a tour manager for New Kids on the Block,

and they, from a personality, performance level,

can't be beat, even to this day.

I don't care what anybody says.

But then when New Kids on the Block decided

after four and a half years that they were burnt out,

so they wanted to take a break.