Nia Gibbons talks to the band’s reformed party animal about life back on the road

THEY’VE sold millions of records, their signature song I Want it That Way made it to number one in 25 countries, and now Backstreet Boys are back.

Though with kids and spouses in tow and a combined age of 125, these days they are arguably more Backstreet Men.

In fact, as the band make their way towards their Liverpool date next month, it takes five buses fixed up with all the mod-cons to transport everybody.

Howie Dorough, 34, has his wife on board; 33-year-old Brian Littrell’s wife and son will be jumping the bus at some points, and 30-year-old AJ McLean’s got a friend joining the bus he shares with Nick Carter, who at 28 is the baby of the band.

However, there will be few rock and roll antics as they roll through the territories.

Instead, the slimmed down four-piece expect to split their time between “chilling”, sleeping, watching movies, writing music and making the occasional panini.

“You got to have a little bit of home out here,” says AJ, the reformed party animal of the group.

“Sometimes the travelling can be tedious and being away from your family is hard, but as long as you keep in contact with your family on a regular basis, eat right and try to make time for the right things, it’s a pretty smooth ride.

“For me, I just love being on the bus, I love travelling, it’s good to be back on stage and on the road again.

“It’s just fun to be in all these countries and cities, seeing the familiar faces.”

INSPIRED by the success of forerunners New Kids on the Block and Take That, BSB were conceived 15 years ago by now disgraced music manager Lou Pearlman.

Being constantly referred to as a boy band used to bother them, but these days the guys are glad of the compliment.

“People are going to call us that no matter what,” says AJ, “It’s just what we’ve been called for years, it really doesn’t bother us much any more.

“In the beginning we were with the other boy bands, but we always considered ourselves a vocal harmony group.

“But if they want to call us a boy band now it’s cool, it actually makes us feel young again, so that’s flattering.”

Prompted largely by Nick Carter’s desire to go solo and also a wrangle with their record label, Backstreet Boys took a break in 2002, but began performing together again in 2004. Their album, Never Gone, was released in 2005 debuting at number three in the US.