INTERVIEW: A.J. McLean on Changing Diapers, BSB’s 20th B-Day, and One Direction

My, oh my, the time has flown by. The Backstreet Boys are preparing an album to commemorate its twentieth anniversary next year.

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Before hitting the big 2-0 though, the guys thought it’d be a good idea to finally release a Christmas song – the first in its 19 year history.

If the nostalgia hasn’t peaked yet, once-bad boy A.J. McLean is now a father.

“She is an absolute dream,” McLean said of his daughter, born Ava Jaymes McLean on November 27. “She only cries here and there, she sleeps most of the time, and her poop is hardly even there as of now. I’ve probably changed 50 diapers, and I love it.”

The new duties haven’t seemed to weigh McLean down, literally or figuratively, as the Backstreet Boys promote its new single, “It’s Christmas Time Again.”


“We’ve tried to have Christmas albums, but never seemed to find the time,” explained McLean. “We were either on tour, or we were working on a brand new Backstreet record, or we were taking down time for the holidays usually.”

A.J. said the single not only fills the holiday music void for the band, but also gives its fans something to have until the new BSB single drops next year, the first for an album that will commemorate the group’s 1993 formation.

“As soon as I’m off with you guys, I will be heading off to the studio to meet up with the fellas,” said McLean. “We’re actually in the studio for the rest of this week, and then the first couple days of next week.”

After a short break, it’s off to New York, where the Backstreet Boys will perform on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” It’s 19 years later, and the quintet is still doing media as if they’re from One Direction.

“We’ve had a couple of chances to meet both One Direction and The Wanted,” recalled McLean. BSB performed on the same bill with the latter boy band at the Summer MixTape Festival in Hershey, PA earlier this year. “They’re awesome guys. We just tell them the same thing, like, ‘Listen, you guys stay on the path that you’re on. You’re all humble, humble guys. Just don’t ever forget that it’s because of your fans and because of the music that you have the success that you have.”

McLean’s other piece of advice to the guys: enjoy it, because it could be gone tomorrow.

If you’re wondering, that is how a pop act sticks around long enough in this day and age to celebrate a twentieth anniversary.

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