[Karie]

The life of a journalist is a never ending cycle and the job is never completely done. It’s an ongoing sequence that is rarely broken and can disrupt your life at any minute because you are there to report the news, write it, give birth to it, and at the same time, make people understand what’s going on.

We are the watchdog of the government and really, the whole world. Just thinking about watching over the entire world makes me want a beer.

“And you are?” a tall, black man asked as I walked inside of a studio’s front office. “Who are you?” He began to walk towards me. “You need to leave…”

“Down Cujo,” I snapped as he laughed. “My editor sent me here to do a story on the Backstreet Boys being in Nashville.” I handed him my press pass and he looked at me up and down. I was the one doing the interviewing but he looked at me as he if was a beauty pageant judge.

“Here you go,” he smiled, handing me my pass back. “I like how you spell your name with just one ‘R’,” he said as I smiled.

“I’ll be sure to tell my mother that,” I replied as he turned to lead me to the back of the studio. I looked on the walls of the studio, staring at the gold records on the wall.

Dolly Parton. Trisha Yearwood. Garth Brooks. Faith Hill. George Jones. Stephen Curtis Chapman.

And possible in the future the Backstreet Boys?

“Hey, that reporter is here,” the man said as he lead me into the studio where a guy sat with his back to me. “They’ll be with you shortly,” he said before walking back towards the front office.

I stood there, looking around to see that one of the group members inside the studio recording some tracks. He was the one with all the tattoos and I think he’s the one that went to rehab but I can’t be sure.

I should be off interviewing Garth Brooks, not the Backstreet Boys.

“Hey, are you the reporter girl that’s coming?” I heard someone say as I looked over to see the guy at the sound board turned around, facing me. He was short with blondish brown hair and big blue eyes. I nodded and he smiled, walking towards me. “I’m Brian Littrell, nice to meet you.”

“Karie Hamilton,” I said, shaking his hand. “It’s really nice to meet you. So what are you guys doing here in Nashville recording?”

“ I did a lot of my Christian recording here and there’s no better place in the world to find songwriters than Nashville,” Brian smiled, looking at his watch. “AJ will be in here in a minute and Nick and Howie are meeting with a songwriter but will be here shortly.”

“It’s cool,” I said as he motioned for me to sit down. As I started to sit down, AJ walked into the room and I smiled, proud that I actually knew he was the rehab veteran. Brian introduced us and they both sat down across from me.

“I’m going to be honest here,” I said, taking the mp3 recorder out of my purse and turning it on to record the interview. “I’m not a huge fan, but my mother is. She loves the little Latin one,” I said as they both laughed. “I’m a big country and rock fanatic, which is why I’m doing the music scene in Nashville.”

“Are you from here originally?” Brian asked.

“No, Florida actually,” I said. “I moved up here after college and luckily got a job doing what I love to do. So, do you guys want to wait until the other three get here? There’s three right? There’s five of you.”

“That’s part of the reason we wanted someone to come from the media,” Brian sighed. “My cousin, Kevin, is leaving the band, so yeah, we can just wait on Nick and Howie.” I nodded and turned the recorder off. “Speaking of Nashville, I’ve been thinking about getting a house here since I’m here so much.

“I love it here,” I smiled. “Of course, I’ve only been here a few months and haven’t been able to get to know the nightlife or anything really or have a life,” I laughed as two guys walked into the door, laughing. I looked over to see the one that my Mom liked and a tall blonde.

Ah, the one that dated Paris Hilton. Great.

“Hey guys,” Brian said as the two men stopped and looked at me. “This is Karie Hamilton and she’s from the paper here. It’s the interview I was talking about.”

“Do we have to do this?” the blonde asked, suddenly looking annoyed.

“Nick, he’s leaving the group,” Brian said as I looked at AJ who held his head down. I could tell this was a touchy matter for them.

“I know, it’s just,” Nick said, turning towards me. “No offense to you, but,” he said, looking at Brian, “I just don’t feel like talking about it. I just want to record.”

“I can talk to them about it,” I spoke up. “We can talk about music and the songwriting here that you guys came here for.”

“I can deal with that,” Nick said as Brian nodded. “I’m just gonna head back out there with George,” he said, pointing to the front office. Howie introduced himself to me and sat down next to Brian across from me.

“Girl knows how to handle Carter,” AJ laughed as Brian and Howie agreed. “Not many people know how to do that.”

“I just,” I paused. “I could see that it was a touchy subject for him. He’s the baby, right?” I asked and they nodded. “Kevin was the oldest member, right?” They nodded again. “There you go, the father influence is leaving the band and it’s bothering him.”

“How old are you?” Howie asked as I raised my eyebrow.

“Just turned 27, why?” I asked as they all looked at one another. They turned to look at me and smiled. “No, whatever you’re thinking, no.”

“You put Carter in his place,” AJ said as Brian and Howie agreed.

“Can we just do the interview?” I smiled and hit record on the mp3 recorder. I couldn’t believe that these guys were coming up with some weird scheme in their head to hook their friend and band member up with some crazy chick – me.

---

“Thanks for the interview guys,” I said as I sat in the recording studio and watched them as they walked into the soundstage where the vocals were recorded.I looked over some of my notes from the interview about why their eldest member was leaving and their upcoming plans. My mother was going to cry at the fact that one of them was leaving the group. That’s one good thing about being a journalist – you learn things before everybody else. Sometimes that’s bad though, especially when it’s bad news.“Carol?” I heard someone ask as I looked back to see Nick standing there.

“Karie.”

“Oh, sorry,” he laughed, sitting down at the sound board with me. “Listen, sorry about the group interview thing. I just don’t want to talk about him leaving. I just found out last night and I just need some time to think about stuff before I talk.”

“It’s fine, really,” I said as he looked at the other three guys on the sound stage. “So, do you want to talk about music and Nashville?”

“Sure,” he smiled. “Hit record.”

I did as he said and sat and watched him as he began talking about Nashville’s music scene and why he loves it. He talked about everything from the small bands playing the bars to the songwriters on Music Row. He discussed how the songs that come out of Nashville are more real than a lot of the other lyrics.

“You hear these lyrics and it’s like someone wrote this snapshot of exactly how you felt in that exact moment of your life, you know?” Nick asked as I nodded, making a note of what he said. “I heard this song before I came back here and it was exactly what I was feeling today. It wasn’t right for the group, but the song really got to me.”

“What was it about?” I asked, curious as to how he was feeling.

“How alone I feel,” he said, staring at the buttons on the soundboard. “I just feel incomplete right now for some reason and I don’t understand why.”

“Because your band member is leaving?” I asked.

“No, no, this is a different type of incomplete,” he laughed. “I’ve been working so much lately on this film and training and I’ve lost a little weight and I’ve just been ignoring girls all together,” he said, looking at me. “This is all off the record, you know?”

“Of course,” I replied.

“The Paris thing really fucked me up.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“I shouldn’t be talkin’ to you about this,” he laughed, shaking his head. “Listen, hang on, let me go in there and talk to the guys for a minute, okay?”

“Alright,” I said, hitting stop on my recorder. I looked back down at my notes but my eyes moved up to watch Nick walk onto the sound stage, talking to the other three guys about something.
They were an interesting bunch of guys, that’s for sure. They weren’t what I expected out of a pop music boy band group. They were really serious about their music and what people thought about them. They didn’t seem as if they were in it for the money and girls like most bands were.

One was a married Christian singer, another in a serious relationship, and the other two, well -

Shit, AJ and Howie both looked at me.

“What the hell are they talking about?” I whispered to myself. I looked at my watch to see that it was going on 4 p.m. and I had to get back to the office to write up this article and another one that I had worked on earlier in the morning.

“I need to go,” I mouthed to AJ as he pushed Nick towards the door. I looked at him strangely and he gave me two thumbs up.

These guys were weird after all.

“Hey,” Nick said as he walked back into the room where I was. “So you need to leave?”

“I’ve got to get back and write this and something I did this morning,” I said, standing up to shake his hand. “It was really nice meeting you guys. I’ve told the others that already,” I said as he kept moving his mouth as if he wanted to say something.

“You understood the stuff I was saying, right?” he asked as I nodded. “You did?”

“Yes.”

“What are you doing tonight?” he asked as I glared at him. “Shit, see, they told me to ask you out,” he said as we both looked into the studio to see the other guys laughing, giving us thumbs up. “I’m sorry. They’ve been trying to get me to meet someone up here in Nashville.”

“They ride your ass a lot, don’t they?” I asked. He nodded and sighed. “Especially after the whole Paris thing.”

“Like you wouldn’t be-lieve,” he said, emphasizing the last word.

“You don’t want to go out with me, do you?” I asked. He raised his eyebrow, looking enthused.

“Well, I didn’t say that,” he laughed.

“Well, it’s probably against my code of ethics as a journalist,” I said, reaching in my purse. I pulled out a card and handed it to him. For some reason, I was feeling brave and was oozing self-confidence. “This is my card. If you want to call or e-mail me, you can. If you want to pretend you do just to get them off your ass, go for it.”

“Thanks,” Nick said as I smiled, waving goodbye to the others.

I walked out of the studio and paused in the walkway. What the hell did I just do? I just gave a Backstreet Boy my business card. Was I crazy? Was I out of my mind? I felt bad for how they were riding his ass, but Jesus, did I have to go do that?

Not like he was going to call me anyway, right?

[/Karie]