Chapter 6

Nick and the guys sat in their van, not able to get out. They were blocked in, about 100 feet in front of the radio station. The whole place was surrounded by fans. Completely mobbed.

“Dude, how the hell we gonna get out of here?” Nick asked one of their bodyguards, Billy.

“Duck and run I guess,” he replied.

“Shit man, this is getting ridiculous now,” Brian said, as they were all looking out the windows, a little scared.

“We have to tell the stations to stop hyping up the visits,” Kevin said, “Just have them announce it that morning or something.”

“For real,” AJ said, as they all looked over at their security guards who were devising a plan.

“Okay guys, we are just going to make a break for it,” Bob, their head of security said. “Just stay close together.”

The guys were now on the west side of Australia, starting the second half of their Australian tour. They were going to be doing a radio interview at the biggest station in the area.

A few seconds later the doors to the van opened, and they all bolted to get into the station. Even though this was becoming more common than unusual for them, it still freaked them all out everytime. Everyone made it in safe and in one piece, and they all went over to the studios to do the interview.

“Here in the studio today, we have five real, live, Backstreet Boys!” Mark the DJ exclaimed.

“Hello!” Brian said.

“Waaaz up?” Nick also said into his mike.

“How’s everyone doing this morning?” Mark asked.

“Good,” AJ responded.

“Great!” Howie chimed in.

“We’re a little surprised at the amount of fans outside, but we’re good,” Kevin said.

“Yes, we had fans lining up to see you last night when I was leaving work!” Mark exclaimed.

“It still amazes us everytime,” Brian said.

“So , let me ask you a question. You’ve been together how long now?” Mark asked.

“Over nine years,” Howie replied.

“Nine LONG years,” Nick emphasized as they all laughed.

“Wow, nine years! You’ve won almost every award imaginable, I’d imagine you all have more money than God, and half of the planet is a Backstreet fan, closet or other wise. What else more can you do?” Mark asked.

They all sat there quietly for a few seconds. “Oh, I think I stumped them,” Mark said, to his co-DJ Amy.

“I think ya did,” she replied.

“Man, that’s a hard question,” Nick said, “We still haven’t won a Grammy.”

“You know, I don’t think it’s a question of what else can we do?. I mean honestly, like you said, we can’t get any bigger. We stay around because we all love it, the fans still want us, and we all love each other. It’s a family thang,” Kevin said, as the other four guys were ‘awwwing.’

“So no break-ups in the near future?” Amy asked.

“Nope,” Brian said.

“Not that I can see,” AJ chimed in.

“So then, what is coming in the future?” Mark asked.

“Vacation,” Kevin said.

“A long vacation,” Howie replied.

“We’ll probably take a year off, we’ve been on this tour alone almost the entire year of 2001. So a much needed break is in the future,” Brian said.

“Speaking of the tour, you have two sold out shows here tomorrow and the next night, how has the tour been for you?” Mark asked.

“It’s been awesome, this whole tour has been great,” Nick said really cheerily, as they laughed at him.

“Ya’ll laughing at me?” Nick asked, as they laughed harder.

“Nick, do they laugh at you a lot?” Amy asked.

“All the time,” Nick said, “I don’t care, they’ll get theirs.”

Now the whole studio was cracking up.

“On that note, let’s play some BSB. We are dedicating this whole hour to Backstreet Boy’s music. You guys have enough stuff for a whole day, but an hour is all ya get,” Mark said jokingly.

“Let’s get a request,” Howie said, “How do I work this phone?”

“Push one of the blinking lights you moron,” AJ said, “Man even Nick would have figured that out.”

“Hey!” Nick yelled, “Shut up man!”

“Hi this is Howie, what’s your request?” Howie said, to the caller.

“HI!” she screamed, and everyone in the studio jumped in response. “HI! Can I speak to Nick please?” she asked.

“They always want to speak to Nick, damn boy,” Kevin said, as the whole room was laughing.

“Yeah, we’re thinking about kicking him outta the group, so we can all get some of our own fans and all,” Brian joked, as everyone kept right on laughing.

“Dude!” Nick said, “Where’s the love?”

“I’ll give you some love Nicky!” The caller yelled into the phone, and Nick started laughing his ass off too.

“NICK!” she yelled, “NICK I LOVE YOU!!!!”

“Aw, thanks baby,” he replied, “What’s your request?”

“Ummm how about I need you tonight?” she asked, as the other four guys started whooping and hollering.

“She needs you tonight Nicky!” Howie said, as the whole studio was in hysterics.

“Can we do that one?” Nick asked Mark.

“You’re a freaking Backstreet Boy, we can do what ever you want,” Mark replied.

“Okay, so let’s play “I Need You Tonight,” for my number one fan over there on the phone,” Nick said, as the DJ turned the song on.

After a few songs and some commercials, the guys and the DJ came back live on the air.

“Okay, we’re back live with the guys from BSB,” Mark said. “ Amy, what were the top-grossing movies from the weekend?” he asked her.

“Well not that anyone who’s listening would care,” she said, “but here’s the list. Coming in at number three is Bubba Hyde, that’s the new one with Sylvester Stallone. Number two is The Screening, and the number one movie over the weekend was Magic,” for the third week in a row now.

“Magic, isn’t that the new Rene Zellwegger movie?” Mark asked, “I love her.”

“Yep, that’s it,” Amy answered.

“Speaking of that movie,” Mark said, “We received the soundtrack here about three weeks or so ago. And low and behold, who has a song on there?”

“I’m gonna guess the Backstreet boys?” Amy asked.

“Correct! Boys tell her what she’s won!” Mark joked, as they all laughed.

“How did that come about?” Mark asked.

“Well, ‘Rain’ is a song that Nick wrote a few years back, it was supposed to be on a Julia Roberts movie, but the movie never made it for some reason,” Kevin explained.

“Our record company just told us the song was on this soundtrack,” Brian said, “We had no idea.”

“So Nick, it says here in the liner notes that you wrote the lyrics and composed the music?” Mark asked.

“Yes,” Nick answered shortly.

“Write it for anyone special?” Amy asked.

Nick just looked at her in shock, turning a little white. Howie lightly jabbed him in the side with his elbow, reminding him to answer the question.

“Ummmm yeah, uhhhh no. Well I wrote it for a friend of mine a few years ago, it was no big deal,” Nick finally stammered out.

“Well, we’ve been getting a huge response for it here, we play it all day,” Mark said, “So congrats man.”

“Thanks,” Nick said, as he looked away

“Really?” Brian asked, “It wasn’t supposed to be released as a single.”

“Well, it isn’t, but we get so many requests for it, we just play it,” Mark answered.

“Oh, well that’s cool then,” Howie said.

“Well let’s play it right now!” Mark said, as he flipped the track on and Nick yanked his earphones off, trying not to show how he was feeling.

“You okay?” Brian whispered to him.

“Yeah, fine,” Nick answered, keeping a straight lined face.

When the song was over, Nick put his earphones back on, and they guys spent another half hour there, finishing up the interview. After that was over, they had a meet and greet with some fans at the station there, and signed autographs and took pictures. It ended up being almost an all day affair and the guys all went back to the hotel to freshen up and then were going to go out to get something to eat.

Nick was pretty quiet the entire ride back to the hotel, and the guys let him have his space. They knew better than to talk to him when he was in silent mode. He went into his room, slamming the door behind him and lying on the bed.

“Damn that fucking song,” he thought to himself. “I refuse to let that affect me. Amber is a cool girl, Samantha is in the past. I’m not going to start thinking about her again, so help me god…”