Backstreet Boys are not embarrassing to listen to, says Nick Carter

Carter said the group would often be mocked in public
'Cool': The Backstreet Boys used to be mocked
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Emma Powell25 January 2019
The Weekender

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Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter said he is more shocked now than ever to hear people are fans of their music.

The eight-time Grammy nominated group have had several sold out tours and topped the charts with hits including Everybody and Backstreet’s Back – but Carter said it wasn’t “cool to like a boyband” during their early days.

“There were a lot of guys out there who would make fun of us,” he told Standard Online. “We’d be out at a mall or in public and there was a guy and a girl and the guys would mock us. It’s funny how life is. I think people are more mature now and they don’t care what people think.

“It’s really just music. We might be five guys in a boyband – we like to call ourselves a vocal harmony group – but really we record and perform music. That music and those songs have carried us all the way to this point.”

Back in action: Backstreet Boys are back with a new album and tour
Getty Images for 103.5 KTU

The Backstreet Boys have unlikely fans in Mark Zuckerberg and Kanye West who last year posted a picture of themselves singing the group’s 1999 hit I Want it That Way at karaoke.

Carter said: “We thought ‘Really? You guys are fans?’ You see these things happen and you’re taken aback and don’t believe it, but at the same time you’re proud and thinking ‘wow you’ve done something for the last 25 years that is coming back around’.”

The group are about to embark on a mammoth arena tour – their biggest in 18 years – in celebration of the group’s 10th studio album DNA which is out today.

Carter, 38, welcomed three-year-old Odin Reign in April 2016 with his wife Lauren Kitt. He is keen to show him the world and find a base in the UK during the European leg of the tour.

“He’s coming on the road,” he said. “And I’m excited to show him the world and the UK – our favourite place – and I was debating maybe buying a place in the UK. A farm outside of London and have my family stay there while we tour Europe.”

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