June 16, 2020 • 41 mins
Howie D, from Backstreet Boys success to reclaiming his Puerto Rican roots.
Howie Dorough is a member of one of the most iconic 90’s boy bands in the world, The Backstreet Boys.
In this episode, Howie vulnerably shares how he went from a failed audition with the most recognizable latin boy band in the world, Menudo, to being typecast in Hollywood and finally building a successful music career with The Backstreet Boys.
Twenty seven years into a career with The Backstreet Boys, Howie’s priority is building a strong family unit, developing his Christian faith, reclaiming his Puerto Rican roots and creating music that uplifts and inspires all.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Oldah. My name is the and Riquez at
those podcasts. My guest today is a singer, songwriter and actor.
He's the co founder of one of the most popular
music groups of all times no worldwide, the Backstreet Boys.
Tell everyone who you are? My name is Howie d Boys.
(00:30):
And so how you doing, buddy? Thanks for good seeing
you man, Thanks for coming on sey. How how is
how you? How you holding up in uh in the
lockdown throughout this COVID nineteen things. You know what, I'm
here in Florida, um so I You know, I have
lots of friends who are in other places that the
(00:51):
weather is not the best as that is here right now,
the work experience. I'm able to get out of my
house at least to to get some sunshine, fresh air.
I live on the river here, a little north of
view of Miami, and as I get a chance to
get out in the water a little bit more so,
you know what, if we had to be, you know,
for me and my family to be quarantined, I'm really
(01:13):
in a great place to be able to be with
my family and at least have a little bit more
options than just staying in the house. There's definitely a
lot of friends up north are like, oh man, you
guys have it easy. Lockdown in Miami. Really, you guys
could get out. If you have a pool, you can
jump in your pool. I mean, some of us are
more fortunate than others. But the truth of the matter
is there's a lot of people, as you know, in
a bad situation here through this COVID nineties, so much unemployment.
(01:35):
You know, I was talking about this on my radio
show the other day, and I never thought in all
my my years in broadcasting that part of my show
would be, you know, a daily thing now all my
show telling people where they can go get food. That's
how desperate people are, how bad the situation is. You know,
that's crazy. Yeah, I know, it's some of the things
that you we kind of like, you know, just was
(01:57):
everyday life almost kind of a point, you know, an
admit even too for granted that now you're really realizing,
you know, even the small things and how you much
and are appreciating more. And you know, it's definitely I think,
given us all time to reflect on life values and
what really means a lot to us nowadays, what do
you miss the most? Um? You know what, it's so crazy.
(02:19):
I missed traveling, Believe it or not. I love traveling
with the group. You know, We've been blessed to have
traveled around the world several times on tours, and I'm
actually even to a point like, over the years, I
love traveling so much, I wanted to create my own
travel show because I watched all the time, like on
Saturday mornings and Sunday morning, and people are like over
here in Europe, over here, and actually uh, over the years,
(02:42):
I've created like how He's hotspots if I do online
like showing people like this is my favorite place to
go to or here in Mexico, this is my favorite
place to get some street tacos or whatever. Um. And
I have a thing called how he Eats Uh that
I do a lot of, uh, just taking pictures all
around the world. And so I definitely missed traveling and
seeing our fans your DNA The DNA World Tour was
(03:02):
you have to get the pause button because of the
whole COVID nine nineteen. You're looking forward to starting to
back up? Absolutely, Yeah, we were very blessed at least
have gotten through pretty much all of it except for
the last show, and so Apollo Brazil and we had
to postpone that one, and now we're we just recently
had to postpone on New Zealand Australia route. That's just
(03:25):
happened May and UH in June, UH and the summer
right now is still up in the air. But I
got a feeling that most likely, with the way things
are the climate is that are probably unfortunate get postponed
as well. But we're looking forward to getting back out.
We've rescheduled the dates for New Zealand and Australia next year,
(03:45):
like in April, so hopefully things will just be shifted
a year back. That's what I'm kind of thinking. We
want to we want to dig a little deeper and
get to know how he'd a little better. So and
for those that don't know a little bit of of
of your of your background, right, so your mom's Puerto Rican, UH,
your dad was was Irish. He's he's passed already, May
rest in peace. UM. And I found it interesting that
(04:07):
you you said that not knowing fluent Spanish, UM, and
you don't shy away from this has been somewhat of
an uh of an obstacle for you or impeded a
little bit of of of growth in your career. Absolutely,
I mean I think I think it's a little kid
growing up in Orlando, which at that time was not
Orlando that it is right now. It's almost like Puerto
(04:28):
Rico three seconds to New York. I say, it's the capital,
I said, I say. I always tell people, we joke
all the time. And we actually did a prank call
on my show, calling people saying as if they wanted
to vote so that Orlando becomes a new capital of
Puerto Rico. And the reactions are hysterical. But back in
the seventies, it was really interesting because we were the
(04:49):
only mixed racial family and and on our neighborhood. And
at the time, I didn't really even think much about it. Um.
You know, it wasn't until because my mother her um
bless her, but she was trying to learn English, um
as much as she could when she was coming to
these days, and she was trying to make us kids.
I guess his American eyes without any accent or you know,
(05:10):
to go through any of that. I guess the discriminations
that she was having a hard time with and um,
you know, Unfortunately, as a little kid, I didn't really
think much about it because none of the kids around
me spoke Spanish, and all the time I really felt
like in an awkward situations. And when we go to
visit family in Puerto Rico and they'd be speaking Spanish
and and my dad and I would, you know, the
rest of the kids would be there, and my dad
(05:30):
would half the time thinking they were talking about him
in Spanish. So um. But it wasn't until later on
in life that I got really you know, I started
getting into acting and singing and dancing, and and I
realized that a lot of acting roles that they were
sending me out for was you know, it was always
like the Latin you know character or like a drug
(05:51):
a little kid or whatever you know, or um. And
then I got really close to being in a group
called Minuto many years ago when I was fourteen years old,
and these things without known Spanish, hendered me these opportunities.
And so when I got into high school, I started
taking high school courses for two years there and I
went to college and did Spanish, and I went to Berlitz,
(06:13):
like an international school of Spanish. And at that time,
it was right at the time I was I started
with the Bactory Boys at nineteen, and my next step
would have been to go to like Mexico and like
submerge my emerge myself with the family that's no English.
But unfortunately, unfortunately, at the same time, I got this
little opportunity of the group of back street boys and
they were patiently waiting enough for me at least to
finish my Associate of Arts degree in college. But they're like, bro,
(06:34):
after this, we gotta get going. We can't have to
take you. We don't have time for you to take
it a whole another year off. And so unfortunately my
Spanish over the years kind of digressed. Um, but now
I believe it or not. Over this this time that
we've had off here, I've used in a fun little
app called Duo Lingo that's been helped me practice my
Spanish and bringing back some words that I forget about.
And you know, I have a place for my mom
(06:55):
in Puerto Rico that I bought many years ago for
her because I was just so proud up for her
to be able to have her son, be able to
give her her own place there in Plo Rico. And
so I go there to be so often, and it's interesting,
like I don't speak it grammatically correct, but I get
I get by, you know, I speak a lot of
times in the present tense um. They probably look at
me as like that made the Agreen go. I don't know,
(07:17):
you know, but but I think they, you know, at
least my fans they see that. I try. You know,
I've actually had the guys translated a couple of our
songs in Spanish. This is back in the days when
voice two men were translating into the road and stuff
like that, and I'm like, man, they can do it.
We definitely should do it, at least because there's a
Latin in the group and uh, it's I think it's
really you know, helped us open our Latin market for
(07:39):
the group, and you actually wrote a song about it.
And I want to I want to go back actually
though to the audition though when you auditioned for a minuta,
because you actually got to sing in front, I think
came out of thing right. You were singing. What song
were you singing? Do you remember? Which is correct? Actually
it's funny because I've actually told him this story many
years later when we reconnected, uh, with both of those
having success. It was the song called Endless Love, and
(08:02):
I'll never forget because uh ed guardar Di as their
manager back in the days. He used to have a
house in Orlando Area in a place called Bay Hill Area,
and I guess the boys would come every so often
here and they had a couple of shows at the
Sea World. So after the show, I went in auditioned,
and uh, I can't remember what I say the first time,
but the second time I came back and I'm on
the call back and they the casting woman said, so,
(08:25):
what song are you gonna see for us? And I said,
I want to sing Endless Love at the time was
one of my favorite songs. She's like, oh my god.
She's like, wait, She's like Ricky game. He's like she
probably got him to contest, like this is Ricky's favorite song.
How nervous? How much more nervous could you get if
you could? Yeah, when you walk into an audition, right,
and then all of a sudden that then this Ricky
himself you're auditioning for it. Did you get more nervous? Oh? Yeah?
(08:46):
He mean he sat there right in front of me
on the couch next to the woman and I was
singing my part at the time. My voice hadn't changed,
so I think the girl part and the guy parted together.
And uh, but it's funny that I reminisced with him
many years later about that. He doesn't remember, of course,
but I definitely remembered it, and UM, but I remember
him being at the time like I was, I was
doing my my studies. I always knew about Manuta as
(09:08):
a little kid growing up, but UM, and I remember
where they came to, you know what the Saturday show
Manuda on ABC. You know, I've watched that and stuff
like that, and UM, I always realized like them and
the new Kids were always groups that I, you know,
inspired to be like UM and Manuta felt like a
natural thing. But it wasn't really as natural because the
fact that I didn't expansion. And that's what led me
(09:28):
to what you were saying a little earlier. About five
years ago, I started making a family record just because
I started having kids in my own and I started seeing,
you know, a lot of our fans and the audience
were bringing our kids to our concerts, and I just
felt like the music that was out there, I just
couldn't connect with my kids with it. I could connect
really easy on the the movies out there, like the
toy stories, the record rouse, the minions. It was. It
(09:49):
was great family enter entertainment for the kids and the adults.
But the music, I just thought myself, like wanting to
get on my phone within a matter of minutes, you're
not connecting. So I said, there should be good music
out there. You know, actually, boys, we made you know,
good music. I feel it's wholesome, but you know, be
able to have music you can actually connect with your
kids at the same time and stuff. I made a
mission of making a record and uh. The writers I
(10:10):
wrote with out of New York A Guta tore him
and Lisa St. Lou. After talking with them and figuring
out what we're gonna write about, it was I felt
like a therapy session. Was asked me lots of munches
about my life and growing up. And once we got
done with a conversation, I said, well, what do you
think we should write about. I didn't really have exactly
the plan. I just knew what I wanted to do this,
and they're like, you should write about your life. There's
a lot of you know, interesting uh stories that you
(10:33):
you know that you dealt with, you know, things that
you still deal with nowadays that kids are dealing everything
from being shy, to worrying to be in my older
sister's shadow, um to feeling high challenge. I was all
called small time blues and even the song I wrote
a song called albras Banio, which was because of the
fact as a little kid, I was always you know,
misread by the my skin tone and automatically people look
(10:55):
at me and start speaking and smashing and I was like, uh, no,
aboor bookkeep though you own lust, you know. And so
it was something that I wanted my kids to be
able to understand that Daddy, you know, it doesn't matter
who you are or where you're from. You know where
you've what you've done in life. There everybody has challenges
and it's to you know, how we overcome those obstacles.
(11:17):
And I feel like there's a big I feel like
a big, huge second third generation here in the States
of kids that I've come to meet now that it's
because of that song. I said, I, you know, it's
so crazy. I'm like that generation as well. That my
parents didn't teach Spanish too, or they didn't teach Chinese too,
and there's a lot of I think that generation here
in the States, that's that's losing some of that culture.
(11:38):
And I feel like we need to be able to
embrace and not lose our roots. You're listening to Oh
my Name is the Ambigus out those podcasts, this is
(12:06):
all My name is the and Riquez on those podcasts,
and and going back to roots and you know you've
come up from a family of five siblings. Is this
something you always dreamt of? You always wanted to seeing
you always wanted to be famous, or you always wanted
to act? Or what did what did? What did you? What? Hell?
You want to do? As a little kid, As a
(12:27):
little little kid, believe it or not, I wanted to
be a doctor. I realized that my aunt, my mom's sister, Uh,
she married into a family of doctors, and I realized
there was some money there was a little kid. My
dad was just he God blessed his soul. He was
a police officer, worked like two different jobs and working security,
and my mom worked at a local cafeterier. And I
(12:49):
wanted to be, you know, have a little bit of
wealth to be able to take care of my family.
Where did that work? As a cop? He was one
of the first original police officers for Lando Orlando Police
Department years ago. All right, canine officer and uh and
uh here's the officer scentels. I'm still a reserve City
of Miami police officer. So I used to I used
to do police work full time before I got into radio.
(13:12):
And so now now I do this full time and
I do that part time. Good for you, man, I
never knew that minute on every day. Good for you, man.
My my, uh my, congrats and my applause to all
those you know who do service for everybody out there
protecting us and watching overrest fans. It's a it's a
job that I know, I put my dad and and
I'm sure you and a lot of people out there
(13:33):
and and and aren't you know in situations where there
there's danger and to protect people and also even for
their own safety. Um, So I commend you and for
all those out there that do that kind of service
for us. My, my, my. We came from a middle
class family, and so I wanted to I mean my
house that I grew up and we didn't even have
central heat and air, and growing up in Florida, that's hot,
(13:56):
it is you probably know, you know, we had a
little wall units. So the funny thing is the first
thing I did when I had a little bit of
success with Backstreet Boys is I bought Central Air in
my house because I was like, I don't want to
swept my butter anymore growing up in the house. That
was one of the That was one of the first things.
But do you remember the first actual thing you got
with you the first paycheck from the Backstreet Boys that
you bought? That was it. That was a yep, a
(14:18):
c throughout my whole house, in my inur in our house.
I didn't even buy a car yet. Um you know,
I was. It was one of those kind of things
as a little kid and a little kid. But when
we first started the Backstreet Boys, I was only eighteen
years old. So when we started traveling one, I know,
I was still living at home. My brother even encouraged
me because we were doing a real estate on the side.
He's like, I want to take awy these contents that
were building and keeping for yourself. I'm like, why would
(14:39):
I do such a thing like that. I got Mom
cooking for me every day, I come home clean sheets,
I got you know, you know, my laundry done for me.
I had you know, the best world. I didn't want
to leave home yet. Um, but eventually, like I said,
I did get my own place, and actually I bought
my mom a place in Puerto Rico, and um, you know,
I go down to visit every so often, and I
(15:01):
love my roots. I always feel like, you know, I,
I always feel like a little bit slightly um, wishing
that I had not slightly definitely wishing that had I
had taken the initiative to learn Spanish as a little kid,
I think it would have helped me so much more
in life. Man. But you really beat yourself up a
lot because of that. Yeah, you know what it is.
(15:22):
It's it's it's It's one of these kind of things
that just as I've gotten older, especially when I traveled
to South America and I and the fans they appreciate
what I do know, but it's one of these kind
of things. It's just like I'm like, it's in me,
it's it's it's gotten to Actually, I've I've had several attempts.
We've making a couple of lot of records, working out
working with some great producers down in Miami. Stepan, you
(15:42):
you got very close to recording, right that didn't flourish
because you've got so I hear you get a little
scared or you get kind of antsy when it comes
to it. I would get nervous about not that I
not that I couldn't, you know, sing the songs. So
I would, you know, even if I didn't know the words,
I'd you know, break it down phonetics. But I would
always get nervous about thinking, Okay, when I gotta go
to do interviews and they start speaking to me in
Spanish and they go really fast and I'm not catching it.
(16:04):
I just I never want to miss, you know, represent
myself to anybody out there. Yeah, but you know, when ill,
he's a one to be howie. I think people forgive
you for that. There's nothing to forgive to be forgiven about.
It's just I think people understand that's the household you
grew up in. Your dad was Irish and and mom
was trying to assimilate, like you just explained here in
the States, coming from from Puerto Rico, so there wasn't
(16:25):
a lot of Spanish. It was spoken in in the house.
So it's not really it's not like it's not your fault,
you know, now, Yeah, eventually it's still my bucket list.
I'm gonna make it one. He's eventually when he's Latin records,
your couder record or something. By the time I finally
get to it, do do it legal? Help you out there, Listen.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we're in we're
in an era and I think you're you're pretty much
in an open book. And and uh, I want to
(16:48):
talk about one of the original Backstreet Boys that you
know that of course it's no no big secret. Aaron
has had some have has had some some issues. You
know how how difficult is that for you to look
back and and see him struggle through that? It's really difficult.
I mean, I'm I'm not even blood related, but I've
known him as a little kid. I mean i met
(17:09):
him probably when he was like five years old, him
and his his twin sister. And I've seen Nick struggle
through the years almost a love hate relationship with his brother.
And that's so opposite of what I have with my family.
My brother. My brother is my my right hand man,
he's my best friend. And on one of five and
there's ten years when me and the next youngest my brother,
(17:31):
he's an next youngest and he's ten years old and
me he's like my business partner. We do real estate.
And you know, we weren't so close. We were younger
because of the ten years felt you know, much bigger.
We know what, I was like six years old and
he's sixteen years old. But later on in life as
I got you know, older and became a bactory boy
next and he wanted to hang out with me a
little bit more, I think because of the girls around,
but even more so, we created an opportunity for him
(17:52):
to you know, to work with us together on a
business opportunity. And we've been very blessed to have built
some wacondas and hotels and it's just a little extra
side project that I was really blessed that my brother
helped me, uh find another avenue of investing my money
that was making with backstreet boys in the days. Um.
But like I said, so for me, it's it's been
(18:12):
so I've had such a loving relationship with all my
family members that it was kind of hard to be
able to hear Nick sometimes connect and then disconnect. And
I would always try to tell him, you know, keep
the door open, you know, it's it's family, you know,
and and and sometimes I wouldn't understand and reasoning why
certain things were you know, with the actions amongst some
(18:34):
of them, you know, would happen, but I would have
to always try to encourage him. Um. And this this
last situation here is I know it's been really trying
for Nick because he loves his brother. I know he
loves his brother, and I know his brother loves him,
and they're going through some family issues that I can't
even fathom. Um. And then to be under the microscope
like we are nowadays for all that to come out
(18:56):
to the world to hear, it's it's tough, and my
heart goes out to actually him. Anti Nick, I know
you're a man of a strong, strong faith. I love
the way that you you celebrate that also with with
with your son and watching Mass together. And you know
your Catholic faith faith, you're you're very You're you're it's
it's a very it's a very big part of your life. Absolutely. Yeah.
(19:18):
I know. I've I grew up as a little kid
going to church with my mom on Sundays, even when
I have fall asleep or or not pay attention a
d percent, it was just it's a part of my life.
And then as I got older and realize that now
I have the will to go to church on my
own if I want to. UM, and I know a
lot of times members of you know, families will will go.
(19:42):
They'll go there. You know, they won't continue once again
what I feel as traditions and UM. For me, it's like,
I know, I've been blessed so much that you know,
I'll go to church even over in Japan or in
Germany or I don't speak the language, but I'll still
make the effort to go to church and just to
be there and just be you know, a moment of meditation.
I'm just gratefulness for me and the blessings I've been
(20:05):
bestowed with, as well as all my other members of
my group, my family members. Just for good health and
peace around the world. I mean, I believe that, you know,
I'm a Christian person who actually even involved in a
in a online site called Faith Only UM. I mean
face still sure, I'm sorry UM, which is an online
social site where it brings people together of light mindedness
(20:26):
and UM. For me, it's just it's a matter of
you know, I always let I believe to each his
own everybody can believe in whatever they want to. You know,
I believe that I believe in a higher power. We all,
you know, as long as you're able to find that
positiveness and that you know, that energy out there by
putting stuff out in the universe and it comes back
to you. Let's get back to the group. You guys
(20:47):
have just celebrated your twenty seven year anniversary. Did you
ever think when you started in the group that you'd
be celebrating a twenty seven anniversary? No, man, I was
only the n eighteen years old. It's always like, you know,
more than my life at that time in the group, um,
and it was just you know, I had always hoped
(21:08):
and dreamed of me. I was a huge fan of
the like the Michael Jackson's, the Madonna's, the Prince, the
Lionel Ritchie's. Uh uh, you know, just lots of these,
you know, amazing groups out there that an artist that
I had, you know, seen them have long careers and
aspire to have that. Um. But you know, being in
(21:31):
a group is an interesting, you know a challenge and
sometimes just like you know, a band of brothers, we
have our moments where we love each other, we have
our moments that we fight with each other, and you know,
sometimes that fighting you wonder, okay, is this gonna tear
us apart? And because it's it's happened our history to
many groups and many artists have gone their separate ways.
(21:55):
And um, I think it's just you know, once again,
I credit to our faith. We're all guys. We all
try to you know, even when we're upset with the
other each other, we do try to treat each other
as we want to be treated. Um. I think we've
just been blessed with an amazing team around us, um
and some you know, and by far the biggest credit
is has to be given to our fans. I mean,
(22:16):
we have some of the best fans around the world
that have stuck with us through the highs and the lows.
At the times when things were on fire and you
couldn't turn the radio on without hearing a Backstreet Boy
every two or three songs, to the time where you
could you couldn't hear you know, every two d song
of actually voice song, you couldn't hear us, you know.
So they've been with us through the ups and downs
(22:37):
of that wave of the artists and success. And once
again for us to have success once again and then
still be behind us. It's it's definitely the credit stude
to them. But I'm sure you've had to sacrifice a
lot for that success. What what's the biggest thing that
you personally have had to sacrifice in order to to
you know, attain the status that you have now in
the end that success. Um, you know what, I think
(23:00):
probably the biggest thing is is giving up a little
of the you know, your privacy. I think once you
sign on the guideline to become a successful entertainer, um,
you know, a lot of times people don't realize what
what comes with that. And you know, especially nowadays with
the internet and online you know, social stuff, it's almost
(23:21):
as right. No, yeah, absolutely, you have to really you know,
be on your toes and me and luck, thank god,
I've never been a person that's done anything I want
want my mom to be able to see or hear about. Um.
So for me, it's you know, probably the biggest sacrifice
outside has has been away from our families. We do
give up time to be away from our families to
(23:42):
travel and do our work. And I'm just blessed. I
have an amazing wife and kids and my mom and
brothers and sisters that throughout the years have just realized
this is my passion. Um. You know, years ago I
this the stream of mine came about after following my
older sister's footsteps. And I was as a little kid,
uh to what you say we were talking about earlier,
(24:04):
I didn't never expect myself to be a singer. It
was always my older sister, Pollyanna, who was a singer
in the family, and as a little kid, I followed
in her footsteps and at the age of six, got
into my first musical and then from there kind of
started doing more and more musicals and then this you know,
studios came around, uh universal and MGM started getting acting
and story that. But like I said, it's it's it's
(24:26):
one of the kind of things that I didn't know
as a little kid. But you know, you would sacrifice,
you would make um. But like I said, at the
age of nineteen, I got successful with the group. And
so that was a little bit hard at first, being
away from my mom, my brothers and sisters at a
young age, but then you kind of get used to it.
And like I say, now, if anything, my my family
and my kids are the ones who have to sacrifice
have a dady, but they realized that they know that
(24:48):
Daddy's there to be shared with the world, and you know,
daddy has an extended family all around the world. You're
listening to Oh no, my name is THEOS podcasts. Yeah,
(25:32):
welcome back to Olah. My name is the Embricus Santos podcast.
So talking about from you know, those sacrifices, it's also
talking about things that have surprised you or has as
stardom surprised anything that you said, I didn't never realize
it was going to be that way, or this is
totally different than what I thought. Um, you know what,
(25:54):
I think probably needing some of the retainers that I've
met over the years that as a little kid, you're like,
you know, I grew up watching the American Music Awards,
the Grammys and always put you know, the artists they're
up like on a pedestal, and never thought they were
like a paintable or you know, a reachable, you know,
(26:17):
to to be able to talk with, to be in
the same room with, and a little by litterally, I
started meeting some of my idols, um, you know, everybody
from Lionel, Richie that I had great conversations with that
she worked with together, Um Elton, John, Steven, Tyler, sting
Um just you know, so many great artists all around
(26:40):
the world, um Selia Cruz Yeah, and uh, you know,
just Gloria stuff on, you know, and the Melia and
and you know, it's it's one of these kind of
things that you're just like, Wow, I'm accepted into this
group almost like a uh of entertainer elite almost like
(27:04):
I mean kind of uh status, and if not not
only accepted, not only accepted, um, but part of it,
you know, you're and eventually to become part of that.
And then the honor of now hearing people that get
a chance to meet me for the first time, those
artists that are like, dude, we grew up with your music,
whether it's from over in South America, you know, uh,
(27:27):
to hear anywhere in the world and now actually be
be in that status or they look up to me.
To a point is it's a really like I don't know,
gratifying thing that you're able to touch people's lives. And
even like I say, some of those artists I mentioned,
you know a lot of times a lot of people
just assume that you know. Unfortunately, you know, a lot
of times there's artists can't get a little bit of
(27:49):
a bad rep some of them have that are out
there are not always a friendlist, and so sometimes they
make people think of them as always in that elite
status is and like untouchable, are like too good to
be you know around other people. All those names of
those people I mentioned to you, every single one of them,
or just stand up good people like you know, even
(28:09):
to this day, I feel like I could call and
they would take my call and just be able to
talk about this daily life and and the blessing that
we all are blessed with. If you look back on
your career now, Um, is there a moment that was
so special for you that you would like to to relive?
What moment of your career would you like to replay? Wow,
(28:31):
there's so many moments, dude, From the first time us
getting our our first MTV award in America. Um, even
with the craziness of that, going from receiving an award
and within less than twenty four hours sister passed away. Um,
that was an extreme high and a low. Your sister Caroline,
(28:52):
right she she was battling uh, lupus. That is correct. Yes,
she was battling limpas and and the one good thing
that really, you know, besides us having that first uh
feeling of a sceptance in America, the little good positive
thing that came out of that was because of my
sister having lupus and her passing away at the time
of us being able to have that that reached to media.
(29:15):
Because of our success that we were having, I was
really able to to take something negative and turn into
a positive. I really put my name out there to
do whatever I could to help bring the name Lewis
to the map, because at that time it was a
very very hush hush disease, not not a lot of
people knew about it, and there wasn't many organizations out there.
Now I think it's come leaps and bounds to where
(29:35):
it is something that people know about the disease lupus
um and uh. But I'd say definitely the height of
just being that at that moment of receiving an award
was just such a h an unbelievabaja um. And then
also when we got our our star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame about four years ago, I believe it
(29:56):
was Um, my wife came and surprised me at the
last minute, and because we had just had our second
child and it was her first time away from home
and she it was something that I didn't expect her
to be there or and I think at a time,
I don't know, I wasn't realizing the magnitude of what
(30:18):
it was. I didn't really push any of my family
members to try to come out and support me. I
just felt like, Okay, it was something how we you know,
go except the honor and and uh, you know, don't
I've never been kind of a person like the boast
and that kind of stuff or expect people to to
support in any way like that. But she came out
of her way to see me, and man, I probably
like a balled like a baby. I'm not a major
(30:40):
emotional person, but that I bawled. Um, actually, we're gonna
trying once. And then we just came back to Orlando.
We performed After we did Fort Lauderdale, we came to
Orland and performed at the Orlando Arena here and that
was an emotional moment. I actually gave a speech about
being a kid from this local hotel oklahometown and following
(31:01):
your dreams because I'm like a true Uh the reason
why you can you know, I can dream of you know,
you can dream and you can do it. And I
was a kid from this local small town here at
the time and and have success and being able to
come here and perform in front of all my family
members and friends. That was really heart wrenching to me.
(31:24):
Must have been really special. All those moments you're talking
about now. Not everything is always happy, and there's difficult
times in everyone's career. Um that as as artists also
looking back, you know, is there any moment of your
career that you would delete but you wouldn't like to relive,
you would have liked to have never happened. Um. Well,
(31:50):
like I said, the time of losing my sister was
even though I was able to take that negative and
turn it into a positive, That's something I wish you
could always take back. Um. My family to me is everything.
Um Uh. There was some stuff that you know that
happened with us. You know, we're very public, um with
our fans. We don't hide you know things, um from
(32:13):
our fans. We've been very honest, even to a point
of not putting ourselves up there as on the pedestal.
We always you know, people say, oh, you guys are
like role models, and I always say, you know, we
are not role models. Your teachers, your doctors, those are
role models. Um uh. But you know, there's been tours
that we've had to take down. UM. One tour particular Millennium,
(32:37):
I remember we had to take down because A J
was going through some substance abuse issues. It was really tough,
and I remember, you know, wondering like, okay, this is
a big one. Do we really let the kind of
the bad listeners at the time, A lot of ours
we're going to the same things that we were doing,
but they were just you know, kind of camouflage and
say with something else. And I feel like we were
one of the first ones at that time that decided
(32:58):
to go to MTV right away, a utel the announcement
right there, all of our fans, and it was it
was hard because you know, I didn't know what was
gonna come after. Um. You know, we had we had
braced within the group that we finally we took a break.
One time. For about it to the public, I was
three years, but for us it was like six months.
(33:21):
And I went out to California, not knowing if we
were gonna get back together or we just needed a break.
We had just been going mockten for over ten years
and we all were losing a little bit of our
own self identities, so we needed that time to find ourselves.
And you know, but that was a scary moment as well,
knowing that, you know, there may have been a chance
that we might not have gotten back to UM. Also
(33:42):
the whole stuff that happened with us with the legal
situations UM we've had with one of our previous managers
who's passed away now, Loup perlman Um. You know, we
had some legal situations there that I wish, you know,
we could have taken back the time in the early
years to really have done the proper dude villigence that
we need as artists to look over the contracts and
maybe you have not had that situation later on in
(34:05):
our career. There's always bump so blessed for so many things.
There's always bumps in the road, right, But I think
that's why so many people respect you guys, your fans
and the industry because of your transparency and your and
and and you guys from the beginn. Like you just explained,
I've always been honest and and very open with people,
(34:25):
and people can identify with you, guys, because not everything
in life is perfect. There's problems in everyone's lives. And
you know, the things that worry you the same things
that worry me and and and and everyone else. We're human,
absolutely absolutely, I'll put our pants on the same one
leg at a time, right right? How we? Um? What
what are you? What's missing in your life? Is there
(34:46):
anything missing in your life that you'd say, Um, you know,
I'm so blessed. I have a loving, healthy family. Um.
I have an unbelievable mother who's still around, who praised
for me every day. Um, she does her rosary beads
(35:06):
and she's like my my, you know, I just unbelievable.
Guardian Angel's here still with me on this earth. My
dad has a guardian angel love. Uh. But uh, you know,
I'm still blessed. I really can't think of anything on
this I mean, you know, we always joke that it
would be nice to maybe put on that's something great,
unbelievable around this house and and the trophies and everything.
(35:30):
But we always joke that one day it would be
nice to get a Grammy. I could definitely say that
would be nice to have him on mantle m But
you know what, we're still working at it. Maybe after
thirty years we'll get like a lifetime achievement on Order
or something like that. Well we'll deserved. How you always
asked my my guests to leave a question for my
next guest without knowing who that person is gonna be.
(35:50):
Danielle Habef is huge in Mexico and here in the
United States, is a great motivational speaker. And I don't
know why he left you such a deep question. Again,
he didn't know what was gonna be, but he just
left this question out there. Uh, Danian Habef asked my
next guest again without knowing who that person is. It
happens to be you. Howid if if someone was murdered,
someone that you know was murdered, could you forgive that
(36:12):
persons if some of them I know was murdered, would
you be able to Will you be willing to forgive
a person that murdered a family member of yours the
person who killed them? Yeah? Uh, that's a that's a
tough one, you know, I I believe you know. Being
(36:35):
Christian I always try to forgive um, you know, and
you you you hear so many stories about people on
TV and the news and and someone getting shot her
or murdered or you know or just unfortunately, um taking
their lives unnecessary. And it's so hard, especially you know,
(36:58):
knowing that it's your love on a really close person.
But I think, as I can say once again, as
being a Christian, I'd have to try to find it
within my soul and probably pray a lot to be
able to find forgiveness, um, you know, to be able
to carry all of life. What question does how we'd
leave for my next guest without knowing who that person is. Well,
(37:20):
I'll make it much slighter, but please please, Uh, maybe
let's say what's their favorite Backstreet Voice song? You know,
and I'll hadd a twist and I'll add a twist
to it and you gotta sing it. Yeah, there you go.
I think better. It's even better. Little self promotion. How
(37:43):
are you good? Talking to you man all the vest
It's always great to see your your smile and you're great. Uh,
you're you're great energy And um, I love your shirt
by the way, it didn't go un notice. Yes, thank
you you always do, but give yourself a break. Damnit.
You do, you do good, You represent as well. You
know what it's not. It's not about languages, about culture, Yes,
(38:05):
I will do it. That culture runs in your blood, brother,
and you always represent it well and we appreciate that.
So if I go to how we d dot net?
What can I find on there? You can pretty much
find out anything everything about me, everything from what's going
on with the group, all my individual solo endeavors. Uh.
Like I said with this the family album I made,
I I did also a from that family album, I
(38:26):
made a musical. Um, we can find out all the
all my individual projects that I'm doing, including these kind
of things like right here we're doing where I'm doing
online social interviews and talks with people. And I even
have a really cool thing that I'm doing this Friday. Um,
it's it's fun off on my Holly Eats. I'm doing
a cooking class. I have a great chef. He's from
(38:50):
uh one of the um the show called Chef um
uh top Chef. Anyways, parted up together and we're gonna
give the proceeds to two different organizations. I'm giving it
to a foundation called Core, which is children of restaurant employees,
(39:10):
and so we're gonna do He's gonna teach me how
to cook this unbelievable fried chicken that's slash um Asians
slash Mexican. He's gonna make also meets you, Lata. So
that's happening this Friday at eight o'clock. So all that,
all that type of stuff that I'm doing outside of
even Backstreet Boys dance, can go there and find an
(39:32):
all in all the information. Don't miss how he eats. Um,
I'm gonna I'm gonna massacre his name, Chef Katsuji. That's
much better than I could have said it on Location
live dot com. That's this Friday with with how He
How he Eats exclusively on on location live dot dot com.
(39:54):
Don't miss it. How are you talking about food? Last
question I got for you. So let's say, because of
the lockdown, Uh, we're all eating a lot, a lot,
eating a lot more than what we should. Um. But
if you can only eat one food the rest of
your life, what would that food be? One type of food? Yeah?
That is so tough because I really when you say
(40:15):
about my culture, the food, the rhythms that's in the Sundre.
I know that for sure. And you know my mom
was special around Christmas time the bustles. Let John all
that stuff. Man, But I'd probably have to say if
I hadn't picked something, because it has a little bit
of everything in it is a bay. I have a
(40:36):
bay the rest of my life. I got a little
of seafood, chicken, rice in there. I'm good. It's that's
kind of like cheating because by it has a little
bit of everything, you have full of differences. Smart, that's
a smart it's a smart one. That's a smart one.
By it you get a little bit of everything. Hi,
good talking to you, my friend. Keep healthy, all the best,
(40:57):
Thank you, buddy, your buddy. A
This is Oldah. My name is the and Riquez at
those podcasts. My guest today is a singer, songwriter and actor.
He's the co founder of one of the most popular
music groups of all times no worldwide, the Backstreet Boys.
Tell everyone who you are? My name is Howie d Boys.
(00:30):
And so how you doing, buddy? Thanks for good seeing
you man, Thanks for coming on sey. How how is
how you? How you holding up in uh in the
lockdown throughout this COVID nineteen things. You know what, I'm
here in Florida, um so I You know, I have
lots of friends who are in other places that the
(00:51):
weather is not the best as that is here right now,
the work experience. I'm able to get out of my
house at least to to get some sunshine, fresh air.
I live on the river here, a little north of
view of Miami, and as I get a chance to
get out in the water a little bit more so,
you know what, if we had to be, you know,
for me and my family to be quarantined, I'm really
(01:13):
in a great place to be able to be with
my family and at least have a little bit more
options than just staying in the house. There's definitely a
lot of friends up north are like, oh man, you
guys have it easy. Lockdown in Miami. Really, you guys
could get out. If you have a pool, you can
jump in your pool. I mean, some of us are
more fortunate than others. But the truth of the matter
is there's a lot of people, as you know, in
a bad situation here through this COVID nineties, so much unemployment.
(01:35):
You know, I was talking about this on my radio
show the other day, and I never thought in all
my my years in broadcasting that part of my show
would be, you know, a daily thing now all my
show telling people where they can go get food. That's
how desperate people are, how bad the situation is. You know,
that's crazy. Yeah, I know, it's some of the things
that you we kind of like, you know, just was
(01:57):
everyday life almost kind of a point, you know, an
admit even too for granted that now you're really realizing,
you know, even the small things and how you much
and are appreciating more. And you know, it's definitely I think,
given us all time to reflect on life values and
what really means a lot to us nowadays, what do
you miss the most? Um? You know what, it's so crazy.
(02:19):
I missed traveling, Believe it or not. I love traveling
with the group. You know, We've been blessed to have
traveled around the world several times on tours, and I'm
actually even to a point like, over the years, I
love traveling so much, I wanted to create my own
travel show because I watched all the time, like on
Saturday mornings and Sunday morning, and people are like over
here in Europe, over here, and actually uh, over the years,
(02:42):
I've created like how He's hotspots if I do online
like showing people like this is my favorite place to
go to or here in Mexico, this is my favorite
place to get some street tacos or whatever. Um. And
I have a thing called how he Eats Uh that
I do a lot of, uh, just taking pictures all
around the world. And so I definitely missed traveling and
seeing our fans your DNA The DNA World Tour was
(03:02):
you have to get the pause button because of the
whole COVID nine nineteen. You're looking forward to starting to
back up? Absolutely, Yeah, we were very blessed at least
have gotten through pretty much all of it except for
the last show, and so Apollo Brazil and we had
to postpone that one, and now we're we just recently
had to postpone on New Zealand Australia route. That's just
(03:25):
happened May and UH in June, UH and the summer
right now is still up in the air. But I
got a feeling that most likely, with the way things
are the climate is that are probably unfortunate get postponed
as well. But we're looking forward to getting back out.
We've rescheduled the dates for New Zealand and Australia next year,
(03:45):
like in April, so hopefully things will just be shifted
a year back. That's what I'm kind of thinking. We
want to we want to dig a little deeper and
get to know how he'd a little better. So and
for those that don't know a little bit of of
of your of your background, right, so your mom's Puerto Rican, UH,
your dad was was Irish. He's he's passed already, May
rest in peace. UM. And I found it interesting that
(04:07):
you you said that not knowing fluent Spanish, UM, and
you don't shy away from this has been somewhat of
an uh of an obstacle for you or impeded a
little bit of of of growth in your career. Absolutely,
I mean I think I think it's a little kid
growing up in Orlando, which at that time was not
Orlando that it is right now. It's almost like Puerto
(04:28):
Rico three seconds to New York. I say, it's the capital,
I said, I say. I always tell people, we joke
all the time. And we actually did a prank call
on my show, calling people saying as if they wanted
to vote so that Orlando becomes a new capital of
Puerto Rico. And the reactions are hysterical. But back in
the seventies, it was really interesting because we were the
(04:49):
only mixed racial family and and on our neighborhood. And
at the time, I didn't really even think much about it. Um.
You know, it wasn't until because my mother her um
bless her, but she was trying to learn English, um
as much as she could when she was coming to
these days, and she was trying to make us kids.
I guess his American eyes without any accent or you know,
(05:10):
to go through any of that. I guess the discriminations
that she was having a hard time with and um,
you know, Unfortunately, as a little kid, I didn't really
think much about it because none of the kids around
me spoke Spanish, and all the time I really felt
like in an awkward situations. And when we go to
visit family in Puerto Rico and they'd be speaking Spanish
and and my dad and I would, you know, the
rest of the kids would be there, and my dad
(05:30):
would half the time thinking they were talking about him
in Spanish. So um. But it wasn't until later on
in life that I got really you know, I started
getting into acting and singing and dancing, and and I
realized that a lot of acting roles that they were
sending me out for was you know, it was always
like the Latin you know character or like a drug
(05:51):
a little kid or whatever you know, or um. And
then I got really close to being in a group
called Minuto many years ago when I was fourteen years old,
and these things without known Spanish, hendered me these opportunities.
And so when I got into high school, I started
taking high school courses for two years there and I
went to college and did Spanish, and I went to Berlitz,
(06:13):
like an international school of Spanish. And at that time,
it was right at the time I was I started
with the Bactory Boys at nineteen, and my next step
would have been to go to like Mexico and like
submerge my emerge myself with the family that's no English.
But unfortunately, unfortunately, at the same time, I got this
little opportunity of the group of back street boys and
they were patiently waiting enough for me at least to
finish my Associate of Arts degree in college. But they're like, bro,
(06:34):
after this, we gotta get going. We can't have to
take you. We don't have time for you to take
it a whole another year off. And so unfortunately my
Spanish over the years kind of digressed. Um, but now
I believe it or not. Over this this time that
we've had off here, I've used in a fun little
app called Duo Lingo that's been helped me practice my
Spanish and bringing back some words that I forget about.
And you know, I have a place for my mom
(06:55):
in Puerto Rico that I bought many years ago for
her because I was just so proud up for her
to be able to have her son, be able to
give her her own place there in Plo Rico. And
so I go there to be so often, and it's interesting,
like I don't speak it grammatically correct, but I get
I get by, you know, I speak a lot of
times in the present tense um. They probably look at
me as like that made the Agreen go. I don't know,
(07:17):
you know, but but I think they, you know, at
least my fans they see that. I try. You know,
I've actually had the guys translated a couple of our
songs in Spanish. This is back in the days when
voice two men were translating into the road and stuff
like that, and I'm like, man, they can do it.
We definitely should do it, at least because there's a
Latin in the group and uh, it's I think it's
really you know, helped us open our Latin market for
(07:39):
the group, and you actually wrote a song about it.
And I want to I want to go back actually
though to the audition though when you auditioned for a minuta,
because you actually got to sing in front, I think
came out of thing right. You were singing. What song
were you singing? Do you remember? Which is correct? Actually
it's funny because I've actually told him this story many
years later when we reconnected, uh, with both of those
having success. It was the song called Endless Love, and
(08:02):
I'll never forget because uh ed guardar Di as their
manager back in the days. He used to have a
house in Orlando Area in a place called Bay Hill Area,
and I guess the boys would come every so often
here and they had a couple of shows at the
Sea World. So after the show, I went in auditioned,
and uh, I can't remember what I say the first time,
but the second time I came back and I'm on
the call back and they the casting woman said, so,
(08:25):
what song are you gonna see for us? And I said,
I want to sing Endless Love at the time was
one of my favorite songs. She's like, oh my god.
She's like, wait, She's like Ricky game. He's like she
probably got him to contest, like this is Ricky's favorite song.
How nervous? How much more nervous could you get if
you could? Yeah, when you walk into an audition, right,
and then all of a sudden that then this Ricky
himself you're auditioning for it. Did you get more nervous? Oh? Yeah?
(08:46):
He mean he sat there right in front of me
on the couch next to the woman and I was
singing my part at the time. My voice hadn't changed,
so I think the girl part and the guy parted together.
And uh, but it's funny that I reminisced with him
many years later about that. He doesn't remember, of course,
but I definitely remembered it, and UM, but I remember
him being at the time like I was, I was
doing my my studies. I always knew about Manuta as
(09:08):
a little kid growing up, but UM, and I remember
where they came to, you know what the Saturday show
Manuda on ABC. You know, I've watched that and stuff
like that, and UM, I always realized like them and
the new Kids were always groups that I, you know,
inspired to be like UM and Manuta felt like a
natural thing. But it wasn't really as natural because the
fact that I didn't expansion. And that's what led me
(09:28):
to what you were saying a little earlier. About five
years ago, I started making a family record just because
I started having kids in my own and I started seeing,
you know, a lot of our fans and the audience
were bringing our kids to our concerts, and I just
felt like the music that was out there, I just
couldn't connect with my kids with it. I could connect
really easy on the the movies out there, like the
toy stories, the record rouse, the minions. It was. It
(09:49):
was great family enter entertainment for the kids and the adults.
But the music, I just thought myself, like wanting to
get on my phone within a matter of minutes, you're
not connecting. So I said, there should be good music
out there. You know, actually, boys, we made you know,
good music. I feel it's wholesome, but you know, be
able to have music you can actually connect with your
kids at the same time and stuff. I made a
mission of making a record and uh. The writers I
(10:10):
wrote with out of New York A Guta tore him
and Lisa St. Lou. After talking with them and figuring
out what we're gonna write about, it was I felt
like a therapy session. Was asked me lots of munches
about my life and growing up. And once we got
done with a conversation, I said, well, what do you
think we should write about. I didn't really have exactly
the plan. I just knew what I wanted to do this,
and they're like, you should write about your life. There's
a lot of you know, interesting uh stories that you
(10:33):
you know that you dealt with, you know, things that
you still deal with nowadays that kids are dealing everything
from being shy, to worrying to be in my older
sister's shadow, um to feeling high challenge. I was all
called small time blues and even the song I wrote
a song called albras Banio, which was because of the
fact as a little kid, I was always you know,
misread by the my skin tone and automatically people look
(10:55):
at me and start speaking and smashing and I was like, uh, no,
aboor bookkeep though you own lust, you know. And so
it was something that I wanted my kids to be
able to understand that Daddy, you know, it doesn't matter
who you are or where you're from. You know where
you've what you've done in life. There everybody has challenges
and it's to you know, how we overcome those obstacles.
(11:17):
And I feel like there's a big I feel like
a big, huge second third generation here in the States
of kids that I've come to meet now that it's
because of that song. I said, I, you know, it's
so crazy. I'm like that generation as well. That my
parents didn't teach Spanish too, or they didn't teach Chinese too,
and there's a lot of I think that generation here
in the States, that's that's losing some of that culture.
(11:38):
And I feel like we need to be able to
embrace and not lose our roots. You're listening to Oh
my Name is the Ambigus out those podcasts, this is
(12:06):
all My name is the and Riquez on those podcasts,
and and going back to roots and you know you've
come up from a family of five siblings. Is this
something you always dreamt of? You always wanted to seeing
you always wanted to be famous, or you always wanted
to act? Or what did what did? What did you? What? Hell?
You want to do? As a little kid, As a
(12:27):
little little kid, believe it or not, I wanted to
be a doctor. I realized that my aunt, my mom's sister, Uh,
she married into a family of doctors, and I realized
there was some money there was a little kid. My
dad was just he God blessed his soul. He was
a police officer, worked like two different jobs and working security,
and my mom worked at a local cafeterier. And I
(12:49):
wanted to be, you know, have a little bit of
wealth to be able to take care of my family.
Where did that work? As a cop? He was one
of the first original police officers for Lando Orlando Police
Department years ago. All right, canine officer and uh and
uh here's the officer scentels. I'm still a reserve City
of Miami police officer. So I used to I used
to do police work full time before I got into radio.
(13:12):
And so now now I do this full time and
I do that part time. Good for you, man, I
never knew that minute on every day. Good for you, man.
My my, uh my, congrats and my applause to all
those you know who do service for everybody out there
protecting us and watching overrest fans. It's a it's a
job that I know, I put my dad and and
I'm sure you and a lot of people out there
(13:33):
and and and aren't you know in situations where there
there's danger and to protect people and also even for
their own safety. Um, So I commend you and for
all those out there that do that kind of service
for us. My, my, my. We came from a middle
class family, and so I wanted to I mean my
house that I grew up and we didn't even have
central heat and air, and growing up in Florida, that's hot,
(13:56):
it is you probably know, you know, we had a
little wall units. So the funny thing is the first
thing I did when I had a little bit of
success with Backstreet Boys is I bought Central Air in
my house because I was like, I don't want to
swept my butter anymore growing up in the house. That
was one of the That was one of the first things.
But do you remember the first actual thing you got
with you the first paycheck from the Backstreet Boys that
you bought? That was it. That was a yep, a
(14:18):
c throughout my whole house, in my inur in our house.
I didn't even buy a car yet. Um you know,
I was. It was one of those kind of things
as a little kid and a little kid. But when
we first started the Backstreet Boys, I was only eighteen
years old. So when we started traveling one, I know,
I was still living at home. My brother even encouraged
me because we were doing a real estate on the side.
He's like, I want to take awy these contents that
were building and keeping for yourself. I'm like, why would
(14:39):
I do such a thing like that. I got Mom
cooking for me every day, I come home clean sheets,
I got you know, you know, my laundry done for me.
I had you know, the best world. I didn't want
to leave home yet. Um, but eventually, like I said,
I did get my own place, and actually I bought
my mom a place in Puerto Rico, and um, you know,
I go down to visit every so often, and I
(15:01):
love my roots. I always feel like, you know, I,
I always feel like a little bit slightly um, wishing
that I had not slightly definitely wishing that had I
had taken the initiative to learn Spanish as a little kid,
I think it would have helped me so much more
in life. Man. But you really beat yourself up a
lot because of that. Yeah, you know what it is.
(15:22):
It's it's it's It's one of these kind of things
that just as I've gotten older, especially when I traveled
to South America and I and the fans they appreciate
what I do know, but it's one of these kind
of things. It's just like I'm like, it's in me,
it's it's it's gotten to Actually, I've I've had several attempts.
We've making a couple of lot of records, working out
working with some great producers down in Miami. Stepan, you
(15:42):
you got very close to recording, right that didn't flourish
because you've got so I hear you get a little
scared or you get kind of antsy when it comes
to it. I would get nervous about not that I
not that I couldn't, you know, sing the songs. So
I would, you know, even if I didn't know the words,
I'd you know, break it down phonetics. But I would
always get nervous about thinking, Okay, when I gotta go
to do interviews and they start speaking to me in
Spanish and they go really fast and I'm not catching it.
(16:04):
I just I never want to miss, you know, represent
myself to anybody out there. Yeah, but you know, when ill,
he's a one to be howie. I think people forgive
you for that. There's nothing to forgive to be forgiven about.
It's just I think people understand that's the household you
grew up in. Your dad was Irish and and mom
was trying to assimilate, like you just explained here in
the States, coming from from Puerto Rico, so there wasn't
(16:25):
a lot of Spanish. It was spoken in in the house.
So it's not really it's not like it's not your fault,
you know, now, Yeah, eventually it's still my bucket list.
I'm gonna make it one. He's eventually when he's Latin records,
your couder record or something. By the time I finally
get to it, do do it legal? Help you out there, Listen.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we're in we're
in an era and I think you're you're pretty much
in an open book. And and uh, I want to
(16:48):
talk about one of the original Backstreet Boys that you
know that of course it's no no big secret. Aaron
has had some have has had some some issues. You
know how how difficult is that for you to look
back and and see him struggle through that? It's really difficult.
I mean, I'm I'm not even blood related, but I've
known him as a little kid. I mean i met
(17:09):
him probably when he was like five years old, him
and his his twin sister. And I've seen Nick struggle
through the years almost a love hate relationship with his brother.
And that's so opposite of what I have with my family.
My brother. My brother is my my right hand man,
he's my best friend. And on one of five and
there's ten years when me and the next youngest my brother,
(17:31):
he's an next youngest and he's ten years old and
me he's like my business partner. We do real estate.
And you know, we weren't so close. We were younger
because of the ten years felt you know, much bigger.
We know what, I was like six years old and
he's sixteen years old. But later on in life as
I got you know, older and became a bactory boy
next and he wanted to hang out with me a
little bit more, I think because of the girls around,
but even more so, we created an opportunity for him
(17:52):
to you know, to work with us together on a
business opportunity. And we've been very blessed to have built
some wacondas and hotels and it's just a little extra
side project that I was really blessed that my brother
helped me, uh find another avenue of investing my money
that was making with backstreet boys in the days. Um.
But like I said, so for me, it's it's been
(18:12):
so I've had such a loving relationship with all my
family members that it was kind of hard to be
able to hear Nick sometimes connect and then disconnect. And
I would always try to tell him, you know, keep
the door open, you know, it's it's family, you know,
and and and sometimes I wouldn't understand and reasoning why
certain things were you know, with the actions amongst some
(18:34):
of them, you know, would happen, but I would have
to always try to encourage him. Um. And this this
last situation here is I know it's been really trying
for Nick because he loves his brother. I know he
loves his brother, and I know his brother loves him,
and they're going through some family issues that I can't
even fathom. Um. And then to be under the microscope
like we are nowadays for all that to come out
(18:56):
to the world to hear, it's it's tough, and my
heart goes out to actually him. Anti Nick, I know
you're a man of a strong, strong faith. I love
the way that you you celebrate that also with with
with your son and watching Mass together. And you know
your Catholic faith faith, you're you're very You're you're it's
it's a very it's a very big part of your life. Absolutely. Yeah.
(19:18):
I know. I've I grew up as a little kid
going to church with my mom on Sundays, even when
I have fall asleep or or not pay attention a
d percent, it was just it's a part of my life.
And then as I got older and realize that now
I have the will to go to church on my
own if I want to. UM, and I know a
lot of times members of you know, families will will go.
(19:42):
They'll go there. You know, they won't continue once again
what I feel as traditions and UM. For me, it's like,
I know, I've been blessed so much that you know,
I'll go to church even over in Japan or in
Germany or I don't speak the language, but I'll still
make the effort to go to church and just to
be there and just be you know, a moment of meditation.
I'm just gratefulness for me and the blessings I've been
(20:05):
bestowed with, as well as all my other members of
my group, my family members. Just for good health and
peace around the world. I mean, I believe that, you know,
I'm a Christian person who actually even involved in a
in a online site called Faith Only UM. I mean
face still sure, I'm sorry UM, which is an online
social site where it brings people together of light mindedness
(20:26):
and UM. For me, it's just it's a matter of
you know, I always let I believe to each his
own everybody can believe in whatever they want to. You know,
I believe that I believe in a higher power. We all,
you know, as long as you're able to find that
positiveness and that you know, that energy out there by
putting stuff out in the universe and it comes back
to you. Let's get back to the group. You guys
(20:47):
have just celebrated your twenty seven year anniversary. Did you
ever think when you started in the group that you'd
be celebrating a twenty seven anniversary? No, man, I was
only the n eighteen years old. It's always like, you know,
more than my life at that time in the group, um,
and it was just you know, I had always hoped
(21:08):
and dreamed of me. I was a huge fan of
the like the Michael Jackson's, the Madonna's, the Prince, the
Lionel Ritchie's. Uh uh, you know, just lots of these,
you know, amazing groups out there that an artist that
I had, you know, seen them have long careers and
aspire to have that. Um. But you know, being in
(21:31):
a group is an interesting, you know a challenge and
sometimes just like you know, a band of brothers, we
have our moments where we love each other, we have
our moments that we fight with each other, and you know,
sometimes that fighting you wonder, okay, is this gonna tear
us apart? And because it's it's happened our history to
many groups and many artists have gone their separate ways.
(21:55):
And um, I think it's just you know, once again,
I credit to our faith. We're all guys. We all
try to you know, even when we're upset with the
other each other, we do try to treat each other
as we want to be treated. Um. I think we've
just been blessed with an amazing team around us, um
and some you know, and by far the biggest credit
is has to be given to our fans. I mean,
(22:16):
we have some of the best fans around the world
that have stuck with us through the highs and the lows.
At the times when things were on fire and you
couldn't turn the radio on without hearing a Backstreet Boy
every two or three songs, to the time where you
could you couldn't hear you know, every two d song
of actually voice song, you couldn't hear us, you know.
So they've been with us through the ups and downs
(22:37):
of that wave of the artists and success. And once
again for us to have success once again and then
still be behind us. It's it's definitely the credit stude
to them. But I'm sure you've had to sacrifice a
lot for that success. What what's the biggest thing that
you personally have had to sacrifice in order to to
you know, attain the status that you have now in
the end that success. Um, you know what, I think
(23:00):
probably the biggest thing is is giving up a little
of the you know, your privacy. I think once you
sign on the guideline to become a successful entertainer, um,
you know, a lot of times people don't realize what
what comes with that. And you know, especially nowadays with
the internet and online you know, social stuff, it's almost
(23:21):
as right. No, yeah, absolutely, you have to really you know,
be on your toes and me and luck, thank god,
I've never been a person that's done anything I want
want my mom to be able to see or hear about. Um.
So for me, it's you know, probably the biggest sacrifice
outside has has been away from our families. We do
give up time to be away from our families to
(23:42):
travel and do our work. And I'm just blessed. I
have an amazing wife and kids and my mom and
brothers and sisters that throughout the years have just realized
this is my passion. Um. You know, years ago I
this the stream of mine came about after following my
older sister's footsteps. And I was as a little kid,
uh to what you say we were talking about earlier,
(24:04):
I didn't never expect myself to be a singer. It
was always my older sister, Pollyanna, who was a singer
in the family, and as a little kid, I followed
in her footsteps and at the age of six, got
into my first musical and then from there kind of
started doing more and more musicals and then this you know,
studios came around, uh universal and MGM started getting acting
and story that. But like I said, it's it's it's
(24:26):
one of the kind of things that I didn't know
as a little kid. But you know, you would sacrifice,
you would make um. But like I said, at the
age of nineteen, I got successful with the group. And
so that was a little bit hard at first, being
away from my mom, my brothers and sisters at a
young age, but then you kind of get used to it.
And like I say, now, if anything, my my family
and my kids are the ones who have to sacrifice
have a dady, but they realized that they know that
(24:48):
Daddy's there to be shared with the world, and you know,
daddy has an extended family all around the world. You're
listening to Oh no, my name is THEOS podcasts. Yeah,
(25:32):
welcome back to Olah. My name is the Embricus Santos podcast.
So talking about from you know, those sacrifices, it's also
talking about things that have surprised you or has as
stardom surprised anything that you said, I didn't never realize
it was going to be that way, or this is
totally different than what I thought. Um, you know what,
(25:54):
I think probably needing some of the retainers that I've
met over the years that as a little kid, you're like,
you know, I grew up watching the American Music Awards,
the Grammys and always put you know, the artists they're
up like on a pedestal, and never thought they were
like a paintable or you know, a reachable, you know,
(26:17):
to to be able to talk with, to be in
the same room with, and a little by litterally, I
started meeting some of my idols, um, you know, everybody
from Lionel, Richie that I had great conversations with that
she worked with together, Um Elton, John, Steven, Tyler, sting
Um just you know, so many great artists all around
(26:40):
the world, um Selia Cruz Yeah, and uh, you know,
just Gloria stuff on, you know, and the Melia and
and you know, it's it's one of these kind of
things that you're just like, Wow, I'm accepted into this
group almost like a uh of entertainer elite almost like
(27:04):
I mean kind of uh status, and if not not
only accepted, not only accepted, um, but part of it,
you know, you're and eventually to become part of that.
And then the honor of now hearing people that get
a chance to meet me for the first time, those
artists that are like, dude, we grew up with your music,
whether it's from over in South America, you know, uh,
(27:27):
to hear anywhere in the world and now actually be
be in that status or they look up to me.
To a point is it's a really like I don't know,
gratifying thing that you're able to touch people's lives. And
even like I say, some of those artists I mentioned,
you know a lot of times a lot of people
just assume that you know. Unfortunately, you know, a lot
of times there's artists can't get a little bit of
(27:49):
a bad rep some of them have that are out
there are not always a friendlist, and so sometimes they
make people think of them as always in that elite
status is and like untouchable, are like too good to
be you know around other people. All those names of
those people I mentioned to you, every single one of them,
or just stand up good people like you know, even
(28:09):
to this day, I feel like I could call and
they would take my call and just be able to
talk about this daily life and and the blessing that
we all are blessed with. If you look back on
your career now, Um, is there a moment that was
so special for you that you would like to to relive?
What moment of your career would you like to replay? Wow,
(28:31):
there's so many moments, dude, From the first time us
getting our our first MTV award in America. Um, even
with the craziness of that, going from receiving an award
and within less than twenty four hours sister passed away. Um,
that was an extreme high and a low. Your sister Caroline,
(28:52):
right she she was battling uh, lupus. That is correct. Yes,
she was battling limpas and and the one good thing
that really, you know, besides us having that first uh
feeling of a sceptance in America, the little good positive
thing that came out of that was because of my
sister having lupus and her passing away at the time
of us being able to have that that reached to media.
(29:15):
Because of our success that we were having, I was
really able to to take something negative and turn into
a positive. I really put my name out there to
do whatever I could to help bring the name Lewis
to the map, because at that time it was a
very very hush hush disease, not not a lot of
people knew about it, and there wasn't many organizations out there.
Now I think it's come leaps and bounds to where
(29:35):
it is something that people know about the disease lupus
um and uh. But I'd say definitely the height of
just being that at that moment of receiving an award
was just such a h an unbelievabaja um. And then
also when we got our our star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame about four years ago, I believe it
(29:56):
was Um, my wife came and surprised me at the
last minute, and because we had just had our second
child and it was her first time away from home
and she it was something that I didn't expect her
to be there or and I think at a time,
I don't know, I wasn't realizing the magnitude of what
(30:18):
it was. I didn't really push any of my family
members to try to come out and support me. I
just felt like, Okay, it was something how we you know,
go except the honor and and uh, you know, don't
I've never been kind of a person like the boast
and that kind of stuff or expect people to to
support in any way like that. But she came out
of her way to see me, and man, I probably
like a balled like a baby. I'm not a major
(30:40):
emotional person, but that I bawled. Um, actually, we're gonna
trying once. And then we just came back to Orlando.
We performed After we did Fort Lauderdale, we came to
Orland and performed at the Orlando Arena here and that
was an emotional moment. I actually gave a speech about
being a kid from this local hotel oklahometown and following
(31:01):
your dreams because I'm like a true Uh the reason
why you can you know, I can dream of you know,
you can dream and you can do it. And I
was a kid from this local small town here at
the time and and have success and being able to
come here and perform in front of all my family
members and friends. That was really heart wrenching to me.
(31:24):
Must have been really special. All those moments you're talking
about now. Not everything is always happy, and there's difficult
times in everyone's career. Um that as as artists also
looking back, you know, is there any moment of your
career that you would delete but you wouldn't like to relive,
you would have liked to have never happened. Um. Well,
(31:50):
like I said, the time of losing my sister was
even though I was able to take that negative and
turn it into a positive, That's something I wish you
could always take back. Um. My family to me is everything.
Um Uh. There was some stuff that you know that
happened with us. You know, we're very public, um with
our fans. We don't hide you know things, um from
(32:13):
our fans. We've been very honest, even to a point
of not putting ourselves up there as on the pedestal.
We always you know, people say, oh, you guys are
like role models, and I always say, you know, we
are not role models. Your teachers, your doctors, those are
role models. Um uh. But you know, there's been tours
that we've had to take down. UM. One tour particular Millennium,
(32:37):
I remember we had to take down because A J
was going through some substance abuse issues. It was really tough,
and I remember, you know, wondering like, okay, this is
a big one. Do we really let the kind of
the bad listeners at the time, A lot of ours
we're going to the same things that we were doing,
but they were just you know, kind of camouflage and
say with something else. And I feel like we were
one of the first ones at that time that decided
(32:58):
to go to MTV right away, a utel the announcement
right there, all of our fans, and it was it
was hard because you know, I didn't know what was
gonna come after. Um. You know, we had we had
braced within the group that we finally we took a break.
One time. For about it to the public, I was
three years, but for us it was like six months.
(33:21):
And I went out to California, not knowing if we
were gonna get back together or we just needed a break.
We had just been going mockten for over ten years
and we all were losing a little bit of our
own self identities, so we needed that time to find ourselves.
And you know, but that was a scary moment as well,
knowing that, you know, there may have been a chance
that we might not have gotten back to UM. Also
(33:42):
the whole stuff that happened with us with the legal
situations UM we've had with one of our previous managers
who's passed away now, Loup perlman Um. You know, we
had some legal situations there that I wish, you know,
we could have taken back the time in the early
years to really have done the proper dude villigence that
we need as artists to look over the contracts and
maybe you have not had that situation later on in
(34:05):
our career. There's always bump so blessed for so many things.
There's always bumps in the road, right, But I think
that's why so many people respect you guys, your fans
and the industry because of your transparency and your and
and and you guys from the beginn. Like you just explained,
I've always been honest and and very open with people,
(34:25):
and people can identify with you, guys, because not everything
in life is perfect. There's problems in everyone's lives. And
you know, the things that worry you the same things
that worry me and and and and everyone else. We're human,
absolutely absolutely, I'll put our pants on the same one
leg at a time, right right? How we? Um? What
what are you? What's missing in your life? Is there
(34:46):
anything missing in your life that you'd say, Um, you know,
I'm so blessed. I have a loving, healthy family. Um.
I have an unbelievable mother who's still around, who praised
for me every day. Um, she does her rosary beads
(35:06):
and she's like my my, you know, I just unbelievable.
Guardian Angel's here still with me on this earth. My
dad has a guardian angel love. Uh. But uh, you know,
I'm still blessed. I really can't think of anything on
this I mean, you know, we always joke that it
would be nice to maybe put on that's something great,
unbelievable around this house and and the trophies and everything.
(35:30):
But we always joke that one day it would be
nice to get a Grammy. I could definitely say that
would be nice to have him on mantle m But
you know what, we're still working at it. Maybe after
thirty years we'll get like a lifetime achievement on Order
or something like that. Well we'll deserved. How you always
asked my my guests to leave a question for my
next guest without knowing who that person is gonna be.
(35:50):
Danielle Habef is huge in Mexico and here in the
United States, is a great motivational speaker. And I don't
know why he left you such a deep question. Again,
he didn't know what was gonna be, but he just
left this question out there. Uh, Danian Habef asked my
next guest again without knowing who that person is. It
happens to be you. Howid if if someone was murdered,
someone that you know was murdered, could you forgive that
(36:12):
persons if some of them I know was murdered, would
you be able to Will you be willing to forgive
a person that murdered a family member of yours the
person who killed them? Yeah? Uh, that's a that's a
tough one, you know, I I believe you know. Being
(36:35):
Christian I always try to forgive um, you know, and
you you you hear so many stories about people on
TV and the news and and someone getting shot her
or murdered or you know or just unfortunately, um taking
their lives unnecessary. And it's so hard, especially you know,
(36:58):
knowing that it's your love on a really close person.
But I think, as I can say once again, as
being a Christian, I'd have to try to find it
within my soul and probably pray a lot to be
able to find forgiveness, um, you know, to be able
to carry all of life. What question does how we'd
leave for my next guest without knowing who that person is. Well,
(37:20):
I'll make it much slighter, but please please, Uh, maybe
let's say what's their favorite Backstreet Voice song? You know,
and I'll hadd a twist and I'll add a twist
to it and you gotta sing it. Yeah, there you go.
I think better. It's even better. Little self promotion. How
(37:43):
are you good? Talking to you man all the vest
It's always great to see your your smile and you're great. Uh,
you're you're great energy And um, I love your shirt
by the way, it didn't go un notice. Yes, thank
you you always do, but give yourself a break. Damnit.
You do, you do good, You represent as well. You
know what it's not. It's not about languages, about culture, Yes,
(38:05):
I will do it. That culture runs in your blood, brother,
and you always represent it well and we appreciate that.
So if I go to how we d dot net?
What can I find on there? You can pretty much
find out anything everything about me, everything from what's going
on with the group, all my individual solo endeavors. Uh.
Like I said with this the family album I made,
I I did also a from that family album, I
(38:26):
made a musical. Um, we can find out all the
all my individual projects that I'm doing, including these kind
of things like right here we're doing where I'm doing
online social interviews and talks with people. And I even
have a really cool thing that I'm doing this Friday. Um,
it's it's fun off on my Holly Eats. I'm doing
a cooking class. I have a great chef. He's from
(38:50):
uh one of the um the show called Chef um
uh top Chef. Anyways, parted up together and we're gonna
give the proceeds to two different organizations. I'm giving it
to a foundation called Core, which is children of restaurant employees,
(39:10):
and so we're gonna do He's gonna teach me how
to cook this unbelievable fried chicken that's slash um Asians
slash Mexican. He's gonna make also meets you, Lata. So
that's happening this Friday at eight o'clock. So all that,
all that type of stuff that I'm doing outside of
even Backstreet Boys dance, can go there and find an
(39:32):
all in all the information. Don't miss how he eats. Um,
I'm gonna I'm gonna massacre his name, Chef Katsuji. That's
much better than I could have said it on Location
live dot com. That's this Friday with with how He
How he Eats exclusively on on location live dot dot com.
(39:54):
Don't miss it. How are you talking about food? Last
question I got for you. So let's say, because of
the lockdown, Uh, we're all eating a lot, a lot,
eating a lot more than what we should. Um. But
if you can only eat one food the rest of
your life, what would that food be? One type of food? Yeah?
That is so tough because I really when you say
(40:15):
about my culture, the food, the rhythms that's in the Sundre.
I know that for sure. And you know my mom
was special around Christmas time the bustles. Let John all
that stuff. Man, But I'd probably have to say if
I hadn't picked something, because it has a little bit
of everything in it is a bay. I have a
(40:36):
bay the rest of my life. I got a little
of seafood, chicken, rice in there. I'm good. It's that's
kind of like cheating because by it has a little
bit of everything, you have full of differences. Smart, that's
a smart it's a smart one. That's a smart one.
By it you get a little bit of everything. Hi,
good talking to you, my friend. Keep healthy, all the best,
(40:57):
Thank you, buddy, your buddy. A
Host
Enrique Santos
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