AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys Reveals the Group Has Gone to Therapy Together, and That They Consider the Band Their “First Marriage”

This week marks 31 years since the Backstreet Boys—one of the most successful boy bands of all time—formed in Orlando, Florida, and bandmate AJ McLean opened up to Page Six about one way the group has managed to stay together for all of those years: going to therapy together.

“We’ve been around the world and back again,” McLean said. “We’ve had highs, lows, ups, downs, good times, bad times. But really, truly, this is our first marriage—the five of us, this truly is our first marriage. And if it wasn’t for the love and passion for what we do, the most amazing fans in the world, and just good communication skills—I mean, hell, we’ve been to therapy together as a group. You do whatever you can to maintain.”

He added, correctly, “No great relationship comes without work.”

McLean and his fellow Backstreet Boys—Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, and Kevin Richardson—apparently have something big headed fans’ way in 2025, though McLean couldn’t reveal what it was. “We’re gearing up for what’s happening next year, which I can’t talk about,” he said. “It’s a really big, big thing,” he added, before teasing “Something is coming. Something wicked this way comes.”

He also revealed that four of the five bandmates golf together (it’s unclear which one isn’t into the sport), that they have an ongoing group chat (that Carter is apparently always renaming), and that they “do a weekly Zoom just to kind of clean house and see what’s going on, what’s coming up,” McLean said.

Possibly in the pipeline someday? A festival idea McLean is tentatively calling “Popapalooza,” a Lollapalooza or Coachella-type experience, but for pop acts from the 1990s and 2000s. He said it’s been discussed for years and said it would not just be boy bands, but female solo artists, male solo artists—any artist from the time period. “Why not do something in the pop space?” he said. “It would be really, really fun.”

What about a tour of Backstreet Boys and their fellow 1990s boy band, ‘N Sync—a tour that would make many a millennial’s dreams come true? “If us and ‘N Sync ever toured together, that would break the planet,” McLean said. “We already know that.”

In addition to the 2025 mystery project, McLean said that he and the rest of the Backstreet Boys would eventually like to make new music down the road, and even make an eventual return to Las Vegas for another residency.

“We’re not stopping anytime soon,” he said. “We’re going to continue to move.” He added “We’re going to keep doing this until we don’t enjoy it anymore, or until the fans don’t want us anymore.”

Well, at least to the latter part, that’s a pretty firm never gonna happen.