What was going through your mind the first time that you popped up on that stage a year ago?

A year ago.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

Opening weekend.

Yeah.

Oh, God.

I know you talked about it, but we need it for the pod.

Yeah

... at different times, and I don't like them all at different times, too.

Um, no, but they're, they're like, we're like brothers.

Uh, we're like a family.

Um, you know, it's tough to pick one because everybody has different qualities that I like each of them, but probably if I really had to seriously narrow it down to one, it'd probably be Kevin, uh, just because we're the two oldest.

Uh, you know, we think a lot alike in the ways of just, you know, making sure if we're gonna do something, you do it right.

You put the time in to practice, to rehearse, and to try to make it as, as close to perfect as possible.

I- was your, was it your idea to do a couple songs in Spanish from the Backstreet Boys back in the day?

Mm-hmm

... you know, s- for the Backstreet Boys.

And so I was more in the forefront, but over time, because of the sound, I got a little bit pushed towards the back.

And so I've been, over the years, believe it or not, constantly flexing my muscles, trying to get a chance just to sing, 'cause a lot of times, you know, a lot of fans just thought that I just didn't wanna sing, and it was never that the case.

It was just, I just, the sound of the group kinda lended itself a little bit different than my tone and my voice.

And, and I'm a big fan, I'm a big believer of everything happens for a reason.

Um, you know, and I'm so grateful the way that it did happen.

[laughs]

What inspired you to venture into this space?

Well, you know, it's funny because a lot of people don't know that actually the Backstreet Boys have a half Puerto Rican in the group.

And it's been something that I've, you know, I've been wanting to do it for many, many years.

I mean, I was as a little kid, you know, always grew up with the fluids of my mom taking me to Puerto Rico and stuff like that.

Even, believe it or not, almost got close to being Menudo many years ago.

Oh, wow.

But when Ricky Martin was in the group and stuff like that.

But after all this time, what's changed the most from you guys as a group, would you say?

Now I guess a lot of people assume that when you go from being in a group to then solo, that there's hard feelings and that the group has broken up, but I know one of your bandmates, Nick Carter, actually co-wrote on the album.

Yes, absolutely.

One thing about my group is that we are very, very supportive of each other, working individually with me.

I think we really do believe that the stronger we are individually, the more we bring to the table for the group, whether it's coming back with a bigger, stronger fan base, or even, you know, standing on our own two legs, you know, coming to the table with more, you know, creative input, direction, whatever it may be.

But, yeah, I mean, there's definitely been no animosity at all, you know.

Nick and I wrote a song on this record called Pure, which I was very proud to have his help on that.

And then for AJ's first solo record, him and I wrote a song on that as well.

What is that?

What was it like working with them?

We got the demo and it was Ed Sheeran singing the demo.

Really? And I think for the first lesson from each of us, it was like a no brainer.

It was such a great song.

I think the hardest part was trying to figure out how we can sound as good as Ed.

Right.

How are you going to emulate that? You know, there's five voices, so we have a little bit of our own flair on it.

Trust me.