By Arwa Haider

Boyband juggernauts New Kids On The Block and Backstreet Boys talk to Metro about going on the road, inter-band rivalry and why they won’t be slowing down too much on tour.

‘There are eight million stories in every boy band… so there are about 16million in this one.’ Joey McIntyre flashes a pearly showbiz trouper smile, despite the fact he’s been up since dawn for a TV shoot. Even at 39, he has a sparkly youthfulness that hints at his past in US late-1980s/1990s boy band New Kids On The Block – McIntyre was just 12 when he joined the line-up.

On his left sits the similarly bright-eyed Howie Dorough, 38, an original member of the Backstreet Boys. Now both men feature in the nine-strong man band, NKOTBSB – with New Kids Jordan and Jon Knight, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood and Backstreet’s AJ McLean, Nick Carter and Brian Littrell. It’s a pop mash-up sparking an age of hysteria. ‘The first time this idea was mentioned, around 2008, New Kids were just returning, so I wasn’t that interested,’ says McIntyre. ‘Perspectives change so much in the music industry.’

Blockbuster pop is certainly not limited to teenyboppers any more. The New Kids’ smash reunion tour came more than a decade after the band’s exhausted implosion; it also echoed Take That’s romance with an older fanbase. Backstreet, meanwhile, never really split, although various members battled addictions (McLean, Carter) and one (Kevin Richardson) quit. ‘Doing this brings out the good and bad in you, depending on how cohesive you are as a team,’ says Dorough.

Read full article on Metro.co.uk.