LadyGang - BackStreet Boy Howie D is Muy Caliente

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

For the first time ever, BSB founding member Howie Dorough sits with the gang to talk Backstreet Boys, the record-breaking Sphere Las Vegas residency, and his brand new Latin solo project. Our "criminally underrated" heartthrob shares the truth behind his role in the group's iconic sound, BTS of the Sphere show (including Brian's fear of heights and the infamous ballet bar), why the residency almost didn't happen, and how a nine-date run exploded into 21 shows. Plus: Howie reveals the deeply personal roots of his new Spanish-language passion project celebrating his Puerto Rican heritage, the story behind his first original single "Coqui" and how his 92-year-old mother inspired it all. He also gets played in a hilarious game of "Which Backstreet Boy Would You Call?"We have summer deals for YOU!Boll & Branch: Need new sheets? Get 15% off your first order PLUS free shipping at BollAndBranch.com/ladygang with code "ladygang"Hers: Ready to reach your goals? Visit forhers.com/ladygang for personalized, affordable care that gets YOU.Lucy: Save 20% on your first order at lucy.co/ladygang with code LADYGANGClean Simple Eats: Shop the best tasting protein powders at CleanSimpleEats.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Based on Natural Resources Canada fuel consumption ratings, conditions apply. Visit HyundaiCanada.com or your local dealer for details. Well, what is this? Welcome to the Lady Gang. That's amazing. Say that again. The Lady Gang.

Things are about to change around here. Each week, we catch up with Hollywood's hottest girl posse, Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Lady Gang. I'm Becca Tobin, here with Jack Vanek and Kelty Knight. Hello. Hello, girly pops. Hey, ladies.

Kelty, I love your hair. I know. And I'm sorry, but it's great. And I'm not just saying it because it was my decision. Kelsey's never been silent before. She's speechless. Can you explain what you don't like about it? Because I think it's so cute, too.

You do? Yes. I think it's so cute. Like, I did it this morning, and I put a little spray in, and I felt super cute. And then I'll catch myself, like, going into a Zoom, and I'm like, oh, no, it's horrible. I think, I think the color is off and I, I don't think the haircut is that bad. Um, but I think the color's off. It's a little muddy for me and I need a little more, I don't feel like myself unless I have

like some brightness. Yeah. Um, so, but I also really liked my hair. Do you remember when we did Lady Gang TV and like came back for the second set of it and I had like kind of darker roots? I mean, you won't remember, but I really liked that. That would look really good. Like not an ombre, but like a root.

Yeah. I think the issue is that because I got it colored in Paris, you know, they're chic and they are not like gauche the way L.A. is. Like L.A. is like you want a highlight. I'm going to give you a highlight. And this is like the way she did it. It was actually interesting. I wanted to tell you this. OK, so you know how normally I don't know how you guys get highlights, but I usually get a highlight and then it goes all the way to the root and then they come back in and they do like a root shadow.

Yeah. Yeah. So when she was doing mine, she actually took the hair out and then she blow dried the root of the hair and the blow dry like fluffed up all the little broken end pieces. Oh, this is a new thing. Yeah. And then she colored it. So that's why it's like very blendy. And I almost think I hate the blendiness of it.

Anyway, whatever. But you don't want like a stark highlight at your root. No. I know. I think I, I, listen, I. Do you want like a lived in, like grown out blonde or you want it highlight-y? I want it highlight-y. I just think the highlight and the hair color is very, very ashy.

And it's a chunkier highlight than you normally do. You can like see the highlights. Yeah. Like if this was actually like bright blonde, I think I would feel like this, the blonde pieces were bright blonde. I would, it was like gray when I got it done. Chris is like, why is your hair gray? It was like the toner was so ashy.

So maybe it's going to, you know, thank you for all your support. Well, don't use purple shampoo because it'll make it ashy. Yeah. Never. All right. Never. Well, it's time for... Good week.

Yes, it is. Bad week. Oh, no. I'll go, I guess. So my good week is I was accused of using a fake ID. Can you believe it? At 39 years old, I was at a bar in... Martha's Vineyard. And it was like one of those, you know, kind of like touristy restauranty bar

kind of things. We all go to the bar, we all order our drinks. And it's just one of those bars that they like have to check everybody's IDs. No matter if you're like 65 years old, they're checking everybody's IDs. So we throw all of our IDs on the table. And the guy looks at mine. He's like, is this a fake? And I was like, no, sir, I'm almost 40. Like you can see my wrinkles on my face. He's like, I don't know. I have to take it to the back. And he like scans it through some machine. The machine says it's a fake ID. I have one of those new real IDs that I went through a whole fiasco at the DMV to get and had to go twice to the DMV because I didn't want to have somebody think I had like an outdated ID, but so does Jared. And so does everybody else I'm

with. And then he brings it to the back, brings it back. He's like, I don't, I still, I can't take, I can't serve you. And I was like, uh, he said, do you have like a credit card with your name on it? I was like, here's five credit cards with my name on it. He brings it all back. He still says no. And then it has to finally go up to like his manager who finally let me do it. And then like, while this, or give me, let me get a drink. And while this was happening, I was like, Jared's like, just pull up like Google yourself or something like show them that it's you. And I was like, no, but I'm like, my birthday is wrong on Google. So if they like tried to compare it to my ID birthday, it would be wrong.

Oh, wow. Yeah, my birthday on Google says May 13th for some reason. I don't know why. But anyways, he really thought that I was trying to get in with a fake ID. So that was real nice. Wow. Good for you. You know what?

You're an icon. And he's everything you were feeling about like, oh, I'm going to get pregnant at 40 or 39. Like, no, you're a teen. You are a teen mom. He wasn't looking closely at my face. I think that something was happening with the ID. Were you dressed like a teenager, Jack? What were you wearing to this bar? No, I was. I was. Yes. But that's how it tricks them. You know, they're like,

she couldn't possibly be 40 if she's dressed like she's 15. So that's my hack. My bad week is, oh, I ordered this handmade butter dish from Etsy and the shop looked so cute. Like everything was like can painted. It came from Amazon. No, I know this is a new problem on Etsy. This is like a scam. Yeah, it's crazy. And then I looked up the product on Amazon and it's just some thing made in China that they're selling on Amazon. But they're making fake storefronts on Etsy to sell them for like three times more. So I got scammed. Oh, did you keep it? Yeah, it's cute. Like returning something from Etsy. I don't even know if you can, but it's, yeah, it's definitely like a, some kind of scam. Do you want to, oh, this goes perfectly into my bad week. The exact same thing happened to me at

the Paris flea market. I was so excited to shop in Paris. I bought the cutest little mint green lacy. It had a top and a short. I posted it on Instagram. I have like a hundred thousand views. People went crazy for it. And everyone's like, where can I get it? Do a link. And I was like, oh, I bought it at this tiny little stall. It's vintage. I was like, it's vintage from the Paris flea market and like i i was a little there was a part of me that was like i don't know if this is vintage because it doesn't feel like silk you know how silk kind of has like a little roughness to it even though it's super soft it felt polyester but there's no tags in it i posted on instagram and someone in the comments was like babe this is from h&m someone is going and buying

the $19 H&M's. It's for sale right now. No. Took the tags off and sold the set to me for $170. No way. I mean, it was like 80. Well, it was like 95 euros. So whatever that is, like that's 120 bucks. I respect the hustle. Wow. That is a, that's a. But you know what? It's also promising because lately I've been thinking you don't have to buy expensive shit you just have to have good the ability to pick the good cheap shit so like that was a great set so moving forward you just go straight to H&M yeah and find and you you ask yourself if this was in a vintage store would I buy it yeah yeah if this and I kind of did that when I was shopping in Paris because I I got over like you know when you get overwhelmed at the store and you're like

do I like that it's like do I like it because it's tall or do I like it because it's Gucci yeah I was like this is hideous but because it says Gucci I'll spend a ton of money on it I'm like I'm never gonna wait you know what I mean so yeah yeah well that's crazy wild um okay well that was my bad week my good week is is that you know I'm world famous and I just want to shout out the lady ganger who said hi in the Ibiza airport I'd been out all night not slept I was scared of my bangs I had a black headband on zit cream on I'm with Chris Knight and I you know I take my Lady Gang suitcase to everywhere. So that's probably why she noticed me. But she stopped and said hi. And I was like, oh, my God, have you slept yet? And she was like, yeah. And I was like,

oh, yeah, me too. And then. Wait, you fly directly home after that night that you stayed up all night? No, the next night. Oh, I mean, we didn't sleep in Ibiza. I was. You don't sleep in Ibiza. Like I said, I saw those pupils in those videos. I was sober. You were sober. You didn't take any drugs? Not then. Are you sure? your eyes some other lady ganger commented and she was like pupils be pupillin well I said that and then some other girl replied to my comment and they're like I've never seen anybody actively not blink this much in my life that's just Kelty I think because I was so focused on my dance but I we had had dinner that night was the wedding so we had had dinner and I think I had had a glass

of wine but I was not like I was not in the pupils anyway I saw the lady gang she was so nice and then she wrote me the sweetest message on Instagram. She's like, it was so nice of you to stop and say hi in the airport. Like, you know, you don't want to meet your heroes. And I was like, girl, you need to get lower. And she was just like, and then the fact that you, this is so Kelty, she goes, she goes, and I wasn't sure, like, if you knew I was a stranger or you thought you knew me, but you just didn't remember that you knew me. So you were just acting nice. But either way, I was really touched. Yeah. There's no telling with you. No. And I was like, then I said to her, well, I lied a little bit. I said, I knew I didn't know you, but like, I didn't know. I didn't know.

I mean, I say she was a lady ganger. Yeah, she is. She was like, oh, and I knew you were like going to be in Ibiza. So how, you know, anyway. So fun. Rebecca Tobin. Okay. This is kind of a downer. This is a downer. It's okay. Um, my grandmother is in assisted living and my mom and I went this morning to move her from like one area of it to another. And you guys, there are women in there who are like parents age who have full blown dementia Alzheimer's. Like I, the first of all, the people that work at these facilities are angels from heaven, like angels from heaven, not just for people with like the memory care. It's just, they're incredible. But I was just thinking like, I've never been more motivated in my whole life. Like I'm so glad my good week is

that I finished my 10,000 step 30 day challenge and I did it. But I was like, I've never been more motivated in my life. And I know sometimes you cannot, cannot like not avoid this type of way. Yeah. But I'm like, I'm sure shit doing everything I possibly can to make sure that I am actively doing something beneficial for myself. It's just so heartbreaking. And I just like one of the women in there is the mother of somebody that my sister grew up with. And it's like, I'm there with my mom, who's the same age as this woman. And I just my heart goes out to anybody who is dealing with a family member who is in this type of memory care assisted living like oh my gosh i just it's tough it's tough life but there is uh this girl on tiktok i'm sure there's a lot

of people on tiktok that do this but there's like a certain gene that makes you way more yeah um apt to get alzheimer's and dementia and stuff yeah and she has it and so she has her whole tiktok is dedicated to exercises like brain exercises that you can do to like keep your brain young and healthy because like if you start doing these when you're a lot younger like obviously you can't prevent anything 100 but it really helps your brain um because they're very specific things that she does i know but then didn't you see that biohacker that guy that's like been hacking his longevity man is insane he's insane it's he's an extremist like it's like nothing extreme is good in any direction either you know it's like you shouldn't go run a marathon every single day

you should just take 30 minute walks like it's like it's a well his body's like like in a stage of flight fright fright and flight fight or flight because it's like constant he's constantly stressed the out yeah that doesn't surprise me but also he's like putting a bunch of shit in his body that's not necessarily been tested like yeah yeah that's that's insane moderation it's moderation it's really it's a it's a whole thing well i'm really proud of it for your step thing yeah thanks because when i was actually in europe i was doing my aura ring and my natural cycles thing and i was like i only walked 11 000 steps becca's doing this every day and i felt like all i did i'm telling you it takes a long time to walk 10 000 steps it takes a long time it's not

something you can casually do and just be like i think i'll do it today it's like you have to really f***ing try. Woo! Yeah. Speaking of trying, I'm going to try to get some free tickets to the Backstreet Boys

concert at the Sphere. Yes, please. Coming up next. Now back to the Lady Gang. All right, ladies, buckle up because the man, the myth, the criminally underrated

heartthrob is here. If you were alive and breathing in the late 90s, this man lived on your bedroom wall, in your Discman, and rent-free in your little millennial heart. He's a founding member

of the best-selling boy band of all time. Yes, of all time. We're talking 100 million records sold worldwide. We're talking sold out residencies from lighting up Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood and bringing me on stage and giving me a rose to absolutely detonating the sphere into the millennium with the most jaw dropping show on the planet right now, which Jack and I both watched while we were on mushrooms. And he's nowhere near finished because now he's giving us something brand new and deeply personal, a Latin solo album, a Spanish language passion project that goes right along with my 425-day Duolingo streak.

It reimagines the songs that we screamed in the cars as we were kids, plus brand new originals all rooted in his Puerto Rican heritage. He's got a brand new single and it's named after a Puerto Rican frog, which is right up Jack's alley. And he is a legend, a heartthrob, a mogul, a girl dad.

Please welcome to the Lady Gang for the first time ever, the one and only Howie D. Hello, ladies. How are you guys doing? Thank you for having me. That was one heck of an introduction. Wow.

Thank you so much. I don't think I've had that good of an introduction in a while. Thank you very much. Dare I say, como estas? Ah, muy bien. Y tu? Todo bien, porque Howie es en mi casa, in mi podcast, Lady Gang. Gracias.

Muchas gracias. Okay. I, you know, I really, I do have more Spanish, but then I get nervous. Okay. Don't worry. I don't have a lot more than that. so very good how we uh we we really want to apologize to you and we we had a similar problem with the jonas brothers i'm going to be honest with you is that early in lady gang days we fell

into like we got we got overwhelmed with joe jonas's eyebrows and we did not realize that kevin jonas is the best jonas brother and we went on a deep dive when we realized and we have come to the same conclusion for you and i know that you guys don't compete with each other and it's a Brotherhood. But after seeing the show at the Sphere, we do feel possibly that we maybe had the Brian doll when we should have had the Howie doll. I love it. It's very, very honoring to hear that. What do you think of being the best aging one in the group? Like, I mean, you're like, I'm sorry. It's not just me, Becca, Jack.

Oh, agreed. Yes, yes. You've aged very, very well. You guys are too kind. I got to thank my mother, I think, for those jeans that she's passed on to me. I think it's a little bit of the Latin olive skin. I think it's kind of helped me out as time's gone on.

So plus a good wife who makes sure that I wash my face every night and put moisturizer on and all that good stuff. It's the wife effect. It really is. That's right, yeah. What did we get wrong about you in your career, in your music career so far?

Oh my gosh. I was always supposed to be the lead singer of the group, you know, and somehow or another, they fell asleep on me. And, you know, now I'm finally getting a chance to show my true artistic side. No, just joking. Wait, is that true or is that fake? We think that's true. Believe it or not, though, when the group first started, it was me more in the forefront and then AJ and Nick. And then as we got our record deal, we had recorded some songs in the early years. and by the time we got our record deal and went over to Sweden to work with Max Martin, the sound of the group kind of changed.

I, if you hear me on stage, I do a lot of the higher falsetto and at the time we were kind of role modeling the group sound a little bit like the New Kids and I was like, I guess the Jordan Knight per se of the New Kids kind of a, you know, 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. Because a lot of times, you know, a lot of fans just thought that I just didn't want to sing. And it was never that the case. It was just, I just, the sound of the group kind of lended itself

a little bit different than my tone, my voice. And I'm a big fan, I'm a big believer of everything happens for a reason. You know, and I'm so grateful the way that it did happen. But now, you know, over the years, it feels good that now we've, you know, kind of solidified our sound. and now the fans are more open to hearing Kevin and myself on songs. And now pretty much, you know, across the board on all the songs that we're doing, including the latest Paw Patrol song that we just released,

it's all five of us. And I'm glad, you know, I'm glad I think, you know, that our fans are getting a chance to get to know each of us individually. Even Kevin, you know, he deserves his shot as much as I do. Justice for all the Kevins. That's right. No, we noticed this when we saw the Sphere show because there's a part of the Sphere show where you each get to sing your solo,

which I thought was like really cool. And then also it feels like we know, I mean, as BSB, you know, cultural historians, we know with Brian's issues with his throat, like his voice, it almost seems like you kind of took over like some of his stuff. And I was wondering, as a deep Bastry Boy fan, is that planned ahead of time or does he look over you and like, I can't get there today, take over? So I don't ever like, you know, none of us ever take over his leads. We might sometimes sing along with him on certain things. You know, and just in the choruses, you know, all of us will sometimes, you know,

now try to help each other out by singing the leads a little bit more or the main melody per se. But none of us are ever like, you know, it's never like, Howie, here's the baton. Take it, brother. Go run. You know, finish the show. I mean, I would gladly take it. But within this group, we're all still like,

You know, there's a lot of testosterone. Everybody's trying to make sure they're getting their leads in correctly when they're being seen and heard. And it's so good. By the way, I'm going to see you next weekend. It's my best friend's 40th birthday. So I'm going to my second Sphere show,

which I'm very excited about. Oh, all right. I have to sketch it back to the show. We're going to be in the pit this time because before we're like way up. So now I'm like, I got to like be at the Backstreet Boys front row, front and center.

But I was going to say, it's crazy watching you guys because the show is just as good as a show you would have gone to like in the early 2000s. Like you guys really kept it together. And you dance so much and like your voices are insane. And you're all mics are all on like, how exhausting is that for you? Because as somebody who isn't a performer and is just aging normally, I feel like I'm dying every day. So like, how are you doing this? And you're also older than me. And then you're it's you guys seem like you're thriving. You know, it's one of those kind of things.

The only way we stay in shape is if we're working. I always say we're like horses. We need to be ran all the time. If not, when I get off stage and I have a little time off, that's when I start enjoying a little bit more of the adult beverages, enjoying a little bit more food. I'm not getting that cardio in two hours a night. And it's just, you know, a body of motion is everything.

So I look forward, you know, especially after the first couple of shows. The first couple of shows, you know, we're getting back into it, you know, Kind of like you might feel a little bit of an Epsom salt bath that first night or two. But then once we're getting going, you know, we're pretty back into, you know, riding and biking again. We've been lucky, though. The fact that we've been off since February, last couple of shows that we had at the Sphere, we still have done some one-offs, some corporate one-offs and everything. So we've been kind of keeping our body moving.

So I have good hopes and wishes that we're going to, you know, get right back on that horse again and start riding it. But it's a workout. It's a workout. I tell you, I'm sweating. I'm burning my calories for sure. Okay, I want to get to your new album and the song, but I have one last Sphere question, which is, discuss to me,

we talked about this in detail when we went and saw it. Discuss to me the rehearsal process of when you realized you were going to have to give Brian a ballet bar on the Sphere alien machine that goes up in the air. Like, talk me through the conversations because it's like, I can see AJ being like, let's go, let's go, let's get,

and Kevin's like, everyone in line. And then Howie's like, I'm just here being hot. And then, you know, like Nick hasn't shown up yet. He's late. And then Brian is like, I can't do it, guys. Like what exactly went on? And what was the conversation of like, get him the ballet bar to hold on to?

It seems like you know us pretty well. I think you said it better than I could have said it. But the funny thing is that Brian does have a fear of heights. Um, like, you know, there's times where he'll be like, Howie, will you go ride the roller coaster with my wife? You know, cause I, I'm not going to do it, you know, kind of a thing. And I'm like, all right, Brian, I'll, I'll be that, you know, your brother there. And, uh, but it's, he always has this, I think, anxiety when we talk about, you know, like we're actually even talking about the show that we're going to do over in Germany and recreating, possibly trying to fly in on the

millennium we did years ago. And so always it's like, the first question is how high are we going? And we always tell, you know, we always get frustrated because we always know that he gets worked up. But then after a while, he gets fine with it. And then like for this fear, like we have a lot of content that's pre-taped and everything up there. And so we were like, all right,

whatever we're going to tape, we got to keep it the same. And we knew over time, he had this one bar that's now turned into like a little circular thing that we're like. Oh, he went down. He went down to Danger Town. His big boy pants came on, he graduated to the next level. But, you know, and most likely,

probably within time, he would probably get rid of that pole. And eventually, it would just be a flat stage with all of us. But it's always that first, you know, kind of getting into it and, you know, coaching him therapy to get him to realize that he's going to be okay, that we're not going to do anything. And we were harnessed. And we have, you know, things that are holding us down. So there's not, if the thing was to go sideways, you know, we'd be doing like the superman pose but we would not be like falling off of the thing um but yeah it is it is always a uh point of contention whenever we talk about flying uh with brian and getting him to to try to think about you know not right now what your heart rate is at but what it's going to be like in about four

or five months once you've done this gig you know several times and you've gotten used to it i have a question too i mean i am the brian i am so afraid of heights um i want to know so So what did you ever think that this resurgence would happen? Because I look at the other boy bands out there in sync, and I'm sure they're all just waiting for one person to say yes, allegedly. But did you guys ever have doubts? Were you sitting at home 10 years ago thinking, are we I'm never going to perform again? Or did you did you psychically knew you'd have your moment again? I'm just, I'm so curious. You know, I think years ago, I kind of remember when we first took our break, one of our first breaks that we took. And I remember, I think it was when

Kevin decided that he wanted to take a break. And then we were kind of like, you know, taking a little bit of time off. The four of us were still continuing on going, but it just wasn't, there wasn't a plan. And I didn't know exactly what it was going to look like the future. And I will admit, I remember going to a concert and NSYNC was performing. I think it was in DC. I think it was at our somewhere. I think it was right around, I don't know. I don't know if it was around 9-11 or what exactly it was, but they were still going strong. And I was like, man, I'm like, why isn't that my group? You know, like I was, I will admit I was a little envious and I know Chris Kirkpatrick. I mean, we went to choir together. It's an ongoing joke that he says

now very comfortably, like, you know, if I would have asked him to, you know, audition for Backstreet boys, NSYNC probably wouldn't be here today because he, you know, since not, since not me asking him, since he looked just, you know, brown haired guy and we were looking for a blonde haired guy. The guy sitting next to me was a blonde haired guy in our choir. So I asked him to, you know, audition. But indirectly, I feel like everything happens for a reason. And I'm so happy for him that he was able to put, you know, NSYNC together and they have a, you know, an amazing career. I, I see them every so often, like Joey and Lance and stuff. And I'm always encouraging And I'm like, guys, go out.

You know, we did Run Without Kevin, two runs and stuff like that. Their fans are there not only just for the five of you has to be together. They're there for four of you, for three of you. You know, even AJ and Joey Fatone have done stuff together. I'm always like about super groups, whatever it is kind of a thing and very supportive. I feel like there's enough room for all of us out there. But yeah, I mean, I think, you know, it could have easily gone the wrong way when Kevin decided to take a break.

You know, could easily, the rest of us could have said, you know what, let's just take a longer break and, you know, throw in the towel or whatever. But we, you know, just kept on going. We carried the torch, not knowing if it was going to last for the time, you know, and last the time for him to come back around and, you know, become part of the group again. But, I mean, I think we had some strategic things that we did, including, you know, going on tour with New Kids on the Block, the NKOTBSV. And, you know, at one point there was even talks like, okay, Kevin was kind of like, you know, we could get the feel that he was kind of interested in coming back, you know, and I was like, okay, do we throw him in it really quickly? And they were like, no, we're going to save this ace in our back pocket for the five of

us to come out by ourselves. Yes. And it was, you know, that along working with Florida Georgia Line, you know, being a part in the movie of This is the End. I think we just had some great, unbelievable opportunities that came to us that we capitalized upon and took it, embraced it. And it, I feel like it's come back around. It's so crazy. I mean, if you were to ask me, you know, like you said, 10 years ago, would we have this second time around? I don't know if I would have said, yeah, I think I would have probably thought, wow,

we had our time, you know, we'll, you know, go off, sail off into the sunset, you know, maybe go back to Vegas and, you know, be like, you know, my good friend Wayne Newton and just like, you know, do some shows on the weekends, this kind of thing. But, but it's so crazy how we have, you know, just so much love out there right now amongst all the fans that are coming back out night after night at the Sphere. I mean, the Sphere, honestly, was never meant to be us performing at Sphere. The original idea was we were going to recreate the Millennium show that we did 25 years ago for the anniversary. And we were going to recreate with the surfboards coming in and the round and everything. And then Kevin came to us and said, hey, guys,

he's like, you know, I have to be honest with you. And that's what the best thing about us. And I think the reason why we've been able to stay together is because we were just, we're so open about communication and what's, you know, what's enough factor for everybody just figuring that out. And he was like, you know what? He's like, I'm going to do whatever it takes to be a part of this. And he said, but I have to be honest with you. He says, you know, it'd be very tough for me knowing his oldest son was his senior year

for me to be gone a lot this year. And knowing that this is the last, you know, times that I'm going to have him at home for a little while. He's like, that would be tough. We're like, bro, we got you. Let's figure this out. And so he, believe it or not, said, what about going back to Vegas? I was like, oh, man.

I'm like, I always thought we'd be back to Vegas. But like I said, that was kind of like to me like that was probably going to be our sailing off into the sunset kind of a thing. And we had just finished, you know, playing at Hollywood maybe like, you know, a couple years before that and then had DNA in between. But so I didn't think it was enough time for us to come back to Vegas for people to want us to be back in Vegas. But I thought if we did, you know, playing at Hollywood or maybe the MGM, the Park Theater would probably be the spot that we'd be at. And when management said, now we're shooting for Sphere, I was like, good luck with that one. I'm like, that's you two. That's the Eagles.

That's not Backstreet Boys. And they came back and said, we've got, I think it was either three or six dates that they've given to us. And then I think they just rolled out, turned into nine dates. And then it went to 21 dates. And I was like, oh, my God. I'm like, this is happening. I'm like, I almost get choked up talking about it because it's just, it's, I didn't feel worthy enough for it.

And then the fans, you know, we just joked about, hey, why don't you guys wear white the first weekend? It's turned into like a cult. Like they're still doing it this, you know, this many shows. And then the talks of us, you know, going from there, like where can we top this if we were going to do anything else after that? And then the idea of going to stadiums afterwards,

it's like, I'm like, I'm going to church every Sunday. I'm like, I'm so blessed. I am like, I am just so grateful for all this, that we've just, you know, the amazing fans. I get constantly people sending me stuff at football games, our music's being played at baseball games. Players are coming out to our songs and stuff like that at high school proms, at birthdays, weddings.

It's like, it's just, I'm very blessed, very blessed. Well, it's about to end, Howie, because, not to be a bummer, but you are entering your bad boy stage because you have a song about making a baby for your mom. And it's about sex. And Howie is about to disrupt the 30-foot flying saucer with the heat of this. You're listening to The Lady Gang.

So why was now the perfect time for you to be like, oh, by the way, I'm a hot sexual Latin and I would like to write a song about... I love it. Oh, that's so great. Yeah, you know, there's the magic of writing. That is for sure. I mean, I'm definitely a happily married man.

And my wife and I are not looking to put any more babies out there. I think my wife would rather me put her out in the pasture and let her on fire than to try to get her pregnant at this point right now at 50 years old, as she's told me. So there is, it's the magic of writing music. It's a fantasy. Yes, yes, the magic of writing music. Yeah, this project of mine started a while back ago.

Believe it or not, like I'm half Puerto Rican. My mother's from Puerto Rico and my dad is a good old southern boy from Georgia. And somehow or another, they met up in D.C. at a notebook kind of a story at a fairgrounds bumping into each other and bumper cars. Oh, my God. And somehow or another, my dad, with my mother's broken English, very broken English, somehow or another got her to say I do to him a year later. And my family was started. And I am one of five kids. I'm the baby. Ten years between me and the next youngest, my brother and three

sisters above that. My brothers have fun of always saying I'm the Catholic. Oops. I kind of tell them I'm more of the Catholic blessing to the family. No kidding. No kidding. A guest list backstage passes. So over the years, I've always, well, growing up, like I say, as a little kid, my mother tried, I was of that generation where my mother tried making us as Americanized as possible, not having an accent to not get like, you know, possibly bullied or feel segregated or whatever. And growing up in Orlando, even being a half Hispanic, you know, family, I was like, we were like the only ones in like our neighborhood. Now Orlando is like Puerto Rico number three after like New York. It was like early on, like Puerto Rico. But at the time,

there was no, I felt like, you know, no major urge or need to speak Spanish because there was just nobody around speaking it. But I always enjoyed going back to with my mother to Puerto Rico. I always felt like the culture, I always felt like the rhythms, the food, it was just, it was always in me, but I just didn't know how to get out there and express it. And as growing up in the industry, I got very close to a couple of things that finally rang the bell to me that I needed to figure this out. I got really close to being in a group called Menudo many years ago. Ricky Martin actually sat there and watched me sing. Yeah, when I was 14 years old. And I went through several auditions and they wanted me, but the only thing that was lacking was that I didn't

speak Spanish. And if you're familiar with Menudo, it's all in Spanish. And so that along with, you know, just kind of doing the acting scene and constantly getting offered because of my looks to do like the Latin role or whatever. And always, you know, falling short by not being able to fulfill those, you know, opportunities because I didn't speak Spanish. So I always wanted to do somehow or another get to my roots. And I took high school. I took Spanish in high school. I took Spanish in college. I took Berlitz courses. It got to a point where I was dreaming in Spanish. I was able to keep up with the news in Spanish. And at that time, they were like, you need to go live with the family over in Mexico to solidify your Spanish with a family that doesn't speak

any English and just get it, you know, embedded in you. Well, I was all fine and dandy, but the guys were already had, and the group Backstreet Boys at that time were already waiting for me to finish my second year of college. And they weren't going to wait another six more months for me to go live in Puerto Rico, to go live in Mexico. So that's kind of where my solidifying of my Spanish finished. And, but I was able to get the guys to do a couple of songs of ours in Spanish. And I always knew that every time I went to South America or to Spain or Puerto Rico, there was always like a calling, always a connection for me. And so I made a couple of different attempts over the years, a little bit younger,

working with some of the Emilio Stefan camp and some people out of Miami. But I just, it never felt like the timing was right. Whether I was constantly in the midst of Backstreet Boys just going nonstop and just not having the time to put out the music, or me also just not feeling like the fact that since I don't speak Spanish fluently, the hesitancy of wanting to go into like doing press and then be like, okay, well, you're singing in Spanish, but you don't know Spanish.

Come on, what are you doing? You know, kind of thing. So it wasn't until recently that it all kind of came together. One, my mother being 92 years old and me being the one to do something that just made me proud of being her son and carrying on the heritage, not only for her, but also for my own kids

to realize, you know, you got some boricua in you. You know, you got to, we got to never, never let that go. Even when grandma's not here, we have to continue on the culture. Or I see a lot of that happening in the States where it just kind of dies off little by little people's heritage. And the biggest thing was that the fans, they throughout the years have always, the biggest compliment I could ever have received was, you know, one of the many compliments would be that from other countries, fans would say, you know what, I learned English to understand

what you guys were saying in your songs. And that's when it really clicked to me. I'm like, you know, they did that for us. Why don't I take our music and through our music start translating it and learning Spanish? And that's what I did. I took some of like eight of my favorite songs from the Backstreet Boys and just kind of went in there with another writer to help me out and working out with Duolingo and on this whole process and just, you know, started creating these songs. And some of them we, you know, experiment with the sounds. We got a little bit of merengue.

We got some salsa in there. we got some reggaeton. And then I think it was around, I went it that way. We were experimenting with this Afro beat, kind of reggaeton-ish. And we stumbled upon this sound that was like, wow, this really feels like my voice really lends itself, you know, pleasantly to this. And then we said, why don't we just start experimenting, you know, by creating some original stuff. Never thought the first single coming out would be an original song, but we stumbled upon Coquille. And Coquille, like you said, is a frog coincidentally. It's the national frog from puerto rico it's this frog jack jack loves a frog oh yeah yeah you can't it's only it's indigenous

to puerto rico they can't get the the frog out of the island it doesn't survive anywhere else i don't know if it's because of the rainforest or whatever it is but it makes this beautiful sound and it goes okay okay okay and it's like i mean there's apps right now you can find online that have like rain with that sound the tropical rainforest and it just it's so it's just relaxing. And you can't take the sound with you outside of Puerto Rico, but the sound always travels with you. And so I just decided, you know what, now's the time I wanted to do it because I feel like the opportunities, the lanes aren't as strict as it was back in the days when I was the first times around. I feel like Bad Bunny doing what he's doing and what he's exposing

everybody here in the States to the beautiful island of Puerto Rico and all the other artists, as well as, you know, Korean K-pop being so big in America. I feel like now, I feel like if any times I feel like America's ready or the world's ready for just the lines just to it's music it's you know music is just supposed to bring people together no matter what language it is sorry for that long explanation no that was amazing I love it I think it's fantastic and I think you probably in your group like probably felt some pressure to just assimilate to just be like oh we're just the backstreet you know what I mean like it wasn't it was like the the craziest you could get was like one of them has facial hair like it wasn't like you could really like dig in you know um

will you replace spanish eyes in the sphere show with cookie i wish i could uh but that sphere show is uh it's locked in yeah that all that production and everything the you know everything got screens and yeah yeah even like i was telling you even with brian with that his little you know granny He can't borrow there. He's got there. He's, it's gonna, it's, it's, even if we change it, it's locked in with what's on the screen and everything. So, but.

I love this though. I love this for you. I think this is really cool. And it's, your voice, it's very like, it's so different. It's very chill. It's very like backyard summer playing. Like, it's just, you know, it's dancey.

I think it's perfect. You look really hot in the video. I love a man in a, what I call a leisure suit, which is like the short and shirt is like matchy but it's like we're on vacation we're a little drunk um okay we have a game for you before you go congratulations on that by the way we are going to link to the song and the video is really cute too um okay it's called the call game i'm going to give you some scenarios and you are going to tell you tell us which uh backstreet friend i said backstreet friend. Which one of the backstreet friends will you call? Okay, here we go. Okay,

something amazing happened. Best news of your entire career, your entire life. You want to scream. You want someone that is going to be so hype that's going to match your energy. Who do you call? Probably, believe it or not, it's Kevin. You know, I was going to say Kevin is who I'm thinking of, but I want to give some love to the other guys too. So I would probably say AJ. AJ AJ and Nick, I think they're the ones that are the most, like, out there doing individual stuff. And actually, our manager, Jennifer Sousa, who also manages me individually, she played the song before I was ready to play it to the guys, Coquille. And I got AJ coming up to me going, dude, he's like, I freaking love that song of yours.

I can't get it out of my head. And I was like, oh, you know, it's nice to feel the support of your other, you know, comrades and the projects and stuff like that. So I think Nick and AJ would probably be the ones that I would be most first looking to go to with, you know, expressing my solo project. Okay, you can't say Kevin to this. You need bailing out of a generally ridiculous thing, like something that is like TMZ has caught you doing something. You don't want lectures.

You don't want questions asked. You just need someone to come bail you out and never speak of it again. Who are you calling in? Why is it AJ? You know that's Kevin. It's Kevin. I know, it's Kevin. You guys propose all these questions for Kevin.

You know what? Maybe Nick. I think Nick, I think, you know, he's the kind of person that has, you know, God bless him, been through so much. Oh, my God. And I think he's the person who's the most understanding of, you know, you just have a bad day or whatever. He's like, you know what?

I get it. You know, there's nothing that poor guy has been through the ringer, And he's, there's nothing that can faze him, I think, now at this point. He's just, you know, God bless him. You know, I always, I'm like, bro, you know, even there was times, you know, when stuff was going on with his own family. And I'd always try to, you know, tell him, keep the door open, you know, and just, you know, things that were just really tough. That you could understand why sometimes certain choices were made. But, you know, I would always try to be the voice of reasoning to him to always would be like, you know, just always look for the positive in everything.

Yeah, I love that. It kind of makes me emotional, but I love that like you guys have each other because you're right. He has had like such a bizarro experience and like how nice to have brothers like chosen family. Okay, last one. Who would you call if you need to remember choreography that you guys did 20 years ago? If someone's like, hey, Howie, we need you to come on this thing. You're going to do the choreography from this tour. Who still knows it? And it's this is not Kevin because I've been in a Backstreet Boys rehearsal and I've seen Kevin is his concentration level. As you know, Kevin has to really, he can be there in a flash and support you. But Kevin's 5678 is. Yeah, that is true. That is one I would not say Kevin. And I would, they probably wouldn't be saying Howie either. So it's okay.

But I would probably say Brian is really good about remembering things. And AJ. AJ for sure. AJ has always been, you know, probably the real dancer out of all of us. We want to thank you to your service to the fangirls for your entire career, your entire life. We are very excited for you that you're sort of doing this breakout moment.

It's very sexy. It's very fun. And we know that this is just the start because we're going to get a full album, right? Absolutely. But you don't have a name. I went deep on Reddit last night. We still don't have a name.

I don't have a name. I would tell you for sure. But God willing, we're trying to, you know, focus in around Spanish Heritage Month. You know, it's around the fall time we're looking to try to do. But I've got a lot of great things planned coming up. You know, I'm doing these little Howie,

Café con Howies, Cafécito con Howie at the Sphere. So on Fridays before the show, I'm doing like little acoustic, you know, three song performances of some of the album stuff. And we've got a lot of great things. I'm trying to look at maybe trying to make a plan

for a trip to Puerto Rico with some of the fans to get them to introduce them to the island. A lot of great stuff in store with this little Latin project that I'm doing that I'm very grateful for all your support. well Javi is very hot thank you

I need five tickets for the sphere this no this week no problem I need five tickets

for the weekend I got you guys come on out join us again we'd love to have you guys I don't know how to say we'll see you next Tuesday but we will

see you next Tuesday see you next Tuesday Lady Gang is hosted and produced by Kelty Knight Becca Tobin and Jack Vanek with social media support from Kali Carrera,

audio and video editing from Jared Monaco, and additional support from Steve Delameter and Podcast One. Hey, Ontario, come on down to BetMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive, the Price is Right Fortune Pick, has to offer. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show only at BetMGM.

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