BobbyCast Recap: AJ McLean Talks About His Upcoming Country Record, Teases New Backstreet Boys Project
What could the Backstreet Boys be working on?
On episode #201 of the BobbyCast, Bobby Bones chatted with Backstreet Boys band member AJ McLean about his upcoming debut country album called Long Road. McLean had just landed in Nashville to finish the project prior to the interview, and says the album should be out at the beginning of the year. Bobby also talked with McLean about his journey to country music, which all started when the Backstreet Boys teamed up with Florida Georgia Line for their song, “God, Your Mama, and Me,” and for CMT Crossroads.
“It’s been a really interesting process,” McLean says. “When this whole thing started, I kind of throw it back to when we shot Crossroads with us and FGL. That’s when the ball kind of started rolling.”
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It was after that performance that McLean says he started pondering the idea of making a country record. He then spent eight months in Nashville meeting writers, and says it just started to ‘click.’ He also learned a great deal about country music in the process.
“Two things: country fans can read through all the BS,” McLean says. “They know if you’re trying to be someone that you’re not, and they won’t accept it. Two: country music tells stories, which is something that’s the polar opposite of what I do as a pop star. That’s feel-good music, that’s all positive music, but it’s not really getting in the depths of your soul. There’s a lot about me that people don’t know, or they think they know the whole story. I just want to talk about my beautiful family, my beautiful girls, my wife, my life, the ups and downs, funs songs, good songs, sad songs. Country music is the perfect outlet for that.”
Bobby then previewed some of the songs on McLean’s upcoming album, Long Road. The songs include “Night Vision,” the album’s official first single, “Boy And A Man,” a song about McLean’s experience having to grow up fast, and “Give You Away,” which is about McLean’s two daughters getting married in the future.
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While McLean’s solo country career is in full swing, that doesn’t mean that things are slowing down in the pop arena with the Backstreet Boys. In fact, McLean teased a new BSB project for next year.
“We’ve actually re-recorded a bunch of our music already,” McLean says. “We have a secret project up our sleeve that hopefully will be out next year. When we made the DNA album, we also made another album, but I can’t say what’s on it.”
To hear more from Bobby’s conversation with AJ McLean, including a brainstorming session on how the Backstreet Boys could win a Grammy, listen to episode #201 of the BobbyCast.
