You loved him in 1997 as B-Rok, and you continued to love him for years as he became simply Brian, the loveable Backstreet Boy. Now, he's on the road to promote his solo album "Welcome Home", and we got the chance to chat with him about jokes, golf and Kevin Richardson's departure from the group. Check out the pics from Brian's visit on MOD, too!
MuchMusic: We've all got stories that we love to tell our friends and family about the latest things going on in our lives, so what's your favourite story to tell about your solo endeavors so far?
Brian: When I go back to my family?
MuchMusic: Sure.
Brian: Well, I think the excitement that I have about my solo stuff stems from the music. I get excited about songs that I write, and I want people to hear them before they become a song on a CD. I'll always go home - I was home earlier this year, and I'm always singing a song to my mom and dad like, oh, you gotta check this new one out that I'm working on. So those are always things I share, it's something always to do with music. They'll play me new songs that they're listening to, and I'll sing them new songs that I'm writing!
MuchMusic: You live in ATL, so did you ever even think about including a little dirty south flavour on your album? Just for fun? Eh? Eh?
Brian: Umm, no I didn't! Atlanta's a part of what we like to call the Bible Belt, and we know to go to church and we know how to pray - I hope that all of my influences are articulated pretty well on the "Welcome Home" CD. But I didn't think about going to the dirty south (laughs).
MuchMusic: You said in an interview that your music says, "stand up for what you believe in". This is kind of off topic, but what's something someone once told you as a joke that you believed?
Brian: (Laughs) I play a lot of golf. People will joke on the golf course before we start playing like, "oh, I hit the ball really far." And I'm like, "oh, ok. Cool." Then when we start playing, and I'm out-driving everybody and I'm farther than everybody, they're like, "ohhh, I was just joking." So that's a joke I tend to believe, I take people for their word.
MuchMusic: But really, the joke's on THEM.
Brian: Yeahhh, it is. I'm gonna GET cha.
MuchMusic: Ok, speaking of jokes, what's your favourite joke to tell right now? Cause I know you're a super goof.
Brian: Wow. Uhh, I don't tell a lot of jokes! AJ just told me a joke a couple of days ago in the studio about Jesus and Moses playing golf. And Moses tees off on a par three, and he hits a five wood club. I don't know if you understand golf, but he hits this club up on the green and then Jesus takes a five iron and tries to hit it all the way up to the green. Moses was like, "you know, Jesus, you can't make it there, all the way over the water." So Jesus hits the five iron and it goes flying way up in the sky and then falls in the water. And he's like, "Moses, can you part the water for me so I can go get my ball?" Moses parts the water and Jesus gets his ball, and he comes back up and goes, "I'm gonna try it one more time." Moses is like, "Jesus. You're not Arnold Palmer. You can't hit the five iron that far." And he's like, "well, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try my best." He hits the ball way up in the sky and it falls in the water again. And there's another group that's coming up behind them and this guy turns to Moses and he looks down at Jesus, who's walking on the water to look for his ball. And the guy goes, "who does he think he is, Jesus Christ?" And Moses goes, "no, he thinks he's Arnold Palmer." Yeah, it's pretty funny.
MuchMusic: People say that they always remember what they were doing when they hear bad news. Will you always remember what you were doing when you heard the news about Kevin leaving?
Brian: Yes, I will never forget having kind of a sit-down meeting on the European leg of the Never Gone tour, the end of last year. It was just before I had written "Welcome Home", the single off the CD. You know, I was kind of like, scratching my head, thinking like, how can we lobby and rally the troops to maybe get him to think otherwise. But unfortunately that didn't happen. But I wish him well in any and everything that he does - he'll always be a part of the Backstreet Boys.
~Wendy Heisler
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