“My wife and I just purchased a used Airstream trailer, and we’re redoing it,” he said, jovially, in a phone interview from a Home Depot store near his Atlanta home. He said this before the trouble started.
The 36-year-old member of the bestselling boy band of all time chats about life, family, faith and flooring as he roams the home improvement store, looking for the perfect surface material for his wife, Leighanne’s, “business mobile.”
“She started an at-home business a few years ago when she couldn’t find a cool diaper bag,” he said. “Now everywhere (the tour) goes, we bring the Airstream and have Wylee Bag parties in it.” (Wyleebags.com sells totes, purses, backpacks and more.)
Littrell is proud of his wife’s ingenuity and the way her business allows for the family of three (son Bailey Thomas Wylee Littrell is 8) to travel in a silvery pod of togetherness.
“We fly by the seat of our pants and really try and make life an adventure,” he said.
Littrell insists the two boy bands were never rivals.
“NKOTB came out before us, and for them to come back and make such an impact with their reunion tours was an inspiration to us, “ he said. “And now for us to team up together is great. We’re hitting like a generation and a half of fans with this tour. Hey, I was a fan of the New Kids on the Block! This show is a great collaborative effort, with hit after hit after hit.”
Littrell, a native of Lexington, Ky., grew up listening to Christian singers Sandy Patti and Larnelle Harris, and singing in his Southern Baptist church choir with his cousin, former BSB-er Kevin Richardson. He passed up a vocal scholarship at Cincinnati Bible College when he got a call from his cousin to come to Florida and try out for a new classic soul vocal band.
“I’ve been with the band ever since, for 18 years,” he said. Backstreet Boys has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, with radio go-to’s such as “I Want it That Way” and “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart).”
After being crazy-hot for about six or seven years, the boy band phenomena eventually cooled down, which gave Littrell a chance to return to his first love, Christian music. A Christian album, “Welcome Home” produced the chart topper “In Christ Alone” and gave the singer a new tune to sing.
“I was hoping to God I would sell 50,000 copies, and we sold four times that,” he said. “Am I doing something I’m happy with and proud of? Yes. People in the pop world made the comment that I was going backwards in my life, but when someone says that to me, they don’t know me. I’ve always been focused on what is outside the group that makes me happy.”
Littrell’s core contentment is found in faith, family and music that feeds his soul, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t having a grand time blending voices with the Boys and Kids who really were boys and kids back in the day.
“It is a night not to miss, an eventful evening,” he said. “You’re gonna hear many songs that take you back to a certain time in your life, and there are so many special moments with us and (NKOTB) onstage.”
Our conversation is interrupted by a Home Depot employee who seems to think Brian Littrell, global heartthrob, is walking out without paying for his flooring.
“Um, hold on a sec, this lady needs to check my receipt,” Littrell says, chuckling a bit as he “Yes, Mam’s” for a couple of tense minutes while he digs for the proof of purchase. Eventually, he is emancipated by the Home Depot lady.
Happy to be home free with his flooring, Littrell exhales.
“Just another day in the life of a pop star,” he jokes. “This is real life.”
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