Training our eye on Kentuckians out and aboutBy Ashlee Clark
ACLARK@HERALD-LEADER.COM
LOUISVILLE -- It was like a scene from 1999 Thursday night when Backstreet Boys visited Fourth Street Live.
The teenage girls still squealed.
The adult women still admired the group's clean-cut good looks.
And a few men and boys still peppered the audience, unashamed of their love for BSB.
Backstreet was back, and that was more than all right for the 500 fans who came out to see the Boys.
The pop group posed for photos with fans during the 36-hour Lambert and Lindsey Citi Cards Request-A-Thon, an event from 102.3 the Max in Louisville to benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Ashley Fancher, 17, of Ramsey, Ind., is a part of the Make-a-Wish Foundation and got to meet the Boys.
"This foundation really brings hope to kids who are in the hospital," said Ashley, diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, in 2004.
The Backstreet Boys are A.J. McLean, Lexington native Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough and Nick Carter. Kevin Richardson, Littrell's cousin and an Estill County native, is no longer with the group. The group released a new album, Unbreakable, on Oct. 30.
Thursday the fans caught every move and shake the Boys made when they did a quick radio interview on a stage set up in the middle of Fourth Street. Littrell did a little boogie in between questions, sending the fans into a flurry of excitement.
Then the Backstreet Boys announced they will kick off their world tour in February and hope to return to the United States by the summer. The crowd cheerfully roared at the news.
The fans have matured since they got their first taste of the Backstreet Boys a decade ago. There were nose rings, makeup and even a little cleavage in the audience. Some of the diehard fans are now moms. ready to pass along the boy band magic to a new generation.
But their devotion to the group was unwavering.
There were some guidelines that most BSB admirers at the event still seemed to abide by:
• Backstreet Boys are way better than *NSYNC.
• Littrell and Carter are the crowd favorites.
• And the Backstreet Boys are still cool and always will be -- and don't try to tell them otherwise.
"They never went out. They were never not in. They were never out to me," said Taylor Horsey, 16, of Crestwood. "They were just at a resting point."
Amanda Downs, 23, of Louisville, doesn't care when people tease her about BSB.
"I just like them," Downs said. "That's what I tell my boyfriend. And they are older guys, and I'm getting older with them, so it's OK." Downs is six months pregnant and said she hopes to share BSB with her son when he's born.
"Don't get too excited and drop that baby on the stage," said her mom, Wanda Bender.
A mutual love for native son Littrell united Spaulding University students Allison Woosley, Morgan Kennedy and Sarah Vincent.
"He just had a cute face," Woosley said.
Then the 19-year-old thought about it a little more.
"I wouldn't say a cute face," she said. "A gorgeous face."
For Tiffany Grangier, meeting the Backstreet Boys is a teenage dream fulfilled. For her 17th birthday, her mother bought her and 10 of her friends tickets to see the Backstreet Boys in Rupp Arena in 1999.
"It's like a flashback on my high school years," Grangier, 25, said.
A few people got to meet the Boys beforehand in the Hard Rock CafŽ, including Tori and Taylor Horsey.
"My pulse was just jumping out of my body," said Tori Horsey, 14, of Crestwood, who came with her sister, Taylor. A dreamy look glazed her eyes when she talked about meeting Littrell, her favorite BSB member.
"I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but I didn't," she said. "I was excited."
The Backstreet Boys also unite friends from across the country. Maria Leonardi, Margaret Marr and Jesi Ramirez met on a Backstreet Boys fan Web site. Leonardi and Marr drove seven hours from Michigan to meet up with Ramirez, who is from Lawrenceburg, to see the Boys.
"It's good music and they're amazing people," Ramirez said. "You can't stop it."
Reach Ashlee Clark in the Richmond bureau at (859) 626-5878.
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