"We're still full of gas", says Backstreet Boys’ member.

2011 will be a busy year for the Backstreet Boys. To have it started, they'll get back on tour to do their Latin American leg, it will begin next Feb. 18th, at Recife, being followed by Brasilia (20), Belo Horizonte (23), Rio de Janeiro (25) and São Paulo (26). After that the group will join New Kids On The Block for a long journey with tons of concerts in the US. Among it all, the group, yet, must get a room to record their next album, scheduled to be released at the end of this year.

Before it all, though, the group must wait till the boy band member, AJ McLean, get ready. The singer checked into a rehab program early this year to treat his drug addiction. According to Brian Littrell, one of the singers and dancers of the group, AJ "is doing well". "I'm proud of him", Brian said during his phone interview to UOL Música.

Brian, who's always talking with AJ, still sounds like a that young guy from the beginning. When the group released their first album, the singer was just 20. Nowadays Brian is 35, but seems to be the same excitement as from that old times. "We're still full of gas", he says about the band.

The difference between then and now is that the singers has a lot more experience to deal with all this business world brings. One of the biggest changes was to live Jive, where the Backstreet Boys stayed since 1995. The singer believes that from now on the band will be able to do whatever they want to, without having to ask permission. "We're grown up now. We've being doing it forever and we sure can make our own decisions."

During this interview to UOL Música, Brian talked about the tour that will hit Brazil, AJ's rehab and the NKOTBSB tour.

UOL Música - Backstreet Boys came to Brazil in 2009 and is coming back now with this new album. What's new on this tour?

Brian Littrell - This time we're coming with "This is Us" tour, wich is an amazing way to show who the Backstreet Boys are today. But we're thinking about the future as well. I do think that when we recorded Unbreakable and Never Gone we were trying to find out who we were and where we wanted to be. With This is Us we're back with that traditional POP song that made us who we are today. There's a lot of dance during this tour, we dance during something about 75% of the concert. We're back to the basic, something to remember who The Backstreet Boys are.

UOL Música - Will you do solo acts, like the last time?

Brian Littrell - We're not doing that this time, 'cause there are a lot of songs that we have to play... we play something like 30 sings per night, which is a lot. There are a lot of special moments during the concert, when the fans will get the chance to see Nick, Howie, AJ and myself. At the same time, I do think the best part of the concert is when we're together.

UOL Música - Recently AJ checked in another rehab program saying that 2011 will be an important year to the Backstreet Boys and that he must be ok to do that. Is he ready to go back on tour?

Brian Littrell - He's doing very good, I'm proud of him. I talked to him few days ago, we've been talking a lot while he's there. He's been in rehab for four weeks now, this one will be his last. He asked me to take my tennis and golf stuff to South America, 'cause we'll play it a lot out there. He's been work hard to be sure he's ok. First of all he must be ok for himself, better in all the ways body, heart and soul. He's working on that. 2011 will be a busy year. We have the tour there and then the concerts with New Kids On The Block... will be a busy busy year. He's taking a step at a time to be ready to all of that.

UOL Música - About the NKOTBSB tour, is there any possibility for you guys to record an album together?

Brian Littrell - We already recorded a song. This one will be this tour's single. Donnie (Wahlberg, New Kids singer) and I have been talking about share some songs, there are some demos, so it's a possibility. I don't know if it will be an album, but I hope we can do more 3 or 4 tracks, that would be nice to the ans.

UOL Música - Live Nation said they want to bring back the boy band hysteria with this tour. Do you think this thing still works today?

Brian Littrell - It seems so. Today I can't remember of any other huge band. 'Cause of the Internet, things happens so quickly and it's very hard to have a career as a group. If you look back to Backstreet Boys and NKOTB, you'll see we have such loyal fans, they've been following us for years now. I think it's possible for Live Nation to do that, but just because you're talking about the two biggest boy bands of music's history. New Kids was the biggest than N'Sync and we sold more albuns than New Kids, so we're talking about more than 200 millions albuns sold between the two bands. That's a lot! But I don't know if we could do that again, 'cause of the way things are today.

UOL Música - Last year you guys left Jive, with who worked with you since 1995. What changed since then? Are you ready for a new work?

Brian Littrell - We're working on a new album. We still have a lot to burn. We've being doing that for 18 years. We have 8 albuns and the 9th may come out till the end of this year, maybe at the beginning of the next one. We're at the studio working, writing, producing, putting together some ideas. Our future is made of music, and we're excited with that.  We'll change now that we left Jive. We can do, say and be whoever we want to as artist. We're not under a dictatorial thing. We're grown up. We've being doing that for years now and we can take our own decisions. I'm excited about they years ahead of us, so we can still growing up with our fans, doing great music. Definitely there is lot more music and growing up in the Backstreet Boys future, and so, obviously, more tours.

Credits to UOL Música, translation by @weloveajmclean