Nick Carter Wants It That Way

Nick Carter embraced his gay fans before it was trendy — at 17, he posed for the cover of a gay teen mag, unheard of at the time. Now, with a new Backstreet album in stores, Nick is sober, happy, and, most important, back.

Nick Carter’s excitement over the new Backstreet Boys album, This Is Us, is palpable: It’s a return to form, with track after track of the kind of pop music that put the 1990s boy band on the map. Carter points to Moroccan-Swedish RedOne — who can take at least a little credit for Lady Gaga’s ’80s-inspired dance beats — as the kind of Scandinavian who has pop music in his DNA. RedOne is among the red-hot producers (including T.I.) who have updated the Backstreet sound just a notch on the new album.

And yet it’s clear that This Is Us represents a crossroads for Carter, who recognizes the album as a return to a successful formula — and who has cleaned up his act in order to seriously pursue other creative and professional outlets, including writing, directing, acting in, and producing films that explore his self-professed “dark side.”

Read more and the interview by David Michael Conner at: The Advocate!