The Las Vegas residency is getting to be a rite of passage for many of your favorite performers from the 90s. Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez are among the performers who have launched elaborate stage shows featuring their multitude of hits, al to entertain drunk, gambling tourists. The Backstreet Boys have joined this growing fraternity of singers, currently performing their Larger than Life show at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. The show was initially only supposed to be a nine-show stint, but has grown to 40 shows running through February of 2018.

The Boys, Nick Carter, 37, Howie Dorough, 43, Kevin Richardson, 45 AJ McLean, 39 and Brian Littrell, 42 (can we really still call them “boys”?), sat down with Paper magazine. They talked about their Sin City gig, working together after 20+ years and their upcoming ninth studio album.

The boys are no strangers to Las Vegas, with both Nick and Howie throwing bachelor parties in the city, but as for working there, Nick says they’ve been “having the time of our life” and happily stated that “The town has really embraced us.” The world capital of male bonding (see: bachelor parties) has had additional benefits, as Nick notes:

Being in Vegas has brought us closer together than we have been in years.We live close to one another, and we’re comfortable with how we’re performing.Things are really good in our lives right now.We’re really fortunate and we know that is a blessing. I think Howie and I mentioned this onstage, like, “Isn’t it funny how we don’t have to say anything to each other now, we can just look at each other and know what everyone’s thinking?”

As for performing their hits, like “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”, (which they recently breathed new life into courtesy of a recent performance with Florida-Georgia Line), over 20 years since their release, Kevin said:

When you’re onstage and you look out at the faces in the crowd and you hear the cheers and the energy, it feels like yesterday and as if you’re in a time capsule.Then other times, when you’re offstage and getting undressed, you get a little stiff.That’s when the reality sets in that you’re not 24 anymore.

The guys are hoping to stay in Vegas for “at least the next two years,” according to Howie, and will be spending some of their time working on a new album, which AJ says will delight old fans and bring in new ones to boot, telling Paper,

We definitely want to go back to the five-part harmony, that signature Backstreet Boys sound, but we’re a little bit more mature and grown up. We’re fathers and a little older, so we may not be so bubble-gummy — but not raunchy either. Just sexy, fun music.

[From Paper]

With the 20th anniversary of the Backstreet Boys album, the guys have been sharing stories about the songs that made them famous, and probably the funniest one you may have missed is about the song “The Call” off the band’s fourth album, 2000’s Black & Blue. In a recent interview with Billboard, AJ spilled the (proverbial) beans about Howie’s rather unique musical contribution to the tune.

So when we were in the studio with [producer] Max [Martin] making the song “The Call,” Howie was in the booth and we were doing that vocal break down, [sings] ‘dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun.’ Max gave Howie his harmony, and I think he was just putting so much air into the vocal that as he was singing, he went ‘dun, dun’ and he farted — but he farted not only on the beat, but in key. So Max tweaked it and made it sound like one of his patented bass sounds, and it stayed on the record.

[From Billboard]

I don’t know about you, but a fart could definitely add the “fun” to the new album. I was never a huge fan of BSB (I’m a little old for their demo, and I was more into alternative music at the time) but it wouldn’t be surprising if you rolled up next to me at a traffic light and I was blaring “Everybody” in my Honda and singing along with every word. I’m glad the guys are having fun and enjoying working together again – and now I want to go back to Vegas.

"Being in Vegas has brought us closer together than we have been in years.” —@backstreetboys https://t.co/ARkVkzSxsj

— PAPER Magazine (@papermagazine) August 21, 2017

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Embed from Getty Images

Photos: Paper/Charlotte Rutherford, Getty Images, WENN.com