Kevin Richardson knew one of the most difficult moments of the Backstreet Boys’ Sphere show in Las Vegas had nothing to do with dance moves or high notes or a flying apparatus.
Emotion would be his nemesis.
“I wasn’t able to get through it in rehearsals, and I told the fellas, 'I’m going to look at you and if I lose it, you’re going to come in and help me out,'” he said.
The “it” Richardson refers to is “The Perfect Fan,” the tender ode to the quintet’s mothers that closes their landmark 1999 “Millennium” album and is performed during an intimate segment of their glitzy Sphere production.
Richardson, who talked to USA TODAY before the Backstreet Boys kicked off their 21-date residency at the revolutionary Las Vegas venue July 11, knows himself well. On opening night, as family photos blanketed the 160,000-square-foot interior screen, Richardson indeed choked up during the first lyrics, while group mate and cousin Brian Littrell, who cowrote the ballad, squeezed his eyes shut to suppress tears.
