Next 10 Minutes (unfinished)

Kevin: Junior high and high school students can be the toughest audience you'll ever get infront of cuz they just dont care.

Nick: The kids would be booing us

A.J.: Well it was just like is this, is this all we are gonna do? I mean what the hell? Is this it? Are we going to be stuck to being a middle school, high school act, or are we actually gonna get a record deal?

After six exhausting months, the Backstreet Boys had a small but growing fan base, and an audition with Mercury Records exec. Dave McPherson.

A.J.: We were in North Carolina, and we rented a conference room out to sing for him. And we sang a couple songs that were original and Dave was like wow, you know, these boys can sing, you know.

Dave: There were no groups like this that were really out on the market place at the time, and it just sounded really interesting.

But at the time radio was ruled by grung rock and ganster rap, and Dave could not convince Mercury to sign a sugary pop group. So in February 1994, he took the boys to Jive Records, a fledgling label that decided to take a chance on the group.

Barry: It was a risk, but it was a very calculated risk that we took.

Kevin: The fact that we had a major label that was willing to sign us, uh we were extatic.