About Me
I am NOT Kevin or any of the Backstreet Boys. I'm just a fan and I'm just showing my support for the band and people I've grown up with!
View Kevin's biography in the box below:
Kevin Richardson: The Eyes Have It
Maybe it’s those emerald eyes. The way they just stare at you from under those caterpillar eyebrows, as if to say: "People magazine called me the sexiest pop star alive, but I'm really shy guy who like to sing" Maybe it's his Backstreet Boys reputation as The Smooth One, The Serious One, The Gentleman.
Whatever it is, it just doesn't scream "killer."
Kevin Richardson's biography (in his own words):
"I was born [on] October 3rd, 1971 (a Sunday) in Lexington, Kentucky at Central Baptist Hospital. At the time my family lived in Lexington. My middle brother... I guess he was four years old and my oldest was about seven. My mom was a stay-at-home-mom and my father, I think at the time, was a fireman. Then for a while, like a two-three month period, we moved to Tampa, Florida. We moved back to Kentucky, but this time we moved to Harrodsburg, which is a small, historical town probably about 45 minutes from Lexington. We lived there on a 10-acre farm... with a garden, horses, cows, chickens and pigs. We weren't farmers, but we raised cows... On the farm we rode dirt bikes, horses, played out in the woods, stuff like that. I had a wonderful childhood... great memories!
...I lived in Harrodsburg until I was about nine years old. We would play cowboys and Indians [because] we had ponies and horses. We built forts and stuff and did a lot of sleigh riding in the winter. School was great, I played Little League and football - things were good. I was singing at church in the youth group and my mom and her friend sang in the church like every other Sunday... So that's where I guess I really started singing hymns and stuff... My whole family, is just really musical; my mom, my dad and my brothers could all sing... In the car, going places we all sang and stuff. My mom sang at weddings...
Before we moved to Harrodsburg, I went to Mercer County Elementary School... until I was like just starting 4th grade. I remember being in the general music class - oh my gosh, I used to love that! We would get in there and sit on the floor and the teacher would play the piano, all these songs, and we would just sing, and sing and sing! I do remember one time the teacher singled me out and really complemented me or something. I can't exactly remember what she said, but I know that I really enjoyed going to music class in elementary school.
My father was a construction worker and he did a lot of traveling across the state of Kentucky and sometimes out of the state. He'd help put up skyscrapers and buildings and powerhouses and stuff. He [eventually] switched to a job of managing and running a summer camp. We moved to a place called Beattyville, it was in Lee County in the Daniel Boone National Forest, which is in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. It was beautiful up there, small foothills and mountains. We lived... about a mile away from the county line, so I went to school in another county. They had a football team and our county didn't. Me and my brother, Tim, both played football ever since we were little, so that was important to us...
I had my 10th birthday at the camp my father ran. Until I was 18, we lived in a log cabin right on the edge of a big cliff overlooking a valley. I was beautiful! Our home had 17 rooms! We had three bedrooms, two baths, a big loft, a dining room... it was huge! We would have a boys' camp and a girls' camp - those were two separate stayings. The boy's camp and the girls' camp were from ages like 7 to 12... Then they had a junior conference, which was junior high school kids, they had dances practically every night. Then they had senior conferences, which were [for] high school-aged kids... Usually they were there for about two weeks...
It was weird growing up at a camp, because it was sorta like I had two lives... I was way out in the country. In the summer I didn't get to see my friends at school, because I would just stay at the camp. There was no reason to leave at all - all these people coming up to talk to, play with, to meet... kids from all over the state and some of them even came from other states. I met so many people and, I don't know, I think it helped me a lot as far as talking to people, meeting people. There were lots of cute girls... yeah... I'd get my heart broken every summer, because I would find a girlfriend and then she would leave and I wouldn't see her. That was tough. The first time I fell in love, I think I was like 11 or 12. Then my brother [Tim] ended up with her... it just broke my heart.
Tim was the brother I was most competitive with... now we're great friends... When I was little, really little, my big brother Jerald and I got along great. Then, when I was around 12, 14, that's when he and I had, I guess, the most friction, just because of those ages differences. He was a senior in high school or something like that. I was 13 or 14 and he graduated and it was just rough. But then, like right after he left and went to Dallas, Texas to pursue a modeling career... Little boys when they're 13, 14, they think they know everything and... we irritate people sometimes, going through those growing stages...
Junior High was an interesting time. When I moved from Harrodsburg to the Beattyville area, I went to a school called Owsley County Middle School.. I was involved in the football team, chorus - and I had played basketball in elementary. I didn't play basketball in junior high because, in elementary I was always big and tall, but in junior high I stopped growing and got a little chubby. I mean just a little chubby. But it was just a stage I went through, it took care of itself, I didn't have to diet or anything. It was good for football! Junior High was great. Things were good there. I was playing sports, singing in the chorus, doing musicals and stuff like that. The summer of my 8th grade year I shot back up, and then like between ninth and tenth grade, I really changed. I guess you could say I was a late bloomer.
Ever since I can remember, we always had the radio on in my room, lip-syncing and singing in front of the mirror... having a tennis racket and strumming it like a guitar... Singing into a flashlight like it was a microphone. Me, Brian and Brian's brother [Harold] all did that! Every time they would come over... What really used to be a really hobby of mine was drawing. Me and Brian's older brother, he's really talented at drawing. So was my oldest brother Jerald. But I was pretty talented too and I can still draw really good, but I never really pursued it that much. It was something we would all do and we'd also play around with the tape recorder and sing and record stuff. [We] would pretend we were broadcasters or pretend we were singers and this was our album, etc... We'd pretend we were DJs and we were always doing crazy stuff like that... I guess it's been a dream of mine for a long time.
When Brian and I were growing up (his brother is the same age as me), his older brother and I would hang out together and we would like torture Brian, the poor kid! I would always love for them to come to bring their toys and play. Up until I was nine, they lived about 45 minutes away. We'd get to see each other at least once or twice a month, we'd spend the night of spend a weekend. My mother and Brian's father are brother and sister.
In high school, I was playing football, I was in the drama club and the chorus. When we moved from Harrodsburg, at the summer camp [my father ran] they had a lodge, and it had a piano in it. I went down there to mess around. I heard my dad telling a story a couple of years back, where he heard some music and said, Wow that's great! Where is that coming from?' He went in and it was me playing! I [can] play by ear. If hear something either on the radio or on tape and I sit down, in thirty minutes I can usually pick out pretty much any song. At the age of ten I started clunking around on the piano and keyboard, stuff like that. In high school I really got into it. My mom and dad got me a keyboard, it was a synthesizer, for Christmas. I think in my sophomore year...
When I was really little, we would go to my grandfather's house, my mom's father, who we would call 'Papaw' - he loved to dance when he was young! He would put on records and we'd get up and dance all over the place. The summer camp had dances all the time... I would go to the senior dances [at the camp] where the kids were 16 to 18, I was only 12 or 13, and I just learned you know. It didn't bother me. A lot of guys at that age would be embarrassed and wouldn't get out there and dance, but I loved it. I guess I've always been a very good dancer, it's just in my blood. My parents were good dancers - they've won contests! At class reunions my dad taught me how to jitterbug and that's what got me into ballroom dancing. When I was 19, in Florida, I taught ballroom dancing and Latin dancing.
[But getting back to the camp days], I'd meet girls and it hurt me that they had to leave. Not only did I get my heart broken, but I would meet someone and then two weeks later, they would leave. When I was 13, I met this guy, Keith and we would write music together... We wrote our first song together, he played keyboard also. Mostly I used to help my dad out and he would pay a little bit, I'd mow all the grass, rake the leaves, clean the pool, clear trails, chop down branches, cut firewood and all that good stuff.
In high school, I did a lot of talent shows. I would play my keyboard and sing. In church I did the same thing. My friend's dad owned a restaurant and I would play there at night with him on piano; then I went by myself and played during dinner. It was two or three times a week. I also sang at weddings. I would sing "Endless Love," "Always And Forever," ... stuff like that.
I moved from Kentucky to Orlando, Florida in 1991... with one of my friends... Jimmy. We were working the same job and would talk about moving to Florida. [At the time] I didn't know if I was going to go to school or not. I was just working and was in band at the time. Things didn't work out with my band, and my parents told me about cruise ship entertainers. Then I heard about Disney. My father kept telling us to go off, so we went! We packed up his car and left for Orlando... We had $800 between us when we left.
When we got to Orlando, we filled out all of these applications for stores in the mall. We then went to Disney and got hired, then found an apartment... When my job at Disney started, I was a tour guide for a year, then character entertainers like Ninja Turtles and Aladdin. [Around that time] I went into community theater in Orlando - I auditioned and got a job at a dinner theater. I was also doing some modeling in Orlando and I was getting serious with that until I got into the group. I [also] did some extra parts in movies. [Kevin appeared as an extra in Anna Chlumsky 's & Macaulay Culkin 's My Girl -Ed note]...At that point it was me, AJ, Nick, Howie, and another guy who was my age, but he didn't work out - that's when I gave my cousin a call.
I called him at school, and he was shocked! I told him I was in this singing group and he said, 'I know.' I said, 'I was wondering if you would be interested in auditioning for the group?' And he said, 'What?!' I said, "We need another member and I told them about you." The next day, he was on a plane down to Orlando and bam - he was in the group! You know the rest of the story..."
Kevin Richardson's departure from the Backstreet Boys:
On June 23rd 2006, Kevin shocked his fans all over the world when he left this message:
"After 13 years of what can only be described as a dream come true, I have decided that it is time to leave the Backstreet Boys. It was a very tough decision for me but one that was necessary in order to move on with the next chapter of my life. Howard, Brian, Alex and Nick will always be my little brothers and have my utmost love and support. I would like to thank the Backstreet fans for all the beautiful memories we have shared together and look forward to including you in the next phase of my life. I wish my brothers continued success and look forward to their new album.â€Kevin
Then on August 14th 2006, he left another message:
"Hello people, hope all is well. Just a little update. I have been overwhelmed by the love and support from everybody about my decision. Again, this was not easy for me to do. I know alot of people are upset, but all I can do is follow my heart. I am the type of person that when I commit to something I give it everything I've got. There are still alot of things I want to do in this life and it takes time, dedication, and focus. Thank you for your support. Peace and Love, Kevin"
We hope and pray to see you back in the Backstreet Boys one day Kevin! You will always be a Backstreet boy.
We still love you and support you no matter what you do..
