A kid in a log cabin at a Kentucky church camp, singing in talent shows until he was practically grown — that is where Kevin Scott Richardson starts. Born on October 3, 1971, in Lexington, he grew up on a ten-acre farm before the family moved into that cabin at Cathedral Domain Camp, which his father managed. The boy who learned piano by ear at nine and led his high school football team had no idea he would one day be the oldest member of the biggest pop group of the late nineties.
From Disney World to the Backstreet Boys
By the early nineties, Richardson was in Orlando, Florida, working at Walt Disney World. He put on the costumes of Aladdin, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and Prince Eric, spending his days entertaining tourists and his evenings in a dinner-theater musical revue. Then, in March of 1993, he auditioned for a new vocal group being put together in town. He got the call, joined the Backstreet Boys, and immediately phoned his cousin Brian Littrell, who joined the next day.
Almost overnight, Richardson became the group's anchor. He was the eldest, the one the others leaned on, the 'big brother' of the Backstreet Boys. By the end of the decade, People magazine named him 'Sexiest Pop Idol,' and the group signed a new contract with Jive Records worth sixty million dollars. Richardson was not just a face in the lineup; he co-wrote and produced several of their songs, including one written in memory of his father, who died of colon cancer when Richardson was nineteen. That song later gave the fifth Backstreet Boys album its title: Never Gone.
Leaving the group in 2006
Then, in June of 2006, Richardson did the unthinkable. He announced he was leaving the Backstreet Boys to start a new chapter of his life and spend more time with his family. After thirteen years and five albums, he walked away from sold-out arenas and screaming fans. The group carried on without him, releasing two albums, Unbreakable and This Is Us, while Richardson did something entirely different: he played Billy Flynn, the slick lawyer, in the Broadway musical Chicago.
The stage suited him. He toured with Chicago in London, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Japan, and won the Tony Audience Choice Award for Best Replacement Actor. But the pop world kept calling. In November of 2008, Richardson joined his old bandmates on stage at the Hollywood Palladium for 'Shape of My Heart' — his first time back since leaving. It was not a reunion yet, but the door had cracked open.
The real announcement came in April of 2012, during a concert in London. The Backstreet Boys told the crowd that Richardson was coming back. He later explained it simply: he had a sudden realization of how much joy music gave him. The group got to work, and by the summer of 2013 they released In a World Like This, their first album in eight years with all five original members.
Richardson's return was not about recapturing youth; it was about choosing the music over the machinery. He had left at the top, tried Broadway, modeled for Versace, and come back on his own terms. The boy from the log cabin had already proved he could be a pop idol. What he proved by leaving and returning was that he could also be the one who decides when the song is not over.
What he proved by leaving and returning was that he could also be the one who decides when the song is not over.