Howie Dorough: I was pop royalty

Howie Dorough felt like "the queen" at the height of his career.

The singer is part of boyband Backstreet Boys, who rose to fame in the 90s.

Now he and fellow members A.J. McLean, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell are back with a documentary about their career. And reminiscing about their success has made him realise how insane the fans' hysteria can be.

"It's definitely difficult to understand," he admitted to British magazine Star.

"It's weird for anybody to fathom having thousands of people screaming for you. There have been crazy times when there were thousands of people and we had to figure out a way to get to our tour bus. You would have though the queen was there or something!"

Howie didn't find fame hard and is glad he had his family to keep him so grounded. However, A.J. struggled with a drug problem and checked into rehab three times.

His bandmate has a theory about why he may have fallen into substance abuse.

"He's always been one of the most 'out there', trying to figure out his own identity," Howie reasoned. "The tattoos, the nails and the hair... he's tried everything you can think of.

"He spent years trying to do 'bad boy', but if you knew him as a young kid, well, he was probably one of the biggest-hearted, geekiest of all of us."

Documentary Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of is out later this month.