Backstreet Boys: The Story Behind The Chipotle Ad, And Writing New Material With Meghan Trainor


Backstreet Boys are one of the biggest boy bands from the 1990s, and one of their best-known songs is undoubtedly their hit song “I Want It That Way.” And while many people would happily perform the hit song for free in their car or at a karaoke bar, a certain indie-folk performer reportedly refused an offer of $250,000 to sing it. According to Pitchfork, Father John Misty turned down an offer of $250,000 from Chipotle to cover the Backstreet Boys hit “I Want It That Way” for an ad.

It was during a set at the Newport Folk Festival that Father John Misty revealed the story of being asked by a representative of Chipotle to perform the famous Backstreet Boys song.

“I just got asked to do a Chipotle commercial not that long ago. I’ll tell you this: They were going to pay me a quarter of a million dollars to sing ‘I Want It That Way’ by the Backstreet Boys.”

Saying “yup, that’s my life,” the indie performer said that he calculated he could “buy two Cadillacs and crash them together,” but said that he turned down the offer because he didn’t want their “f***ing burrito money.”

He later clarified that he told the story as a way of discussing whether his genre of music, folk, is good for just selling things or possibly something beyond that.

Despite the performer’s refusal, the Chipotle ad still went ahead and still featured the Backstreet Boys song as originally planned. But in the final version, Jim James and Brittany Howard performed the song as a duet, according to Billboard.

The song was used in a commercial called “A Love Story,” which saw the Backstreet Boys song re-imagined in a slightly different context as it helped set the tone for the short film. A 19-piece orchestra and a three-piece session band provided the music for the Backstreet Boys’ song, and it was revealed that the producers of the ad wanted to play to the same concept that they previously used in an ad called “Back To The Start,” which featured Willie Nelson singing Coldplay’s “The Scientist.”

What the two ads had in common was a desire to bring different generations together by featuring cross-generational performers and songs. The first ad was described as making use of a “legacy artist and a modern song,” while the Backstreet Boys ad featured a “legacy song and a more modern artist.”

In other news, the Backstreet Boys recently performed with Meghan Trainor on ABC’s Greatest Hits. According to Billboard, more collaborations are likely to happen between the Backstreet Boys and Meghan Trainor.

Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean spoke on potential collaborations with Meghan Trainor, saying that ever since they filmed the Greatest Hits show together they have been discussing the possibility of Trainor writing a song with the Backstreet Boys.

“She’s such an amazing writer, so we’re working it out and hopefully when her schedule permits, we can do it.”

He went on to say that Trainor started her tour in July, but that he offered to join her on her tour and get some writing done on a day off.

“She’s totally into it!”

During the episode of Greatest Hits, the focus was on the 1990s, which is what prompted Meghan Trainor and the Backstreet Boys to go on stage together to perform a rendition of the 1999 hit “I Want It That Way.” The final performance was filmed in just two takes, and Trainor was reportedly nervous about the experience but was put at ease by the Backstreet Boys. The cause of her nerves? Meghan Trainor admitted that the Backstreet Boys were the first boy band she loved and that her childhood crush was none other than Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell.

[Photo by John Salangsang/Invision/AP]

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