AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys Has Joined the Country Music Association

AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys is a new member of the Country Music Association, setting the stage for a potential country music solo project in the future.

A press release from the ’90s boyband star teases: “There’s the AJ McLean you think you know: the trendsetter and member of one of the most successful groups of all time … Then there’s the real AJ McLean, the ultimate trendsetter and a raw singer-songwriter, an artist dripping with soul and bare emotion.”

McLean joined the CMA on Feb. 28 (he’s standing with two country execs in the above image), but what’s more interesting is that he and his team say his membership with the CMA is a “hint of what’s to come,” not providing any further details of what that means, exactly.

FGL + BSB = Musical Love

While unexpected, it wouldn’t be totally out of left field for McLean to pursue country music, since he and his BSB bandmates hit the top of the country charts last year with “God, Your Mama and Me,” their collaboration with Florida Georgia Line.

The song turned into an extensive partnership between the pop group and country duo — they also teamed up for an episode of CMT Crossroads, lit up the stage at the 2017 ACM Awards with “Everybody” and have performed together on FGL’s 2017 Smooth Tour.

“People come and go in this business, and friendships are kind of hard to hold on to. But when something fits as naturally as this friendship now does, we’re gonna be family and friends for eons. It just works,” McLean tells USA Today about working with the “Cruise” singers.

The Backstreet Boys’ Kevin Richardson revealed in a 2017 interview that the group was working on a new album in Nashville and were “experimenting” with different sounds, including some country.

The Most Unexpected Country Crossovers Ever