The Backstreet Boys will always be larger than life to Ariana Madix.
After her team performance on the group’s “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” on Dancing with the stars Monday night, Vanderpump Rules star, 38, opened up to PEOPLE about how she got the chance to meet AJ McLean at rehearsals.
“Backstreet Boys was my first concert ever, and I went with my dad’s friend’s family from work because there was only one ticket, and we had nosebleeds the whole way,” she said. “I have these horrible photos from the show and I showed them to AJ.”
Her partner Pasha Pashkov playfully announced: “Nothing can be seen.”
Madix added, “Because literally, you’re like, ‘It could be him, or it could be him, or it.’ They look like tiny little ants, but to me it was the most amazing thing.”
DWTS: Celebs make their pop star dreams come true and 1 team dance brings the season’s first perfect score
Pasha Pashkov and Ariana Madix in ‘Dancing with the Stars’.
Disney/Eric McCandless
Her love for the Backstreet Boys didn’t stop there, she admitted: “I actually chased Nick Carter through the airport once as a kid.”
At Cheryl Burke’s Sex, lies and spray tanning podcast, McLean, 45, revealed that Madix “went crazy” when she forced him into rehearsals.
“When I walked into the room, none of them had a clue,” he said. “It was as if she almost collapsed. She is so sweet.”
“She showed me — and this is for all Generation Z who don’t know what photography is. It’s a real printed photo. She had photos from the Millennium tour printed. Take them with you. Which is so sweet. Well, she had them for herself [interviews] and some of her things for her package so she had them not knowing I was going to be there.”
In addition to the team performance, Madix and Pashkov also performed the Cha Cha to Britney Spears’ “I’m a Slave 4 U” on Music Video Night.
She told co-host Julianne Hough: “I’ve been practicing that choreography since 2001 in my bedroom, so I can die happy to be living my Britney pop star dreams tonight.”
All the ways Ariana Madix previously said Britney Spears inspired her DWTS Performance of ‘I’m a Slave 4 U’
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Ariana Madix and Pasha Pashkov in ‘Dancing with the Stars’.
Disney/Eric McCandless
After the show, Madix told PEOPLE that the 41-year-old pop singer “gives me so much life.”
“From day one, she gave me life. I just think she’s so amazing,” she said. “She has a fire that I don’t think anyone else can do quite like her.”
She continued, “I’ve been a fan through the thick and thin, the dark times, the good times, all of it, and I always feel like her song ‘Stronger’ — I just feel like everything makes her stronger, so I’m just trying to emulate that in life.”
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Dancing with the stars airs Tuesdays at 8:00 PM ET on ABC and Disney+.
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Source: HIS Education