AJ McLean on Honoring Liam Payne with ‘Building the Band’: ‘He Was a Fighter’ (Exclusive)

AJ McLean and Kelly Rowland sat down with “Extra’s” Alyssa Smith to dish on their Netflix competition series “Building the Band.” 

The show leaves looks out of the equation, as the contestants form groups based solely on hearing each other.

Kelly explained, “People get to lead with their senses and intuition and gut, and that's also a part of building a band, you know what I mean, is chemistry. You have to trust that.”

AJ added, “We get caught up nowadays in the outside, but there's so much more on the inside, and beauty and talent all comes from within.”

He continued, "This show really gives the power back to these incredibly artists to really kind of navigate their own destiny without being told what to do from a label or, you now, a team of people that are just 'yes' men. This is giving the power back to them, and the talent on this show surpasses anything I've ever seen."

McLean spoke about dedicating the series to the late Liam Payne, a guest judge, who died in October 2024.

AJ was happy fans got to see him on the show in his “true form,” adding, “I think the show's representation is spot-on because it is him being who he really was.”

AJ shared, “He lit up every room that he walked into. He was funny. He was intuitive. He was encouraging. He was well-spoken, very articulate, had a great wit to him. Had a lot of one-liners, always ready to, you know. But he really pulled from the heart and wore his heart on his sleeve when it came to giving personal experience, advice to all these bands.”

He also saw similarities in their life stories.

“Him and I had a lot of a lot of parallels. Even though there was a decent age gap, we definitely lived very similar lifestyles,” AJ said. “Both of us, struggles with addiction and this, that, and the other. Fortunately for me, you know, I came out the other side. It's not always the case for everyone, but he was a fighter and I am just so honored, as we all are, to have gotten to work with such a guiding light, honestly. I'm glad we get to dedicate the show to him and his family and all the fans.”

"And Bear," Kelly added, referring to Liam's son.

Kelly shared, “He was just so intuitive, but like [AJ] said, really funny, and his random phone calls were really funny as well. So, yeah, I’m gonna miss him.”

AJ then dished on the Backstreet Boys launching their new “Into the Millennium” residency at Sphere Las Vegas. 

“It's probably the coolest thing I think we've done in our career," he said. "When we did the Millennium Tour back in ’99, it was, we were trying to look into the future. We were trying to put together a show that was, like, state of art and, you know, we're going into the millennium. And now here we are 25 years later celebrating the 25th anniversary of that album, and the technology is here. We are able to do what we wanted to do then, now and then some in this one-of-a-kind venue."

He added of Sphere, “Truly, there's no other venue on the planet like this. So, it's an honor to be the first pop act in there, and to have 21 sold-out dates is kind of insane.”

Kelly also talked about catching Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour in Paris and that surprise moment when JAY-Z joined her onstage! 

“The moment that Jay came out — and they haven't performed together in a long time — that was like, took my heart, you know what I mean? So, I love seeing them onstage together.”