Kevin Richardson Was Frustrated Over Sen. Voinovich

Heather Svokos of the Lexington Herald-Leader chatted with Backstreet Boys star Kevin Richardson about his testimony at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the subject of mountaintop removal mining, which led to a brouhaha against Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio. “I was really frustrated,” Richardson said from Los Angeles, where he’s now recording the new Backstreet Boys album. “It’s a shame that he (Voinovich) didn’t do more research on me before he made those comments — I think he made himself look bad. He didn’t know I grew up in Appalachian Kentucky, that I grew up in those Appalachian mountains, that my grandfather was a coal miner, and that I have a vested interest in that hearing. I have flown over those sites, I’ve seen the damage, and what it’s doing to those mountain ranges in West Virginia and Kentucky and Tennessee. They’re raping the Appalachian mountain range for profit.”