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Thursday night on Prime Video, Backstreet Boys and Rascal Flatts will team up to perform the country hit “What Hurts the Most” on the 60th Academy of Country Music Awards. 

What most people don’t know is that BSB almost recorded the breakup ballad themselves.

“When we were recording kind of our comeback album, Never Gone,” Nick Carter remembers, “we were getting a lot of songs actually submitted to us, and that’s when we got ‘Incomplete,’ and then we also remember the label was really adamant about a song for us to record, and it was called ‘What Hurts the Most,’ and we passed up on the song.”

“The demo definitely didn’t sound as good as it did with those guys or we wouldn’t have passed on it,” Nick adds.

“I think it ended up in the right hands,” AJ McLean adds.

“No, it was meant to be,” Nick agrees, “because we wouldn’t be here performing with them … But still, funny story.” 

The new version of “What Hurts the Most” appears on Rascal Flatts’ new Life Is a Highway: Refueled Duets album, which drops June 6. 

You can tune in to see the live performance — which is rumored to include more than just the duet — on the 60th ACMs, which stream live at 8 p.m. ET tonight on Prime Video. 

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