Interview: Big Time Rush on why their reunion means so much, gambling with a crowd in Las Vegas and their hopes for an Ed Sheeran collaboration...
The Big Time Rush boys - Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, Carlos PenaVega and Logan Henderson - have been wowing fans in the US on their In Real Life Worldwide Tour and they sat down with Contact Music for an exclusive chat ahead of their European invasion...
Following a blockbuster US run this summer, Big Time Rush's In Real Life Worldwide Tour arrives in Europe in November.
For long-time fans of the boy band, this run of dates is a dream come true. The group is performing every song from every episode of their hit Nickelodeon series, including tracks that have never been played before live. Rushers can expect surprises, nostalgia and plenty of new energy from a band that has grown up alongside its audience.
Adding to the excitement, Big Time Rush TV series cast members Katelyn Tarver and Stephen Kramer Glickman - known to fans as Jo and Gustavo - are joining the tour, marking an unforgettable on-stage reunion.
After wrapping 38 shows in the US in August, Big Time Rush kick off their European leg on November 14 in Vienna, before heading through major cities including Cologne, Milan, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and London’s OVO Arena Wembley on December 11.
Born from the smash Nickelodeon series in 2009, Big Time Rush quickly transcended TV fame. Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, Carlos PenaVega, and Logan Henderson evolved from a scripted boy band to a real-world sensation, selling out arenas and building one of the most loyal fan communities in pop. After a hiatus that began in 2014, the band reunited in 2021, sparking a massive fan resurgence, a Top 10 Netflix revival, and millions of streams that launched their comeback.
Their 2023 album Another Life - their first studio release in a decade - and multiple sold-out global tours have solidified BTR’s second chapter as not just a nostalgic return but a full-force pop era. From playing amphitheatres around the world to delivering a holiday arena spectacle on ice, the band has proven they’re here to expand their music journey.
Following the success of Another Life, Big Time Rush released the single Only One in 2024, followed by I Want You Here All The Time in 2025, tracks that resonated not only with long-time Rushers but also with a new generation of pop fans. On October 30, 2025, the band unveiled Blow Your Speakers Out, now available across all platforms. Fifteen years after its original release, the group has re-arranged the track with their current vocals, delivering a fresh, modern sound while staying true to the high-energy pop style that made them icons.
Now, with their UK and Europe tour underway, Big Time Rush are ready to celebrate the past, electrify the present, and continue writing what’s become one of pop’s most unexpected and beloved comeback stories.
Contact Music caught up with Big Time Rush ahead of their European adventure. The band opened up about life on tour, the magic of performing on stage together and who their dream collaborator is...
Contact Music: You've got a massive fanbase in Europe and the UK, people are super excited about your tour. How does it feel to be heading back to the UK and Europe after all these years?\
Logan: We love Europe and the UK. We've had some really good times. We are excited to be back.
James: There's something really magical about going over to Europe and the UK in the wintertime, too. It really starts to feel like the holiday season. I know it's going to be chilly, but I'm gonna wear a nice big coat. It‘ll be a really fun and beautiful time of the year in a beautiful place.
Kendall: We'll be looking very English when we go over.
James: Lots of scarves.
Kendall: We really need to start shopping. I really need to get some stuff for this tour, and it's getting down to the wire.
James: If we need a BTR band day out, remember how good we did in LA?
Kendall: We did pretty well. I just need to realize that shipping times, if I order anything online, shipping times might be getting close to when I'm leaving, so after we do all these, I'm gonna be shopping.
Logan: We are gonna need to find you a hat. Keep that head warm.
Kendall: For this shiny little dome!
You guys just wrapped up the US tour, which was a huge success. Are you planning anything different or any surprises for the upcoming dates?
Kendall: Every show will be a little bit different. We have a really awesome show put together that we're in love with, and so we're excited to bring that over to Europe, and what's so great about having the four of us and then having Stephen Kramer Glickman and Katelyn Tarver, who were on the TV series. We all just love being around each other, so every show really is a little bit different. And I think it's gonna be exciting to see the audiences over there.
James: We have fans who come to many shows, and we have some fans who come to every single concert, like, in the United States, for example. And we always ask them, you know, 'Hey, are you still having fun?' What is it about coming to a show that a lot of it's the same music, and they say, 'Well, we see something new every time. First of all, there are four of you, so we'll watch one person more than another person, then there's a tremendous amount of screen content and lights, and then their favourite part, they tell us, is the conversations we have in between.' It's different every night, and they love not knowing what we're gonna say and what's gonna happen. So I think because we have such a big show from the four of us to dance to 43 songs plus, you can see the show more than once, be entertained, see something new, and hear something new each time.
Logan: The fact of the matter, I mean, we are playing a big venue, because we kind of darted around Birmingham and a few other places, with London, but now, you know, it's a big spot that we're playing, and it's definitely kind of legendary, so that in itself is really cool for us.
Kendall: Between this tour in the last shows we did in the States, it'll have been like almost two months, so I bet we will have forgotten a lot of stuff. So the shows are gonna look very, very different. They'll take on a life of their own in Europe - you better believe it. So exciting!
Carlos: Yeah. We have a solid few days to kind of re-catch up to everything that we did, so.
Kendall: This is part of the magic. Where our chemistry comes into play.
Logan: It truly is. The moment it could start getting stale, you go to a different place, a different location, you take some time off - and it becomes a brand-new show, like Kendall said.
So, what's your most memorable show that you've ever done?
James: We've done so many, but some of the iconic venues, from Madison Square Garden to playing Ziggo Dome in the Netherlands, The Forum, which we all spent a lot of time growing up in LA, in different ways. That was a pretty impactful one. I think it really comes down to the audience. Sometimes, when you have friends and family, like our families in LA coming to a show, it's really important, it's really special. And there are always markets that surprise you. I remember playing San Antonio, and it was like I didn't know a single person, didn't have a single, no guest list, and didn't really know what to expect. And weirdly enough, that stands out, and I can’t get enough of it. It's one of my favourite shows. The audience was surprisingly excited, and, once in a while, there's just magic and unexpected places.
Logan: Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, we're a hop, skip, and a jump away from The Shard. You know, we have London Bridge not too far away - you can take the Uber Boat. It’s a nice little straight shot, so it's cool. It’s very central. There are a lot of things to do in that area, so I think you get people from all over, and after the show, you get a chance to go out and have fun in one of the social spots of London. So it should be fun - yeah, definitely.
So you will also explore the locations, explore the cities during your tour?
Kendall: Yeah, 100 percent.
Carlos: We have a lot, I think we have 20 shows and 40 days in Europe. So half of it is going to be exploring and eating really good food.
Since you are coming to the UK for the tour, are there any British artists you would love to collaborate with?
Kendall: I just want to shout out to Ed Sheeran, because he gets around a lot. Like, dude is working with everybody, and I'm like, “Big Time Rush - oh, think about this. Ed Sheeran and Big Time Rush together sounds like a hit.' Sounds like a hit song to me. I wouldn't be mad at that. Yeah. I think we'd get along - I would definitely love to have a pint with him in the pub.
Logan: Sometimes he does these pop-ups in these pubs, I'm feeling like maybe we could go and do that as well. Yeah, welcome to sing Boyfriend, if he plays Boyfriend, we'll come and sing it, and have a pint.
James: He’s been doing pop-ups in Nashville, actually, so I think we could probably run into him.
Logan: He's moving here, right?
James: I believe so.
Kendall: Cool. Okay. It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen!
So, your sound has grown a lot since the Nickelodeon days. How would you describe the Big Time Rush sound in 2025?
Logan: I think it's kind of ever evolving. We like to make music that resonates with us at the moment. So I think even from the singles we released, Only One and I Want You Here all The Time, you know, it's a constant evolution. We're just trying to do things that feel good and something that kind of excites us in the studio, you know, for the most part.
James: One thing that has changed is when we first started doing pop music, it was during a time when the idea was: the higher you can sing and the louder you can sing, the better the hit was going to be. That’s just what it was back then. But music has evolved - and we’ve evolved with it - to a place where you don’t have to try so hard or push just because you can. It doesn’t mean you need to. So I'd say our new music is much more relaxed. It's easier for us to sing than the old music, because we're doing things that feel good and sound good to us.
When you’re singing your old songs now, do you feel different?
James: Yeah, my throat hurts more! That's how I feel different.
It's really fun. We’ve been in a lot of the old songs. During this show, we have a live band and an amazing MD, and we fully reproduced the old songs. So I think they are different. I think they're more fun, and they're better live sometimes than even on the record.
Kendall: Oh, for sure.
Logan: Yeah, and even in the live versions, they speak to us differently. Sometimes we strip away all the instruments and it's just the lyrics, and so they hit a little bit differently when we're performing them. The best thing about music is that you kind of rediscover a different aspect of it - the lyrics or the song meets you in a different place in your life at that moment. So it brings a whole new meaning to what we've written in the past. It's nice to revisit those songs and reimagine them.
Kendall: Also, it's less about how we feel in that moment and more about how everybody else feels. I think that’s what has changed the dynamic of the songs. If you listen to some of the old tracks alone on your headphones, maybe they feel ‘of that time.’ But when you experience them live - when you see people screaming the lyrics back at you - the songs become something bigger than you. Watching that happen has been unbelievable.
When you write and produce now, do you think more about your long-time fans or more about new listeners, who cold be discovering you for the first time?
James: We’re trying to get both.
Logan: I mean, we obviously want to make something that resonates with us first and foremost. But in the studio, in the back of our minds, this band is built off of the fans. One of our greatest joys is performing live and doing it with people all over the world, so they're right there with us.
What’s the strangest fan interaction you have over the years?
Carlos: I don't know. We were in Vegas after the last show, and we were just kind of celebrating, playing on a slot machine. We turned around and dude, how many fans were there?
Logan: Two thousand?
Kendall: Yeah, it was crazy!
Carlos: But it was crazy 'cause we weren't betting anything crazy. We were just having some fun, and we’d win like three bucks, and then we had a crowd of people behind us going, 'Oh my gosh!' It wasn't odd, but I gotta say, we really do have the best fans. They're supportive no matter what - whether we're winning $3 or just hanging out.
I've had a lot of people reach out to me when we post about things in our lives that are not going great. So many people reaching out, wanting to pray or talk or just send love. And I know every band says, 'we have the best fans, blah blah blah,' but really, like, the Rushers, we’ve grown up with these people since we were 17 years old. So there's something really special there.
Kendall: Yeah, that's beautiful. There’s just a wide-reaching nature to the band. I was picking up food at a restaurant in a small town in Vermont. The two girls at the front, at the host stand, saw me and I got back to my car, and they ran out like 'Hey!' So I got out and said, 'Hey, how are you?' One girl was from Nigeria, and the other was from Peru. So these two girls from completely opposite sides of the world are both in Vermont, and they're like, 'Yeah, I grew up watching your show in Nigeria.' 'I grew up watching it in Peru.' And it's one of those moments where you’re, like, how is this even possible?
Logan: I was in Milan, there was someone who had watched it from Egypt and another one from Morocco. It's like wow.
Kendall: It's really unbelievable. We've been recognised on small islands in the middle of the ocean, you know? So it's just kind of it's trippy. It's a really cool thing to be a part of.
Logan: It's a beautiful thing.
What fun memories of meeting other pop stars do you have?
Logan: I mean, the list goes on and on.
Kendall: Yeah, like, how long do you have? It's been a long time. We met a lot of people back in the day. We've met a lot of people recently. The first time we met Mike Posner, he offered us animal crackers when we were on the train. That was cool.
James: We had a conversation with Ryan Tedder over a few drinks at a recent Jingle Ball show. We actually wrote with him a long time ago.
The truth is, we’ve met so many different people, and I can’t really recall any overly negative experiences. The four of us have always been grateful to do what we do. We’ve always been excited to meet other artists - new artists who are fans of us, older artists who might not know who we are. It’s never made a difference to us. We just appreciate other people who are chasing their dreams and making art. One thing I can say about these three guys - and myself included - is that we’re all relatively normal people who have always been grateful for this. And I think when you approach people courteously and in a nice way, it’s reciprocated. We’ve had really good experiences, and that extends to our fans as well. As they’ve mentioned, our fans are some of the most grounded and awesome people. Now, having come back after a period of time, interactions with fans feel even better and more impactful. When we were younger, most of our fans were younger too. Now, most of them are adults, usually between 20 to 35. Of course, some younger people are just discovering the show, but it’s incredible to meet fans we can actually have real conversations with. I love when we meet a fan at a meet-and-greet and ask, ‘What are you doing?’ and they tell us, ‘I’m studying for the bar to become a lawyer.’ That’s incredible. They can teach us a lot about life too. So, yeah - we’ve had really positive experiences all around.
Do you guys ever argue or have any disagreements off stage?
Logan: No, never.
James: We never argue about anything.
Carlos: It's like, do you have any brothers and sisters? That’s just how it is. I mean, I’ve known these guys longer than my wife, you know? We have so much history.
Kendall: It's crazy!
Carlos: Yeah, it’s insane. What’s history if not something you get through together? One day, you may be upset about something, but these guys are basically family. We spent five years seeing each other every single day.
James: And now we’re about to spend the next five months seeing each other every single day too. It’s no secret that being in a band is tough. You hear stories of groups that don’t last long, and we’ve had the same trials and tribulations as any other band. But the four of us have figured out a way to keep moving forward. It starts with respecting each other, listening, and truly trying to find solutions that make everyone happy. It’s not always possible, it’s certainly not easy, but we keep fighting for it. That’s why we’re still here.
Logan: We do a pretty good job.
Kendall: Being in a band is challenging, as James said. But it’s also a testament to the music and to the fans. There were times we could have thrown in the towel - even after our first hiatus - but the fans are what drive us. If people didn’t show up, we wouldn’t be doing it. The band resonates with people, and that’s why we’ve gotten through it. It’s pretty incredible.
Logan: Touring is one of the best places to see us, because no matter what’s going on outside, whenever we’re on stage, it’s magic. Despite our differences as people, and whatever anyone is going through, being on stage is the best place for us to be.
Kendall: If we're well set. If we're all well fed, that's a good start…
James: Keep us fed! That is the number one key. No hangry conversations..
Head to the Big Time Rush official website for more information on the tour and tickets.
